Copyright 1993 Smithsonian Institution. Beetles account for one quarter of all known species of plants and animals. There are more kinds of beetles than all plants. Blow flies are the first kind of insect attracted to an animal carcass following death. Male mosquitoes do not bite humans, but rather live on plant juices and other natural liquids from plants and decomposing organic material.
True flies have only one pair of wings, and sometimes, none at all.
Vladimir Nobokov, a famous Russian author, collected butterflies and actually named as a new subspecies the Kamer Blue Butterfly from the pine barrens of the Northeast United States. A particular Hawk Moth caterpillar from Brazil, when alarmed, raises its head and inflates its thorax, causing it to look like the head of a snake. About one-third of all insect species are carnivorous, and most hunt for their food rather than eating decaying meat or dung. The oldest known fossil of an insect dates back 400 million years and is a springtail. This publication can be made available in Braille or audio cassette.