people often confessed under torture.
People who did not confess received
trials. Then inquisitors announced punishments
for the guilty in a big ceremony.
Punishments included fines,
prison, or death.
Pope Gregory IX started the Inquisition
in 1231. The Inquisition operated in
several countries. It was particularly
harsh in Spain in the late 1400s, under
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. A
Spanish inquisitor named Tomas de
Torquemada burned about 2,000 people
at the stake. Torquemada also persuaded
Ferdinand and Isabella to force more
than 160,000 Jews out of Spain.
The Inquisition had some famous victims.
One of them was the French heroine
Joan of Arc. She was burned at the
stake in 1431 partly because she claimed
that she had received messages directly
from God. Another was the Italian scientist
Galileo. In the early 1600s he was
punished for teaching that Earth
revolves around the sun. Galileo was not
put in prison, but he was not allowed to
travel freely outside his house either. The
Inquisition continued in a milder form
until 1908.
#More to explore
Ferdinand and Isabella • Galileo
• Roman Catholicism
A painting shows inquisitors questioning a
man. Inquisitors punished people who went
against the teachings of the Roman Catholic
church.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Inquisition 137
Insect
The insects are the largest group of animals.
In fact, about 75 percent of all
animals are insects. Insects developed on
Earth long before humans did. Today
there are about 1 million known species,
or types, of insect. And scientists are
constantly discovering new species. Butterflies,
beetles, ants, flies, grasshoppers,
silverfish, and bees are all insects.
Where Insects Live
Insects live all over the world. They can
survive in almost any place where food is
available. For instance, insects can be
found in cold regions, hot rain forests,
deserts, mountains, caves, and freshwater.
A few kinds even live in salt water.
Physical Features
Insects are members of a larger group
called the arthropods. This group also
includes spiders, ticks, centipedes, lobsters,
and crabs. Like all arthropods,
insects have a body that is divided into
segments, or sections. They also lack a
skeleton inside the body. Instead, insects
and other arthropods have a covering on
the outside of the body called an exoskeleton.
This exoskeleton protects the
insect’s body.
Unlike other arthropods, insects have
three major body segments. Insects also
have six legs. This is one way that insects
differ from spiders, which have eight
legs. Insects also have at least one pair of
antennas, or feelers.
The three major segments of an insect
body are the head, the thorax, and the
abdomen. The head contains the insect’s
antennas, mouthparts, and eyes. The
adults of many species have two kinds of
eyes, simple and compound. Compound
eyes have many lenslike parts. Each of
these receives a separate image. The
images are combined into a single picture
in the insect’s brain.
The thorax has three pairs of legs and
usually two pairs of wings. But some
insects have only one pair of wings or no
wings at all.
Honeybees are well-known insects. They
build honeycombs to store their honey.
The body of an insect has three main segments:
the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.
The legs and the wings are connected
to the thorax.
138 Insect BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
The abdomen is made up of as many as
11 segments. It contains organs that
digest food, push out wastes, and help
the insect reproduce.
Insects vary greatly in size. Most insects
are small, usually less than 0.2 inch (6
millimeters) long. However, some
insects called walkingsticks can grow to
more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) in
length.
Behavior
Insects have a variety of ways to protect
themselves from their enemies. For
example, some insects hide by blending
in to their surroundings. Many moths
have a similar coloring to the bark of the
trees on which they rest. Beetles have a
very hard body armor to protect them.
Some insects bite or sting their enemies.
Some kinds produce poison.
Some kinds of insects live alone, while
others live in groups. Termites, ants, and
some bees and wasps live in very organized
groups. Each individual has a particular
job to do for the group. For
example, some termites are born to be
soldiers or workers. Other termites will
be the king and queen.
Insects eat a great variety of plants, animals,
and other living things. Certain
insects, such as fleas and lice, live on the
body of another animal. They get all
their food from that animal’s body. Such
insects are called parasites.
Life Cycle
Most insects hatch from eggs. A few
kinds are born live. An insect’s exoskeleton
cannot grow. Instead, as the insect
grows, this covering splits apart and falls
off from time to time. The insect grows
a new covering. This process is called
molting.
There are two basic life cycles found in
insects. Some insects are born in nearly
the same form they will have as an adult.
The insect grows and molts, eventually
becoming an adult. Grasshoppers and
cockroaches go through this kind of
growth process.
Other types undergo a complete change,
