Next Article
Index to This Issue
Index to Survey Reports
INHS Home Page
The Legs Have It!
Objective: to understand the relationship between insect leg shape and function
Materials: multiple copies of The Legs Have It!
Vocabulary: cursorial, raptorial, natatorial, fossorial, saltatorial, coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsus, pretarsus
Comments: Most insects have three pairs of legs, one pair on each segment of the thorax. Each leg has six different parts: the coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsus, and pretarsus. This edition of The Naturalist's Apprentice looks at how insect legs are adapted to perform different functions in nature. The most primitive type of insect leg is used for walking or running. Over the 300 million years or so that insects have been around, their generalized walking legs have become adapted for a wide variety of functions, such as grasping, jumping, digging, and swimming.
Procedure:
1. Introduce the subject of insect locomotion by talking about the insect leg.
2. Distribute copies of The Legs Have It! and have students match the description in column 1 with the correct insect/leg picture in column 2. Answers:
1. digging and walking
2. swimming
3. jumping
4. walking
5. grasping
6. digging and running
7. swimming
8. jumping
9. walking
10. grasping and swimming
3. Have students learn to pronounce and spell the scientific terms for the various types of leg functions.
Insect legs are specialized for various functions. Study the two columns below and match the leg description with the insect that has that type of leg. There may be more than one answer for each insect.
Next Article
Index
to This Issue
Index to
Survey Reports
INHS Home Page
Please report any problems with or suggestions about this page to:
eknight@mail.inhs.uiuc.edu
Subject: INHSPUB-2159
Last Modified 3/19/96