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Above all, many insects have the ability to fly which helps them to escape danger, find new sources of food, colonize new areas, and expand their ranges. The innate advantage of insects over many other invertebrate groups coupled with the adaptability of the group as a whole, has enabled them to colonize a wide range of habitats. Woodlands, forests, grasslands, deserts, and fresh- water all have their quota of insects as do mountains, up to and including the snow line, and soils. The marine environment, home to fish, mollusks,

and crustaceans, is the only place that insects have not exploited successfully. The tough outer skeleton so charac- teristic of insects not only protects them in life, but has provided a telling fossil record of their past. Dragonflies with wingspans of more than 2 feet have been preserved in coal measures, and records of insects date back at least 350 million years. Unfortunately, this is not the case with soft-bodied groups of invertebrates. Interestingly, fossil records suggest that insects really began to diversify when flowering plants began to evolve.

The young nymphal stage of this grasshopper has a dusting of pollen from the orange hawkweed flower on which it is sunning itself. The powerful hind legs are characteristic of this group of insects.

Insects have developed an armory of means for disguising their presence from predators. As their name suggests, these thornbugs closely resemble plant thorns and thus escape detection.

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