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| Insecta Temporal range: Ordovician ~479 mya to present | |
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| Clockwise from top left: dance fly, long-nosed weevil, mole cricket, wasp, emperor gum moth, assassin bug | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Subphylum: | Hexapoda |
| Class: | Insecta Linnaeus |
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Insects are a class in the phylum Arthropoda. 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. They are more than half of all known living species. They may be over 90% of animal species on Earth.
New species of insects are continually being found. Estimates of the total number of species range from 2 million to 30 million.
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.
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