Insecta › Lepidoptera › Nymphalidae
Monarch butterfly
Thousands of miles
No single monarch makes the whole trip, because the migration spans several generations.
Field Guide · Chapter 18 of 29
Insects, spiders and crawlers
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Insecta › Hymenoptera › Apidae
Buff-tailed bumblebee
Queen 20 to 22 mm long
The queen mates with only one male.
Insecta › Hymenoptera › Vespidae
Northern giant hornet
Body can top 5 cm
Under 50 hornets can wipe out a honey bee colony of tens of thousands in a few hours.
Insecta › Hymenoptera › Formicidae
Leafcutter ant
Up to 5 million ants
Each colony has a single queen, and she can live more than 20 years.
Insecta › Diptera › Culicidae
Yellow fever mosquito
Found worldwide
It reached the New World on the slave trade and is now one of the most widespread mosquitoes on Earth.
Insecta › Diptera › Culicidae
African malaria mosquito
Up to 200 eggs at once
One of the most efficient malaria carriers known.
Insecta › Diptera › Muscidae
Housefly
6 to 7 mm long
A housefly sees your swat in slow motion.
Insecta › Diptera › Drosophilidae
Common fruit fly
Launched to space 1947
Six Nobel Prizes have gone to researchers who worked on this fly.
Insecta › Coleoptera › Coccinellidae
Seven-spot ladybird
6.5 to 7.8 mm long
When aphids run short, this ladybird can eat pollen and nectar, but it cannot breed.
Insecta › Coleoptera › Scarabaeidae
Hercules beetle
Up to 173 mm long
The Hercules beetle is the longest beetle in the world, measured with its horn.
Insecta › Coleoptera › Lucanidae
European stag beetle
Males up to 7.5 cm
Europe's biggest beetle has antler-like jaws that are too weak to harm you.
Insecta › Mantodea › Mantidae
European mantis
Females 6 to 8 cm
A female who spots a male is very likely to attack and kill him.
Insecta › Orthoptera › Acrididae
Desert locust
150 million per km²
A single swarm can fly up to 150 km in one day, carried along by the wind.
Insecta › Blattodea › Blattidae
American cockroach
34 to 53 mm long
Named for America, yet it is native to Africa and the Middle East.
Insecta › Hemiptera › Cicadidae
Periodical cicada
17 years underground
A whole brood sometimes climbs out of the ground in a single night.
Arachnida › Araneae › Theridiidae
Southern black widow
8 to 13 mm, female
The females are known for sometimes eating their mates after reproduction.
Arachnida › Araneae › Araneidae
European garden spider
Females up to 20 mm
The female will sometimes eat the male right after they mate.
Arachnida › Araneae › Theraphosidae
Goliath birdeater
Largest spider: 175 g
The heaviest spider on the planet, by mass.
Arachnida › Scorpiones › Scorpionidae
Emperor scorpion
About 20 cm long
Despite its imposing size, its sting is usually mild.
Arachnida › Ixodida › Ixodidae
Deer tick
Female 3 to 4 mm long
One small tick that carries Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis and Powassan virus.
Clitellata › Crassiclitellata › Lumbricidae
Common earthworm
On a single night it can wander up to 19 m from its burrow.
1 of 21
On this page
- Monarch butterfly
- Buff-tailed bumblebee
- Northern giant hornet
- Leafcutter ant
- Yellow fever mosquito
- African malaria mosquito
- Housefly
- Common fruit fly
- Seven-spot ladybird
- Hercules beetle
- European stag beetle
- European mantis
- Desert locust
- American cockroach
- Periodical cicada
- Southern black widow
- European garden spider
- Goliath birdeater
- Emperor scorpion
- Deer tick
- Common earthworm
What is real here
Every photograph and every outline comes from a real, openly licensed image, credited at the bottom of its card. Only plain charts are drawn.
The words on these cards are written by AI from the sources named on each card. Software matched every number and claim to a sentence in those sources. Mistakes are still possible, so follow a card's links before relying on it.
Globe dots are real recorded sightings from GBIF. Where a card says native range only, they are clipped to that range. Otherwise they can include zoos, gardens and places the species was introduced.