Did you know that there are more insects on earth than any other kind of living creature? Actually, 95% of all animal species are insects!

They are divided up into 32 orders, and the largest order is the beetles. They have 125 different families and around 500,000 different species. In fact, one out of every four animals on earth is a beetle.

Insects are incredibly adaptable creatures and have evolved to live successfully in most environments on earth, including deserts and even the Antarctic. The only place where insects are not commonly found is in the oceans.

Insects have an amazing number of differences in size, shape, and behavior, but they all have four characteristics in common.

Spiders are not insects because they have eight legs and don't have three body parts. Centipedes and millipedes have way too many legs to be called insects.

Their small size and ability to fly helps them to escape from enemies and travel to new environments. Because they are small they need only small amounts of food and can live in very small cracks and spaces.