Rainforest Insects
Name rainforest insects such as leaf-cutter ants, beetles, morpho butterflies and stick insects. Distinguish six-legged insects from spiders. Describe how leaf-cutter ants use leaf pieces to grow fungus for food.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name rainforest insects and explain that insects have six legs while spiders have eight
- Explain that insects are very numerous in tropical rainforests, while individual local counts can differ
- Describe how leaf-cutter ants carry leaf pieces to grow fungus for food
1 · Read
You have learned about rainforest layers. Leaf-cutter ants, beetles, morpho butterflies and stick insects live in tropical rainforests. Insects have six legs. Spiders have eight legs, so they are not insects.
Leaf-cutter ants carry cut leaf pieces to their nest. They use the pieces to grow fungus for food. Fungus is living. It is not a plant or animal.
Many morpho butterflies have blue wings. Stick insects look like twigs to hide. Beetles have a hard outer covering. Size and colour alone cannot identify an insect.
Insects are very numerous in tropical rainforests. They usually outnumber birds and large mammals. A count in one small spot can differ from this wider pattern.
Rainforests have many insects. Leaf-cutter ants grow fungus for food. Stick insects can hide by looking like twigs.
Lesson, questions and flashcards written for this dataset.
Linked video lessons by Charles Wallace for TED-Ed. Flashcards written for this dataset.
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