Physical Description: All insects have three body parts: the head, the thorax and the abdomen. The six legs on all insects are attached to the thorax. Each kind of insect has its own type of mouth part. For example, butterflies have a drinking straw type tongue called a proboscis (pro bos is) for sucking up flower nectar. Preying mantises have chewing mouth parts for eating their prey.
Habitats: Insects can be found in gardens, forests, and in the soil. Butterflies and bees are found spending most of their time feeding on flowers. Ants and the grubs or larvae (baby stage) of certain insects can be found burrowed in the soil. Some insects, like aphids (a fids) spend their lives feeding on the leaves of green plants and trees.
Niches: Insects serve all kinds of niches. Dragonflies are carnivores, grasshoppers are herbivores, ants and crickets can be decomposers, but they are really omnivores because they eat everything, including dead material.
Cricket poster by Karina and Maria
Part of Butterfly and Beetle poster by Allysa, Lucy and Sam.
In The Garden poster by Casey, Shelby, Natsumi and Allie
Moths poster by Phipps, Ross, Andreas, and Robby
Pipevine Swallowtail poster by Brittany, Alex, Sophie, Amina and Morgan
Pollinating Animals poster by John, Matthew, Ross and Harold
Part of Preying Mantis poster by Jonathan, Andreas, Ben and Jonathan
Dragonfly
Dragonfly
Monarch caterpillar shedding its final skin to reveal the chrysalis.