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.
Clothes Moth
A tiny, pale golden moth that avoids light and flutters weakly from dark closets, more often noticed by the damage its larvae leave in stored fabrics than by the moth itself.
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Giant Asian Mantis
A bulky, leaf-green predator that sits patiently among foliage, its powerful spined forelegs poised to snatch any insect that strays too close.
mantis-stickPredatory Stink Bug
Unlike its plant-feeding relatives, the predatory stink bug is a hunter that spears caterpillars and beetle larvae with a stout beak. The spined soldier bug is a familiar shield-shaped garden ally.
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Fruit Fly (Mediterranean)
A small but strikingly patterned fly with mottled, banded wings held out to the sides in a fan and a body dotted with silvery spots, best known for larvae that tunnel through ripening fruit. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, it has spread with human trade to become one of the most widely recognized fruit-infesting insects in the world.
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Imperial Moth
One of the largest and most variably patterned silk moths in North America, with broad yellow wings mottled in shades of purple, brown, and pink, and a caterpillar that can grow to impressive size on a wide range of forest trees.
mothLace Weaver Spider
A stocky, mottled spider that spins a distinctive bluish, woolly-looking lace-like web across bark and wall crevices to snare passing insects.
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Cicada
A stout, big-eyed insect best known for the loud, buzzing chorus of song produced by males, and for periodical species that emerge from the ground by the millions after living underground for over a decade.
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Orchid Mantis
A dazzling pink-and-white mantis whose petal-shaped leg lobes let it pass as a flower, luring pollinating insects close enough to ambush.
mantis-stickCobweb 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.
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Common Ringlet
A small, plain buff-orange satyr butterfly of open grassy places, notable for its understated coloring and Holarctic distribution spanning North America, Europe, and Asia.
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American Cockroach
The largest common house-infesting cockroach, a reddish-brown, glossy insect with long antennae and a pale yellowish band edging the shield behind its head, capable of both fast running and short bursts of flight.
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Moth
A broad group of scale-winged insects related to butterflies, typically nocturnal, with stout, often furry bodies and feathery or thread-like antennae.
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Common House Fly
A dull gray fly with four dark stripes down its back, the house fly is one of the most familiar insects on Earth, following people and their food waste to every continent.
flyTermite 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
Water Cricket
Despite its name, the water cricket is not a cricket at all but a compact, velvety true bug that skates over the swirling surfaces of streams and riffles in search of trapped prey.
true-bugKatydid
A leaf-mimicking insect with broad, veined green wings shaped remarkably like foliage, best known for the loud, rhythmic 'katy-did, katy-didn't' chorus males produce on warm summer nights.
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Eastern Subterranean Termite
A pale, soft-bodied social insect that lives in vast underground colonies and builds mud tubes to reach and feed on wood cellulose, including structural timber.
other
Common Housefly
A dull gray fly with four dark stripes on its thorax and large reddish eyes, one of the most widespread insects on Earth thanks to its close association with human food and waste.
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Drinker Moth
A stout, furry moth with warm tawny-orange to buff-brown wings marked by two small white spots on each forewing, named for its caterpillar's habit of drinking water droplets from grass blades.
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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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Codling Moth
A small, inconspicuous grey-brown moth best known through the work of its larva, the classic apple 'worm' that tunnels into fruit, making this tiny moth one of the most economically significant insects in orchards worldwide.
mothDamsel Bug
A slender, tan to brown true bug with a narrow head and elongated front legs adapted for grasping, the damsel bug is a common predator patrolling foliage for soft-bodied insects.
true-bugMeadow Katydid
Small, slender, and beautifully camouflaged among grass blades, meadow katydids fill open fields and marsh edges with a soft, buzzy, insect-like ticking that blends into the summer evening background.
grasshopper-cricket
Hornet
A large, robust social wasp with a reddish-brown and yellow patterned body, notably bigger than yellowjackets, building enclosed papery nests often high in tree cavities or wall voids.
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