Bug Identifier

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.

Cabbage Looper

Cabbage Looper

A pale green caterpillar with thin white stripes that arches its back into a loop as it inches along cabbage and other garden leaves.

caterpillar-larva
Cabbage Looper Moth

Cabbage Looper Moth

A drab mottled-brown moth best known for its pale green, looping caterpillar that arches its back like an inchworm while feeding on garden vegetables.

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Cabbage White Caterpillar

Cabbage 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.

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Cabbage White

Cabbage White

A common, small white butterfly with one or two black wing spots, whose green caterpillars are a familiar sight feeding on cabbage-family garden plants.

butterfly
Inchworm

Inchworm

A slender, twig-mimicking caterpillar that travels by looping its body into an arch and releasing a strand of silk to drop and dangle at the slightest disturbance.

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Puss Caterpillar

Puss Caterpillar

A caterpillar disguised as a tuft of soft fur, its dense coat of silky hairs conceals rows of spines beneath, making it one of the most deceptively harmless-looking stinging caterpillars in North America.

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Hag Moth Caterpillar (Monkey Slug)

Hag Moth Caterpillar (Monkey Slug)

One of the strangest caterpillars in North America, with curling, hair-covered arm-like projections that make it look uncannily like a tiny tuft of matted fur or a miniature spider monkey.

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Southern Flannel Moth (Puss Caterpillar Moth)

Southern Flannel Moth (Puss Caterpillar Moth)

A small, densely furred tan-to-orange moth best known for its unusual larva, a soft-looking, cat-tailed caterpillar whose fluffy coat hides rows of venomous spines.

moth
Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar

A bulging-eyed green caterpillar that lives folded inside its own silk-stitched leaf tent, looking every bit like a miniature snake peering out from cover.

caterpillar-larva
Regal Moth (Hickory Horned Devil)

Regal Moth (Hickory Horned Devil)

One of the largest moths in North America, with orange-red and gray-veined wings on the adult, best known for its enormous, formidable-looking caterpillar, the hickory horned devil, a blue-green giant bristling with long orange spines.

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