(Describer) Titles: The Bug Chicks, and Solpugid Productions, in association with Texas A and M University. Insects and Human Society. Under an umbrella...

When we were asked to film the second series of the insect order videos, we jumped at the chance. However, we did so prematurely.

(Describer) It's raining.

You see, we're entering that strange period where it's late winter/early spring, and it's cold and rainy. And now we're about to start teaching about the big four. These are the four insect orders that are the most diverse, the most speciose, and the most numerous. These are the four insect orders that dominate the rest, and we have to do them justice. So for you people we made the ultimate sacrifice.

(Describer) In better weather...

We went to Costa Rica! Monkeys, sloths! And, most importantly, it's an insect paradise. So for the next four insect order videos, we'll be filming in and around Texas A&M University's Soltis Center at the edge of the rainforest. Pura vida!

(Describer) Different insects are shown: including a small green one with wings, hundreds of tiny ones swarming a worm, one with transparent wings climbing a tree, a thin green one looking around, two with translucent white wings, and one crawling on a green leaf before flying off. Titles: The Insect Orders.

[Morgantj plays "Cafe Connection"]

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(Describer) Order Coleoptera : Beetles.

This episode is about beetles. Now, there's no way we can possibly hit on everything for this insect order. It's just too big. And if we tried, the video could be 14 years long. So we're going to teach in generalities, and we're going to touch on a few cool biologies.

(Describer) Title: Taxonomy.

Beetles are in the order Coleoptera. "Koleos" means sheath, and "ptera" means winged; so these insects are the sheath-winged, and this refers to the hardened forewings that cover their backs.

(Describer) She holds one.

I like to think of it as a hard candy shell, kind of like an M&M with legs. So do you have a good way to remember this? I do. It's a bit convoluted. Okay, come with me. Coleoptera makes me think of Cleopatra, which makes me think of Egypt, which makes me think of the mummy movies, which makes me think of scarab beetles. Beetles are in the order Coleoptera. I brought that full circle. Did you see that? I did see that. I would like to live in your brain for one day. It's a party.

(Describer) Title: Morphology.

Remember in the Hemiptera order video we talked about the difference between true bugs and beetles? We told you about that line on a beetle that goes straight down their backs. That line is formed where those two hardened forewings, called elytra, meet. But sometimes that line can be hard to see, and there are mimics and tricksters all over the insect world. So if you're unsure whether or not you have a beetle, flip it over and look at the mouthparts. Beetles always, always, always have chewing mandibulate mouthparts. Even the snout-nose beetles, called weevils, have little teeny mouthparts at the end. The beetles are so diverse in size, shape, color, antennal segments, tarsi, that it's hard to talk about morphological characteristics, but we're gonna try to show you as much diversity as we can.

(Describer) Title: Biodiversity and Distribution.

Beetles thrive in every ecosystem imaginable except for in the ocean. Not only that, they are the most speciose life-forms on the planet. Currently, there are about 350,000 species, but it's estimated that with all of the undescribed species, there could be over a million. They make up 40% of all insects and 25% of all life-forms on Earth.

(Describer) By a monitor...

For example, we caught and photographed these four beetles in just one night in Costa Rica. Their body forms alone hint at the incredible diversity of this order.

(Describer) They're different sizes, colors and with different mandibles. Title: Biology and Life History. A thin salamander sits on a leaf by a stream.

Beetles are the all-terrain vehicles of the insect world. Because their fragile hind wings are protected with that hard outer elytra, they can basically live in any type of habitat-- under the ground, in thorny bushes. They swim; they fly; they burrow; they do it all. Beetles are hard-core. And as diverse as their habitats are, their behaviors are just as diverse. There are predators, scavengers, plant eaters, seed eaters, dung eaters, death eaters! Petrificus Totalus! Ach! And by death eaters, we mean domestic carrion beetles. You guys have seen CSI. These are the beetles that strip flesh from bones. And museums often use them to clean animal skeletons. But as entomologists, we have to be really careful because they will eat our insect collections. And one of the most endangered insects in the world is a carrion beetle called the American burying beetle. These beetles will drag a small animal carcass several feet to a soft spot in the soil where they'll bury it, and the female will lay her eggs near the remains. Once the larvae hatch, the adults will feed them rotten carcass meat by regurgitation. But if there are too many larvae and not enough carcass, the adults will trim the family by cannibalizing their young. Wow! Maybe that's why they're endangered.

