Page 218 - The Microworld Miracle

ment—deserts, forests, lakes, vol-
canoes, water, even icebergs,
and in short, anywhere at all.
Some insects prevent
their bodies from cold by pro-
ducing a form of antifreeze.
This lets them live on the high

peaks of the Himalayas, while
others endure temperatures above
47 °C in the Sahara Desert.
There are so many species of in-
sects that scientists cannot come
up with an exact figure.
Insects constitute three-

quarters of all the animal
species known today.
According to the latest research,
the total number of insect species is
between 2 and 30 million. Only
370,000 of these have been described
so far. Also, moreover, up to 15,000
species of fossil insect have been
THE MICROWORLD MIRACLE total weight, 2.7 billion tons—a
found. Their total numbers are esti-
mated to exceed 1 trillion and their

figure equivalent to 45 bil-
lion human beings. In
other words, there are

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