Social bugs
Every species in the Wild Files corpus where social is a defining trait.
235 on file
Eciton Army Ant
Builds bridges out of itself. Raids 200,000 strong. Comes with its own bird entourage.
Bullet Ant
Tops the world's pain index — a sting that earned a coming-of-age ritual.
Buff-Tailed Bumblebee
Flies in cold honey bees can't. Vibrates flowers at 400 Hz to shake out pollen. Pollinates your tomatoes.
Desert Locust
Solitary green bug, until crowded. Then it turns yellow, swarms, and darkens the sky.
African Driver Ant
22 million workers per colony. Raid in columns kilometers long. Clean a house in hours.
Emperor Scorpion
Largest scorpion on Earth. Looks terrifying. Sting is roughly a bee's. Carries her babies.
Red Imported Fire Ant
Builds living rafts during floods. Floats for weeks. Costs the US $6 billion a year.
Common Eastern Firefly
Glows on demand using a chemical reaction efficient enough to embarrass a lightbulb.
Giant Huntsman Spider
Largest spider in the world by leg span — 30 cm. Runs sideways. Doesn't bother you.
Hercules Beetle
Longest beetle on Earth. Lifts 100× its weight. Wing covers shift color with humidity.
Western Honey Bee
Pollinates a third of your food. Dances in code. Vote on where to live by quorum.
Honeypot Ant
Living food jars. Worker ants hang from the ceiling, swollen with nectar. Eaten as candy.
Seven-Spotted Ladybug
Eats 5,000 aphids a lifetime. Bleeds yellow. Universally considered good luck.
Leafcutter Ant
Run the world’s oldest farms. Domesticated a fungus 50 million years ago. Excellent at chemistry.
Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
Hisses by exhaling — not by rubbing. One of the only insects with a real voice.
Periodical Cicada (17-Year)
Spends 17 years underground. Emerges by the trillion. Picks 17 because it's prime.
European Praying Mantis
Rotates her head 180°. Sees you in 3D. Sometimes decapitates her partner.
Silkworm Moth
Domesticated 5,000 years ago. Built the Silk Road. Adults can no longer fly.
European Stag Beetle
Europe's largest beetle. Antlers like a deer. Wrestles other males over rotting logs.
African Mound-Building Termite
Builds 9-meter air-conditioned towers. Farms fungus inside. Queen lays 30,000 eggs a day for 50 years.
Asian Weaver Ant
Builds nests using their own larvae as living glue guns. Used as pesticide for 1,500 years.
Common Yellowjacket
Stings you. Stings you again. Stings you a third time. Doesn't die.
Atlas Beetle
Asia's largest rhino beetle. Three forward horns. Males wrestle for branches.
American Burying Beetle
Both parents stay home. Bury a mouse together. Feed the kids by mouth.
Compass Termite
Builds termite mounds aligned to true magnetic north. Uses Earth's magnetic field.
Common Fruit Fly
The most-studied animal in scientific history. Six Nobel Prizes ride on her shoulders.
Giant African Millipede
Largest millipede on Earth — 38 cm. 256 legs. Releases cyanide when annoyed.
Argentine Ant
One global super-colony. Ants from Italy and Portugal recognize each other as family.
Asian Honey Bee
The bee that cooks giant hornets alive. Tolerates varroa. Speaks waggle-dance with a Japanese accent.
Giraffe Weevil
Male: neck 3× body length. Female: rolls leaves into precision origami tubes for her eggs.
Lord Howe Island Stick Insect
Declared extinct in 1920. Found on a sea-cliff in 2001. Now back from the brink.
Black & Yellow Mud Dauber
Builds mud nests on your wall. Stuffs each cell with paralyzed spiders. Doesn't sting people.
Orchid Bee
Male orchid bees curate custom perfumes over weeks. Used to attract mates. Only animal that does this.
Carolina Wolf Spider
Mom carries hundreds of babies on her back. Eyes glow back at flashlights from a hundred meters away.
Assassin Bug
Liquefies prey from inside out. Wears disguises of dust, lint, or the corpses of past kills.
Carpenter Ant
Doesn't eat wood — excavates it. Galleries through your beams. Largest ant in eastern North America.
Goldenrod Crab Spider
Changes color from white to yellow over weeks. Ambushes bees on flowers. No web.
