What are insects? And how many species of insects are there? Stuart Blackman explains <\/p>
Like \u2018bugs\u2019 and \u2018creepy-crawlies\u2019, the word \u2018insects\u2019 is often used as a catch-all term for any small, boneless creatures that buzz, scuttle, flit and, yes, creep and crawl.<\/strong><\/p> But while all insects could be called creepy-crawlies, not all creepy-crawlies are insects. <\/p> Insects belong to the phylum arthropoda, a huge assemblage of animals which also includes crustaceans, arachnids<\/a> and myriapods (millipedes and centipedes). <\/p> All arthropods possess a rigid, jointed exoskeleton that is moulted as the animal grows, but unlike other arthropods, insects\u2019 bodies are composed of three distinct parts: a head, a thorax (bearing wings and six legs), and an abdomen. Their immature stages often look remarkably different from the adults \u2013 think of a caterpillar and a butterfly, for instance<\/p> It\u2019s estimated there are 10 quintillion (that\u2019s a 10 followed by another 18 noughts) insects alive on Earth at any one time \u2013 more than a billion for every human. And the total mass of insect life is perhaps 70 times that of all the people. <\/p> More than half of all the animal species described by science are insects, and it is estimated that there are more than five million extant species. That\u2019s a lot of beetles<\/a>, butterflies, moths<\/a>, ants<\/a>, bees, wasps<\/a>, flies, termites<\/a>, crickets<\/a>, grasshoppers<\/a>, cockroaches, mantids, dragonflies<\/a> and earwigs<\/a>, to name just some of the more familiar ones.<\/p> Insects\u2019 remarkable success is thought to be due in part to being the only invertebrates to have evolved powered flight, which has allowed them to exploit various niches that are unavailable to more earthbound groups.<\/p> Insect flight<\/a> manifests itself in many different ways, whether it\u2019s the breathtaking control of a dragonfly, the exasperating agility of a house fly, the winsome scattering of a cabbage white, the dogged whirring of a stag beetle<\/a> or the clumsy bumblings of a daddy longlegs<\/a>.<\/p> What are insects? And how many species of insects are there? Stuart Blackman explains <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":35875,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/what-are-insects-and-how-many-insects-are-there-in-the-world.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/what-are-insects-and-how-many-insects-are-there-in-the-world-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/what-are-insects-and-how-many-insects-are-there-in-the-world-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/what-are-insects-and-how-many-insects-are-there-in-the-world-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/what-are-insects-and-how-many-insects-are-there-in-the-world-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/what-are-insects-and-how-many-insects-are-there-in-the-world-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/01\/what-are-insects-and-how-many-insects-are-there-in-the-world-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"What are insects? And how many species of insects are there? Stuart Blackman explains","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/35874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What are insects?<\/h2>
How many insects are there?<\/h2>
How many species of insects are there?<\/h2>
Insect flight<\/h2>
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