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.
Sphinx Moth
A large, streamlined, fast-flying moth with narrow triangular wings and a robust, tapering body, famous for hovering at flowers at dusk like a hummingbird.
mothSnakefly
A slender predator named for its habit of rearing up its long, mobile neck like a tiny cobra when hunting or threatened.
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Midge
A slender, mosquito-like fly that forms dense swarms near water at dusk, easily mistaken for a mosquito but lacking any biting mouthparts.
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Moth
A broad group of scale-winged insects related to butterflies, typically nocturnal, with stout, often furry bodies and feathery or thread-like antennae.
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Io Moth Caterpillar
A bright lime-green caterpillar bristling with clusters of branching, stinging spines and thin red and white racing stripes along its sides.
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Peck's Skipper
A tiny, tawny-orange and brown skipper with a bold, irregular yellow patch on the underside of the hindwing that looks almost like a splash of paint.
butterflyTussock Moth Caterpillar
A boldly tufted caterpillar bristling with dense brush-like hair tussocks and long dark pencil plumes that give it an almost punk-rock silhouette.
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Swallowtail Butterfly
A large, showy butterfly named for the elongated, tail-like extensions on its hindwings, often seen gliding gracefully around gardens and flowering meadows.
butterflyGall Mite
An almost worm-shaped, microscopic mite that induces plants to grow strange pouches, pockets, and felt-like patches around its feeding sites.
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.
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Bumblebee Moth
A fuzzy, day-flying sphinx moth that hovers at flowers like a bee, with mostly clear wings and a black-and-yellow banded body that mimics a bumblebee.
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Caddisfly
A moth-like insect whose larvae are famous for constructing portable protective cases out of silk and whatever sand, twigs, or debris they can find.
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Robber Fly
A powerfully built, bristly-faced predatory fly that ambushes other flying insects in midair, piercing them with a stout beak-like proboscis.
flyMouse Spider
A stout, glossy burrowing spider named for its supposed mouse-like agility, with males often sporting a strikingly colored head and jaws.
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Comet Moth (Madagascan Moon Moth)
One of the largest and most spectacular silk moths in the world, with pale yellow-to-red wings and extraordinarily long, ribbon-like tails on the hindwings.
mothBird-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
Scorpionfly
A harmless scavenger whose alarming name comes from the male's swollen, upturned abdominal tip, which curls like a scorpion's tail but carries no sting.
otherOgre-faced Spider
A twig-like nocturnal spider with enormous, light-gathering eyes that weaves a small rectangular net and hurls it over passing prey in a lightning-fast ambush.
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Water Measurer
Thin as a splinter and slow-stepping across the surface film, the water measurer creeps along pond edges spearing tiny prey with its needle-like snout.
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Saucer Bug
Flattened and rounded like its namesake, the saucer bug is a stout, oval predator that lurks among pondweed, ambushing small invertebrates and other prey with a piercing beak.
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Hummingbird Clearwing Moth
A robust, olive-and-burgundy day-flying moth with mostly transparent wings that hovers at flowers exactly like a tiny hummingbird, unspooling a long proboscis to sip nectar.
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Comb-footed Spider
A diverse family of spiders defined by a row of tiny serrated bristles on their hind legs, used like a comb to fling silk over prey and wrap it up in an instant.
spiderCamel 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-cricketWater Boatman Bug
A boat-shaped little swimmer that rows through pond water with oar-like hind legs, grazing on algae rather than hunting other animals.
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