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How many legs does an adult insect have?

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Illustration showing a variety of adult insects, each labeled with its common name and order, including walkingstick, earwig, stonefly, tree cricket, dragonfly, female scale, cat flea, thrips, sucking louse, thysanuran, ant, scarab beetle, stinkbug, mosquito, and cabbage butterfly, highlighting their diverse shapes and sizes. — insect An illustration of insect diversity.

Adult insects have six legs, which are arranged in three pairs attached to the thorax. This characteristic is a defining feature of the class Insecta, distinguishing them from other arthropods such as arachnids, which typically have eight legs.123