Insecta

In`sec´ta

n. pl.	1.	(Zool.) One of the classes of Arthropoda, including those that have one pair of antennæ, three pairs of mouth organs, and breathe air by means of tracheæ, opening by spiracles along the sides of the body. In this sense it includes the Hexapoda, or six-legged insects and the Myriapoda, with numerous legs. See Insect, n.
	2.	(Zool.) In a more restricted sense, the Hexapoda alone. See Hexapoda.
	3.	(Zool.) In the most general sense, the Hexapoda, Myriapoda, and Arachnoidea, combined.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

Insecta - insects; about five-sixths of all known animal species class Hexapoda, class Insecta, Hexapoda Arthropoda, phylum Arthropoda - jointed-foot invertebrates: arachnids; crustaceans; insects; millipedes; centipedes Mantophasmatodea, order mantophasmatodea - an order of insect identified in 2002 in a 45 million year old piece of amber from the Baltic region Mecoptera, order Mecoptera - an order of carnivorous insects usually having long membranous wings and long beaklike heads with chewing mouths at the tip Collembola, order Collembola - minute wingless arthropods: springtails order Protura, Protura - minute wingless arthropods: telsontails Coleoptera, order Coleoptera - beetles Embiodea, Embioptera, order Embiodea, order Embioptera - web spinners Anoplura, order Anoplura - sucking lice Mallophaga, order Mallophaga - biting lice order Siphonaptera, Siphonaptera - fleas Diptera, order Diptera - a large order of insects having a single pair of wings and sucking or piercing mouths; includes true flies and mosquitoes and gnats and crane flies Hymenoptera, order Hymenoptera - an order of insects including: bees; wasps; ants; ichneumons; sawflies; gall wasps; etc. Isoptera, order Isoptera - order of social insects that live in colonies, including: termites; often placed in subclass Exopterygota order Orthoptera, Orthoptera - grasshoppers and locusts; crickets order Phasmatodea, order Phasmida, Phasmatodea, Phasmida - in some classifications considered a suborder of Orthoptera: stick insects; leaf insects Exopterygota, Hemimetabola, subclass Exopterygota - subclass of insects characterized by gradual and usually incomplete metamorphosis Dictyoptera, order Dictyoptera - in some classifications replaced by the orders (here suborders) Blattodea (cockroaches) and Manteodea (mantids); in former classifications often subsumed under a much broader order Orthoptera Hemiptera, order Hemiptera - plant bugs; bedbugs; some true bugs; also includes suborders Heteroptera (true bugs) and Homoptera (e.g., aphids, plant lice and cicadas) Corrodentia, order Corrodentia, order Psocoptera, Psocoptera - an order of insects: includes booklice and bark-lice Ephemerida, Ephemeroptera, order Ephemerida, order Ephemeroptera - mayflies order Plecoptera, Plecoptera - stoneflies Neuroptera, order Neuroptera - an order of insects including: lacewings; antlions; dobsonflies; alderflies; fish flies; mantispids; spongeflies Odonata, order Odonata - dragonflies and damselflies order Trichoptera, Trichoptera - an order of insects consisting of caddis flies order Thysanura, Thysanura - firebrats; silverfish; machilids order Thysanoptera, Thysanoptera - thrips Dermaptera, order Dermaptera - earwigs and a few related forms Lepidoptera, order Lepidoptera - moths and butterflies class - (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more orders