Insects

[solarflare3000]

According to my biology teacher today, all living things are classified under four categories: Animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Since insects aren't plants, fungi, or protists, they must be animals.

Ok, this is what I just said but it's easier to understand. I think sponges and coral must be protists.

[shadowgrr]

According to my biology teacher today, all living things are classified under four categories: Animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Since insects aren't plants, fungi, or protists, they must be animals.

Yeah it's the five kingdoms but you forgot bacterias

[ChocolateIzzy]

I love insects! I love those little leaf bugs that are adorable! Oh and when I was younger, my brother told me to go play with the red-backs in our backyard (Of course, he wasn't being serious...) so I did >,< so I've formed an attachment with them now >_<

[Kiran]

Other than birds, all those other critters are either in a sub group or a category all on it's own. Jellyfish, I don't know what to call them. Invertebrate? Bacteria, well, those are technically animals. But I think they are in a group all on it's own but not in the animal kingdom. scorpions are in a group along with spiders. ticks are in the insect group. Idk why you don't think so. Coral goes with a jellyfish. Fungi I think are in the plants category. Archaea is like spiders and stuff right? That's where scorpions go. Like I said they go with spiders Sponges are invertebrate too. The categories I mentioned earlier are all under two different categories, vertebrate or invertebrate. All animals fall under one of those categories, so, Idk what sponges, coral, and jellyfish go under. But they are all invertebrate.

(Please try not to triple post.)

 

1. Jellyfish are invertebrates, but so are most things. All non-vertabrates are invertabrates.

2. Bacteria aren't animals, because, like you said, they belong to their own kingdom.

3. Spiders, ticks, and scorpions are all arachnids.

4. Fungi belong to a different kingdom than plants.

5. Archaea are sort of like bacteria, but aren't.

 

I think sponges and coral must be protists.

 

Sponges and corals are animals, not protists.

[Ribombee]

As an entomologist (a biologist who studies insects), yes, I do consider them to be animals. They are a very different lineage of animals than are vertebrates, and I can understand how people so easily identify with vertebrates (especially other mammals) while classifying insects as 'other'.

 

They are also one of the most ecologically important animals on the earth. People take insects for granted (or even hate them), but without them, we would be literally in deep poop. They recycle nutrients, they pollinate plants, they spread seeds (ants are one of the animals most capable of spreading seeds and encouraging the growth of plants, which is why plants often suffer when non-native ants come into the area), provide food for many other animals, and the list goes on, and on, and on.

 

Insects live nearly everywhere on earth, to include a few that live out on the open ocean. They do not live in the ocean, most likely because they are out-competed by aquatic arthropods which never left the ocean and made it hard to recolonize it.

 

Furthermore, they are an extremely good and sustainable source of protein. While many of us may find it disgusting, many cultures regularly eat insects. (As a personal note, some of them are actually quite tasty when prepared right.)

 

As for jellyfish, they are cnidarians, as they are in the Phylum Cnidaria. Vertebrates are all in the Phylum Chordata, and they are more easily subdivided simply because more is known about them (and because people identify with them more easily so have more common names). 'Jellyfish' is akin to 'Tetrapod' (reptiles, birds, mammals, amphibians) in level of classification, as the term covers several Classes of animals.

[Silent_Vampire]

I think the term insects is just a category to break them down. You have humans, animals, and insects. You break animals down into different categories and you can break insects down into different categories. The category thing works with everything, even plants and metals. So yeah.

[grimace]

I think the term insects is just a category to break them down. You have humans, animals, and insects. You break animals down into different categories and you can break insects down into different categories. The category thing works with everything, even plants and metals. So yeah.

Wat.

Thats not how it works at all.

Both humans and insects are animals.

[MasterWeavile898]

She's saying they're like categories of animals

[Marrionetta]

Insects are animals.

[King_Max_Cat]

Scientifically speaking, yes insects are 100% animals. If you look them up online you can trace their phylum/kingdom/etc.

 

Insects are a class withing the Phylum Arthropoda. The Phylum of Arthropoda is within the Kingdom of Animalia, AKA Animals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect

[KoalaNoob]

I'm pretty sure everyone knows that scientifically, they are, but I just don't like them and can't make myself treat them as animals.

[octopi]

But they literally are animals so however you treat them you're treating them "like animals". I mean, I get that people want to put more distance between themselves and arthropods than maybe other mammals/birds/"cute" things like that, but that's not an excuse to be unscientific. Just go with vertebrates and invertebrates.

 

Seriously it's like the thing where some people don't consider seafood meat because it came from non-mammals. Like, what the hell?

