Do You Want to Be A Hexapod?

Hexapod: the clade that include insects, Collembola, Protura, and Diplura, or arthropods that have six legs.

One lecture plus a lab. I had so much entomology today but I wished the class never ended. It was a lesson of insect external anatomy. It felt kind of weird to know so much about bugs, while my English human anatomy knowledge seemed to be a lot poorer.

"Because they're so darn cool!" the professor said again and again, "Do you want to be a Hexapod?"

Why not? I thought, I want to be small, to have exoskeleton, six legs, wings, antennae, and extended mandibles too! So I'll be wearing light armor all the time, great protection. My legs will be firm and skinny, and I can do more things at one time, especially if at least one pair of my legs are specialized. Then I can fly to wherever I want and dig right into a giant pile of food - and my fingers don't even have to move because the antennae are feeling and tasting everything and the mandibles are grabbing stuff into my mouth.

It's just so cool to have multiple appendages ... and I feel like 10-20 will be the perfect range. But the eight-legged Chelicerates can't fly ... so insects rule!