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.
Baltimore Checkerspot
A striking black butterfly checkered with rows of orange and cream-white spots, closely associated with wet meadows and its turtlehead host plant, and recognized as a state insect symbol in parts of its range.
butterfly
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
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
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.
moth
Squash Bee
A robust, early-rising solitary bee specialized in visiting squash, pumpkin, and gourd flowers, often seen foraging in the cool early morning hours before many other pollinators are active.
bee
Silvery Checkerspot
An orange-brown checkered butterfly named for the row of small silvery-white crescent spots along the underside hindwing margin, commonly seen nectaring at composite flowers in open habitats.
butterfly
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.
moth
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.
mothFishfly 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
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
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
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-larvaBraconid 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
Buff-tip Moth
A moth so convincingly disguised as a broken birch twig that it is often overlooked entirely, with silvery-gray wings and pale buff patches at the tip and base that complete the illusion of snapped, weathered wood.
mothBlister 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
Grain Moth
A tiny buff-colored moth whose larvae tunnel invisibly inside individual kernels of stored grain, hollowing them out from within.
moth
Mormon Cricket
A hefty, flightless katydid whose swarms can stretch for miles across western rangelands, marching en masse in search of food and mates.
grasshopper-cricket
Saddleback Caterpillar
An unmistakable stout caterpillar with a bright green saddle-shaped patch on a brown back, bristling with clusters of spines along its stocky body.
caterpillar-larva
Leafcutter Ant
A highly organized ant famous for marching in long trails while carrying disc-shaped pieces of leaf many times their own size, which they use to cultivate fungus gardens deep underground.
antYellow Scorpion
A robust, sandy-yellow scorpion of arid regions that spends daylight hours buried or hidden beneath stones, emerging at dusk to hunt.
arachnid
Vine Weevil
A slow, flightless, matte-black beetle that hides by day and emerges at night to notch neat semicircular bites from the edges of leaves.
beetle
Water Strider
A slender, long-legged true bug famous for skating effortlessly across the surface of ponds and streams using water's surface tension.
aquatic-insectWandering Spider
A large, fast-moving hunter that forages actively at night across leaf litter and low vegetation instead of relying on a web to catch its meals.
spiderStonefly
A flattened, drab-winged insect whose nymphs are among the most reliable living indicators of pristine, well-oxygenated stream water.
aquatic-insect