Is there a special name for insect hair?

Answer

Dear Jessica,

Hairs in insects are indeed very important, they certainly play an important role in morphological identification. The identification of an insect based on hairs (position on the body, orientation, shape and length) even has a name, chaetotaxy. Chaetotaxy plays an important role in the identification of caterpillars (Lepidoptera). All those hairs have a specific name, there are fine hairs (setae), but also thicker hairs (brushes and combs). It is a rather complicated terminology, which also differs between the different families/orders. On the head alone, for example, you have the head brushes in the flies, which are further divided into the vertical brushes, the frontorbital brushes, the ocellar brushes, the interfrontal brushes, etc. The position of all those hairs is also important, e.g. parallel, divergent, convergent, proclinate, lateroclinate, reclinate, inclinate. These are just the hairs on the head, there are also hairs on the other body parts, each with its own name, which can play a role in identification, e.g. In short, to make a long story short: depending on the insect species you will encounter a whole series of hairs, each of which can play a role in identification. The position, shape, direction, color and often also the length of the hairs are important, in short, a separate discipline.

Kind regards,

Hans