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Insects
Insects have lived on Earth for about 400 million years. There are more insects than
all other kinds of animals. Ninety per cent of the world’s animals are insects. Insects
live everywhere on Earth – in your garden, in the pond, in the rainforests, and even in
deserts. Insects live all over the planet, but not many insects live in the oceans or in
very cold places, such as Antarctica. The greatest variety of insects live in tropical
areas. There are more than a million insects.
You’ll find lots of insects in the garden. There is a lot for them to do here.
They’re busy finding food – plants, other insects or nectar from flowers. Gardens are
also safe places for them to lay their eggs. A pond is a small lake. The water is quite
still and not very deep and it makes a good place for lots of insects and their babies.
Honey bees collect nectar to take back to their hive for food. Worker bees visit more
than two thousand flowers each day. Bees make honey and they can sting.
Butterflies are beautiful, brightly coloured insects. Some butterflies live for a year,
others live only for a week. Butterflies don’t usually fly at night.
A caterpillar isn’t exactly an insect, but it will be one when it’s an adult. It is
one of the stages of a butterfly or a moth.
Ladybirds are a type of beetle. There are more types of beetles than any other animals:
one in three animal species is a beetle. Many of them have bright colours. Their bright
colours tell other animals that they don’t taste very good. Ladybirds are useful because
they eat harmful insects.
Dragonflies appeared 320 million years ago. They were very big. Their wings were 75 cm
wide. Today the biggest dragonflies are 19 cm across their wings. They are the fastest
insects and they can fly up to 97 km an hour.
Cockroaches appeared on Earth around 350 million years ago. Cockroaches can live for a
month without food and can live without their head for a week.
The science of insects is called entomology, and people who study insects are called
entomologists.
VOCABULARY:
ant муравей
beetle жук
bug жучок
butterfly бабочка
bee пчела
bumble-bee шмель
dragonfly стрекоза
fly муха
ladybird божья коровка
stick insect палочник
 moth моль,
мотылек
mosquito комар
midge мошка
hornet шершень
wasp оса}
earwig уховёртка
cricket сверчок
grasshopper кузнечик
caterpillar гусеница
cockroach таракан
bees sting пчелы жалят
insects bite насекомые кусают
insects crawl, creep насекомые ползают
insects fly насекомые летают
swarm of (flying) insects рой (летающих) насекомых
Choose one of the insects. Find out all that you can about it and write a report.
1. Where does it live?
2. What life stages does it have?
3. What does it look like?
4. What does it eat?
5. How long does it live?
6. Are there any amazing facts about this insect?
Insects Quiz
1. How many different kinds of insects are there in the world?
a) over a hundred;
b) over a thousand;
c) over a million
2. How many legs do insects have?
a) four;
b) six;
c) eight
3. What do bees make?
a) jam;
b) honey;
c) juice
4. Which insect bites people?
a) the butterfly;
b) the earwig;
c) the mosquito
5. Which is the biggest insect in the world?
a) the diving beetle;
b) the bug;
c) the Goliath beetle
6. Which is the longest insect in the world?
a) the leafcutter ant;
b) the stick insect;
c) the grasshopper
7. Which is the fastest insect in the world?
a) the ladybird;
b) the firefly;
c) the dragonfly
8. Which flying insect has only two wings?
a) the fly;
b) the butterfly;
c) the ladybird
9. Which female insect sometimes eats the male?
a) the cockroach;
b) the grasshopper;
c) the praying mantis
10. Which insect can live without its head for a week?
a) the mosquito;
b) the cockroach;
c) the stick insect
Key: 1. c; 2. b; 3. b; 4. c; 5. c; 6. b; 7. c; 8. a; 9. c; 10. b
By Tatyana Makhrina
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