INSECTS are practically innumerable. They are all around us, but we usually only notice them when we are swatting them. So David Attenborough is right to celebrate them in his new BBC programme. Life in the Undergrowth, which started this week - not only are insects fascinating, we owe them more than we might think. There are about a million different kinds of insect that have so far been described and named, and many more certainly remain to be discovered. This is more than the other animal speciesput together. They occupy almost every known habitat outside the polar regions and deep sea. They are represented by immense populations - perhaps ten million in a single termite colony, and 100,000 springtails in a square metre of turf.
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