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.
Green Drake Mayfly
Famous among anglers for triggering explosive trout feeding frenzies, the Green Drake Mayfly is a large, striking insect whose brief springtime emergence is one of the most anticipated events on many rivers.
aquatic-insect
Eastern Forktail
One of the smallest and most adaptable damselflies in eastern North America, the Eastern Forktail thrives in everything from wild marshes to roadside ditches, with bright green-and-black males and color-changing females.
other
Common Buckeye
A medium-sized brown butterfly instantly recognizable by the large, colorful eyespots ringed in orange and blue on both its forewings and hindwings, thought to startle or deflect the attacks of predators.
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
Water Flea
Despite the name, the water flea is not an insect at all but a tiny, jerky-swimming crustacean whose transparent body and single dark eye make it one of the most recognizable members of freshwater plankton.
other
Pond Skater
Skimming effortlessly across the surface of still water on long, spindly legs, the pond skater uses ripples to detect struggling insects, which it seizes and pierces with needle-like mouthparts.
true-bug
Water Scavenger Beetle
Rounded and glossy, water scavenger beetles paddle through weedy ponds gathering air with a short antenna rather than a snorkel-like tube, feeding mostly on decaying plant matter and algae.
beetle
Fishfly Larva
A flattened, armor-plated predator of stream bottoms, the fishfly larva spends one to three years underwater seizing prey with sickle-shaped jaws before briefly taking wing as a short-lived winged adult.
aquatic-insect
Differential Grasshopper
A large, robust grasshopper with a bold black herringbone pattern etched along its swollen hind legs, the differential grasshopper is one of the biggest and most recognizable pest grasshoppers in North America.
grasshopper-cricket
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.
moth
Io Moth
A striking yellow (male) or reddish-brown (female) silkmoth instantly recognizable by the large, dark eyespot ringed in blue and black on each hindwing, flashed suddenly to startle predators.
moth
Hummingbird Hawk-Moth
A day-flying moth that hovers in front of flowers on blurring wings while unspooling a long proboscis to sip nectar, so closely mimicking a hummingbird in flight that it is frequently mistaken for one.
moth
Corn Earworm
A color-variable caterpillar, ranging from pale green to reddish-brown, that burrows headfirst into corn ears and is one of the most economically significant crop pests in North America.
caterpillar-larva
Silverfish Firebrat
Two closely related, wingless, silvery or mottled insects with fish-like darting movements and three long tail bristles, one favoring damp basements and the other thriving near warm ovens and furnaces.
other
Blister Beetle
An elongated, soft-bodied beetle with a distinctly narrow neck, often seen feeding in small groups on flowers, and known for releasing a defensive chemical from its leg joints when disturbed.
beetle
Mourning Cloak Butterfly
A deep maroon-brown butterfly bordered with a cream-yellow band and a row of iridescent blue spots, unusual among butterflies for overwintering as an adult and being one of the first to appear in early spring.
butterfly
Braconid Wasp
A tiny, often overlooked parasitoid wasp best known for laying eggs inside caterpillars and other insect hosts, sometimes leaving telltale clusters of small white cocoons on a host's back.
wasp
Lace Bug
A tiny, flattened true bug with delicately sculpted, lace-like wings resembling fine netting, the lace bug feeds in colonies on the undersides of leaves, leaving a stippled, bleached pattern on foliage.
true-bug
Ambush Bug
A chunky, irregularly shaped true bug with thickened, raptorial front legs, the ambush bug hides motionless on flowers, blending into the petals while waiting to seize visiting pollinators.
true-bug
West Virginia White
A delicate, pure-white spring butterfly of eastern hardwood forests with faint gray veining on the underside, flying only for a few weeks each year before its short-lived toothwort host plants fade.
butterfly
Sydney Funnel-web Spider
Glossy black and heavily built, with large fangs held ready in front of its face, the Sydney funnel-web spider shelters in a silk-lined burrow in moist, shaded ground across the Sydney region, one of Australia's most distinctive ground-dwelling spiders.
spider
Chigger
A nearly microscopic mite larva that waits in clusters on grass tips for a passing host, taking a single brief meal before dropping away unseen. Only this larval stage is parasitic; the free-living adult spends its life hunting tiny prey in the soil.
arachnid
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.
moth
Alderfly Larva
Fringed with feathery gill filaments along its sides, the alderfly larva crawls through soft pond and stream sediments hunting smaller invertebrates before eventually leaving the water entirely to pupate on land.
aquatic-insect