ACTIVITY 20

Insect Geography: Where in the world. . .?*

Teaching Objectives:

1. Students will create maps of insect ranges using written descriptions and knowledge of geography.

Materials Needed:

• Map of the 50 States
• Outline Map of the World

Procedure:

Scientists must understand how to read and make maps in order to fully understand where a species of animal or plant occurs. This skill is extremely helpful in identifying different species, whether or not their ranges (the area over which a species occurs) overlap.

Below are listed written descriptions of where different species of insects occur. Translate these written descriptions into maps. Shade in the area on the appropriate map where the insect is found.

Range Descriptions:

Acheta domesticus (house cricket). British Columbia to Newfoundland, south to Mexico; Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Acheta domesticus was introduced into North America from Europe.

Range Descriptions within the United States:

Microcentrum retinerve (smaller angular-winged katydid). New Jersey west through southern Indiana, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee, to Kansas and Nebraska, and south and southwest to central Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona. Possibly south into Guatemala.

Microcentrum rhombifolium (larger angular-winged katydid). Staten and Long Islands, New York north and west to Michigan, Minnesota and eastern Nebraska, and south and west to southern Florida, Oklahoma, southwestern Texas, Arizona and Claremont, California.

*Created by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History