Insect Wings--Making Order(s) out of chaos

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I seem to be mentioning insects and their wings frequently these days, mainly because I have been able to grab a few fairly decent shots of them this summer. Why do I find insect wings so fascinating? After all, they are merely dead sheets of chitin, varied in texture and color and sometimes covered with minute scales. But just contemplating how these precisely designed structures develop in the pupa stage or the nerves and muscles that produce their precise movements for flight should arouse a sense of wonder in us all.

Aside from that, the wings are the features by which insects are classified into major groups called Orders. That makes it easier for us amateurs to at least tell a fly from a beetle or a grasshopper from a dragonfly. And while most of us are inclined to call any insect a bug, the true entomologist would cluck his tongue and shake his finger, insisting that only members of the Order Hemiptera should be called bugs—and that their wings can identify them easily.

So take a look at the photos and notice the differences in the wings of various Orders. But please note: I have put the photos in random order and have left it up to you to match them up. Good luck!

Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) scale-covered wings (strikingly colored in this Eastern Black Swallowtail.)

Coleoptera (beetles) one pair of shell-like wings and a pair of membranous flight wings, which you see when ladybug (sorry, lady beetle) flies away home

Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, etc.) two pairs of membranous wings hooked together so that they act as one

Diptera (flies) one pair of membranous flight wings and a second pair that is reduced to small knobs and used like gyroscopes (You can't see them in this photo.)

Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) two pairs of similar membranous wings

Hemiptera (true bugs) forewings are half leathery and half membranous, giving a flat-backed appearance with a distinctive shield pattern

Even if you just want to enjoy the pictures, be sure to give credit (and honor) to the One who created these miniature marvels! (His name isn't Darwin.) Promise? I knew you would.