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.
Toe-Biter
One of the largest true bugs in the world, the toe-biter is a broad, flattened ambush predator that lies in wait among pond vegetation, seizing prey many times its own size with powerful raptorial front legs.
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Boxelder Bug
A slender black true bug marked with three bold red-orange stripes on its thorax and red wing veins, famous for massing by the hundreds on tree trunks and sun-warmed walls in autumn.
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Bordered Plant Bug
A dark, oval-bodied true bug with a distinct pale margin around its wing edges, often mistaken for a large ant or beetle when its nymphs cluster together in tight groups.
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Bald-faced Hornet
A black-and-white social wasp, actually a type of yellowjacket rather than a true hornet, best known for building large, football-shaped gray paper nests suspended from tree branches or eaves.
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Variegated Fritillary
A wide-ranging, mottled orange-brown butterfly that lacks the silvery underside spots of true fritillaries and instead shows an intricate patchwork of tan, orange, and black markings, known for its wandering, migratory habits.
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Plant Bug (Tarnished Plant Bug)
A small, oval, mottled brownish true bug with a distinctive yellow triangular marking behind the head, the tarnished plant bug is a fast-moving plant feeder common across gardens, fields, and weedy edges.
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Meadow Spittlebug
A small, mottled hopping true bug whose immature nymphs are far more often noticed than the adults, hidden inside frothy blobs of white foam known as cuckoo spit on plant stems.
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Bed Bug (Bat Bug)
A small, flat, reddish-brown, wingless true bug that hides in tight seams and crevices by day and feeds on blood at night, closely related to the bat bug, which occupies a similar niche in bat roosts.
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Southern Green Stink Bug
A large, shield-shaped, solid bright green true bug found on a wide variety of garden and crop plants across warm regions worldwide, recognizable by its broad body and, in some individuals, a row of small pale dots along the shoulders.
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Harvestman
An arachnid built almost entirely of legs, with a single compact, oval body segment and no waist separating it into two parts like a true spider. Common in gardens and forests worldwide, it scuttles along on impossibly long, thin legs scavenging for food after dark.
arachnidSoil Mite
A microscopic, heavily armored mite found by the millions in a single handful of soil, quietly breaking down leaf litter and helping build the fertile ground beneath forests and fields.
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Squash Vine Borer
A day-flying, wasp-mimicking moth whose orange fuzzy hind legs and metallic wings make it easy to mistake for a wasp as it darts around squash vines.
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Fall Webworm
A pale, hairy caterpillar that spins loose, messy silk webs enclosing entire leaf clusters at the tips of tree branches, becoming especially noticeable in late summer and fall.
caterpillar-larvaSoldier 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.
flyBird-dropping Spider
A lumpy, white-and-brown orb-weaver that spends its days motionless on a leaf, looking uncannily like a fresh splash of bird droppings.
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Diana Fritillary
A large southern Appalachian fritillary famous for extreme sexual dimorphism — males are burnt-orange and black while females are an iridescent blue-black that mimics a distasteful swallowtail.
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Pipevine Swallowtail
A striking black swallowtail with iridescent blue-green hindwings and a row of round orange spots beneath, whose toxin-sequestering caterpillars make it a model for several butterfly mimics.
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Walking Stick Insect
A master of disguise that has evolved to look almost exactly like a twig, bark or leaf, remaining motionless for hours to avoid the notice of hungry birds and lizards.
mantis-stickScale Insect
A small, immobile insect that appears as a flat or domed, waxy bump firmly attached to a stem or leaf, easily mistaken for a plant blemish rather than a living creature.
true-bugTreehopper
A small, oddly shaped sap-feeding bug best known for an enlarged, often bizarre pronotum extending backward over its body, sometimes shaped like a thorn, leaf, or spike.
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Viceroy Butterfly
An orange-and-black butterfly closely resembling the monarch, distinguished by a smaller size and a distinctive black line crossing the veins of the hindwing, and long cited as a classic example of mimicry between two unrelated species.
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Red-spotted Purple
A large, iridescent blue-black butterfly lacking tails, notable for closely mimicking the unpalatable Pipevine Swallowtail, with rows of red-orange spots visible along the underside wing margins.
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Comma Butterfly
An orange-brown butterfly with distinctively ragged, scalloped wing edges and a small white comma-shaped mark on the underside of the hindwing, resembling a dead leaf when at rest.
butterflyDaddy Longlegs (Harvestman)
A leggy, one-piece-bodied arachnid that scurries through leaf litter and garden beds on impossibly long, spindly legs, easily mistaken for a spider despite belonging to an entirely different arachnid order.
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