• An insect body has 3 parts – the HEAD, the middle part or THORAX which usually carries 3 pairs of legs and the rear part or ABDOMEN.
• There are about 1 million kinds of insects.
• The butterfly can fly at 10km per hour. It uses the position of the sun to find its way.
• Insects were the very first creatures to fly after the world was created – over 300 million years ago.
• Some insects were trapped in amber 40 million years ago. Amber was formed when resin (sticky glue) oozed from pine trees and then hardened. The insects were trapped on the sticky surface.
• Some insects are very helpful to us;
• Wasps and ladybirds for example destroy other insects which eat plants in the garden.
• Beetles help clean up our world by eating dead plants and animals. Guess what dung beetles eat!
• The honey bee makes our honey. The worker bee who collects honey tells the other bees where food is by dancing. Food nearby = a round dance.
• Food colouring is made from the crushed bodies of certain bugs.
• Bees and hoverflies help plants to grow by taking the pollen from one plant to another.
• Most insect eggs are smaller than a pinhead.
• Some plants eat insects. A famous one is the Venus Flytrap that has special leaves that snap shut when an insect lands on them.
• Other insects are harmful or even very dangerous;
• Locusts which can destroy huge areas of crops.
• Deathwatch beetles and woodworm which eat the wood in our homes and furniture.
• Mosquitoes who can pass on malaria when they bite, causing a very nasty fever or even death. (But not in this country!)
• The tsetse fly which causes sleeping sickness. People feel so tired they can’t move!
