CONTENTS ONE Incredible Insects 4 SIX Flies and Fleas 62 TWO Dragonflies and Damselflies 18 SEVEN Bees Wasps and Ants 70 THREE Cockroaches Termites and Mantises 28 EIGHT Grasshoppers Crickets and Katydids 82 FOUR Beetles 38 NINE Research Today 90 FIVE Butterflies and Moths 52 Essential Facts 100 Glossary 102 Additional Resources 104 Source Notes 106 Index 110 About the Author 112
CHAPTER ONE Incredible Insects Insects are the most varied of all invertebrates animals without backbones and are essential to life on Earth They pollinate fruit trees and break down dead plants and animals to make soil Other animals eat insects as a vital part of their diets There are more than one million known insect species crawling swimming and flying in environments from tropical rain forests and deserts to rivers and swamps as well as in backyards and bedrooms all over the planet But there could be at least two million insect species still unidentified Insects range from beautiful dragonflies and butterflies to scavenging ants and fruit flies but they all share the same characteristics They have an external skeleton or exoskeleton Bumblebees spread pollen from flower to flower enabling plants to reproduce
