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.
Blue Bottle Fly
A robust fly with a glossy, metallic blue-black body and a loud buzzing flight, commonly seen around outdoor waste and occasionally indoors, easily recognized by its shiny coloring and bristly frame.
flyCamel Cricket
A wingless, humpbacked cricket with unusually long legs that gives it a spider-like appearance, often startling people when it turns up in damp basements or crawl spaces.
grasshopper-cricket
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
Zebra Jumping Spider
A compact black-and-white striped jumping spider that stalks prey in short, precise leaps across sun-warmed walls and fences.
spider
Dragonfly Nymph
A stocky, camouflaged underwater predator that spends months or years stalking prey along the pond bottom before transforming into an aerial dragonfly.
aquatic-insectLace 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-bugMaggot
A pale, legless, tapering grub that wriggles through rotting food and organic waste, the larval stage of a fly.
caterpillar-larva
Common Green Darner
A large green-and-blue dragonfly and the official state insect of Washington, best known among dragonfly watchers for an annual migration that spans multiple generations.
dragonflyDamselfly Nymph
A slender aquatic predator with three feathery tail gills, patiently stalking small prey among pond plants before emerging as a delicate flying damselfly.
aquatic-insect
Eyed Hawk-Moth
A pinkish-brown hawk-moth that reveals a pair of large, blue-and-black eyespots on its hindwings when threatened, using the sudden flash of "eyes" to startle would-be predators.
moth
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
Polyphemus Moth
A large tan-to-golden-brown silkmoth named for the mythological one-eyed giant, thanks to the single large, transparent eyespot on each hindwing that flashes into view when the moth is startled.
moth
Spittlebug
A small hopping true bug best known in its nymph stage, which surrounds itself in a frothy mass of white foam on plant stems, commonly called cuckoo spit.
true-bug
Portia Spider
A small jumping spider with an outsized reputation for intelligence, famous for stalking and outwitting other spiders using deceptive tactics and apparent problem-solving.
spider
Screwworm Fly
A metallic blue-green blowfly whose larvae are unusual among maggots for feeding on living tissue rather than carrion, drawn to even small open wounds on warm-blooded animals. The species has been the target of one of the most successful large-scale insect eradication campaigns in history across much of North America.
fly
Carolina Mantis
A mottled gray-brown mantis native to the southeastern and south-central United States, smaller and more camouflaged than its introduced Chinese relative, and recognized as the state insect of South Carolina.
mantis-stick
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.
butterflyCaterpillar
The soft-bodied, segmented larval stage of butterflies and moths, recognized by its worm-like shape, multiple pairs of stubby legs, and voracious appetite for leaves.
caterpillar-larva
Long-Legged Fly
A jewel-bright little fly that flashes metallic green, blue, or bronze in the sunlight as it darts across leaves on comically long, stilt-like legs, pausing to perform quick territorial displays. Both adults and larvae are active hunters of even smaller insects, making this tiny fly a useful predator in gardens and wetlands alike.
flyDiving Beetle Larva (Water Tiger)
Nicknamed the water tiger, the larva of a predaceous diving beetle is an elongated, sickle-jawed hunter that stalks the shallows and seizes prey many times its own size.
beetleCabbage White Caterpillar
A velvety, bright green caterpillar with a faint yellow stripe down its back, the larval stage of the common white butterfly seen fluttering around vegetable gardens.
caterpillar-larva
Jumping Spider
A compact, often furry, day-active spider with unusually large forward-facing eyes that give it an alert, curious look, known for stalking prey and pouncing in a sudden leap.
spider
Tobacco Hornworm Moth (Carolina Sphinx)
A large, streamlined gray-brown sphinx moth with six pairs of orange spots along its abdomen, best known as the adult stage of the tobacco hornworm caterpillar that feeds on tomato and tobacco plants.
moth
Spider Mite
A speck-sized arachnid that spins fine silk webbing across infested leaves as it pierces plant cells for their contents, leaving behind a telltale stippled, bronzed appearance. Populations can explode rapidly in hot, dry weather, making it a familiar garden and greenhouse pest.
arachnid