ENY 4161 Distance Education Syllabus Undergraduate Students - Insect Classification / 3 credits
Introductory Comments Students frequently think this course is only involves insect identification, but Insect classification involves many other things, including the arrangement of taxa according to their degree of relatedness (phylogenetic relations). Insect identification is the application of scientific names to insect taxa (naming and identifying species). These two terms are often used interchangeably, giving rise to confusion. Note that this course is called Insect Classification. In order to determine relationships between species we must be able to identify them and learn to recognize important characters that may be used to imply relationships. Therefore, the majority of time in this course is spent dealing with the techniques for researching and identifying species, learning to use identification keys, researching literature and formatting reference lists, recognizing key families of a variety of insect orders, making collections, and learning the basic tools that will enable you to produce a classification scheme for a group of insects. The ultimate goal of a taxonomist is to produce a classification system for a particular group of insects. This is only possible after all species have been defined and able to be identified. This leads us to a theoretical discussion of what constitutes a species. This is an open-ended question. Perhaps by the end of the semester you will have an idea of the complexity of this question. Also recognize that while a classification scheme may be based upon many things, including ecology, molecular information, chronology, and others, the starting point is most often based on external adult morphology. Therefore, you will be using morphology throughout the semester when learning to identify insects, but keep in mind that when it comes to defining species, morphology is only one of many useful characters. In a traditional classroom there are deadlines for you to meet regarding each exercise. Most exercises are completed and submitted at the end of the week they are presented. This course is somewhat different in that you may work on exercises in any order as long as you complete all of the exercises. If at any time you are unable to access your CD, please notify me immediately. Outline of Topics Covered - Each course topic on your CD may have an exercise or exercises that will introduce you to concepts which you will apply to help you understand a particular concept. These will be written questions that may be printed and faxed oe mailed to me. OR, if you feel up to it you may complete the exercise in a word processing application and email the file to me. Just be sure to let me know.
Course Description, Objectives and Goals Course Description: This course introduces the student to techniques for determining, justifying, and applying scientific names to insect taxa using a variety of methods. Objectives and Goals: This is a course dealing with insect classification. You will be introduced to a variety of topics related to classification. As a result you will be expected to understand the processes behind species descriptions and definitions; learn how to locate relevant literature; to use a variety of techniques to determine species names of assigned insects, and to recognize many of the commonly encountered Florida insects (or if you live outside Florida, replace Florida with your state or country name). You will acquire expertise at identifying insects using a variety of resources including dichotomous keys; You will learn how to search the literature (online and traditional ways) for information about particular insects; Know the significance of and how to locate the description, author and date of publication for species; Graduate students will also develop a regional list and identification key to species for families of one or more orders of insects (again, this may be changed to your state or country); Understand the holomorphological approach to species definitions and challenges to species concept; Understand that classification involves much more than looking at a few dead insects mounted on pins; Develop the skills necessary to identify adult insects that you have never seen before and which do not necessarily occur in Florida.
Outline of Semester Assignments/Exams/Projects NOTE: The following schedule is that followed by on campus classroom sections. However, you will be able to work on the course in whatever order you wish, as long as you complete all assignments. Week 1 - Read about collecting, preserving, and studying Insects
Insect Collection Requirements - ENY 4161 In the past students have failed to realize the tremendous time required to complete collections, and have tended to procrastinate until the last possible minute. Results have generally been disastrous, so to prevent this, I recommend that you work on your collection regularly. As an example, I have listed below the schedule for in-class sections to give you an idea of the recommended timeframe to follow. This example is from a Spring semester, so ignore the actual dates: * January 29 - First mini-collection due (10 orders, pinned and labeled, arranged in phylogenetic order, with printed list) - * February 17 - Second mini-collection due - Each collection should have at least 50 families identified by now, properly arranged. By this point in the semester you should have at least one half of your collection finished (curated, labeled, arranged phylogenetically, with printed list). If not, you will be frantically trying to finish by the course deadline for all collections. * April - All collections due, curated, labeled, arranged phylogenetically, with printed list and with list of references used to make species determinations. All students participating in this course are required to make a collection of adult insects. (No immature specimens will be accepted). The number of specimens required to satisfy exercise requirements is described below. Undergraduate Collections are worth 100 points. Each specimen will be worth 1pt. No partial credit will be given. If the specimen is properly curated, labeled, and identified, it will be worth 1 pt. If any portion of the specimen is incorrect, no point will be given. Grading of collections will proceed as follows: 100 pts if the required number of families and correctly identified species, arranged properly, along with a printed list with all names properly spelled. Improperly spelled names will be considered incorrect identifications and a full point will be deducted for each such mistake. If you fail to