Legs

Here’s whether insects have 6 legs: By defintion, insects have 3 pairs of legs, so 6 legs in total. However, there are insects that appear to have 2 pairs of legs or 4 legs total and insect-like creatures that appear to have 4 pairs of legs or 8 legs total. If you want to learn all about insect legs, then this article is for you. Keep reading! Do Insects Have 3 Pairs of Legs or 6 Legs in Total? Let’s start with a question: How many legs should an insect have?  Should it be 2, 4, 6, or 8, or only one? Or, should they have only two legs?  But, that would make them bipedal like humans, primates, birds, and some reptiles. But insects? By definition, insects have 3 pairs of legs, so they have 6 legs in total. There are insects, however, that appear to have 4 legs but in reality have 6 legs as well.  Insects are the largest arthropods and animal kingdom group, with an estimated number of species ranging between 6-10 million.  They are also the most diversified group of animals thriving in almost every type of habitat, from marine (sea skaters), freshwater (water striders) to red imported fire ants (RIFA) living in deserts and other terrestrial environments. Biological by definition, insects are in the class of Arthropoda (invertebrates that have jointed appendages).  Key indicators for arthropods are: Hard exoskeleton made up of chitin  Body divided into three segments: Head, thorax, and abdomen Compound eyes  3 or 4 staged life cycle One pair of antennae Do All Insects Have 3 Pairs of Jointed Legs or 6 Legs in Total? Yes, insects always have 6 legs.  Some of them may have modified their appendages for other functions and appear to have 4 legs. Still, structurally, these modified organs have the same basic use as most legs.  Moreover, there are also anthropods that are called arachnids of the class Arachnida. Arachnids may appear to the layman as insects with 4 pairs of legs or 8 legs. However, you can easily tell an arachnid from an insect based on how many legs they have.  Arachnids have 8 legs and as you know by now, insects have 6 legs.  10 Insects With 6 Clearly Visible Legs Here are examples of 6-legged arthropods, aka insects that have 6 clearly visible legs: #1 Butterflies These brightly colored garden decorators have been one of the most beloved insects for centuries. They have a body with: Three segments Large colorful wings—2 sets of wings Club-shaped antennae A coiled proboscis (a long sucking organ)  Three pairs of legs attached to three sub-parts of the thoracic segment, with each true leg comprised of five parts Moreover, butterflies have some short prolegs (fleshy abdominal limbs) attached to abdominal segments, but they are not true legs. Other interesting behaviors are: They drink nectar, often from only certain types of plants. While they don’t necessarily mate in the air, sometimes they can be seen flying attached to one another during the mating process.  They breed once or twice a year, depending upon the situation and species.  Most are particular about the plants they place their eggs on so the larvae can feed on them after they are born. For yellow-clouded butterflies and another member of the genus Euchloe, a developed larva originates from its abdomen when the female dies.  The most important representatives of butterflies include:  Metalmarks  Swallowtails  Blues, copper hairstreaks, or gossamer-winged butterflies  Monarch butterflies  #2 Moths These light-loving cousins of butterflies also have: 2 sets of wings 6 legs  3 segmented body Grouped in the same order Lepidoptera along with butterflies Unlike butterflies, a moth’s antennae are feathery and don’t have a round ball-like structure at the end.  A few moths can cause economic damage for farmers and foresters, such as pine moths.  Most are active during the night (nocturnal).  Some exceptions are hummingbird moths and bella moths.  Some important representatives of the moths include: White witches Madagascan sunset moth Hercules moth  #3 Flies These diverse flying creatures performing acrobats with great speed and maneuverability belong to the order Diptera.  Flies are characterized by a body with three distinct segments: 3 pairs of legs; each with five segments  Coxa Trochanter Femur Tibia Tarsus; which is further subdivided into five tarsomeres ending up in a pair of claws 2 pairs of wings—1 for flying; the other for balance are called “halters.”  Flies are insects of great importance. They are the largest pollinators after bees. They eat the plant pests such as aphids and moths and are good for general biological control. Some of them, such as Drosophila melanogaster. have been extensively used in DNA and molecular genetics research.  Flies are also a concern. Spread food-borne diseases such as cholera, which can be spread by houseflies.  Blood parasites and diseases can be transmitted by blowflies, Tsetse flies, and many others.  #4 Honey Bees Honey bees are some of the most important insects on this planet, with many useful qualities.  They can fly long distances. One of the largest groups of pollinators. They are societal engineers (hives), including a well-organized army that protects their hives. Food experts in making honey, royal jelly, and other hive products. Have mouthparts that are equally efficient for chewing and sucking Even the eggs, larvae, and pupae of the bees are nutritious. They are eaten in Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, and other countries.   Honey bees belong to the genus Apis of the clade bees that contains:  Bumblebees Stingless bees Mason bees Carpenter bees Leafcutter bees   Bees have 6 legs, one pair attached to each thoracic segment. Besides walking and standing, the front pair of the bee’s legs have a comb to clean the antennae, and the hind pair contains pollen baskets to store the collected pollens. Examples of honey bees are: Koschevnikov’s honey bee Western  African  Eastern #5 Mosquitoes Being responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million people each year, these tiny blood-sucking enemies of humans are mosquitoes.  They belong to the family Culicidae, which …

