Insects
The most diverse group of animals on the Earth are insects. There are over a million identified species. Insects are found all over the planet, some are found in extreme conditions. They include spiders, centipedes, shrimps and crayfish.
 praying mantis © Copyright Adamantios Creative Commons Licence  |
 Millipede Author: Ltshears |
The largest number of insect species are found at and around the equator. The least number are at the poles. This is to be expected because tropical forests are hot and wet, conditions which suit insects.
Insects are arthropods (the term indicates that they do not have a backbone).
Insects are extremely expert at inhabiting all sorts of different environments, including sharing human living spaces!
Wikopedia lists the following numbers of identified species:
2,000 praying mantis
5,000 dragonfly species
20,000 grasshopper species
82,000 true bug species
120,000 fly species
110,000 bee, wasp and ant species
170,000 butterfly and moth species
360,000 beetle species described to date
Estimates of the total number of current species, including those not yet known to science, range from two million to fifty million.
source: wikopedia
 coloured aphids Author: Ltshears |
 common blue damselfly Fir0002/flagstaffotos GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 |