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.
Elephant Hawk-Moth
A strikingly colored olive-green and bright pink hawk moth named for its caterpillar's trunk-like tapered front end and large false eyespots.
moth
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
Plume Moth
A slender, long-legged moth that rests with its wings rolled tightly and held out at right angles to its body, forming a distinctive letter-T silhouette.
moth
Brown-tail Moth
A pure white moth with a tuft of brown hair at the tip of its abdomen, whose gregarious, hairy caterpillars overwinter communally in silken webs on tree branches.
moth
Bottle Fly
A stout fly with a shining, metallic blue body that produces a loud, deep buzz and is commonly seen darting around trash cans, compost, and outdoor gatherings.
fly
Thrips
A minuscule, slender insect with fringed, feather-like wings, often noticed only as a fast-moving dark speck darting across a flower petal or windowsill.
other
Cabbage Looper Moth
A drab mottled-brown moth best known for its pale green, looping caterpillar that arches its back like an inchworm while feeding on garden vegetables.
moth
Lesser Water Boatman
A flat-backed, oar-legged true bug that rows through pond water with fringed hind legs, surfacing periodically to trap a silvery bubble of air against its body.
true-bug
Painted Lady Caterpillar
A spiky, mottled caterpillar that spins loose silk webbing over thistle or mallow leaves and hides inside its own protective tent while feeding.
caterpillar-larva
Tobacco Hornworm
A large, chunky green caterpillar with diagonal white stripes and a curved red-orange horn at its tail end, often found stripping tomato and tobacco plants.
caterpillar-larva
Spiny Oak-slug Caterpillar
A tiny, flattened slug-shaped caterpillar in shades of green, orange, or purple, bristling with clusters of branched spines that can deliver a sting if handled.
caterpillar-larva
Drugstore Beetle
A tiny brown beetle with grooved wing covers that once earned its name by burrowing into dried herbs and medicines kept on pharmacy shelves.
beetle
Water Penny Beetle
A flattened, coin-shaped larva that clings almost invisibly to the surface of submerged stream rocks, named for its uncanny resemblance to a small penny.
aquatic-insect
Sawfly
A wasp relative that never stings, best known for its caterpillar-like larvae that strip leaves from roses, pines, and other garden plants in tidy rows.
wasp
Carrot Rust Fly
A slender, shiny black fly barely a few millimeters long whose slim yellowish larvae tunnel rust-colored trails through carrot and parsnip roots.
fly
Band-winged Grasshopper
A camouflaged grasshopper that flashes vivid yellow, red, or blue hindwings in flight before vanishing again into the dust the instant it lands.
grasshopper-cricket
Soldier Fly
A wasp-mimicking fly with a flattened, often metallic body that spends its larval life quietly breaking down decaying plant matter or aquatic debris.
fly
Black Fly
A small, humpbacked black fly with clear wings that gathers in persistent swarms near flowing streams, favoring exposed skin around the head.
fly
Tsetse Fly
A stout grayish-brown fly of African woodlands whose rigid, forward-jutting proboscis and scissor-folded wings set it apart from any ordinary house fly.
fly
Chinch Bug
A tiny black-and-white true bug that feeds on grasses, often overlooked individually but capable of forming dense colonies in sunny, dry patches of lawn.
true-bug
Painted Lady Butterfly
A medium-sized orange-and-black butterfly with a mosaic of white-spotted black wingtips, famous as the most widely distributed butterfly on Earth and a long-distance migrant.
butterfly
Bagworm
A caterpillar that constructs and lives inside a spindle-shaped case of silk and plant debris, dragging its portable shelter along as it feeds on tree foliage.
caterpillar-larva
Slug
A soft-bodied, shell-less land mollusk that glides on a muscular foot, leaving a silvery mucus trail as it forages across damp ground and vegetation.
other
Bee Fly
A fuzzy, bee-mimicking fly with a long, forward-pointing proboscis that hovers motionless in front of spring flowers while sipping nectar.
fly