Insect Families

The taxonomic families of the class Insecta, the six-legged arthropods with a body divided into head, thorax and abdomen. Covers every family-rank taxon entity in this atlas identified by its own sourced description as an insect family under the standard entomological classification ITIS and the Catalogue of Life both follow, spanning the large beetle families of Coleoptera (Carabidae, Scarabaeidae, Curculionidae, Chrysomelidae and many more, including several small Cucujoidea families endemic to Australia and New Zealand such as Boganiidae, Cavognathidae and Priasilphidae), the moth and butterfly families of Lepidoptera (Nymphalidae, Papilionidae, Sphingidae and others), the bee and ant families of Hymenoptera (Apidae, Formicidae), and the mosquito family Culicidae of Diptera. Excludes every other arthropod class, such as the arachnids, the horseshoe crabs, the extinct eurypterids and the crustaceans, which are grouped under Other Invertebrate Families instead.