The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 7 letter word WATER BOATMEN
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
W
A
T
E
R
B
O
A
T
M
E
N
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "insects" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case insects = water boatmen.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.