How many types of insect are there?

Scientists estimate that insects make up 90% of all animal species.

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Wherever you explore on Earth, look closely and you'll find insects. Check your garden and you may see ants, beetles, crickets, wasps, mosquitos and many more minibeasts. There are more kinds of insect than there are mammals, birds and plants combined. This fact has fascinated scientists for centuries.

Classifying life

One of the things biologists do is classify all living things into categories. Insects belong to a phylum (a large group of related creatures) called Arthropoda – animals with hard exoskeletons and jointed feet. All insects are arthropods, but not all arthropods are insects. For instance, spiders, lobsters and millipedes are arthropods, but they're not insects.

Instead, insects are a subgroup of arthropods, a class called Insecta. All the animals in this class have six legs, two antennae and three body segments – head, abdomen and the thorax (the part of the body between the head and abdomen). Most insects also have wings, although a few, like fleas, don't. All have compound eyes, which means that instead of one lens per eye, they have many. A dragonfly’s eye, for instance, has 30,000 lenses. These types of eyes, though not great for clarity, are excellent at detecting movement.