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Defensive Coloration in Insects Of all the groups of organisms in the animal kingdom, insects are among the most interesting. They are among the most numerous, most widely distributed, and most diverse of all animal groups. In fact, according to Evans (p. 2) insects are the most numerous of all terrestrial animals, and represent a biomass on Earth almost 30 times greater than that of human beings. Furthermore, with over 1,000,000 species, they are the “most abundant of all living things in terms of numbers of kinds” (p. 2). In other words, on an evolutionary scale, insects are among the most successful organisms this planet has ever seen. When considering the extraordinary abundance of insects, their almost universal distribution, and their relatively small size, it is no surprise that they play an integral role in many food webs, and are an extremely important food source for many different animals (p. 307). Nevertheless, insects have been extremely successful in avoiding predation, and have adapted many different strategies that allow them to do so. Evans (p. 309) identifies two different categories of defenses employed by insects to defend themselves from predation. First are the primary or passive defenses. T