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you these remarkable creatures inhabited the earth more than a million years before the dinosaurs today they exist in more varieties than any other animal group on the planet there are 200 million of them for every one of us they are insects most insects live above ground but some live below it they have adapted to every environment on earth from scorching deserts to snowy mountain slopes some insects even live underwater from the tropics to the temperate zones insects are everywhere yet because they're so small they often go unnoticed as they go about their busy lives in their own unobtrusive way insects completely dominate the planet their conquered land water and the air and became perhaps the most successful animals in the history of the world human reactions to insects are as varied as the spectrum of insect life itself some we like and admire and this is reflected in expressions like busy as a bee cheerful as a cricket if we find others so monstrous and repulsive that we cast them in horror movies arpeggiating their reputation as loathsome and despicable pests on rare occasions insects have even acquired a place in mythology to the ancient Egyptians the scarab beetle represented one of the most important gods when it rolled a ball of dung along the ground it reminded them of their Sun God rah rolled the Sun across the sky and renewed life thus the scarab beetle became sacred and was immortalized in jewelry carved from precious stones but what exactly is an insect although various species of insect may look completely different at first glance they all have three things in common first their bodies consist of three distinct parts the head at one end the abdomen at the other and the thorax in the middle second there in vertebrates they have no backbone finally they all have six legs and most have wings these creepy creatures are often mistakenly thought of as insects but they have too many legs the wrong shaped body and no wings insects don't have internal skeletons but most have a hard exoskeleton which protects their inner organs much like the panels which protect the inner workings of certain man-made beetles real beetles can't grow this big insects never grow very large because that exoskeletons would be too heavy to carry their breathing systems limit size to a network of branching tubes provides the body with oxygen by drawing in air through small holes called spiracles without lungs for pumping air can't travel very far so body length is limited to about 15 centimeters the world's smallest insect can fly through the eye of a needle amazingly this bulky Goliath beetle can also fly in though it's one of the world's largest insects where did insects begin over 300 million years ago the first winged insect swords through the forests that covered the earth fossils show that some ancient dragonflies had wing spans of half a meter fossils also show that many early insects looked a lot like modern-day species indicating they evolved the most successful life-form very long ago insects had colonized the entire planet by the time Homo sapiens evolved around 100,000 years ago this event provided insects with a new opportunity many found they could adapt to live very comfortably alongside humans bedbugs fleas and lice no doubt pestered are itchy ancestors in their warm dark caves other insects like cockroaches and flies moved in to scavenge on leftover food this made a rotten start to our relationship with insects and ever since we've seen them as no more than a nuisance and a pest when in fact they're an essential part of our lives without insects it's likely we wouldn't have any fruit because fruit grows on plants which rely on insects to pollinate their flowers when flowering plants first appeared about a hundred million years ago insects quickly developed a taste for nectar and pollen as the insect fed the plants were pollinated and as the plants flourished the insect thrive too in a process known as coevolution but not all insects are beneficial to plants as we discovered when we began developing plants as crops every year insects destroy between ten and fifteen percent of the world's food supply sometimes leaving entire human populations destitute and so the battle over limited resources has led to an ongoing war between humans and insects a war that we sometimes seem to be losing how can such small creatures compete so successfully against us one reason is that they reproduce in vast numbers a fits for example reproduce asexually and compare 50 genetically identical offspring each week predators see to it but not all of them survive most insect Iver reproduced sexually producing several generations of genetically varied offspring each year genetic variety improves the odds on some individuals surviving and allows successive generations to adapt to environmental change in a process called complete metamorphosis eggs hatch into larvae which look nothing like their winged parents the larva grows and molt several times finally becoming a pupa inside the pupa the body is completely restructured and eventually a winged adult emerges from the shell the ability to adapt as the insect key to success and perhaps the most profound adaptation in the evolution of insects was the wing flight is important as it allows insects to cover large areas in search of food and the mate it's also useful in escaping predators the earliest flying insects had two pairs of independently flapping wings later insects evolved ways to link their four wings to produce two flight surfaces that beat together some insects have only one pair of wings which they flap many hundreds of times per second to stay aloft flock of birds may be worshiped but insects are more often despised as depicted in the South American painting of an insect demon attacking a longneck bird in fact because insects are more load than idolized they're the source of superstition more often than the staff of magical myth one superstition dating back to 17th century England has it but the sinister sound of a Deathwatch beetle is an omen depending death another harbinger of doom is the death's-head hawkmoth which gets its name from the pattern of the skull and crossbones of the thorax in many cultures butterflies and moths are associated with death and both are seen to represent the soul of the dead as it leaves the body