Category Archives: Entognatha

6 legs = an insect?

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It used to be thought that all animals with six legs were insects. It is now widely accepted that there are two groups of six-legged animals – the insects (class Insecta) and the entognathous hexapods (class Entognatha).

Entognathous means “inside jaw” – which refers to how their mouthparts are enclosed in folds of the head. Hexapod means “6 legs”.

The star of the show is Heterojapyx, a dipluran in the order Diplura. Don’t know what that is? Please watch the video to find out. It’s an amazing animal!

There is an old blog post on the same subject here.

It’s got 6 legs but it’s not an insect!

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Q. When is an animal with six legs not an insect? A. When it’s an entognathous hexapod.

Until fairly recently it was thought that all animals with six legs were insects. It is now widely accepted that there are two classes of six-legged animals – the insects (class Insecta) and the entognathous hexapods (class Entognatha).

The Entognatha are six-legged animals characterized by mouthparts which are hidden away in a pouch in their head (entognathous). The insects (Insecta) have mouthparts which are not hidden (ectognathous).

[stextbox id=”info”]HEXAPOD Noun. (Greek, hex = six + pous = foot.) Any 6-legged arthropod.
ENTOGNATHOUS Adj. (Greek, entos = within, inner + gnathos = jaw + Latin, –osus = with property of.) Hexapods with mouthparts recessed within head.
ECTOGNATHOUS Adj. (Greek, ektos = outside + gnathos = jaw + Latin, –osus = with property of.) An organism with protruding mouthparts. [/stextbox]

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