European Hornet
Europe's largest social wasp. Hunts at night by lamplight. Less aggressive than her tiny cousins.
Golden Silk Orb-Weaver
Spins golden silk strong as kevlar. The 2009 spider-silk cape took 1.2 million spiders.
Kissing Bug
Bites your face at night. Defecates on the wound. Carries Chagas disease — kills 12,000 a year.
European Paper Wasp
Invented paper before humans. Recognizes nestmates by face. Tense dominance hierarchies under your eaves.
Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle
Lifts 850× her own weight. The kabutomushi of Japan — kept as a pet, wrestled in arenas, the heart of childhood.
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
Invasive Asian shield-bug. Devastates apples, peaches, soybeans. Stinks like burnt cilantro on contact.
Tiger Swallowtail
North America's tiger butterfly. Yellow with black stripes. Caterpillar wears fake eyes and a smelly orange horn.
Water Strider
Walks on water. Each leg has millions of waterproof hairs. The marine cousin lives on the open ocean.
Giant Asian Honey Bee
LARGEST HONEY BEE in the world. MASSIVE single-comb open hives. SHIMMERING WAVE DEFENSE.
Oak Apple Gall Wasp
Wasp HIJACKS oak DNA to grow GOLF-BALL-SIZED protective galls around her developing larvae.
Striped Cucumber Beetle
Sister pest to spotted cucumber beetle. Yellow-and-black STRIPES instead of spots. Same bacterial wilt vectoring.
Drugstore Beetle
Most polyphagous stored-product pest. Eats DRUGS — strychnine, belladonna, other plant alkaloids without harm.
Indian Stick Insect
WORLD'S MOST COMMON PET STICK INSECT. Obligate PARTHENOGENESIS — captive populations are essentially all female.
Macleay's Spectre
Australian giant spiny stick insect. Four defensive behaviors. Popular giant pet stick insect worldwide.
California Carpenter Bee
Western NA carpenter bee. Females shiny black; MALES bright GOLDEN-YELLOW with green-gold eyes.
Western Tent Caterpillar
Western NA tent caterpillar. Builds white silk tents in branch crotches. Cyclic outbreaks in chaparral.
Variable Dancer
Stream-side dancer damselfly. Distinctive jerky 'DANCING' flight pattern. Color-variable.
Acrobat Ant
HEART-SHAPED ABDOMEN that workers DRAMATICALLY RAISE over the back like a flag. ~500 species in the genus.
Black Garden Ant
Most familiar ant in European gardens. Synchronized 'FLYING ANT DAY' mating swarms every summer.
Riffle Beetle
Tiny aquatic beetle that NEVER SURFACES. Breathes underwater through PLASTRON air-layer 'physical gill'.
Tawny Emperor
Sister species to hackberry emperor. Same hackberry-host biology and human-sweat-landing behavior.
Yellow Meadow Ant
Lives ENTIRELY UNDERGROUND. Workers are BLIND. Farms ROOT APHIDS inside underground galleries.
American Snout
Distinctive 'SNOUT' palps. Massive Texas OUTBREAK MIGRATIONS — sky-blocking butterfly clouds.
Conehead Termite
Soldier with CONE-SHAPED HEAD that sprays STICKY DEFENSIVE GLUE. Invaded south Florida in 2001.
West Indian Drywood Termite
Most damaging drywood termite worldwide. Reason for the dramatic WHOLE-HOUSE FUMIGATION TENT.
Hackberry Emperor
Forest brushfoot. LANDS ON HUMANS to drink sweat. Restricted to hackberry-tree forests in eastern NA.
Death-Watch Beetle
Tapping wood beetle. Folk DEATH OMEN. Major pest of HISTORIC OAK TIMBER in European architecture.
Migratory Locust
Catastrophic crop pest of Africa/Asia/Europe. Foundational PHASE POLYPHENISM case — solitary becomes gregarious.
Brown-Tail Moth
Caterpillar covered in URTICATING HAIRS that cause severe rash and respiratory irritation in humans.
European Pine Sawfly
Major European pine forest pest. Larvae perform synchronous 'whip' defensive displays with toxic resin droplets.
Sugarcane Borer
Major sugarcane pest of the Americas. $300M-$1B annual losses. Foundational biocontrol case study.
Giant Asian Mantis
8-10 cm SE Asian mantis. Captures small lizards, snakes, hummingbirds. Popular pet mantis worldwide.
