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.
Hag Moth Caterpillar (Monkey Slug)
One of the strangest caterpillars in North America, with curling, hair-covered arm-like projections that make it look uncannily like a tiny tuft of matted fur or a miniature spider monkey.
caterpillar-larva
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
Wheel Bug
A large, gray, armored-looking true bug named for the distinctive cog-like crest rising from its back, one of the biggest and most unmistakable assassin bugs in North America.
true-bug
Cicada Killer Wasp
One of the largest wasps in North America, a robust rust-and-black or yellow-marked digger wasp that excavates burrows in bare soil and specializes in hunting cicadas to provision its underground nest.
wasp
Eastern Dobsonfly
The classic dobsonfly of eastern North America, famous for the male's outsized, tusk-like jaws and for its aquatic larva, the hellgrammite, a favorite live-bait fishing lure.
aquatic-insect
Green Darner Dragonfly
One of the largest and most widespread dragonflies in North America, its green thorax and target-marked face make it unmistakable as it patrols open water on powerful wings.
dragonfly
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
Chinese Mantis
One of the largest praying mantises found in North America, an introduced species with a lean brown-and-green body and grasping spined forelegs built for ambushing insect prey.
mantis-stick
Spur-throated Grasshopper
One of the most familiar grasshopper groups in North America, named for the small spine on its throat and known for including some of the continent's most abundant rangeland species.
grasshopper-cricket
Orange Sulphur
A vivid orange-and-yellow butterfly with sharp black wing borders, one of the most common butterflies over open fields and alfalfa crops throughout North America.
butterfly
Checkered White
A white butterfly patterned with irregular gray-black checkered spots, commonly fluttering low over open, sunny, weedy fields across much of North America.
butterfly
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.
butterfly
European Hornet
A large, robust wasp with a reddish-brown thorax, yellow-and-brown striped abdomen, and a distinctive habit of nesting in hollow trees, making it the largest true hornet native to Europe and introduced to eastern North America.
wasp
Giant Mayfly
Known for emerging by the billions in summer swarms so dense they can show up on weather radar, the Giant Mayfly is one of the largest and most abundant mayflies in North America.
aquatic-insect
Widow Skimmer
A medium-sized dragonfly named for the broad, dark mourning-veil-like patches at the base of its wings, seen perched on shoreline vegetation across much of North America.
dragonfly
Clouded Sulphur
A medium-sized pale yellow butterfly with crisp black wing borders, commonly seen fluttering low over clover fields and roadside meadows across North America.
butterfly
Giant Swallowtail
The largest butterfly in North America, a dark brown giant marked with a bold diagonal yellow band and yellow spotting that forms an X-like pattern when the wings are spread.
butterfly
Two-striped Grasshopper
Easily spotted by the pair of pale cream stripes running the length of its body, the two-striped grasshopper is one of the largest and most economically important 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
Eastern Lubber Grasshopper
One of the largest grasshoppers in North America, the eastern lubber is a slow, flightless giant clad in bold black, yellow, and red that announces its presence rather than hiding from it.
grasshopper-cricket
Monarch Butterfly
A large butterfly with bold orange wings crossed by black veins and a black, white-spotted border, famous for its multi-generational migration between North America and central Mexico.
butterfly
Palo Verde Beetle
One of the largest beetles in North America, a heavy, dark reddish-brown longhorn beetle with long spiny antennae and a loud, buzzing flight that emerges from the desert soil around palo verde and mesquite trees in summer.
beetle
Great Purple Hairstreak
The largest and most iridescent hairstreak in North America, with brilliant blue-green upperwings, red-orange spots on the body and wing base, and long twin tails, its caterpillars feeding on parasitic mistletoe clumps in host trees.
butterfly
Corn Earworm Moth
A tan to olive-colored moth whose caterpillar, the corn earworm, is one of the most economically significant crop pests in North America, feeding inside corn ears, tomatoes, and cotton bolls.
moth