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.
Carrot Rust Fly
A slender, shiny black fly barely a few millimeters long whose slim yellowish larvae tunnel rust-colored trails through carrot and parsnip roots.
fly
Blister Beetle
An elongated, soft-bodied beetle with a distinctly narrow neck, often seen feeding in small groups on flowers, and known for releasing a defensive chemical from its leg joints when disturbed.
beetle
Leafcutter Bee
A stout, dark-bodied bee best known not for how it looks but for the neat, circular or oval notches it cuts from leaves, which it uses to line and seal its nest cells.
bee
Screech Beetle
This small, oval water beetle earns its name from the loud squeak it produces when picked up, a sound made by rubbing internal body parts together rather than by any vocal organ.
beetle
Titan Beetle
One of the largest insects on Earth, the titan beetle is a colossal longhorn from the Amazon whose body can exceed 16 cm. Its powerful jaws and loud hiss make it an imposing rainforest giant.
beetle
Scarab Beetle
A broad, often glossy beetle family recognized by its distinctive fan-like clubbed antennae, ranging from tiny dung-rollers to massive horned giants, found on every continent except Antarctica.
beetle
Palo Verde Beetle
One of the largest beetles in North America, a heavy, dark reddish-brown longhorn beetle with long spiny antennae and a loud, buzzing flight that emerges from the desert soil around palo verde and mesquite trees in summer.
beetle
Firefly Beetle
A soft-bodied, dark beetle famous for producing rhythmic flashes of light from its abdomen at dusk, using bioluminescence to attract mates on warm summer evenings.
beetle
Wool Carder Bee
A stocky, yellow-and-black solitary bee named for its habit of scraping soft plant fibers from fuzzy leaves to line its nest, with territorial males that aggressively patrol and defend flower patches.
bee
Red Flour Beetle
A tiny, flattened, rust-red beetle found in stored flour and grain worldwide, capable of flight and closely resembling the confused flour beetle apart from the shape of its antennal club.
beetle
Longhorn Beetle
A beetle instantly recognizable by antennae often longer than its own body, ranging from small woodland species to large, dramatically patterned tropical and temperate forms.
beetle
Bombardier Beetle
A dark, quick-moving ground beetle famous for firing a hot, audible chemical spray from its abdomen when disturbed, using two-tone coloring of a reddish head and thorax against blue-black wing covers as a warning signal.
beetle
Confused Flour Beetle
A tiny, flattened, reddish-brown beetle commonly found in stored flour and grain products, distinguished from its near-identical relative the red flour beetle mainly by its antennae shape.
beetle
Rhinoceros Beetle
A massive, heavily armored beetle whose males sport a single large, curved horn projecting forward from the head, used to shove and flip rival males in contests of strength.
beetle
Dead Leaf Mantis
A master of disguise whose broad, curled, vein-textured body is nearly indistinguishable from a curled, decaying leaf lying on the forest floor.
mantis-stick
Firefly
A soft-bodied, dusk-flying beetle famous for the bioluminescent flashes it produces from its abdomen to attract mates on warm summer evenings.
beetle
Caddisfly Larva
A soft-bodied aquatic larva famous for building a portable protective case from sand, gravel, or plant debris bound together with silk.
aquatic-insect
Common House Mosquito
A slender, drab brown mosquito that emerges at dusk from catch basins and forgotten containers to fill neighborhoods with its familiar high-pitched whine.
fly
Mosquito Larva
A wriggling, comma-shaped aquatic larva that hangs from the water's surface to breathe before transforming into a flying adult mosquito.
aquatic-insect
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.
other
No-See-Um
A speck-sized fly so tiny it seems to vanish from sight, yet capable of swarming exposed skin near beaches and marshes at dawn and dusk.
fly
Fruit Fly (Vinegar Fly)
A tiny tan fly with bright red eyes that seems to appear from nowhere the moment a piece of fruit begins to overripen or a splash of wine is left uncovered.
fly
Vine Weevil
A slow, flightless, matte-black beetle that hides by day and emerges at night to notch neat semicircular bites from the edges of leaves.
beetle
Great Green Bush Cricket
Europe's largest bush cricket, this brilliant grass-green insect fills warm summer evenings with a loud, sustained buzzing call audible from a considerable distance.
grasshopper-cricket