Bug Encyclopedia
Search and identify bugs & insects — beetles, butterflies, moths, ants, bees, spiders and more — with size, habitat, danger, behavior, and how to tell them apart.
Bagworm Moth
A moth best known for its larva's habit of constructing and living inside a spindle-shaped case of silk and plant debris that hangs from twigs, with adult males a plain sooty-winged moth and females remaining wingless and grub-like inside the bag for life.
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Antheraea Silkmoth
A large, robust silkmoth in the genus Antheraea with broad reddish-brown to tan wings, each marked with a prominent transparent, eye-like spot, representing a group of giant moths long valued for producing wild silk.
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Ailanthus Silkmoth (Cynthia Moth)
A very large silkmoth with broad, tan-brown wings crossed by white, crescent-moon-shaped bands, closely associated with the fast-spreading tree-of-heaven that both feeds its larvae and carried the species around the world.
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Webbing Clothes Moth
A small, plain golden-buff moth that avoids light and flutters weakly from dark closets, leaving silken webbing where its larvae have grazed on wool and fur.
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Winter Moth
A small tan-brown moth unusual for flying in the cold of late autumn and early winter, with strongly dimorphic sexes: fully winged males and flightless, near-wingless females that climb tree trunks to lay eggs.
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A plain grey-brown moth whose larvae tunnel through beeswax honeycomb, spinning silk webbing as they feed, making it a well-known pest of beekeeping operations.
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Tussock Moth
A moth with a striking split lifestyle: winged, drab gray-brown males fly to seek out flightless, grub-like females, while the ornate caterpillars sport dense tufts of colorful bristly hair.
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White Ermine Moth
A soft, fuzzy white moth speckled with small black dots, resembling the ermine fur trim after which it is named, commonly seen resting on vegetation or attracted to lights on summer nights.
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Twenty-plume Moth
A tiny, unusual moth whose wings are each divided into numerous slender, feather-like plumes rather than solid membranes, giving it a delicate, fringed appearance unlike almost any other moth.
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Tobacco Hornworm Moth (Carolina Sphinx)
A large, streamlined gray-brown sphinx moth with six pairs of orange spots along its abdomen, best known as the adult stage of the tobacco hornworm caterpillar that feeds on tomato and tobacco plants.
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Achemon Sphinx Moth
A large, streamlined sphinx moth with pinkish-brown forewings marked by darker scalloped patches and rosy pink hindwings edged in black, closely tied to grapevines as a larval host.
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Armyworm Moth
A plain tan to reddish-brown moth whose caterpillars are famous for marching in large groups across fields, stripping grasses and grain crops as they move.
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Angle Shades Moth
A common night-flying moth whose forewings fold into a crumpled, tent-like shape that mimics a withered or damaged leaf, marked with bold olive-green and pinkish-brown zigzag bands.
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Atlas Moth
One of the largest moths in the world by wing surface area, the Atlas Moth is a giant reddish-brown silkmoth with striking triangular wingtip patches that resemble the heads of snakes.
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Southern Flannel Moth (Puss Caterpillar Moth)
A small, densely furred tan-to-orange moth best known for its unusual larva, a soft-looking, cat-tailed caterpillar whose fluffy coat hides rows of venomous spines.
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Salt Marsh Moth
A fluffy white tiger moth with black-speckled forewings and an orange-and-black abdomen, best known through its fast-moving, densely bristled caterpillar that wanders widely in late summer.
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Ruby Tiger Moth
A small, warm reddish-brown tiger moth with plain rosy-tinted forewings and pink-flushed hindwings dotted with dark spots, often seen resting openly on vegetation in sunny, open habitats.
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White-lined Sphinx Moth
A fast, hovering moth often mistaken for a hummingbird as it darts between flowers at dusk, identifiable by the bold cream-colored stripe running across each streamlined brown forewing.
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Regal Moth (Hickory Horned Devil)
One of the largest moths in North America, with orange-red and gray-veined wings on the adult, best known for its enormous, formidable-looking caterpillar, the hickory horned devil, a blue-green giant bristling with long orange spines.
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Waved Sphinx Moth
A large gray-brown sphinx moth with fine wavy dark lines across the forewings and a scalloped outer wing margin, closely resembling a piece of weathered tree bark when at rest.
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Vapourer Moth
A small tussock moth with striking sexual dimorphism: rusty-orange, day-flying males with feathery antennae contrast with flightless, grub-like grey females that never leave their cocoon to lay eggs.
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Privet Hawk-Moth
The largest resident hawk-moth in much of northern Europe, with streaked brown forewings and a striking abdomen banded in pink and black stripes.
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Poplar Hawk-Moth
A large, grayish-brown hawk-moth with an unusual resting posture in which the hindwings project forward past the forewings, revealing a hidden rust-red patch when disturbed.
