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.
Pygmy Grasshopper
A tiny, ground-hugging grasshopper with an elongated pronotum extending back over its body, often found hopping along muddy pond edges.
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Red-legged Grasshopper
One of the most abundant and widespread grasshoppers in North America, the red-legged grasshopper is easily spotted by its reddish hind shins flashing amid a brown, mottled body.
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Lubber Grasshopper
Heavy-bodied and slow-moving, lubber grasshoppers make up for their poor flying ability with large size, bold coloring, and a lumbering, ground-bound lifestyle.
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Painted Grasshopper
A large, boldly striped grasshopper of South Asia whose vivid green, yellow, and black pattern warns predators that it has fed on toxic milkweed plants.
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Carolina Grasshopper
Well camouflaged against dusty ground until it bursts into flight, the Carolina grasshopper flashes broad black hindwings edged in pale yellow before dropping back into invisibility.
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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.
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Tailless Whip Scorpion
A flattened, spider-like arachnid with no stinger and no fangs, instead using a pair of long whip-like sensory legs and grasping spiny arms to feel out and seize prey in total darkness.
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Skipper Butterfly
A stocky, fast-darting butterfly with a large head, hooked antennae tips, and thick furry body, intermediate in appearance between butterflies and moths, named for its quick, skipping flight.
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Blue-winged Grasshopper
A drab, camouflaged grasshopper that startles onlookers with a sudden flash of bright blue hindwings the instant it takes flight.
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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.
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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.
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Golden Silk Orb Weaver
Suspended in a massive, glinting web strung between trees along a forest trail, the golden silk orb weaver is one of the largest and most striking web-building spiders in the Americas, spinning silk with a distinctive yellow-gold sheen.
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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.
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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.
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Goliath Birdeater
The heaviest spider in the world, the Goliath birdeater is a massive, hairy tarantula from the South American rainforest whose leg span can rival a dinner plate, though despite its name it primarily hunts insects and other invertebrates rather than birds.
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Cave Cricket
Humpbacked and wingless with absurdly long legs and antennae, this pale, silent insect thrives in the total darkness of caves, basements, and damp crawl spaces.
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Marbled Orbweaver
A round-bodied orb weaver with a swollen, marbled orange-and-purple abdomen that builds large, symmetrical webs in damp woodland edges.
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Camel 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.
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Whip Scorpion
A flattened, spider-like arachnid with a pair of extraordinarily long, whip-thin front legs used to feel out its surroundings in the dark, and large spiny pedipalps held out front like a crab's claws. Despite the name and fearsome appearance, it has no stinger and no fangs.
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Spiny Orb Weaver
A small, hard-shelled orb weaver shaped like a tiny crab, with six sharp spines projecting from a brightly colored abdomen suspended in a neat wheel-shaped web.
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Spined Soldier Bug
A predatory stink bug identified by the sharp, pointed spines projecting from its shoulders, valued in gardens and farm fields for hunting caterpillars, beetle larvae, and other pest insects.
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Rocky Mountain Wood Tick
A robust, ornately patterned tick of the western mountains that clings to shrubs and grasses waiting to grab a passing mammal.
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Armyworm
A striped, greenish-brown caterpillar that gets its name from its habit of migrating in dense, destructive groups across grass and grain fields.
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Dog Tick
A flattened, oval arachnid with mottled silvery markings that waits on grass tips and low brush for a passing host to climb aboard and attach.
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