Insects
Insects have six-legs, an exoskeleton, a three-part body, jointed legs, compound eyes, and antennae. The following categories will each take you to more specific examples.
Ants, bees, and wasps have a thin “waist”, many have four wings, and some sting. Many are pollinator heroes.
Beetles have hard outer shells covering wings. They are the largest order of insects with over 350,000 species.
Butterflies and moths are insects in the Lepidoptra family. They’re important pollinators and many are quite beautiful.
These insects all undergo partial metamorphosis and make sounds by rubbing their legs together. They’re the sound of summer.
Some of my favorite insects, dragonflies and damselflies are voracious mosquito devourers. Dragonflies perch with wings outstretched, damselflies with wings folded up.
It’s surprising how many different kinds of flies there are. These insects play many important roles in backyard ecosystems.
These insects have mouths made for piercing and sucking and feed on plants around the garden.