biology help??

Question

I need help with this question:

Discuss/Describe the advantages and disadvantages of the life history patterens of both insects (mosquitoes) and mammals (humans, elephants).

I wasnt at school when the teacher went over this, because my grandma passed away, and we have a test over it tommorrow,

all answers will be greatly appreciated
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Answer 1

That is a huge question, but maybe this help.
Insects rely on very high reproductive rates. Most insects can produce thousands of offspring. For the insects, that is a good thing since they are at the bottom of the food chain. Mammals, as they increase in size tend to lower their reproductive rate. Elephants and humans for instance usually have only one baby at a time and put a lot of care into nurturing it. Compare that to a mosquito which can lay two hundred eggs at a time and never comes back to check on the next generation. Even the legendary rabbit could not keep up with the average insect when it comes to producing more of itself. And, even though mice and rabbits are at the bottom of the mammalian food chain, their lives are considerably long than almost every insect.

Answer 2

mammals will live a lot longer and cant fly to escape predators (just say the same in revers for insects)

I know it's not much but to finish say "I don't think that either have the upper hand. When you look at the food chain everything works so perfectly it is imposssible to seperate insects from mammals. We all need each other to survive."

Answer 3

Yeah, that's a big one. Not knowing your teacher its really hard to say what to answer.

Look at how they live. Mosquitos are short lived, lay eggs, have larve, pupate...and they overwinter inactively.

Mammals are warmblooded, usually live several years and have several bunches of offspring. And mos tof them are awke all year, tho some hibernate (or estivate in summer heat). And do it overagain.

Hope that's enough to get your head going.