Rice Weevil
Major stored-grain pest worldwide. Larvae develop INSIDE individual rice/wheat/corn kernels. 10-25% storage losses.
Locust Borer
Striking YELLOW-AND-BLACK wasp-mimicking longhorn beetle. Major pest of NA black locust trees.
Plum Curculio
Major NA peach and apple pest. Diagnostic CRESCENT-SHAPED CUT on developing fruits.
Yellow Crazy Ant
World's 100 worst invasive species. Killed 10-15 MILLION red crabs on Christmas Island. Catastrophic.
Catalpa Sphinx
Famous 'CATALPA WORM' bait fishing caterpillar. Catalpa trees planted as worm farms across southeastern US.
Eastern Carpenter Bee
Bumblebee-sized solitary bee. Excavates nest tunnels in wooden buildings. Males hover-and-dive but cannot sting.
Cinnabar Moth
Brilliant CRIMSON-RED-AND-BLACK day-flying moth. Most successful weed-biocontrol species ever introduced to NA.
Salt Marsh Caterpillar
Color-variable wooly bear. Mass autumn migrations across roads and gardens in southeastern US.
Ilia Underwing
Bark-mimic forewings hide BRILLIANT FLASHING hindwings. 250+ NA species. Most-photographed startle-display moths.
Yellow-Faced Bumblebee
Most widespread western NA native bumblebee. Diagnostic BRIGHT YELLOW FACE PATCH. Pacific NW commercial pollinator.
Alfalfa Leafcutter Bee
Second-most important managed pollinator on Earth. Essential for ALFALFA SEED PRODUCTION worldwide.
Hellgrammite
Predatory aquatic larva of dobsonfly. 6-9 cm. Massive sickle jaws. Most-prized live bait in NA stream fishing.
Mining Bee
Solitary mining bee. Obligate WILLOW pollen specialist. Forms massive 50,000-burrow nesting aggregations.
Pavement Ant
Common urban ant. Famous for spectacular ANNUAL PAVEMENT WARS — thousands of ants in mass spring combat.
Pearl Crescent
Small NA brushfoot with diagnostic PALE PEARL CRESCENT marking on the hindwing underside.
Hanging Thief Robber Fly
Aerial predator that HANGS from a single front leg while consuming prey. Catches bees, wasps, dragonflies in mid-air.
Carolina Wolf Spider
LARGEST wolf spider in NA. State spider of SC. Mothers carry dozens of spiderlings on her back.
Forest Tent Caterpillar
Despite the name, builds silk MATS on tree trunks (not tents). 10-12 year cyclic outbreaks defoliate NA forests.
Carolina Mantis
Only NATIVE mantis in eastern NA. State insect of SC. Famous for sexual cannibalism.
Differential Grasshopper
Major NA crop-pest grasshopper. HERRINGBONE-PATTERNED hind legs. Outbreak swarms cause massive crop damage.
Common True Katydid
The 'KA-TY-DID, KA-TY-DIDN'T' summer night sound. Wings shaped like a green leaf complete with veins.
Eastern Black Swallowtail
The 'parsley caterpillar' butterfly. State butterfly of OK and NJ. Female mimics toxic pipevine.
Cloudless Sulphur
Bright LEMON-YELLOW migratory butterfly. Millions migrate south through the eastern US each autumn.
Regal Moth (Hickory Horned Devil)
Caterpillar is the LARGEST in North America. Looks like a dragon. Completely harmless.
Common Eastern Bumblebee
Most widespread NA native bumblebee. Foundation of NA commercial bumblebee pollination. BUZZ pollinator.
Eastern Forktail
Most ABUNDANT damselfly in eastern NA. Females have THREE color morphs. Female-mimics-male strategy.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Most familiar large NA butterfly. State butterfly of 6 US states. Female has YELLOW and BLACK pipevine-mimicking morphs.
White-Lined Sphinx
Most widespread hawk moth in NA. Hovers at flowers like a hummingbird at dawn and dusk.
Convergent Lady Beetle
Native NA ladybug. Mass-overwinters in Sierra Nevada aggregations. Most commercially-collected biocontrol agent.
Eastern Lubber Grasshopper
Largest grasshopper in southeastern US. Flightless. Foam-producing chemical defense. Mass nymph processions.