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Virginia Tiger Moth
An almost pure-white, fluffy tiger moth with a few small black dots on the wings and body, whose caterpillar is the familiar pale yellow "yellow woolly bear."
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Promethea Moth
A medium-sized silk moth showing striking differences between the sexes, with dark, blackish-maroon males that mimic a distasteful swallowtail butterfly in flight and larger, more colorful reddish-brown females marked with pale borders and eyespots.
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Vaporer Moth
A tussock moth with dramatic sexual differences: the male is a small rusty-brown day-flying moth with a white wing spot, while the female is a flightless, wingless gray sac-like insect that never leaves her cocoon.
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Polyphemus Moth
A large tan-to-golden-brown silkmoth named for the mythological one-eyed giant, thanks to the single large, transparent eyespot on each hindwing that flashes into view when the moth is startled.
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Tomato Hornworm Moth (Five-spotted Hawkmoth)
A large, robust grey-brown sphinx moth named for the five pairs of yellow-orange spots along its abdomen, best known as the adult form of the large green tomato hornworm caterpillar familiar to home gardeners.
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Squash Vine Borer
A day-flying, wasp-mimicking moth whose orange fuzzy hind legs and metallic wings make it easy to mistake for a wasp as it darts around squash vines.
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Plume Moth
A slender, long-legged moth that rests with its wings rolled tightly and held out at right angles to its body, forming a distinctive letter-T silhouette.
mothUnderwing Moth
A master of camouflage whose bark-patterned forewings hide brightly colored, banded hindwings that flash into view only when the moth is disturbed in flight.
mothPine Processionary Moth
An unremarkable grey-brown moth known almost entirely through its larvae, which build large silken nests in pine trees and travel to feed in long, head-to-tail processions covered in fine defensive hairs.
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Six-spot Burnet Moth
A day-flying moth with glossy black-green forewings marked by six bold red spots and vivid crimson hindwings, a striking warning-colored insect often mistaken for a butterfly as it visits summer wildflowers.
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Small Emperor Moth
A striking day-flying moth with large eyespots on all four wings, gray-brown coloring in males and paler gray in the larger females, native to heathlands and open countryside across Europe.
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Old Lady Moth
A large, dusky brown noctuid moth with an intricate, wood-grain-like pattern of dark streaks and pale flecks across broad wings, often found resting motionless in sheds and against tree bark by day.
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Sphinx Moth
A large, streamlined, fast-flying moth with narrow triangular wings and a robust, tapering body, famous for hovering at flowers at dusk like a hummingbird.
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Silver Y Moth
A fast-flying, day-active noctuid moth named for the metallic silver Y- or gamma-shaped mark on each mottled grey-brown forewing, famous for its long-distance migratory flights.
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Luna Moth
A large, pale lime-green silk moth with long, elegant tails trailing from its hindwings, considered one of the most striking nocturnal insects in North America.
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Luna Silkmoth
A large, pale lime-green silkmoth with long, trailing tails on its hindwings and delicate eyespots, widely regarded as one of the most striking moths in North America.
mothSnowberry Clearwing Moth
A day-flying sphinx moth with black-and-yellow banding and mostly transparent wings that closely mimics a bumblebee, hovering at flowers to feed through a long uncoiled proboscis.
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Lappet Moth
A large, richly textured moth with deeply scalloped, russet-brown wings that fold into an uncanny dead-leaf silhouette, one of the most convincing leaf mimics among European moths.
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Mediterranean Flour Moth
A small, pale grey moth with fine dark wavy lines on its forewings, whose larvae spin webbing through flour, grain, and other stored dry food products, making it a well-known pest of mills and pantries.
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Rosy Maple Moth
A small, plush-looking moth in candy-pink and lemon-yellow, often described as one of the most vividly colored moths in North America despite its modest size.
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Puss Moth
A stout, furry gray-and-white moth named for its dense, cat-like coat of hair, best known for its bizarre green caterpillar with a hump-backed, face-like front end and forked tail filaments used in defensive displays.
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Gypsy Moth (Spongy Moth)
A strongly sexually dimorphic moth, recently renamed the Spongy Moth for its distinctive spongy, tan egg masses, whose caterpillars are known for periodically defoliating oak and other hardwood trees in large outbreak years.
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Peppered Moth
A medium-sized moth with finely speckled black-and-white wings that camouflage it against lichen-covered bark, world-famous as a textbook example of evolution in action during the industrial era.
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Fall Webworm Moth
A plain white (sometimes lightly speckled) moth whose caterpillars are far more familiar than the adult, spinning large communal silk webs over the ends of tree branches in late summer and early autumn.
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Pandora Sphinx Moth
A large, richly mottled sphinx moth in shades of olive-green and dusky pink, with a streamlined body and angular wing markings that provide excellent camouflage against bark and foliage.
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