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.
Blue-fronted Dancer
A bright blue head and thorax paired with a dark, blue-tipped abdomen give the Blue-fronted Dancer its name, as it hops and flutters along sunny riverbanks in loose groups.
other
Ripple Bug
A tiny, dark true bug that skates across the surface film of calm water, producing the faint ripples that give it its common name as it hunts for small prey trapped at the surface.
aquatic-insect
Yellow Fever Mosquito
A dark mosquito marked with a lyre-shaped pattern of white scales on its thorax, closely tied to human dwellings and the water-filled containers people leave standing around them.
fly
Northern Pearly-eye
A shade-loving brown woodland butterfly with rows of dark, pale-ringed eyespots, more often seen resting on tree trunks in forest gaps than flying in open sun.
butterfly
Buck Moth Caterpillar
A dark, spiny caterpillar covered in branched spines that marches across oak-lined sidewalks in dense groups each spring.
caterpillar-larva
Deer Tick
A small, dark-legged tick with a reddish-brown, teardrop-shaped body, noticeably smaller than many other common tick species and often found questing in wooded or grassy edge habitats.
arachnid
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.
moth
European Mantis
A slender, typically bright green mantis native to Europe, Africa, and Asia, now widely established in North America, easily recognized by a small dark bullseye mark on the inside of its front legs.
mantis-stick
Cobweb Spider
A common household spider that spins a messy, three-dimensional tangle of silk in dark corners and drags entangled insects up into the maze to feed.
spider
Banded Hairstreak
A gray-brown, tailed hairstreak marked by a postmedian band of white-edged dark spots on the hindwing underside and a small orange-capped blue spot near the tail, closely tied to oak and hickory woodlands.
butterfly
Horn Fly
A tiny, dark fly that clusters in dense patches on the backs and shoulders of grazing cattle, using piercing mouthparts to take frequent small blood meals.
fly
Tussock Moth Caterpillar
A boldly tufted caterpillar bristling with dense brush-like hair tussocks and long dark pencil plumes that give it an almost punk-rock silhouette.
caterpillar-larva
House Ant
A small, dark brown to black ant that forages in loose trails along countertops and baseboards and releases a distinctive rotten-coconut smell when crushed.
ant
Field Cricket
A stout, dark cricket whose loud, rhythmic chirping is one of the most familiar summer and fall night sounds in fields and lawns across much of the world.
grasshopper-cricket
Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion
The largest scorpion in North America, a robust golden-brown giant covered in fine bristles that digs deep burrows in the desert sand and hunts after dark.
arachnid
Kissing Bug
A dark, elongated true bug with a narrow, cone-shaped head and distinctive orange or red markings along the edges of its abdomen, most active at night.
true-bug
Dogface Butterfly
A striking yellow sulphur butterfly whose forewing pattern forms the silhouette of a dog's or poodle's head complete with a dark 'eye' spot, visible in good light.
butterfly
Cabbage White Butterfly
A small, plain white butterfly with one or two black spots on each forewing and dark wingtips, one of the most common and widespread garden butterflies in the world.
butterfly
Mourning Cloak
A dark, velvety maroon-brown butterfly edged with a ragged cream-yellow border and a row of iridescent blue spots, notable for overwintering as an adult and often being one of the very first butterflies seen flying in early spring.
butterfly
Four-spotted Skimmer
A brown, sturdily built dragonfly marked with a single dark spot on each wing, this holarctic species is famous for occasional mass emergences and long-distance swarming flights.
dragonfly
Deer Fly
A small but aggressive fly with strikingly patterned, dark-banded wings and bright green or gold eyes, often circling the head and shoulders while hunting for a blood meal.
fly
Speckled Bush Cricket
A tiny, plump, green insect finely dotted with dark speckles, this bush cricket forgoes song almost entirely, communicating instead through nearly silent, ultrasonic clicks.
grasshopper-cricket
House Cricket
A pale tan, dark-banded cricket originally from warm regions of Asia that has spread worldwide both as an occasional indoor nuisance and as a widely farmed feeder insect.
grasshopper-cricket
Termite Swarmer
A dense, short-lived cloud of dark, equal-winged insects pouring from a crack in soil or wood, each one a would-be founder of a brand-new termite colony.
other