Insecta Temporal range: Ordovician ~479 mya to present [1]
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Clockwise from top left: dance fly, long-nosed weevil, mole cricket, wasp, emperor gum moth, assassin bug | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Clade: | Pancrustacea |
Subphylum: | Hexapoda |
Class: | Insecta Linnaeus |
Subgroups | |
Synonyms | |
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Insects are a class in the phylum Arthropoda.[2] They are small terrestrial invertebrates which have a hard exoskeleton.
Insects are the largest group of animals on Earth by far: about 926,400 different species have been described.[3] They are more than half of all known living species.[4][4][5][6][7] They may be over 90% of animal species on Earth.[8]
New species of insects are continually being found.[9] Estimates of the total number of species range from 2 million to 30 million.[3]
All adult insects have six legs; and most have wings. Insects were the first animals capable of flight. As they develop from eggs, insects undergo metamorphosis. Insects live all over the planet: almost all are terrestrial (live on land). Few insects live in the oceans or in very cold places, such as Antarctica. The most species live in tropical areas.
Some people call all insects "bugs", but this is not correct. Only some insects are true bugs, which is a particular order of insects. People who study insects are called entomologists.
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