Ten facts…

…for Insect Week

ONE – There are approximately 1.4 billion (billion!) insects for every person on the planet

TWO – So far, we have discovered and described more than a million insect species, but it is estimated that there may be as many as another 10 million species still to find.

Some of the hundreds of insects from the reserve’s species lists

THREE – Approximately 75% of all the animal species that we know about are insects.

FOUR – All adult insects have six legs.

FIVE – All known flying insects in their adult phases have either two or four wings. Some extinct insects very similar to today’s dragonflies (such as the Palaeodictyoptera) had six wings, but they are not believed to have been very good fliers: in evolutionary terms more does not always equal better.

SIX – The larval stages of some insects can last a very long time: a woodboring beetle larva (Buprestis aurulenta) is known to have metamorphosed into its adult form after an incredible 51 years.

SEVEN – The longest-lived insect in its adult stage is the queen in a termite colony. She can live for up to 50 years, during which she can lay 300,000 eggs.

EIGHT – In 1954, a swarm of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) in Kenya, covering an area of 200km², was estimated to be made up of 10 billion individual insects.

NINE – The heaviest insect scientists have found so far is New Zealand’s giant weta: a large female full of eggs can weigh 70 grams.

TEN – The longest insect in the world is a recently discovered stick insect: Phryganistria chinensis. It can grow to more that 60cm in length. Here it is…..