One man almost leaves with insects (7)
I believe the answer is:
imagoes
'insects' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both animals as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'one man almost leaves' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'leaves' becomes 'goes' (I've seen this before).
'man' with its last letter taken off is 'ma'.
'i'+'ma'+'goes'='IMAGOES'
'with' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for imagoes that I've seen is " flies finally?".)