In terms of numbers of species, which animal group is the largest?

In terms of numbers of species, insects certainly represent the largest percentage of the world's organisms. There are more than 1 million species of insects that have been documented and studied by scientists. And the total number of documented species of living organisms at the present time is probably about 2.5 million. So insects represent about 40% of all known living species.

Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, which are dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans.

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18 Comments

Grant McIntosh

Ramón Grupe Cacho, Without them, we are all doomed. You need to learn to like and protect them. Even the ones that seem to serve no purpose, are food for other creatures that we rely on..

Phil Trimbath

kathyw, Insects are in fact animals, look it up.

kathyw

Insects are not animals. Should have simply said which group is largest.

Peter Robertson

Vince Savage, Not in your bed????

dsneed

They are everywhere. There are probably millions of billions of them all over the earth. Just thinking that has me creeped out. Ick!! Yay me.

Carroll Price

Question for Bible scholars: Who did Noah assign the job of gathering two each of one million insect species to be put on the Ark?

pamela h

Vince Savage, RAID!!!!!

james parrillo

Bonnie Stebner, Remember, when God created humans and animals, none of us ate meat. We did not eat meat until after Noah's flood. We originally ate the plants of the earth and the fruits on the trees. Thank you, Christine, James' wife

james parrillo

Oscar Mercado, Si, Senor Mercado. El insecto es un animale. Un insecto no es una planta y no es un mineral nunca. Gracias, Christine, la marida de James