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Here’s whether insects with 8 legs exist: There are no insects with 8 legs. By definition, insects have six legs. There are insect-like creatures with 4 pairs of legs and therefore 8 legs in total. Arthropods with eight legs are called arachnids of the class Arachnida. Those aren’t insects. If you want to learn all about insect-like arthropods with 8 legs, then this article is for you. Keep reading! Do Insects With 8 Legs Exist? Have you ever looked at a spider web clinging on a building corner and the 8 legged spider lurking and wondered if an insect could have 8 legs? Well, biologically, that is not possible since insects technically must have 3 pairs of legs, so 6 legs in total. Even so, there are insects that appear to have 2 pairs of legs and, so, 4 legs, but actually have six legs as well. Yet, there are insect-like creatures with 4 pairs of legs and therefore 8 legs in total.  Are they not insects, too?  Well, no.  What are they then? Here’s the answer: These 8 legged arthropods are called arachnids of the class Arachnida. They are not insects. What Are the Characteristics of Arachnids? The arachnids have the following characteristics: They have 8 legs. They don’t have antennae and wings. Their body is divided into two segments: cephalothorax and abdomen. The cephalothorax is made by fusion of the head and thorax. They have a hard exoskeleton made up of chitin. They have additional appendages called chelicerae and pedipalps.  A layman might mistake them for an insect, but they are not insects. However, they are arthropods just like insects.   10 Insect-Like Arachnids With 8 Legs Here are 10 examples of arachnids with 8 legs that can be mistaken for insects: #1 Spiders The largest order of class Arachnida is these 8-legged silk pinners, containing over 49,000 species, some of which build webs to ensnare their prey.  They are found all around the world except Antarctica. They don’t move their legs by the muscular activity of extensors that exists in other arthropods; rather, they use hydraulic pressure to move legs.  This is why if the spider has punctured the cephalothorax, it will be unable to extend its legs.  On the other hand, jumping spiders can jump up 50 times their size by suddenly increasing the pressure in their legs.  They are active predators (carnivores) except Bagheera kiplingi, a vegetarian jumping spider.  They use their legs to mimic catch and hold their prey. Spider’s legs consist of 7 parts:  Coxa  Trochanter Femur Patella Tibia Metatarsus Tarsus and claws  They keep at least four legs on the ground while walking or running. Examples other than jumping spiders include:  Ground spiders Sac spiders Crab spider #2 Scorpions These 8-legged arachnids are thought to be dangerous to humans. They are characterized by their legs, large pedipalps on the anterior end, and a long, thin, segmented abdomen with a stinger at the tip.  But in fact, only 25 out of 2650 species are capable of killing a man. These include: Black fat-tailed scorpion  Brazilian yellow scorpion Deathstalker scorpion  They use their legs to walk, run, and dance before mating. Then, they give birth to their young, and the female carries them on its body until a hard exoskeleton develops.  Scorpions have poor vision but a strong sense of smell.  #3 Ticks These blood-sucking arachnids are very clever. They detect their host by olfactory stimuli and move in to attach to its body. They find an appropriate place, cut through the epidermis of the skin, and drink its blood.  They need blood to convert from one stage to the next of their life cycle. Their saliva contains 1500-3000 proteins, some of which prevent the detection by the host for a long period allowing the tick to drink blood for days.  They can drink blood 200-600 times of their own body weight and become engorged with blood. They also transmit diseases such as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever or Lyme disease in humans and tick fever in animals.  Tick is categorized as either Example include hard ticks and soft ticks.  #4 Mites These tiny arachnids are multidimensional. They are free-living, decomposers, parasites, and active predators.  With a size of less than 1 mm (the width of a dime), they may easily be ignored while present on animals, plants, in water, and on surfaces.  Mites have 4 pairs of legs; each leg is made up of 6 segments and is sometimes modified for swimming. Examples include: Clover mites that have a pair of long legs often confused with antennae  Eyelash or face mites that affect human skin  Sarcoptic mites that cause scabies #5 Harvestmen (Also Called Daddy Longlegs) Harvestmen are a great group of class Arachnida characterized by long legs often confused with spiders, but they are different.  As in all arachnids, their body comprises two segments, but segments are fused and appear as a single segment externally.  Despite having a pair of eyes in the middle of the cephalothorax, they use the second pair of their long legs like antennae to sense the environment.   Examples include: Hadrobunus grandis (long-legged harvestmen) Mite harvestmen (short-legged) Sabacon cavicolens #6 Solifuges With over 1000 known species, this group of arachnids is also called camel spiders or wind scorpions. However, they have nothing to do with spiders or scorpions.  They appear to have 10 legs (5 pairs), but only 4 pairs are considered true legs, each consisting of 7 segments.  The anterior pair is actually pedipalps and is used as a sensory organ and the first pair of true legs.  Confusion was due to leg length. The pedipalps do not rest on the ground while walking or standing. Rather they are kept raised to sense the environment.  They also have a sticky structure at the end to capture the prey. The leg length in solifuges varies greatly and often causes confusion. Examples include sun spiders and Gulvia dorsalis. #7 Pseudoscorpion These tiny creatures resemble scorpions but are actually beneficial to humans because they prey upon …

