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.
Convergent Ladybird Beetle
A common orange-red ladybird with black spots and two distinctive converging white lines on its thorax, widely valued as a natural aphid predator.
beetleBird-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.
spider
Mealybug
A soft, oval insect coated in a powdery white waxy secretion that gives it a fuzzy, cotton-like appearance, typically found clustered in leaf joints and along stems of houseplants.
true-bugPainted 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-larvaFlea Beetle
A tiny, shiny beetle that springs away like a flea when disturbed, leaving characteristic small round holes peppered across the leaves it feeds on.
beetleTailless 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.
arachnid
Spider Wasp
A quick, nervous-flying solitary wasp with long spiny legs and constantly flicking wings, recognized for its habit of running across open ground in short bursts while hunting spiders to paralyze and store for its young.
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Velvet Ant
A densely fuzzy, brightly colored insect that looks like an oversized ant but is actually a wingless female wasp, instantly recognizable by its thick coat of red, orange, black, or white hair.
wasp
Giant Prickly Stick Insect
A hefty, spine-covered phasmid that mimics dead leaves and curled bark, and when threatened, arches its abdomen like a scorpion's tail in a dramatic bluff display.
mantis-stick
Stinging Rose Caterpillar
A boldly striped slug caterpillar in candy-like tones of yellow, orange, and purple, crowned with tufted spine clusters that can sting on contact.
caterpillar-larva
Zebra Swallowtail
A sleek, triangular-winged swallowtail striped boldly in black and pale green-white like a zebra, with long tails and red-and-blue accent spots, whose caterpillars feed exclusively on pawpaw trees.
butterflySpringtail
A minuscule, wingless hexapod best known for its spring-loaded tail-like structure that flicks it into sudden, erratic hops when disturbed, often found in huge numbers in damp soil and leaf litter.
otherGlowworm Beetle
A beetle whose females remain larva-like and glowing for their entire lives, producing rows of soft greenish light along their segmented, worm-like bodies, while males develop into small, feathery-antennaed flying beetles.
beetleAnt-mimic Spider
A slender jumping spider that walks on six legs while waving the front pair like antennae, convincingly passing itself off as an ant to fool predators and prey alike.
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Book Scorpion
A tiny, flattened arachnid that looks like a scorpion in miniature, minus the tail, scuttling sideways through old paper and dusty corners while hunting even smaller pests.
arachnid
Walking Stick
A remarkably twig-like insect with a long, slender, brown to green body and thin legs, so effective at mimicking a plant stem that it can be nearly invisible while motionless on vegetation.
mantis-stick
Long-jawed Orb Weaver
A slender, stick-like spider with oversized jaws that stretches its legs flat along a stem or spins a loose orb web low over water.
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Diving Bell Spider
The world's only truly aquatic spider, famous for spinning an underwater silk bell that it fills with air, allowing it to live, hunt, and breed almost entirely submerged.
spiderJerusalem Cricket
A large, wingless, ground-dwelling insect with a shiny amber body, a strikingly human-like face, and a robust, banded abdomen, most often uncovered while digging in soil.
grasshopper-cricket
Gray Hairstreak
A small slate-gray butterfly with thin white lines, an orange-capped black spot near the hindwing tail, and one of the broadest host-plant ranges of any North American butterfly, making it a familiar visitor to gardens and fields alike.
butterflyWhip 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.
arachnidLace Weaver Spider
A stocky, mottled spider that spins a distinctive bluish, woolly-looking lace-like web across bark and wall crevices to snare passing insects.
spiderCave Spider
A long-legged orb weaver adapted to the twilight zone of caves, spinning large webs across cavern mouths and dangling its egg sacs from silk threads deep within the darkness.
spiderBirdwing Butterfly
Among the largest butterflies on Earth, birdwings soar through rainforest canopies on angular, bird-like wings. Males dazzle with iridescent greens, golds, and blues, while the larger females wear more subdued browns.
butterfly