Insect biodiversity

Insect biodiversity accounts for a large proportion of all biodiversity on the planet—over half of the estimated 1.5 million organism species described are classified as insects.[1][2]

A pie chart of described eukaryote species, showing just over half of these to be insects
  1. ^ N. E. Stork, J. McBroom, C. Gely, and A. J. Hamilton (16 June 2015). "New approaches narrow global species estimates for beetles, insects, and terrestrial arthropods" (PDF). PNAS. 112 (24): 7519–7523. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112.7519S. doi:10.1073/pnas.1502408112. PMC 4475949. PMID 26034274. Retrieved 21 September 2017.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Smithsonian. "Numbers of Insects (Species and Individuals)". BugInfo. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 21 September 2017.