[Skulexander]

Of course they're animals! I feel sad for every other person who doesn't share the same joy I feel at their very existence. They really are magnificent.

[octopi]

*INSECT BROS HIGH FIVE*

 

Well the common names of a lot of animals are really inaccurate (the vampire squid is an octopus-like cephalopod and not a squid, for example), so what a lot of scientists have resorted to is calling things "true [category name]" - like true bugs, which are actually a subset under insects (the word has since descended into common usage). So in this case you can refer to insects as whatever, but you have to acknowledge that they are included under "true animals". But I really don't want to see this happen, because there are a lot of people who legitimately think that insects aren't animals and it's really sad

[Skulexander]

Even if they know that technically they're animals, there's still a lotta people who don't consider them animals.

[Coryn02]

I'm pretty sure that animals have eukaryotic cells and are multicellular. They also have a body plan and none can make their own food (none are autotrophs).

 

Insects have eukaryotic cells (with a powerful microscope you can see the nucleus). The whole reason we can even see insects is because their size allows them to take on a macroscopic size (in most cases). Insects share the common body plan most animals use today (the digestive tract is a good example). We have not yet discovered an insect that creates its own food within its body. While leaf-cutter ants and bees make at least some of what they eat, they still have to intake nutrition, given that it is outside their bodies.

 

If you noticed, humans share these characteristics. Therefore, I can conclude that since humans are animals, and insects resemble humans in the ways that make them animals, insects are animals.

[MedievalMystic]

I don't know about counting as animals, but I just hatched 10 praying mantis egg sacks and released literally hundreds of the little guys into my garden. They were so cute! They're my mantis army against unwanted insects.

[gyiyg]

Ahh, I love mantises o:

They have such cute little faces c:

[Skulexander]

There's a lotta people who raise mantises as a hobby. Different species. There's a lot of cool species of mantises.

[MedievalMystic]

Pika, they are cute! Especially the babies. The Mantis is one of my favorite insects.

 

And Cod Cod, yeah, I wish I could find an Orchid Mantis for sale. I'd love to have one as a pet, or even buy them in bulk for my yard. Unfortunately, you don't find them in NC and I'm not even sure they'd survive here. But they're gorgeous, just like a flower.

 

Just did some research. Yeah, the orchid mantis needs a lot of heat and wouldn't survive the winters here. Ah, well. Can't have everything. lol I'm ok with the kind we do have around here. All of them are cool.

 

Edited May 27, 2014 by MedievalMystic

[edwardelricfreak]

Of course insects are animals. c: Just as fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, coral, sea urchins, arachnids, crustaceans, other marine invertebrates I'm probably forgetting, fungi, and bacteria are.

 

There are lots of different kinds of animals. o3o Insects are arthropods, just as crustaceans and arachnids are.

 

It's true that, for whatever reason, insects, along with many other creatures (mostly invertebrates) aren't considered animals. It's sad, really. :c Sometimes it is only the mammals that are considered animals, but I think that may be because of their similar sounding names and confusion that may arise from that.

[Sockrael]

Insects are animals, although when I refer to them I typically just say "insects" instead of "animals." I've never heard anyone saying that they weren't animals, although the thought seems strange to me.

[Psycho Cat]

Of course they're animals! If they weren't, they'd probably be in the protista group, and when someone sees a fly do you say "Hey, look at that protist."? No! Most of the time, they say "look at that bug," which, of course, is fine because bugs are animals.

 

EDIT:

...fungi, and bacteria are.

Fungi and bacteria actually have their own groups. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, bacteria have two groups.

Edited May 27, 2014 by Psycho Cat

[Gsea]

^ There's bacteria, archaea, and eukarya. Under bacteria is eubacteria and under archaea is archaebacteria. So yeah, sort of. There's two bacteria groups (eu and archae) but they're apparently so different that they get two entirely separate domains, and one of those domains is called bacteria, which just makes things...confusing. Maybe they aren't both bacteria, idk.

 

And under eukarya are plants, fungi, protists, and animals. The only place insects belong is the animal kingdom. There's no way insects aren't animals. This thread actually surprises me; I never realized there were enough opposing opinions on this that it would result in a forum topic...but nevertheless, they are definitely animals.

 

I think many people are classifying insects as protists because not many people know what protists are (compared to the common fungi, plants, and animals) but protists are really quite different. If I'm not mistaken, algae is in that kingdom (which to me seems more plant-like than bug-like, in any case).

[Psycho Cat]

Yup, and so is kelp. They both photosynthesize so I'm not quite sure why they're not plants. Something about stems?