Kerry Thompson, age 9, of Winston Salem, North Carolina, for his question:

How many different insects are there?

Nobody can give a definite answer to this question    because not all the different insects have been counted. They are tiny creatures and sometimes it is hard to spot them. Besides, most insects enjoy life in the hot steamy tropics. Their favorite jungles cover vast regions of the earth    but not many people live there. There are thousands of unknown insects in the tropics and in other unpopulated places.

But every year, thousands of new kinds, or species, are found. Each species is studied by world experts. They class it in a group with insects like itself and give it a special scientific name. More than 800,000 different insects have been described, named and classified. But experts think that there are at least one million and maybe 10 million other insects    still undiscovered. Apart from the insects, there are only about 200,000 animal species    including robins and reindeer, eagles and elephants, frogs and fishes and all the other animals you can remember.