although most insects are land loving creatures the ability to fly took them to new habitats like water dragonflies and damselflies adapted to the watery life and evolved one of the most curious mating rituals in the insect world having found his partner the male literally gets attached and sweeps her off her feet after mating these damselflies stayed together to lay their eggs either while on the wing or while taking a more leisurely dip here the happy couple submerged to place their eggs up to 30 centimeters below the surface of the water and they do this very very good reason when the eggs hatch the larvae or nymph can take advantage of the abundant supply of a pratik food without competing with its parents while here the nymph shares its home with other water dwelling insects like this water beetle larvae which breathes by sucking in air through tubes in its tail the water boatmen stores air under its wings as it hangs upside down from the water surface this one is lying and wait for a snack and this unfortunate hover fly fits the bill nicely it's called under to become the water boatman's next meal other insects have adapted to live on the water's surface rather than under it like the pond skater which uses its front legs to send signals in the form of ripples across the pond whirligig beetles rely on ripples tool as a way to avoid collisions wild pond skaters and whirligig beetles live in the water on a permanent basis the dragonfly larva is only a temporary resident after two or three years of feeding molting and growing the time has come for it to leave it's underwater nursery both dragonflies and damselflies grow through a process we call incomplete metamorphosis passing through a series of stages in which the nymphs become progressively more like the adults very young limbs show no sign of wings but with each molt wing buds gradually developed and finally the winged adult emerges as blood is pumped into the wings they expand and lengthen in just a few hours after leaving the water the dragon is ready to fly dragonflies are hunters which rely on the huge compound eyes to find pay each eye has hundreds of facets each facet has two lenses that take in light and send signals along nerve fibers to the brain what do insects see we don't know exactly how their brains interpret visual signals but it's thought that their compound eyes give a blurred image by comparison with what we see we do know that bees and other insects are responsive to ultraviolet light giving them a different perception of color from our own they probably see like this because of the way flowers have evolved to attract pollinating insects where we see this insect see bright colors guiding them to nectar we don't notice the pollen in the flower but to insects it stands out like an orange beetle it's also been suggested that insects process visual signals so quickly that our world seems to be in slow motion to them one thing's for certain insects see even the slightest of movements that might explain why it's often difficult to swat a fly while we may not know exactly what insects see we know precisely how they sound ESOP the greek fable writer told the tale of the idle crickets singing a song while the industrious ants spent the summer preparing food for the winter ahead but the cricket may not have been idle at all its call was either a territorial warning or an attempt to attract a mate the mole crickets courtship song is one of the purest sounds in the insect world it builds a y-shaped burrow which fans out at the end like a gramophone home amplifying its message the tree cricket builds a sound system from a leaf by vibrating its wings against the edges of the hole the leaf becomes a natural amplifier for communicating a male bush cricket rubs his wings together making an ultrasonic buzz which attracts her mate she hears this love song through ears on her knees of all places and sends an encouraging reply sound isn't the only way insects communicate some use chemicals called pheromones that's how a male moth finds a date his branched antennae covered in sensory hairs can detect a female's perfume from just a single molecule the male flies upwind towards the greatest concentration of scent which is being released from the female's abdomen in this way an indian moon moth can locate a female from up to five kilometres away tent caterpillars also use chemicals to communicate leaving a scent trail to signal a source of food to others of the colony army ants cross vast areas of rainforests along special pathways the sense which mark the route are laid down by scouts to guide the colony from Camp to camp these chemical highways also show the direction to go to find food which explains why you never get just one of those industrious little ants on a picnic having found a free meal they quickly pass the message on and soon everyone's arrived to join the party ants which are no more than five millimeters long can carry objects weigh more than they do themselves but insects use chemicals for more than just communicating they've also adapted them as defensive weapons these wood ants are guarding their nest against invasion if attacked they respond with a jet of formic acid some birds know this and intentionally put the ants in their feathers where the acid acts like a delouse er killing any other pests that may have hitched an uninvited ride the bombardier beetle carries an assortment of chemicals for defense against even the most threatening predator mixing them the appropriate moment into an explosion of hot clinic acid not all insects do their fighting chemically male stag beetles use their menacing jaws to fight battles over territory this little insect has yet another means of defense using special pads on its feet which stick to the leaf the hemisphere rotor beetle protects its soft body paths from the ants probing jaws the beetles larva has a different defensive technique camouflage it covers its body in a straw like nest made from its own dung some caterpillars disguise themselves as bird droppings and others match the plants they live on adult moths and butterflies often perform a similar trick markings on their wings match the leaves exactly so predators find it hard to tell where the dead leaf ends and the butterfly begins also expert at adapting to and hiding in their environment are the stick insects their bodies are sculptured into