The authors of Borror and Delong's Introduction to the Study of Insects note that 'more than a thousand kinds may occur in a fair-sized backyard, and their populations often number many millions per acre.' Several insect enthusiasts have launched backyard bug surveys in recent years, and have documented hundreds, sometimes thousands, of unique species in their own yards. While the greatest abundance and diversity of insects occur in the tropics, you can find a remarkable number of insect species in your own backyard. Unfortunately, a good number will likely be extinct before we even find them. Some scientists estimate the actual number of distinct insect species may be as high as 30 million. We've only begun to identify and describe the insects on earth, and the list is already over one million species and climbing. If we count every kind of land animal known thus far, from rodents to humans and everything in between, that total is still only about a third of the known insect species. Insects outnumber all other terrestrial animals.Īs a group, insects dominate the planet. Flies can walk upside down on ceilings without falling, thanks to modified legs and light bodies. Insects like water striders can literally walk on water, by distributing their low body mass in a way that maximizes the water's surface tension. An insect's relatively large surface area creates a lot of drag as it moves through the air, so it slows down as it reaches the end of its travels. An insect can withstand falls because its minimal weight means it lands with significantly less force. And that means physical forces don't affect insects the way they do larger animals.īecause the ratio of their body mass to surface area is so large, they can accomplish physical feats impossible to humans, or even to small animals like birds or mice. An insect doesn't have much body mass, but the surface area of its body is large in proportion to that mass. While being a tiny bug in a big world is certainly a challenge, there are some useful advantages to being small. Water striders use their small body mass and large surface area to their advantage on the water.

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