The world has millions of species of plants and animals, and thousands of insect species. This tree helps us group similar species, and lets us organize every living thing on the planet. The animal kingdom is organized to show things that are alike and things that are different in the way animal bodies are put together. This group of animals includes scorpions, crabs, centipedes and spiders. All of these animals have jointed legs and bodies.
Insects are arthropods that have a body with three segments, six legs, and one set of antennae.
These body parts make them different from all other arthropods. Spiders are not insects because they have eight legs and two body parts. Centipedes are not insects because they have many body parts and many legs. In this project we will only be talking about a special kind - aquatic insects. Click here to see the anatomy of an insect.