Author: | Marc J. Klowden |
Release at: | 2013 |
Pages: | 686 |
Edition: | 3rd Edition |
Language: | English |
Description of Physiological Systems in Insects 3rd Edition
Physiological Systems in Insects 3rd Edition by Marc J. Klowden is a great Entomology book, for study. Sir Vincent Wigglesworth, the prescient founder of the field of insect physiology, introduced his 1934 treatise, Insect Physiology, with the comment, ‘The fundamental processes of vital activity, the ordered series of physical and chemical changes which liberate energy and maintain the “immanent movement” of life, are probably the same wherever “living matter” exists.’ In the 134 pages that followed in this first insect physiology textbook, Wigglesworth described what was known about the systems of insects based on what he estimated to be 2000 publications. Despite his prophetic introduction, few related comparisons of insect systems followed in the little book, most likely because there were no comparisons to make, as few others considered there to be much in common between arthropods and vertebrates.
The experiments by Kopec (1922) demonstrating that the insect brain was a source of hormones were largely ignored until Wigglesworth rediscovered them. Who besides another insect physiologist would believe that these simple creatures had hormones, let alone hormones produced by an insect brain the size of a poppy seed? The pioneering work by Berta and Ernst Scharrer (1944) made a strong case for neurosecretion in both insects and vertebrates, but they too had difficulty with the scientific community accepting the concept that nerve cells in any animal could produce hormones. Insects were evolutionarily distant from humans, classified in a primitive phylum, with a strange basic body ground plan and physiological makeup. During the cold war with the policy of mutually assured destruction, we knew that insects were different enough to survive the inevitable nuclear holocaust and repopulate the planet without us. The major reason to study insects was to find new ways to kill them that did not kill us.
Content of Physiological Systems in Insects 3rd Edition
Chapter 1: Signaling Systems
Chapter 2: Integumentary Systems
Chapter 3: Developmental Systems
Chapter 4: Reproductive Systems
Chapter 5: Behavioral Systems
Chapter 6: Metabolic Systems
Chapter 7: Circulatory Systems
Chapter 8: Excretory Systems
Chapter 9: Respiratory Systems
Chapter 10: Locomotor Systems
Chapter 11: Nervous Systems
Chapter 12: Communication Systems
Index
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