Navkiran Kaur

By Amritpal Singh Kaleka, Navkiran Kaur and Gaganpreet Kour Bali

The term larva applies to the young hatchling which varies from the grown up adult in possessing organs not present in the adult such as sex glands and associated parts. Insect development is of four types namely Ametabolous, Paurometabolous, Hemimetabolous and Holometabolous. The larvae appear in variety of forms and are termed as caterpillars, grubs or maggots in different insects groups. The larval development consists of series of stages in which each stage is separated from the next by a molt. It’s a complex process involving hormones, proteins and enzymes. Insects grow in increments. The molting is the process through which insects can routinely cast off their exoskeleton during specific times in their life cycle. The insect form in between two subsequent molts is termed as instar. The number of instars varies from 3 to 40 in different insect orders depending on the surrounding environmental and other conditions such as inheritance, sex, food quality and quantity. The larvae are categorized into four types namely Protopod larva, Polypod larva, Oligopod larva and Apodous larva.

Part of the book: Edible Insects

By Navkiran Kaur and Amritpal Singh Kaleka

Pollination is a multi-million-year-old co-evolutionary process involving flowering plants and pollinators. It is one of the most important mechanisms in preservation and promotion of biodiversity as well as life on Earth. Pollinator diversity is essential for maintaining overall biological diversity in many habitats including agro-ecosystems. Pollinators are responsible for assisting reproduction in over 80% of the world’s flowering plants. In their absence, humans and wildlife would go hungry. Insects are the most efficient pollinators as they play a crucial part in pollination ecology. Pollinators and their habitats have ecological, economic, cultural and social benefits. Pollination efficiency is highly dependent on certain attributes and characteristics of pollinators such as vision, anatomy, food preferences, olfaction, behaviour and learning ability. With the rapid growth of human population, our demand for food has also risen. Our agricultural systems will need to produce more food in a sustainable manner in the future to cope with this. Pollinators play an important role in these ecosystems and will continue to do so in the future. Because pollinators are so important to agriculture, we need to learn more about which crops require specific pollinators and how to best maintain and promote both wild and controlled species. Their diversity needs protection because there are specific relationships between certain crops and pollinators. Pollinator communities are suffering as a result of man-made habitat disruptions, including severe biodiversity loss. This diversity must be protected by combining conservation measures with sustainable farming practices which could increase crop yields while protecting insect pollinator species.

Part of the book: Global Decline of Insects