Insects

Six-legged animals with three body parts, such as beetles, ants, bees and stick insects.

15 entries

Black Beauty Walking StickPeruphasma schulteiA critically endangered black stick insect with yellow eyes and red wings, found in the wild in one tiny patch of Peru.Blue Death-Feigning BeetleCryptoglossa verrucosaA pale blue desert beetle from the southwestern U.S. that flops over and plays dead when startled.Dubia RoachBlaptica dubiaA South American forest cockroach that eats fruit and is widely raised as food for zoo and pet reptiles.Garden Fruit ChaferPachnoda sinuataA brown-and-yellow African scarab beetle that eats fruit and flowers and whose grubs help build soil.Giant CockroachBlaberus speciesA big, glossy tropical cockroach from Central and South America that grows three inches long and helps break down dead plants.Giant Prickly Stick InsectExtatosoma tiaratumA spiky Australian stick insect, also called the Australian walking stick, that curls its tail up like a scorpion to scare predators.Jungle NymphHeteropteryx dilatataA big, thorny, leaf-green stick insect of tropical rainforests whose females snap their spiny back legs together in defense.Madagascar Hissing CockroachGromphadorhina portentosaA large, wingless cockroach from Madagascar that hisses by pushing air out of its breathing holes.New Guinea Walking StickEurycantha calcarataA big, bulky, spiny stick insect from New Guinea that looks like a piece of bark and hides in groups by day.Orchid MantisHymenopus coronatusA pink-and-white Southeast Asian praying mantis that looks like an orchid flower and ambushes the insects that visit it.Pinacate BeetleEleodes speciesA black desert darkling beetle of the western U.S., also called the stink beetle, that does a headstand and sprays a bad smell.Red Harvester AntPogonomyrmex barbatusA seed-collecting desert ant of the southwestern U.S. with a painful sting, often mistaken for fire ants.Velvet AntFamily MutillidaeNot an ant at all: a fuzzy, brightly colored wasp whose wingless females have a very painful sting.Western Honey BeeApis melliferaThe familiar honey-making bee, which lives in large, organized hives with a queen, drones and workers.White-Spotted Assassin BugPlatymeris biguttataA black African assassin bug with two big white spots that stabs insect prey with its beak and injects digestive juices.