How many species of insects are there in Norway?

About 15,000 species of insects have been recorded in Norway; however the list is far from being complete because many groups of Norwegian insects are still poorly known. The total number of Norwegian species can be estimated at 23,000 species.

The following table provides the recorded and expected number of species for every order.

ORDER	Published, 1993 *)	Published + unpublished, 1993 *)	Registered, 2006**)	Expected *)
Thysanura	5	5		5
Diplura	2	2		3
Protura	2	2		2
Collembola	280	283		300
Ephemeroptera	45	45	48	48
Odonata	44	44	48	48
Plecoptera	35	35	35	35
Orthoptera	28	28	29	31
Dermaptera	3	3	3	3
Blattodea	6	6	10	10
Psocoptera	17	51		57
Phthiraptera	41	246		525
Hemiptera (Homoptera + Heteroptera)	1059	1143	1221	1320
Thysanoptera	90	96		120
Megaloptera	5	5	5	5
Raphidioptera	3	3	3	4
Neuroptera	55	55	57	57
Coleoptera	3293	3375	3495	3800
Strepsiptera	3	6		7
Mecoptera	5	5	5	5
Siphonaptera	51	55		60
Diptera	2654	3955	4639	6029
Lepidoptera	2092	2092	2194	2400
Trichoptera	189	195	199	200
Hymenoptera	1272	2959		8158
TOTAL	11279	14694		23222

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*) Ottesen, Preben S. (1993) (Ed.) Norske insektfamilier og deres artsantall. NINA Utredning, 55. Trondheim, Norsk institutt for naturforskning (NINA), 40 pp.

**) Kålås, J.A., Viken, Å & Bakken, T. (2006) (Eds.) Norsk Rødliste 2006 - 2006 Norwegian Red List. Artsdatabanken, Trondheim, Norway, 416 pp.

Last updated: April 15, 2009