Field Guide

The pine tree spur-throat grasshopper usually lives in wooded areas, where its mottled, brownish-gray camouflage protects it when it rests on tree trunks.

Ebony bugs are definitely true bugs, but they look a lot like tiny, shiny black beetles. Their bodies are fat ovals. They’re almost always seen on flower clusters and immature seeds, often on members of the carrot or parsley family.

The large milkweed bug, with its bold black-and-orange pattern, is one of the most beautiful of the true bugs. Look for it on milkweeds, from midsummer through the first hard freeze.

The orange assassin bug, Pselliopus barberi, is about ½ inch long and is one of our most attractive non-butterfly insects. They overwinter in groups as adults under loose bark.

Members of the pygmy grasshopper family are small and have a distinctively elongated pronotum — this plate, which only covers the shoulders of most other grasshoppers, extends back to cover the abdomen in this family. Most live along streams and in other wet habitats.

Tumblebugs in genus Canthon are usually seen on, near, and beneath poop. They are sometimes seen rolling dung balls away from the original heap, heads down and pushing the ball backward with their hind legs.

The dark flower scarab is a scarab beetle that apparently eats pollen, nectar, and perhaps other parts of flowers in late spring, sometimes becoming an agricultural pest. The larvae grow up beneath manure or other decaying materials.