This document discusses soil-dwelling insects and their roles in ecosystems. It notes that soils provide habitat for many insect specimens and that insects play important roles as predators, prey, and in nutrient cycling. Significant soil-dwelling insect orders mentioned include Diptera (flies), whose larvae impact decomposition, and Formicidae (ants), which as a family are possibly the most significant soil insects due to their worldwide numbers, diversity, biomass, predatory nature, and social colony structures.

1. SOIL DWELLING INSECTS
BY
KHADEEJA
ROLL#
21017114-053
PRESENTED TO
DR. SUMERA AFSHEEN

2. INTRODUCTION
• Soils are fantastic places to find insect
specimens
• Insects are part of the predator’s
community that control the population
of others
• On the other hand, many of the
terrestrial animals have an insectivorous
diet granting a key role to insect’s
populations as food source in the food

3. • Most of the Soil-dwelling insect pests pose
special problems in pest management
• They are hidden in the soil and hard to detect
until the sudden appearance of damage
creates the demand for rapid, curative
treatment
• Incredibly, insects have a role in the soil
nutrients cycles too

4. SIGNIFICANT SOIL INSECTS
Diptera
• Many of the true flies can be considered soil
insects
• At least 75 of the 108 dipteran families in North
America have some contact with soil ecosystems
• Herbivores, and some parasitic species
• Many species of fly larvae are important
saprovores in soils
• Fly larvae have a major impact on decomposition
rates of carrion

5. C FORMICIDAE (ANTS)
• The ants are probably the most significant family of
soil insects
• Ants are numerous, diverse, and widely distributed
from arctic to tropical ecosystems
• About one-third of the animal biomass of the
Amazonian rain forest is composed entirely of ants
and termites
• Ants are social insects, living in colonies with several
castes
• Predators of small invertebrates