I know Old Man Winter is gone when the six-legged beasts emerge. Eggs are laid singly or in a mass, most commonly on plant tissue. The embryo develops and a nymph or larva emerges. To grow, the nymph or larva must often shed its outer skin several times. In general, all growth occurs in the larva or nymph stage.
Some insects then go through the pupa stage.
In this stage, the developing insect is enclosed in a cocoon or case. The final stage, the adult phase, is the insect life stage most of us recognize. There are more than 3 million known insects, with new ones being discovered everyday. Insects make up 90 percent of the animal kingdom. That means that 9 out of every 10 animals is an insect.