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Here’s whether insects with 4 legs exist: According to the biological definition, insects have 3 pairs of legs or 6 legs in total. There are, however, insects and other arthropods that have modified their legs for other purposes, such as predation, burrowing, jumping, and sensing. They appear to have 4 legs, but in reality, they have 6. So if you want to know all about insects with 4 legs, then this article is for you. Let’s jump right in! Are There Any Insects With 4 Legs? To be called an “insect,” a living creature, should have five basic characteristics: The body is divided into three regions: head, thorax, and abdomen. 3 pair of legs and therefore 6 legs in total attached to the thoracic region. I repeat, 6 legs.  It has compound eyes. Generally, there is at least one pair of antennae. Optional wings. Some insects have modified their legs for purposes other than those normally associated with a leg. Generally, an insect leg is a jointed appendage that allows it to walk, crawl, or support itself while standing. Yet, as you will see below, some insects have modified their legs to perform other functions, so you may not recognize them as legs at first glance.   For example, the mantis uses 2 legs only for hunting and the grasshopper 2 legs only to jump. They appear to have 4 legs. One has to ask whether the alienated legs are still legs in the sense of a leg. But this is another discussion. How Many Legs Have Insects per Definition? Insects have 3 pairs of legs and therefore 6 legs in total.  But there are insects and other arthropods which have modified their front or hind legs for other purposes and appear to have 4 legs such as: Predation Holding Burrowing Jumping Sensing This is a great demonstration of adaptation and evolution.  A number of insects seem to have eight legs. However, those 8 legged insects are not insects, but appear to be insects to a layman. 9 Insects That Appear to Have 4 Legs Here are some examples of the 4-legged insects:  #1 Mantis  Mantises are an order of insects that have forelegs modified for hunting, also called raptorial legs.  Mantises are ambush predators. They wait for their prey and then catch and hold their prey with the help of these spiked, long, modified legs.  In the condition of a direct predatory threat, the mantises raise their raptorial legs along with wings, which can be perceived as a greater threat by their enemy.  There are over 2400 species in this order, including:  Eight spot mantis  European mantis  Mantid fly  And other members of the family Mantispidae  #2 Four-Legged Bug Stenolemoides arizonensis, a type of assassin bug, is also an insect that has modified forelegs.  Its front legs are adapted to hold the prey to suck out the insides of its prey.  This bug stands and walks on four legs, which qualifies it to be on our list.  #3 Brush-Footed Butterflies  These special butterflies, also known as four-footed butterflies, belong to the largest family of the Nymphalidae family.  They appear with four legs because the front legs are so small that they cannot be detected.  These tiny front structures are used for smelling by a butterfly. Examples include the glass wing butterfly and the Buckeye-butterfly. #4 Grasshoppers and Locusts Locusts, along with other types of grasshoppers, are included in the family Acrididae of insects.  In this case, the hind legs of the grasshoppers are used for jumping only. They stand and walk only on two front pairs of legs.  Moreover, the hind legs differ in anatomy and position as well. That is why the “Holy Bible” claims that the locusts and grasshoppers are four-legged insects.  #5 Water Strider  Aquarius remiges, also called water striders or water skippers can walk on the surface of the water.  Two pairs of hind legs are used to walk and run on the water surface, while the front legs are modified for prey capture.  #6 Giant Water Beetle Giant water bugs belong to the family Belostomatidae of insects. They live in water and use only two pairs of hind legs for swimming.  The front legs are modified again for capturing and holding their prey. They often leave the water and fly about. They are exclusive predators and eat small fishes, crustaceans, and other insects. #7 Cicadas This great group belongs to the genus Magicicada of insects and contains 7 species. Wrongly included in locusts, these insects are actually bugs. They spend about 99% of their life in an immature state called nymphs.  During that nymph stage, they have four functional legs, and the front pair is used for burrowing and piercing into the roots of plants from where they drink the sap.  They emerge as winged adults by digging out using their front legs near the end of their life and die soon after mating.  #8 Octhera This is a member of the genus of flies that have swollen raptorial forelegs.  They use the front pair of the legs to signal, recognize, and express different behavior.  They don’t use them for walking, crawling, or supporting the trunk of the body. So they use only 4 legs as actual legs.  #9 Garlic Four-Legged Mites Mites belong to arachnids which usually have 4 pairs (8 legs). But this group of mites belongs to the superfamily Eriophyoidea which includes 7 species.  The mature instars, or larval stage, of four-legged mites, have two pairs of legs in the front of the body and don’t have any other legs.  They are of tiny size are parasites of garlic plants.