Western Conifer Seed Bug
The flying-leaf bug that invades your house in autumn. Foul defensive odor. LEAF-LIKE expansions on hind legs.
Azure Bluet Damselfly
Brilliant azure-blue damselfly. Famous 'mating wheel' posture during copulation.
Bold Jumping Spider
Most familiar US jumping spider. Iridescent green-blue chelicerae. Recent research shows she DREAMS.
Marmalade Hoverfly
4 BILLION migrate across Britain annually. Largest insect migration on Earth. Pollen mass ~80M tons.
Giant Tachinid Fly
8,200+ species, all parasitoids of other arthropods. Free natural pest control.
Blue-Tailed Damselfly
Females come in THREE distinct color morphs. Some imitate males to avoid male harassment.
Face Fly
Cattle face-feeder. Vector of cattle pinkeye. Overwinters in rural attics by the thousands.
Flame Skimmer
Brilliant flame-red dragonfly of western North America. Major desert mosquito predator.
Zebra Longwing Butterfly
Florida state butterfly. Eats pollen. Communal roosting. Males mate with females during pupal emergence.
Zebra Swallowtail
Tennessee state butterfly. Longest tails of any North American swallowtail. Eats only pawpaw.
Allegheny Mound Ant
Builds 1-meter dome-shaped solar mounds. Aggressively kills nearby trees with formic acid to maintain sun.
Large Bee Fly
Fly that mimics a bumblebee. FLICKS her eggs into bee burrows from above. Long hovering proboscis.
Cluster Fly
Larvae burrow INTO living earthworms. Adults form thousands-strong winter aggregations in attics.
Common Flesh Fly
Doesn't lay eggs — gives birth to LIVE LARVAE directly. Beats blow flies to fresh carcasses.
Texas Leafcutter Ant
US leafcutter ant. 1-2 million workers per colony. Excavates 8m-deep underground fungus farms.
European Field Cricket
The original 'grasshopper' of Aesop's fable. Glossy black. Sings from burrow entrance.
House Cricket
Most globally significant edible insect. Domesticated for food in 30+ countries. Chirp rate = temperature.
Queen of Spain Fritillary
Largest silver underside patches of any European butterfly. Migrates north from Iberia and North Africa.
Seven-Spot Ladybird
The original 'ladybird.' Named for Mary's Seven Sorrows. Eats 5,000 aphids per lifetime.
Stalk-Eyed Fly
Eyes on the ends of long lateral stalks. Males face off and compare eye-stalk length to settle disputes.
Comma Butterfly
White comma mark on hindwing underside. Ragged wing edges mimic a dead leaf. UK comeback species.
German Yellowjacket
Most cosmopolitan invasive yellowjacket. NZ has 10x more biomass than native pollinators. 5,000-worker colonies.
Small Tortoiseshell
Bright orange-and-black with blue marginal spots. First butterfly of European spring. UK population in steep decline.
Hornet Moth
Moth that mimics a European hornet so well even entomologists are fooled. Wings are transparent.
Clouded Yellow
Bright orange-yellow migrant. Multi-generational annual migration. 'Clouded yellow years' bring billions north.
Garden Tiger Moth
Chocolate-brown wings with cream stripes. Orange hindwings flash. Toxic and warning-colored.
Peacock Butterfly
Four enormous peacock-eye spots. HISSES when threatened by rubbing wing veins together.
Silver-Washed Fritillary
Largest European fritillary. Lays eggs on tree bark, not the host plant. Caterpillar overwinters without feeding.
Snouted Termite (Nasute Termite)
Termite soldier with a snout that SPRAYS sticky resin. Mandibles abandoned entirely. 1 cm range.
Common Blue Butterfly
Brilliant sky-blue. 75% of her family lives in mutualism with ants. Caterpillar feeds ants honeydew.
Manna Cicada
The cicada of Mediterranean antiquity. Plato wrote about her chorus. Sap source of historical 'manna.'
Firebug
Bright red-and-black aggregating bug. Discovery of juvenile hormone traces to her in 1966.
Dark-Winged Fungus Gnat
The houseplant pest. NZ cousin glows in caves to attract prey. Major greenhouse vector.
Lantern Bug
Carries a hollow snout projection. Maria Sibylla Merian's 1701 'glowing lantern' myth still persists.
Mantisfly
Lacewing that evolved into a mantis. Larva hitchhikes on spiders to eat their eggs.
