Are insects animals?

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^^^ My new anthem.

As I used to tell the self-righteous vegetarians/vegans who chose to try to guilt me: At least I kill my food before I eat it. Bean sprouts? Crushing baby beans live between your teeth!

Note to vegetarians and vegans, no insult intended. I believe each person can choose their own diet or lifestyle. Just don't get all self-righteous. And before you get on my case about the world use of resources, my husband kills our meat, in the woods, with a long bow.

An animal is technically anything alive that isn't a plant, including insects, birds, fish, reptiles, and humans. With as few exceptions, most animal species breathe oxygen, are mobile, consume organic matter, and can reproduce sexually. The word animal comes from Latin meaning having breath, having soul, or living being.

But I think there may be scientific debate over some of the really low life-forms, such as politicians.

Yes, they are animals.

I figured they would be classified as parasites.

The word "politics" is derived from they prefix "poly-" (meaning "many") and the word "tick" (meaning "blood-sucking insect parasite"). Thus, we have the word "politics", meaning ("many blood-sucking insect parasites").

So yes, politicians are technically animals.

Insects are essential members of the Animal Kingdom.

Did someone play my music? Domains, and kingdoms coming up:

Viruses are technically not alive because they cannot reproduce on their own. They do however fulfill other criteria of life making it debatable whether they are alive or not.

Domains: The highest organization of life there are three domains.

1. Bacteria: Prokaryotic (no cellullar organelles) organisms with unbranched hydrocarbon chains for membranes

2. Archaea: Prokaryotic (no cellular organells) organisms with branched hydrocarbon chains, these are typically found in extreme environments like volcanic ocean vents and are actually more closely related to Eukaryotes than bacteria.

3. Eukarya: Eukaryotic (have cellular organelles: nucleus, mitchondria etc.) organisms.

Inside the Domain of Eukarya are Four Kingdoms: The second highest organization of life

1. Protists: Typically single celled organisms. Members you might be familiar with are Amoeba and some algae.

2. Fungi: Hetorotrophic (eat their food) multicellular organisms with Chitinous cell walls.

3. Plants: Autotrophic (make their food) multicellular organisms with cellulosic cell walls.

4. Animals: Heterotrophic (eat their food) multicellular organisms with no cell walls. You are hear. As are insects.

What if you have a cat or dog with fleas or ticks sucking their blood? I recently saw a video where a guy removed the ticks from his cat and then fed them to a Venus flytrap. I wondered what vegans would think when they see carnivorous plants eating insects to get the nutrients they need that the soil they grow in doesn't have.

I grew up in the country where flies and mosquitoes are relentless in the summer and I've swatted or killed them without a second thought. I have no sympathy for the disease-carrying little buggers.

That is actually pretty awesome...I mean if your getting your meat that way you can be sure it didn't come from a factory farm.

I'd imagine so, as are arachnids



I love jumping spiders, and they seem to be rather intelligent for bugs. One time I am pretty sure I had one playing with me. I was sitting in one of those outside camping type chairs and the spider kept hoping around on the arm and then dive bombing off with a spider web bungee cord like it was trying to play hide and seek or something. At one point it even zipped out of site only to appear on the opposite arm of the chair. They are also hard to catch if they get inside, but they usually just hang out in the window till they find their way back out.

Random Bug Fact: Most kinds of wasps do not sting.

Also random bug fact: Bees started out as wasps, because of how opportunistic wasps are, some of them found they could feed on nectar and it was easier than eating other bugs. So those wasps eventually became the fuzzy bees we know today. But if you were ever wondering why they look somewhat similar to wasps...that is why.

I got freaked out once by a large wasp that appeared to have a very long stinger, it flew up right next to me and I was afraid it would sting me so I ran in the house. Turns out its a completely harmless wood-wasp and they use that 'stinger' to lay their eggs in trees.

Unfortunately the kind we see the most where I'm from in Louisiana is the kind that stings. I've been stung 1ce in my stomach as a kid, my dad seems to get strung every year & my mom's been stung a bit too.

I feel NO guilt over killing wasp, mosquitoes or other pests that would harm me.

Ants are also descended from wasps.

Most people seem to use a "folk classification" for everyday speech in which mammals are called "animals", while birds, reptiles, spiders, tube-worms etc. are considered to be something other than animals. Think how often you hear the phrase "animals and birds"!

My favourite bit of biological pedantry is to do with cladistics and fish. A clade includes ALL descendants of a common ancestor, which can really mess with our categories. It's where the idea that "birds ARE dinosaurs" comes from. But it gets even better.

Leave invertebrates with names ending in "-fish" aside for the moment, and try to draw up a monophyletic clade called "Fish" that includes both sharks and salmon. You can do it, but "Fish" will also include the reptiles*, amphibians, birds and mammals, all of which are descended from an ancestor smack bang in the middle of the fish family tree. So.... actually, Miss, a whale IS a kind of fish. And so's a goldfinch.

*Now repeat the process for "Reptiles"....