How many pairs of legs do insects have?

• A. 2
• B. 3
• C. 4
• D. 5

Answer: (B)

Insects typically have three pairs of legs. The body is organized into head, thorax, and abdomen, and the legs attach to the thorax in three pairs, giving six legs in total. Wings may be present, but they don’t replace legs, so the count stays the same. This distinguishes insects from spiders, which have four pairs of legs, and from centipedes and millipedes, which have many legs. So the number of leg pairs for insects is three.