Insect about to cover over 1,000 miles (5)
I believe the answer is:
comma
'insect' is the definition.
(comma is a kind of insect)
'about to cover over 1000 miles' is the wordplay.
'about' becomes 'a' (abbreviation in Chambers).
'to' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'cover over' becomes 'co' (this might be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'c000' becomes 'M' (Roman numeral).
'miles' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'co'+'m'+'m'='comm'
'a' put after 'comm' is 'COMMA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for comma that I've seen before include ", (stet)" , ", which gives us pause" , "Puncuation mark" , "I signal a break" , "identifying place to breathe" .)