Insects
Insects are the most numerous and diverse animals on Earth by an enormous margin — more described species than all other animal groups combined, with a great many still unnamed. Six legs…
About insects
Insects are the most numerous and diverse animals on Earth by an enormous margin — more described species than all other animal groups combined, with a great many still unnamed. Six legs, three body sections and, usually, wings; they were the first animals to fly and remain the only invertebrates that do. Their significance is out of all proportion to their size: they pollinate most flowering plants including a large share of what people eat, break down dead material and return it to the soil, and form the base of the food supply for a great many birds, bats, fish and reptiles. Evidence of steep declines in insect abundance across parts of the world is one of the more serious conservation findings of recent decades.
Where insects are recorded
| Region | Climate | Species |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico & Central America | Warm and tropical with a strong rainy season. | 192 |
| Southern Africa | Warm and sunny with a summer rainy season. | 179 |
| Himalayas & High Asia | Bitterly cold with thin air, snow and fierce winds. | 164 |
| Arabia & the Middle East | Blistering desert heat with very little rain. | 160 |
| Mainland Southeast Asia | Hot and tropical with a heavy monsoon. | 157 |
| North American Desert | Scorching dry days and surprisingly cool nights. | 156 |
| Eastern North America | Four full seasons — humid summers and snowy winters. | 152 |
| Indian Subcontinent | Hot, ruled by the dramatic monsoon rains. | 139 |
| African Rainforest | Hot, humid and rainy almost every day, around 25°C. | 126 |
| West Africa | Hot and humid by the coast, drier toward the Sahel. | 102 |
| European Woodlands | Mild, temperate seasons with cool rain and gentle summers. | 92 |
| Japan & Korea | Four seasons, from the snowy north to the mild south. | 88 |
| Andes Mountains | Thin, cold mountain air — sunny days and frosty nights. | 84 |
| Siberian Taiga | Brutally cold winters and short, mild summers. | 79 |
| Coral Reefs & Oceans | Warm, sunlit tropical seas in the shallows; cold and dark in the deep. | 78 |
| New Guinea & Melanesia | Hot, humid and rainy all year. | 73 |
| New Zealand | Mild, wet and temperate. | 71 |
| Madagascar | Tropical and warm with distinct wet and dry seasons. | 55 |
| China's Bamboo Forests | Cool, misty and damp in the mountain forests. | 49 |
| Caribbean Islands | Warm, breezy and tropical all year. | 49 |
| Amazon Rainforest | Warm and extremely humid with heavy rainfall all year round. | 48 |
| American South & Everglades | Hot, humid and subtropical with heavy summer storms. | 47 |
| Central Asian Steppe | Harsh extremes — baking summers and deeply frozen winters. | 44 |
| Australian Outback | Hot, dry and blazing-bright across the interior. | 36 |
| North American Wilds | Four strong seasons with snowy winters and warm summers. | 31 |
| Arctic & Tundra | Long frozen winters far below 0°C and a short, cool summer. | 22 |
| Patagonia | Cool, dry and famously windswept. | 22 |
| Pantanal & Cerrado | Hot, with a flooded wet season and a dry winter. | 13 |
| African Savanna | Hot all year with dramatic wet and dry seasons, typically 25–35°C. | 10 |
| Sahara & Deserts | Scorching days above 45°C and surprisingly freezing nights. | 10 |
| Southeast Asian Jungle | Hot and steamy with monsoon downpours. | 9 |
| Antarctica | Earth's coldest, windiest place, plunging to −60°C. | 6 |