--- title: Beetles: the biggest group of animals on Earth, wing cases and six legs — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Beetles: the biggest group of animals on Earth, wing cases and six legs», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: About 400,000 kinds of beetle are known, more than any other group of animals, and there may be a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Beetles: the biggest group of animals… # Beetles: the biggest group of animals on Earth, wing cases and six legs Lesson 306 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/0/) — About 400,000 kinds of beetle are known, more than any other group of animals, and there may be a million more still not named. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/1/) — Roughly one animal kind in four is a beetle. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/2/) — Watch a ladybird before it flies: its red shell splits down the middle and lifts, and thin wings unfold from underneath like origami. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/3/) — The hard shell is really a pair of front wings turned into cases, called elytra, and they are the secret of beetles: armour that keeps the flying wings safe. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/4/) — Beetles have six legs like every insect, biting jaws that open sideways, and a life in four stages: egg, grub, pupa and adult. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/5/) — Many spend years as a fat grub in soil or wood and only weeks as an adult. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/6/) — You can find them almost anywhere: in a pond carrying a bubble of air, in a bag of flour, in a rotten log, even in a museum cleaning skeletons. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/7/) — The tiniest are smaller than a full stop; the biggest are longer than your hand. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/8/) — About 400,000 kinds of beetle are known, more than any other animal group, and there may be more than a million kinds still not named; the scientist J. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/9/) — Haldane is said to have joked that the creator had «an inordinate fondness for beetles», which means he must love beetles far more than anything else. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/10/) — A beetle's hard front wings are called elytra; they cover the soft flying wings, lift up in flight, and the thin back wings fold like origami to fit underneath. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/11/) — Many beetles have five segments on each foot, others four or three, and each foot ends in two tiny claws; scientists count the segments to sort beetles into families. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/15/) — Featherwing beetles are among the smallest, some about a third of a millimetre long, with feathery wings like little brushes; the titan beetle of South America can be about 16 centimetres long. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/16/) — Museums use hide beetles to eat dried flesh off bones without harming them, cleaning a small skull in a few days, but similar beetles are pests that eat stuffed animals and wool. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/17/) — Scientists keep the word «bug» for one group of insects with a straw-like mouth; beetles chew, true bugs suck, and a beetle's wing cases meet in a straight line down its back. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/18/) — A ladybird's spots do not show its age; they show its kind, so a seven-spot ladybird always has seven, and the bright colours warn birds that it tastes bad. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/19/) — The diabolical ironclad beetle of the USA has armour that scientists found could take a force about 39,000 times its weight; its wing cases are joined like jigsaw pieces and do not open, so it cannot fly. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/20/) — Like all insects, a beetle has six legs, three body parts and two feelers. - ← previous: [Bees beyond the hive: bumblebees, solitary bees, carpenter bees and stingless bees](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/305-bees-beyond-the-hive-bumblebees-solitary-bees-carpenter-bees-and-stingless-bees/) - next →: [Beetles of every kind: stag beetles, dung beetles, fireflies, bombardiers and weevils](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/307-beetles-of-every-kind-stag-beetles-dung-beetles-fireflies-bombardiers-and-weevils/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)