plant like shapes perfect for hiding among the twigs sticks and branches where they live the Redcoats were far from camouflaged but they relied on an insect the cochineal beetle to supply the scarlet dial for the uniforms and that same dye is used to color all sorts of food from jelly and sweets to glass a Cheerios and fizzy drinks even the icing on a ladybird shaped cake whereas these bright colors are inviting to our eyes in the animal world they serve as a warning not to touch or taste predators know that red and black is often a sign of poison yellow and black too sends a clear hands-off message to potential predators and with the black and yellow stripes of a hornet the message isn't lost on us either but stinging insects aren't all bad according to folklore bee venom cured Tsar Ivan the terrible's goat bees provide the perfect example of the paradoxical relationship insects have with humans for despite the pain they can inflict on us they also provide us with one of our oldest pleasures honey in some cultures honey is a symbol of fruitfulness in love and marriage but Hani was also mentioned as an instrument of black magic in the records of a witch trial Switzerland in 1499 bees produce honey not for us but for themselves because it's food to keep them going in winter and to feed their grounds young insects spent most of their time feeding and the greediest appetites belong to caterpillars the larvae of butterflies and moths they even start life by eating their own eggshells different insects have adapted to have mouth parts which suit their specific needs caterpillars have scissor like jaws for cutting through leaves they eat deliciously adult butterflies and moths have long tubular mouth parts specially adapted for feeding on the sweet nectar of flowers but they have a taste for salt too and other minerals so they sometimes drink from river water or any damp objects they can find even the sweat on human skin provides some of the nutrients they need flies are equipped with sponge-like mouth parts they first secrete enzymes which begin digesting their food before they use their tongues to lap it up the assassin bug uses a similar process with a rigid and powerful piercing mouth part it injects enzymes then sucks out the contents like milkshake through a straw the less than sanitary feeding habits of some insects are responsible for the spread of several human diseases protective line has needle sharp mouth parts which can pierce human flesh our sucking blood they can transfer the microorganisms which cause African sleeping sickness blood sucking fleas were the carriers of bubonic plague spreading the disease as they hopped from infected rats onto humans during the 14th century the plague kilogram 1/4 the population of Europe is our unshakeable fear of insects based on their reputation as disease carriers horror movie makers may have encouraged our phobias but all things considered insects are far more likely to destroy plant life than human life for example an army of leaf cutter ants working together can destroy huge swathe of rainforest in a matter of days they carry the leaves back to their nest far below the canopy under the rainforest floor in underground chambers the ants cultivate a garden it may look like chaos but there is a meticulous order to what's going on here the ants break the leaves into tiny pieces creating a mulch with added fertilizer from their droppings this leaf litter nourishes the growth of a fungus on which the ants feed Weaver ants use leaves to build their nests they pull the leaf edges together using their bodies like staples gripping with their jaws and holding tight with her back feet then using their living larvae like tubes of glue they stick the leaves together ants wasps bees and termites are all highly skilled architects some mix mud and water to make clay and others chew up wood fibers with saliva to make paper both techniques familiar to you these are social insects whose colonies have a great deal in common with human societies each individual has a specific job and must cooperate in order for the community to function properly although we think humans built the first skyscrapers termites were building them long before we appeared this two meter chimney ventilates a sophisticated network of chambers and tunnels below the ground which house up to five million termites on a human scale this would be equal to a skyscraper nearly three kilometers high how do they manage this fantastic architectural feat through a strictly organized society of specialists workers do the construction and forage for food while the larger soldiers stand guard over and at the center of this frenzy of activity is the most important member of the society a queen the only fertile female in the entire colony of five million she spent her whole life inside a special chamber attended by drones workers and soldiers and concentrates on laying 30,000 eggs a day all have their part to play in the survival of the colony yet again we've seen that prodigious reproduction is one of the reasons insects are so successful it also explains how they can be such pests some insects like the Colorado beetle consume our potato crops diminishing the harvest maize beetles and grain weevils infest and feed on our stored foods and the ubiquitous cockroach occupies our homes contaminating all the detaches we respond by creating deadly pesticides to destroy them but the chemical formula must be revised constantly to keep up with insects which adapt over generations to become resistant when pesticides do work they kill the natural predators along with the pests rice farmers in Southeast Asia have found that spraying kills destructive leaf hoppers but also hits the beetles and other insects which normally eat them and when that happens any pest insects left will have a population explosion defeating the purpose of the pesticide in the first place but the good that insects do far outweighs whatever problems they cause for insects are among the world's recyclers converting dead animals and plants into essential nutrients which enable the Earth's soil to support further plant life insects are also indispensable as pollinators these highly adaptable creatures are essential to life the world we know could not exist without them perhaps if we made more effort to understand them we might adapt to give them the respect they deserve you