Exploring the World of Insects

An accessible book by Amy Fleming

The Success of Insects

Eight out of ten animals on Earth are insects.

There are about three million kinds of insects.

There are more kinds of beetles than all the plants on Earth.

Tortoise beetle

Insects have bright colours to warn birds not to eat them.

This stinkbug also uses a bad smell to stop enemies from attacking or eating it.

For more protection, some insects are toxic to birds. This beetle is bright red and black, warning birds not to eat it.

Insects have three pairs of legs. Other invertebrates have more legs, and are not made well for flying. Insects have a tough outer skeleton.

ant

centipede

Some insects, like butterflies, have wings. Seen with magnification, these wings look like they are made of tiny overlapping feathers.

Insects are successful because they are small. They don’t need a lot of food or water.

They do have a brain, nervous system, and digestive organs – all the working parts like more complex animals.

Camouflage and imitation

Treehoppers can look like the thorns on an acacia tree.

In rain forests birds, snakes, lizards, and monkeys eat insects.

Camouflage, or being able to look like part of the forest, can be good protection.

The scales on the hind leg of the Io moth “paint” a false eye when a bird comes too close to the resting moth. This false owl eye scares most birds away!

Some insects pretend to be dead to protect themselves. Animals hunting for food look for movement. They don’t notice a motionless insect.

The African praying mantis looks like grey bark on the bare branch of a shrub.

Life Cycles Some insects have complete metamorphosis. Butterflies hatch from eggs to larva. The larva rest in a chrysalis and grow and change inside it.

Monarch caterpillar

Emerging from the chrysalis

Later, the adult butterfly comes out of the chrysalis.

A fruit fly may take only a few weeks to grow from an egg to an adult.

An Arctic moth lives for fourteen years as a caterpillar, but only for one summer as an adult moth.

Arctic moth

Insects eat almost anything that is alive or used to be alive, even people. Some tiny caterpillars eat inside leaves and leave trails as they eat.

Some insects are fantastic flying animals. The honeybee can hover and move quickly and easily.

Whirligig beetles have legs that let them scull across water and dive down into it.

A flea can leap far because of its special leg muscles. A flea can both hop and crawl through animal fur

because it has a flat body shape.

The End