Asian Tiger Mosquito
Globally invasive via the used-tire trade. Vectors dengue, Zika, chikungunya into temperate climates.
American Burying Beetle
Buries dead mice. Both parents care for the brood. Endangered species recovery success.
Red-Blue Checkered Beetle
Iridescent red-and-blue. Adult pollinator. Larva hitchhikes on bees and eats their brood.
European Garden Spider (Cross Spider)
European garden orb-weaver. White cross on her back. First spider to build a web in space (1973).
Birch Sawfly
Most ancient Hymenoptera lineage. 'Saw' ovipositor cuts plant slits for eggs. Larva shoots wax.
Zebra Jumping Spider
Black-and-white striped jumping spider on your sunny windowsill. Watches you with puppy-dog eyes.
Common Backswimmer
Only insect that swims UPSIDE DOWN. Bite hurts like a bee sting. Eats mosquito larvae and tadpoles.
Indian Dead Leaf Butterfly
Wings closed — perfect dead leaf with veins and fungal spots. Wings open — brilliant blue-and-orange.
Devil's Coach-Horse Beetle
Raises her tail like a scorpion when threatened. Medieval Europe believed she carried curses.
European Mantis
The original 'praying mantis' — Linnaeus named her for the prayer-like raptorial pose in 1758.
Wellington Tree Wētā
Male defends a harem of 1-10 females in a tree gallery. Wrestles rivals with enlarged jaws.
Great Diving Beetle
Hunts tadpoles and small fish underwater. Carries an air bubble under her wings. Larva is a 'water tiger.'
Pink-Toe Tarantula
Tree-dwelling tarantula with pink feet. Defends by SHOOTING fecal matter up to a meter.
White Plume Moth
Wings divided into feathered plumes. Forms a 'T' silhouette at rest. Family of 1,500 species.
Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula
Most popular pet tarantula in the world. Gentle. Goes months without food. Venom yields cardiac drug candidate.
Snake Fly
Insect with a 'snake' neck. Tiny ancient order — 270 million years old. Only in the Northern Hemisphere.
Water Scorpion
True bug that mimics a scorpion. Long tail is a snorkel. Hunts tadpoles with raptorial front legs.
Whirligig Beetle
Eyes split half-above and half-below water. Echolocates using surface ripples. Swims at 1 m/s.
Cochineal Insect
Source of carmine red dye for 2,000+ years. Aztec second-most-valuable trade after gold. In your lipstick.
Silver Y Moth
Migrates billions between North Africa and northern Europe. Ground speed exceeds 100 km/h on tailwinds.
Goldenrod Soldier Beetle
Beneficial garden pollinator + predator. Looks like military uniform. Gathers on goldenrod by the hundreds.
Velvet Worm
Squirts adhesive slime to trap prey. 540 million years old. Closest living relative of arthropods.
Western Corn Rootworm
The 'billion-dollar bug.' Resistant to every insecticide AND to Bt corn traits. Invading Europe.
Cottony Cushion Scale
Almost destroyed California citrus in 1888. Saved by 130 imported Australian ladybeetles. Founded biocontrol.
Crab Louse (Pubic Louse)
Crab-shaped louse. Host-jumped from gorillas to early hominins 3-4 million years ago.
Cuckoo Bee
Lays eggs in other bees' nests. Larvae kill the host larva and eat her food. 15% of all bee species do this.
Africanized Honey Bee (Killer Bee)
The 'killer bee.' Hybrid escaped Brazil in 1957. 1,000+ human deaths. Pursues victims hundreds of meters.
Granulate Ambrosia Beetle
Insect farmer. Carries fungus in body pouches, plants it in tree tunnels, eats the harvest. 60M years old.
Asian Needle Ant
Painful sting comparable to a wasp. Anaphylaxis documented. Displacing native ants in eastern US.
Boll Weevil
Devastated US cotton — $22 billion in damage. Has a statue in Alabama. ERADICATED from the US in 2010.
European Fire Ant
Invasive in Metro Vancouver since 2010s. Sharp burning sting. Excludes native ants from infested soil.
Mexican Bean Beetle
A vegetarian ladybeetle. Skeletonizes bean leaves. Major US bean crop pest.
Mormon Cricket
Wingless katydid that marches in millions across western US rangeland. Saved Utah crops in 1848 by seagulls.
Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle
USDA introduced her as biocontrol — she displaced native ladybeetles, invades homes by the thousands, bites.
Odorous House Ant
Smells like rotten coconut when crushed. Most common indoor ant in North America. Budding colony defeats spray.
Caddisfly
Larvae build portable cases. French artist had caddisflies build cases from gold and gemstones.
Eastern Tent Caterpillar
Builds silken tent nests in spring cherry trees. Causes Kentucky horse abortion epidemics.
Fall Webworm
Drapes branch tips in silken webs in late summer. Native invasive across Europe and Asia since 1940s.
Giant Leopard Moth
White wings with leopard-spot rings. Iridescent blue-orange abdomen hidden under the wings. Plays dead.
Headlight Click Beetle (Cucujo)
Brightest bioluminescent terrestrial insect. Cuban miners used live beetles as flashlights.
Mexican Honey Wasp
Wasp that makes honey. Centuries-old delicacy in Mexico. Pollinator AND predator AND honey producer.
Pine Processionary Caterpillar
Marches in head-to-tail processions of hundreds. Bristles cause anaphylaxis. Kills dogs.
Boxelder Bug
Forms autumn aggregations of thousands on south-facing walls. Same red-and-black mimicry as milkweed bug.
Giant Burrowing Cockroach (Rhinoceros Cockroach)
Heaviest cockroach on Earth. 35 grams. Lives in 1m underground burrows. 10+ year lifespan.
Red Velvet Mite
Crimson velvety mite. Appears in masses after rainstorms. Predator and traditional Indian medicine.
Small Emperor Moth
Only saturniid moth native to Britain. Day-flying orange males. Adults cannot eat.
Squash Bug
Dominant pest of squash and pumpkins. Vector of cucurbit yellow vine disease.
Varied Carpet Beetle
Eats wool and fur like clothes moths. Used by museums to clean every skeleton on display.
Webbing Clothes Moth
Larvae digest keratin — the protein in wool, fur, silk. Adults don't eat. $1B+ in textile damage per year.
Colorado Potato Beetle
Most pesticide-resistant insect on Earth. Resistant to 56+ different insecticides. Devastates potato crops globally.
Khapra Beetle
Most-feared stored grain pest. Larvae survive YEARS without food. One specimen triggers container fumigation.
Red Flour Beetle
Most cosmopolitan stored-grain pest. Second insect ever to have her genome sequenced. Key model organism.
Acacia Ant
Lives inside hollow acacia thorns, drinks Beltian-body sap, attacks anything that touches the tree.
Yellow Fever Mosquito
Vector of yellow fever, dengue, Zika, chikungunya. Day biter. Breeds in a bottle cap of water.
Bald-Faced Hornet
Builds basketball-sized paper nests in trees. Sprays venom at your eyes. Not actually a hornet.
Dog-Day Cicada
The high-whine of August 'dog days.' One of the loudest insects on Earth — 100+ dB.
Fairyfly
Smallest insect on Earth. 0.139 mm. Smaller than a single Paramecium. Fully functional brain.
Common Ground Beetle
40,000 species of beneficial ground predators. Eats slugs, caterpillars, weed seeds. Iridescent.
Head Louse
Lives ONLY on human heads. Her cousin the body louse dated the invention of clothing.
Asian Longhorned Beetle
Asian invader. Has killed 130,000+ US trees since 1996. Glossy black with white spots and impossibly long antennae.
Sand Fly
Tiny enough to slip through mosquito netting. Vector of leishmaniasis. Affects 12 million people.
Scarlet Malachite Beetle
Britain's most beautiful beetle. Emerald-green with scarlet wing tips. Critically declining.
Snow Flea
Tiny springtail active on snow. Antifreeze protein keeps her alive at -20°C. Used in medical cryopreservation.
Apollo Butterfly
Translucent white alpine butterfly with red eye-spots. CITES protected. Climate-pressured upslope.
Brazilian Treehopper
Wears alien-helicopter rotors on her head. Function still unknown. The most bizarre insect ornament in the world.
Cabbage White
Most agriculturally damaging butterfly on Earth. $200M+ in US damage per year. Loves cabbage.
Crane Fly
Third major 'daddy long legs.' Actually a fly. Larva is a turf pest. Adult cannot eat.