(Describer) They stop laughing.

It's-- It's actually habitat loss. And habitat loss is never funny.

(Describer) Title: Metamorphosis.

All beetles go through complete metamorphosis. Eggs hatch into larvae which then pupate into the adult form. Some of the larger species of beetle, like this elephant beetle, can live for more than two years, but most of that time is spent as a larva. Once they reach this adult form, they only usually live a couple of months.

(Describer) It's bigger than her thumb. Title: Collection.

You're going to need to use all the tools at your disposal to collect beetles. Some you can grab by hand.

(Describer) She turns to a tree and carefully picks one off.

Come here. Aah! For aquatic beetles, you can use one of those green aquarium nets to sweep through the water. You can catch ground beetles in pitfall traps, use a sweep net for species that live in grasses and shrubs, and a night-light for nocturnal species. By using different collecting techniques, you'll be able to collect many species of beetles from diverse habitats.

(Describer) Title: Human Impact.

In such a diverse order, it's just common sense to think that beetles would have some kind of impact on humans. As it turns out, they play a larger role in our lives than you might think.

(Describer) Kristie shakes an open container.

[rattling]

There are lots of beetles that eat stored goods, like rice weevils, grain beetles, and flour beetles. And with the beetles, it's hard because both the adult and the larval forms can be pests. That's because their tiny eggs are laid inside the goods they eat, and they can be really hard to get rid of. Now, beetles are also major agricultural and forest pests, and countries all over the world struggle with invasive species. This next part is for any of you who like to wear jeans, because jeans are made of cotton. The boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, was introduced to the U.S. in 1892 near Brownsville, Texas. Over the next 80 years, despite many efforts to get the infestation under control, the cotton crops experienced incredible damage. With the advent of a lure trap that mimicked male beetle pheromones, farmers were able to determine boll weevil numbers, and get ahead of infestations, and determine the proper time to spray. However, they still cost $200 million of losses a year. Texas has a very successful boll weevil eradication program, and several sectors in the state are considered functionally eradicated.

(Describer) ...in the west end of the state.

Coleopterans that attack tree species, like borers and bark beetles, can be some of the most damaging. We talked with Jim LaBonte who's the head of the insect lab at the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The Pacific Northwest has a thriving logging industry, and Jim is on the frontlines for identification of invasive species.

(Describer) Jim:

Beetles are some of the most destructive and difficult to control and eradicate of the invasive species. One of the reasons that they are so difficult is because many of them are associated with a wood-boring habitat, or they are underneath bark, and that makes them almost inaccessible to most of the chemical controls that are available. Now we also, for the most part, have very poor methods of survey for them-- so, few really effective traps and lures.

(Describer) Title: Mythology and Culture.

In the beginning of this video, Kristie mentioned that she remembers Coleoptera by thinking of Cleopatra; and as much as I hate to admit it, there's a method to her madness. Think about religion and reverence just for a second. What would it be like if we lived in a country that revered insects? The ancient Egyptians revered scarab beetles, specifically dung beetles. A little bit about them: Dung beetles roll balls of dung into underground burrows. They lay their eggs inside, and when they hatch, the beetle larvae eat the dung. They pupate under the ground and only emerge as adults. People thought they were imbued with the power of the gods because it looked like they appeared out of nowhere. So this is why the Egyptians named them "khepera," which means "to come forth." Scarab beetles are everywhere-- in hieroglyphics, drawings, and paintings. And today they're sold as jewelry and souvenirs.

(Describer) A couple have chains attached.

The Egyptians even named a form of the sun god Khepera, and he's depicted as having a scarab beetle as his head. People believed he rolled the sun across the skies as it rose. There were also heart scarab amulets usually made of jade. When a person died and they were mummified, a heart scarab was placed over the heart. Often inscribed on the amulet was this phrase from the Book of the Dead: "Please do not stand as a witness against me." This was the soul's final plea to the heart to be true to the person during the final judgment.

[singer vocalizing]

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(Describer) Titles: Written and Produced by Kristie Reddick, Jessica Honaker Videographers: Kristie Reddick, Jessica Honaker Guest Appearances: Lionel Eyres All photos, video and illustrations copyright Solpugid Productions and The Bug Chicks unless otherwise attributed Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.