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Summer is a busy time for insects. You can hear the cicadas calling and the bees buzzing throughout July and August. You might also find all sorts of bugs in your back yard or garden! Today I’d like to share some vocabulary for talking about insects in English.
The basics
Insects may be referred to as bugs (informally) or as creepy crawlies (very informally, generally by people who don’t like them!).Technically speaking, insects have six legs, but creatures with more legs, like spiders and centipedes, are often referred to as insects when speaking generally.
Insect bodies have three parts, the head (front end), the thorax (middle), and the abdomen (back end). While thorax is a fairly scientific and therefore rare word, abdomen is more common because it is also used when talking about humans.
Insects may also have wings (for flying), antennae / feelers (for sensing things), mandibles (for eating and fighting), stingers (for injecting venom), and a range of other, more specific body parts, depending on the insect.
Common insects (using the broad definition of insect)
There are many, many insects in the world, but here are a few of the common ones that almost everyone knows: bee, ant, moth, butterfly, cicada, centipede/millipede, caterpillar, mosquito, (house)fly, fruit fly, black fly, beetle, ladybug, termite, grasshopper/locust, louse (the plural form lice is more well-known), and (although they are not insects) worm, slug, and snail.
If any of the insects above are unfamiliar, I encourage you to search for them and look at some pictures. These are the most common ones and are worth knowing.
Note: Although people use the word bee to refer to many different types of black and yellow flying insects, there are actually several different kinds, such as honey bee, bumble bee, wasp, and hornet.
People who garden or spend more time outside may also know: pill bug, aphid, praying mantis, stick insect, tick, firefly, earwig, stink bug, cricket, horse/deer fly, and dragonfly.
And here are some common insects you might find in your home: bedbug, cockroach, mite, silverfish, and (if you have pets) flea.
(To be continued in Part 2)
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