All these species are divided up into about 32 orders, depending on whose taxonomic system you use, of which, the largest is the Beetles, or Coleoptera, with 125 different families and around 500,000 species they are an incredibly diverse group of animals. In fact, one in every four animal species on this planet is a beetle.
On the land however there isn’t anyhere you can go that you can’t find some insects, even in the frozen extremes of Arctica and Antartica you will find some insects alive and active during the warmer months.
You will find that insects are ubiquitous, they are in the soil beneath your feet, in the air above your head, on and in the bodies of the plants and animals around you, as well as on and in you.
Some of the most adventurous insect are the Brine Flies (Ephydra), you can find them living in the strangest places including, the larva of Ephydra hyans in Mono Lake California which is nearly as salty as the Dead Sea, the larva of Psilopa petrolei in pools of crude oil also in California, and the adults and larva of Scatella thermarum in the hot springs of Iceland, the adults live on the mats of algae which float on the water’s surface, and the larva live beneath the mats and in water, which is as hot as 48 degrees Celsius, which, for most people, is too hot to put your hand into.
There are several different ways of measuring the size of an insect, most people would consider the largest insect to be the bulkiest, in this case the champion insect is the Acteon Beetle (Megasoma acteon) from South America the males of which can be 9cms long by 5cms wide by 4cms thick, however there is a serious challange for heaviest insect in the world in the form of the True Wetas from New Zealand.
However other insects are larger in other ways, the longest insect in the world is the Stick-Insect Pharnacia kirbyi, the females of which can be over 36cm long. Some living lepidoptera have wingspans as great as 32cm and an area of over 300 square cms.
There are an incredible number of very small insects in the world, far more than there are giants. Many beetles are less than one millimetre in length, and the North American Feather-winged Beetle Nanosella fungi, at 0.25mm, is a serious contender for the title of smallest insect in the world. Other insect orders which contain extremely small members are the Diptera (True Flies) and the Collembola (Springtails).
Thank Mr. Gordon Ramel for the story and World Wild Foundation for the pictures.