Noun

insects

1. Plural form of insect.

Insects (Class Insecta) are arthropods, having a hard exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax, and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include approximately 30 Notoptera, 35 Zoraptera, 150 snakefly, 200 silverfish, 300 alderfly, 300 webspinner, 350 jumping bristletail, 550 scorpionfly, 600 Strepsiptera, 1,200 caddisfly, 1,700 stonefly, 1,800 earwig, 2,000 flea, 2,200 mantis, 2,500 mayfly, 3,000 louse, 3,000 walking stick, 4,000 cockroach, 4,000 lacewing, 4,000 termite, 5,000 dragonfly, 5,000 thrips, 5,500 booklouse, 20,000 cricket, grasshopper, and locust, 82,000 true bug, 110,000 ant, bee, sawfly, and wasp, 120,000 true fly, 170,000 butterfly and moth, and 360,000 beetle species described to date. The number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million, with over a million species already described. Insects represent more than half of all known living organisms and potentially represent over 90% of the differing life forms on Earth. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species occur in the oceans, a habitat dominated by another arthropod group, the crustaceans.

Adult modern insects range in size from a 0.139 mm (0.00547 in) fairyfly (Dicopomorpha echmepterygis) to a 56.7-centimetre (22.3 in) long stick insect (Phobaeticus chani). The heaviest documented present-day insect was a 70 g (2½ oz) Giant Weta, though the Goliath beetles Goliathus goliatus, Goliathus regius and Cerambycid beetles such as Titanus giganteus hold the title for some of the largest species in general. The largest known extinct insect is an ancient dragonfly, Meganeura.

The relationship of insects' evolutionary history to that of other animals is unclear, though evidence has emerged indicating that insects and crustaceans may have shared common ancestors. Fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonflies with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm (22-28 in), much larger than any living insect. Many highly successful insect groups are shown to have co-evolved with flowering plants.

Humans regard many insects as pests, and attempt to control them using insecticide. Some insects are parasitic, such as mosquitoes and lice, or damaging to agriculture, such as locusts. Many are capable of transmitting diseases. On the other hand, insects such as butterflies and bees are beneficial to the environment by engaging in pollination, and insects such as silkworms and bees produce substances useful to humans. In some parts of the world insects are used for human food, a practice known as entomophagy. About 1,200 insect species are known to be consumed, although many other countries consider this practice taboo.

This page is for quotes about arthropods, (animals of the phylum Arthropoda), both in general and about specific taxa.

Sourced

• To a good approximation, all species are insects.
  • Robert May^[1]

• Happy the Cicadas live, since they all have voiceless wives.
  • Xenarchus (Grecian poet)^[2]

• The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.
  • Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, lines 217-8.

• An inordinate fondness for beetles
  • The (possibly apocryphal) response J. B. S. Haldane gave when asked what could be inferred about the mind of the Creator from the works of Creation. ^[3]

Unsourced

• Nothing more than a little shrimp-like animal, standing on its head in a limestone house and kicking food into its mouth
  • Louis Agassiz on barnacles

• Don't accept the chauvinistic tradition that labels our era the age of mammals. This is the age of arthropods. They outnumber us by any criterion – by species, by individuals, by prospects for evolutionary continuation.
  • Stephen Jay Gould, 1988

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Thu Jun 11 16:42:35 2009