| Noun | 1. | class Hexapoda - insects; about five-sixths of all known animal speciesMecoptera, order Mecoptera - an order of carnivorous insects usually having long membranous wings and long beaklike heads with chewing mouths at the tip Diptera, order Diptera - a large order of insects having a single pair of wings and sucking or piercing mouths; includes true flies and mosquitoes and gnats and crane flies Isoptera, order Isoptera - order of social insects that live in colonies, including: termites; often placed in subclass Exopterygota Dictyoptera, order Dictyoptera - in some classifications replaced by the orders (here suborders) Blattodea (cockroaches) and Manteodea (mantids); in former classifications often subsumed under a much broader order Orthoptera Hemiptera, order Hemiptera - plant bugs; bedbugs; some true bugs; also includes suborders Heteroptera (true bugs) and Homoptera (e.g., aphids, plant lice and cicadas) Neuroptera, order Neuroptera - an order of insects including: lacewings; antlions; dobsonflies; alderflies; fishflies; mantispids; spongeflies class - (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more orders | |