meet the minimum number of families and species, the grade will be calculated on the basis of percentage completed, so for example if you only submit 50 identified specimens, and your requirement is 150, then your collection will receive a grade of 50 out of 150. Since this is counted as an exam grade, you can see the merit of meeting full collection requirements. Undergraduate students - should have 100 families, (up to 40% may be cyber-collected) including 30 different specimens identified to species. Each specimen will be worth 1pt., and all curating must be correct for credit. As with the other species determinations, pertinent literature must be provided or cited when the collection is turned in. Submission of collections: if you choose to mail your collections to me, do not place vials in the same container as mounted specimens. If this happens, it is almost guaranteed that one or more vials will come loose and demolish your collection. Keep the specimens separate. Unacceptable specimens-please do not collect these. The following will not be accepted in your collections. These are either too easily collected, beneficial, or not needed. Honeybees - Apis melliferaLovebugs - Plecia nearctica Bumblebees - Bombus Yellow Jackets - Vespula Bald-faced hornets Mole crickets (unless identified to species) ***Check with me about butterfly species - Gulf Fritillary, Yellow sulphur, Monarch, Viceroy, etc. * Insects that are maintained in colonies, either in the department or locally at the USDA lab or Division of Plant Industry. * Commercially obtained specimens * Specimens from other student collections Species Identifications - are to be accompanied by a formatted list of references (submitted via email) and copy of (if not too large) or citation of key(s) that you used to make your determinations. Naming an expert in the field that you consulted will not be acceptable, nor will walking down the aisles of a museum, comparing specimens. If you use the Internet, cite the full web address. References - each student should prepare an alphabetical list of references used to make their determinations. The format should be similar to examples of literature given here. This list will be saved and submitted via email (and document will also be saved as a computer file on a floppy disk as backup, with references arranged alphabetically by author, then by year. Each reference paragraph shall be formatted with a hanging indent. All journal names will be cited with full title, no abbreviations. Scientific names shall be italicized and include author's name on labels and when included in reference titles. Your collections should be a matter of pride to you, so do a good job curating and identifying. When collections are sent to me, email a printed list of all specimens arranged phylogenetically by order, family, genus and species (if appropriate). Arrange Orders according to the classification scheme used in your textbook. Number each specimen to correspond to number on printed list. This will make it easier to grade and to locate named specimens. Completed Collection Due Date - aim for 2 weeks before end of classes. Earlier submissions will be appreciated and accepted. Since you will be using the mail system, contact me for recommendations about shipping your collection. Also, cyber-collections may substitute for actual spedcimens (percentage negotiable, contact me) Course Prerequisites: ENY 3005, Principles of Entomology, or a course dealing with classification of insects or other arthropod taxa. It is desirable for students to already have a familiarity with common insect orders. Each student must have an Active E-mail account with reliable Internet access. Your computer must have a functioning CD ROM drive. Textbook and reference materials: Borror, White, and Triplehorn, Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th edition (strongly recommended) The 7th edition is available but contains many mistakes, so the 6th edition is acceptable.. Numerous additional reference materials are found on this disk.
Additional Selected References:
Assignments and Methods by which the Student will be Evaluated and Grades Determined Grading: Your grade will be determined by your completion of all assignments, exams, exercises,and your adult insect collection (view a complete list of course exercises). (See details on collection requirements). Each lesson topic will have a short exercise to be completed. (these may include crossword puzzles involving terminology of weekly topics). You may turn these in (via email or form submission) on a regular schedule, or hold them off and submit them as a packet, to receive credit. Credit will be awarded according to degree of accuracy and completeness. Exams (if offered) will be announced a week in advance, and will consist of short identification exercises, short essays, or practical exercises related to class topics. All tests and exercises will be comprehensive. In all exercises, collections, and written assignments, spelling will count. A misspelled name is incorrect, and on an exam or ID will be treated as a wrong answer. Additional Information: Lectures are not the delivery method for this course. Each lesson will involve exercises designed to introduce you to a particular topic. These topics may be introduced in short introductory web page. This is intended to make you aware of the week's topic, to provide you with background information, and to stimulate ideas and thinking about the particular subject. Class exercises: We will utilize a variety of methods to introduce you to insect classification. Among the tasks that you will be expected to accomplish will be curating using a variety of mounting techniques, identification of many of the families of insects that occur in Florida (or if you live outside Florida, insects of your area), using species keys to identify Florida insects, completing several written exercises including crossword puzzles, producing a variety of drawings to illustrate morphological characters, the creation and expansion of one or more dichotomous identification keys, compiling literature searches on one or more group of insects using computer searching of CD-ROM literature database to produce list of Florida species (or your state) and tentative key to Florida species (or your state), and researching an original species description. Insect Collection: Develop and use a variety of collection techniques that will assist you in collecting a greater diversity of insects; Develop curatorial skills that will teach you professional insect mounting and labeling techniques;
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