Six legs

All insects have six legs and two feelers. Most insects have wings. And
all insects’ bodies are divided into three parts— head, chest, and
stomach.

Did a fly ever land on your arm and tickle you? It was tickling with its
six legs as it walked on your skin.

A fly is one of the six-legged animals we call insects. Flies, ants,
bees, grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, and butterflies are all insects.
They all have six legs.

All insects also have two wiggly feelers on their heads. And most kinds
of insects

have wings. Some, such as flies, have two

A fly has two wings
A fly has six legs.
A fly has claws on its feet.

ties, have four wings.

wings. Some, such as dragonflies and bee-

Fly

This is a grown-up fly. Baby flies can’t fly. They have no wings. They
look like tiny white caterpillars.

Insects are not at all like people. If you want to taste something, you
put your tongue on it. But if a fly wants to taste something it walks on
it. A fly tastes with its feet. When you want to smell something, you
put your nose near it. But a fly has no nose. It smells things with the
two feelers on its head. The fly can smell things better with its
feelers than you can with your nose.

Insects don’t see as we do either. Most insects have eyes that are
really hundreds of tiny eyes. Each tiny eye sees a piece of what the
insect is looking at. This must make the insect see everything as though
it were looking through a screen.

No matter where you live, some of these little six-legged animals are
sure to be near you. There are nearly a million kinds of insects—and
there are billions of each kind!