Abstract
In the course of their evolution the insects have become adapted to life in many very different habitats. This process of adaptive radiation has been accomplished through the establishment of intricate structural and functional relationships with the many different physical, chemical and biological features of the insects’ environment, and includes the development of varied modes of behaviour which allow them to exploit these relationships to the full. A very wide range of terrestrial habitats has been occupied by insects, ranging over all of the major life-zones from the tropics to circumpolar regions. Within each of these a large proportion of the insect fauna is dependent directly on the many different species of flowering plants (the second most numerous group of organisms in terms of the species extant today) and close, often highly specific and obligate relationships have been evolved between the two groups. All the main niches offered by plants — foliage, flowers, fruits, seeds and subterranean structures — are exploited by one group of insects or another. The insects feed by chewing up the freely exposed parts of the plant or by sucking the sap from its vascular system or its cells, or by tunnelling into its tissues, or living on various plant products such as timber or harvested crops. Mutually beneficial relationships between insects and other organisms are commonly encountered, as in the diverse pollination mechanisms of Angiosperms or the symbioses with fungi and bacteria. Another major food resource has been exploited by those insects which are external or internal parasites of other animals, the great majority being parasitoids of other species of insects. The many different kinds of freshwater aquatic habitats have also been colonized repeatedly by the insects during their evolution, so that insects make up a major part of many freshwater communities. Decomposing plant and animal matter of the most varied kinds also provides habitats and food resources for large numbers of saprophagous and other insects which constitute important elements in the food-webs of many communities, both terrestrial and aquatic.
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Davies, R.G. (1988). Some important modes of life in insects. In: Outlines of Entomology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0508-0_6
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