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.
Anopheles Mosquito
A slim, mottled-winged mosquito best known for the distinctive head-down, tail-up posture it strikes while resting on walls and vegetation.
fly
Alderfly
A small, dusky-winged insect that flutters weakly among streamside alders and shrubs, the diminutive relative of the mighty dobsonfly.
aquatic-insect
Whitefly
A tiny, moth-like white insect that clusters on the undersides of leaves and bursts into a snowy cloud when the plant is disturbed. Despite the name, it is not a true fly but a sap-feeding relative of aphids and scale insects.
true-bug
Biting Midge
A minuscule, gray-winged fly that gathers in dense swarms near wetlands and can slip through window screens unnoticed.
fly
Lime Hawk-Moth
A stout, angular-winged hawk-moth in muted greens, browns, or pinks with deeply scalloped wing margins, closely tied to lime (linden) trees for its larval development.
moth
Stonefly
A flattened, drab-winged insect whose nymphs are among the most reliable living indicators of pristine, well-oxygenated stream water.
aquatic-insect
March Brown Mayfly
A speckled, mottled-winged mayfly whose springtime hatch is prized by anglers, the March Brown emerges from clean, rocky streams and is one of the earlier large mayflies of the season.
aquatic-insect
Cicada Killer's Prey Cicada
A large, thick-bodied, clear-winged insect best known for the loud, buzzing chorus males produce from treetops on hot summer afternoons, and a preferred prey item of the cicada killer wasp.
true-bug
Mayfly Nymph
A short-lived aquatic grazer with feathery gills along its abdomen, living for months underwater before a brief, spectacular mass emergence as a winged adult.
aquatic-insect
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
Julia Butterfly
A brilliant, elongated-winged orange butterfly of tropical and subtropical habitats, with males glowing an intense unmarked orange and females showing subtler markings and a hint of black striping.
butterfly
Gulf Fritillary
A vivid orange, long-winged butterfly whose underside gleams with brilliant metallic silver spangles, closely tied to passionflower vines throughout the warmer parts of the Americas.
butterfly
Zebra Longwing
A slow-flying, long-winged black butterfly striped boldly with yellow, unusual among butterflies for feeding on pollen as an adult, which extends its lifespan to several months.
butterfly
Dobsonfly Larva (Hellgrammite)
A large, fierce-looking aquatic larva with strong pinching jaws and fringed side gills, spending years hunting under stream rocks before becoming a giant winged dobsonfly.
aquatic-insect
Zebra Swallowtail
A sleek, triangular-winged swallowtail striped boldly in black and pale green-white like a zebra, with long tails and red-and-blue accent spots, whose caterpillars feed exclusively on pawpaw trees.
butterfly
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.
moth
Antlion
An insect best known for its larval stage, the doodlebug, which digs a small conical pit trap in loose sand to ambush unwary ants, while the winged adult resembles a slender, delicate damselfly.
other
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.
moth
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.
moth
Wandering Glider
One of the most widely traveled insects on Earth, this golden dragonfly rides high-altitude winds across oceans and continents, rarely landing as it forages endlessly on the wing.
dragonfly
Fiery Skipper
A small, fast, orange-and-black skipper often seen zipping low over lawns and gardens, with jagged black wing borders that resemble scorched edges.
butterfly
Little Wood-Satyr
A small, weak-flying brown butterfly with two prominent yellow-ringed eyespots on each wing, common along shaded woodland edges in late spring.
butterfly
Spiny Flower Mantis
A small, boldly patterned mantis whose wing markings resemble a pair of eyespots, flashed open in a startling display whenever a predator ventures too close.
mantis-stick
Mosquito
A slender, long-legged fly with a needle-like proboscis, narrow wings, and a distinctive high-pitched wing hum, most active around dawn, dusk, and in shaded, humid areas.
fly