Ep.195 Insect Taxonomy: Classifying good, bad & neutral insects into groups - Dr Ian Smith (Bug Bites)

Have you ever considered that plants can be broken into groups, just like plants?

By classifying plants into their taxonomic order, we can automatically understand a few things about them. For example, what type of mouth-part do they have, and what does that mean for the type of plant damage or predatory method they're capable of?

What types of chemicals work on them, and which ones don't? Which beneficials eat which pests? And are there any truly neutral insects out there, or are they all having some type of "positive" or "negative" impact on the garden?

Entomologist and ecologist Dr Ian Smith is back on the show, and he's going to break things down for us.
Here's the cheat sheet for which insects belong where:

Diptera (flys)

The Good

Hoverfly

Robber flies

The bad

Leaf miners

Fruit flies 

The inbetween

Blowflies, bottle flies and house flies

Fungus gnats

Coleoptera (Beetles)

Beneficials

Ladybird (Coccinellidae)

Ground beetles (Carabidae)

Rove beetle (Staphylinidae)

The Bads

Leaf and flea beetles

Scarabaeidae

Weevils

The neutrals

Plague Soldier Beetle

Hymenoptera (wasps and ants)

The good

Parasitoid wasps

The bad

Gall wasps

The in-between

Ants

European wasps

Acariformes (Mites)

Predatory mites

Spider mites and earth mites

Hemiptera (True bugs)

The good

Assassin bugs (and similar)

The bad

Aphids (Aphididae family)

Whiteflies (Aleyrodidae family)

Leafhoppers (Cicadellidae family)

Stink bugs (Pentatomidae family)

Lace bugs (Tingidae family)

Mealybugs (Pseudococcidae family)

Scale (Coccoidea)

Lepidoptera

Moths

Butterflies

Blattodea

Cockroaches

Termites

Others

Araneae (Spiders)

Lacewing (Neuroptera)

Dragonflies (Odonata)

Praying mantis (Mantises)

EPISODE LINKS
Follow Ian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EcologIan
Ian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/driansmith
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-fuller-180908208/

Rove beetle wing folding video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNrXvdOjylA
Velvet mite images: https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=8b94fdf9c54254b4&rlz=1C1UEAD_en-GBAU938AU938&sxsrf=ACQVn0_5qreTzLiKH2svJl2lB_o_9HUVOQ:1710052567103&q=velvet+mite&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDrbyeiumEAxXLsFYBHUWRC-YQ0pQJegQIDRAB

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