Globe Skimmer Dragonfly
Longest insect migration on Earth — 18,000 km. Crosses the Indian Ocean. Truly global panmictic species.
House Fly
Vomits on your food to dissolve it. Carries 100+ pathogens. Sees movement 10x faster than you do.
Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter
Vector of Pierce's disease — wiped out California vineyards. Has gear teeth in her legs to jump.
Painted Lady Butterfly
Most cosmopolitan butterfly. Multi-generational 14,000 km migration across continents. Billion-strong year.
Red Admiral
Long-distance migrant. Territorial males dive-bomb anything that moves through their patch.
Robber Fly
Aerial ambush predator. Takes bees, wasps, even hummingbirds. Paralyzes prey midair.
Ant-Mimicking Spider
Spider that walks, smells, and waves antennae like an ant. Some species hunt the ants she mimics.
Black-and-Yellow Garden Spider
Garden zigzag-web spider. The cultural inspiration for Charlotte's Web. Stabilimentum function still debated.
Gooty Sapphire Tarantula
Brilliant cobalt-blue iridescent. Endemic to one 100 km² Indian forest. Critically Endangered.
Brown Widow
Black widow's invasive displacing sister. Spikier egg sac. Bite is milder despite stronger venom drop-for-drop.
Eastern Carpenter Bee
Drills perfect 1.6 cm holes in your deck. Buzz-pollinates tomatoes. The big black bumblebee that isn't.
Fig Wasp
Each fig species has ONE specific wasp. She enters, loses her wings, lays eggs, dies inside. 80 million years.
Giant Ichneumon Wasp
Drills 12 cm into wood with her abdomen to lay an egg on a wasp larva. Larva eats it alive. Darwin's parable.
Alfalfa Leafcutter Bee
Cuts perfectly round leaf discs and rolls them into cigar-cells. Backbone of US alfalfa seed industry.
Blue Orchard Mason Bee
One female pollinates as many fruit blossoms in a day as 100 honey bees. Solitary. Gentle. Builds with mud.
Mexican Red-knee Tarantula
The Indiana Jones tarantula. 30-year lifespan. CITES-protected. Gentle and famous.
Spider Wasp
Hunts tarantulas. Paralyzes them. Drags them home for one egg. Sting rated 4.0 — the worst.
Stingless Bee
Has no sting. Maya kept her in hollow logs for 1,000 years. Honey is medicine in three civilizations.
Metallic Green Sweat Bee
Iridescent metallic green. Drinks human sweat for the salt. Key model for evolution of insect society.
Woolly Bear (Isabella Tiger Moth)
The folklore weather caterpillar. Survives -90°C using natural antifreeze. Arctic cousin needs 7 years to grow up.
Booklouse (Psocid)
1 mm. Eats the mold on your books. All female. Cosmopolitan museum and library pest.
Cave Cricket (Spider Cricket)
Jumps AT you when scared because she can't see far. The basement 'spricket.' 250 million years old.
Cellar Spider
The basement 'daddy long legs.' Hunts and kills black widows. The viral venom myth is false.
Chigger (Harvest Mite)
Larva liquefies your skin and drinks it through a tube. The 'burrow into the skin' myth is false.
Tawny Crazy Ant
Neutralizes fire ant venom. Displaces fire ants. Shorts out electrical gear by sheer mass.
Devil's Flower Mantis
Africa's largest mantis. Most spectacular threat display in the insect world. Crimson and electric blue.
House Dust Mite
0.3 mm. 10 million in your mattress. Eats your dead skin. Major asthma trigger worldwide.
Eastern Subterranean Termite
$5 BILLION in US damage per year. Built from cockroaches. Mud tubes from soil to your studs.
European Earwig
Practices maternal care. Did NOT inspire her name — the ear-burrowing myth is false.
Formosan Subterranean Termite
Super-termite. 10 million workers per colony. Carton nests the size of an oven.
Ghost Mantis
Mimics a dried leaf so well she disappears in plain sight. Green, brown, gray, ivory phases.
Pharaoh Ant
2 mm. Invades hospitals. Spray her and she SPLITS the colony. Queens by the dozen.
Springtail
100,000 per square meter of soil. Catapults itself with a spring-loaded tail. Survives -60°C.
Wētāpunga (Giant Wētā)
Heavier than a sparrow. Endemic to one NZ island. The mammal-substitute insect of an island without mammals.