Land Invertebrates
Media
![Elongate-bodied springtail on a brown leaf](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/field-guide/Elongate-Bodied_Springtail_3-19.jpg?itok=C_ot3smi)
Species Types
Scientific Name
More than 8,000 species globally
Description
Springtails, like insects, have six legs, but these tiny rounded, oval, or elongated creatures that hop quickly into the air are not insects. They have a separate lineage and many structural differences.
Media
![several yellow aphids on plant](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2013/02/aphid.jpg?itok=dGcPSNxT)
Species Types
Scientific Name
More than 1,300 species in North America north of Mexico
Description
Aphids are common, small, soft-bodied insects that suck plant juices. To see them well, you probably need a hand lens, but the damage they do to plants can be all too obvious!
Media
![Jagged ambush bug on a plant stem](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2013/06/ambush_brunet2012.jpg?itok=LWJqO2gF)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Phymata spp. and others in subfamily Phymatinae (ambush bugs)
Description
Ambush bugs are a subfamily of assassin bugs. They’re chunky, small insects with powerful grasping forelegs. They hide motionless in flowers waiting for prey to venture near.
Media
![Flea beetle, probably Disonycha procera, resting on a window screen](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/2022-09/Flea_Beetle_Disonycha_procera_maybe_6-5-19.jpg?itok=gY_LJUQU)
Species Types
Scientific Name
About 2,000 species in North America
Description
Leaf beetles, or chrysomelid beetles, are members of a large, diverse, often very colorful beetle family. As the name suggests, they eat leaves and other plant parts and are common on foliage.
Media
![Red milkweed beetle eating a common milkweed leaf.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2014/07/milkweed_beetle.jpg?itok=WEdxzYQI)
Species Types
Scientific Name
About 1,000 species in North America north of Mexico
Description
Longhorned beetles are elongated and cylindrical, with antennae that are at least half the length of the body — sometimes much longer. The larvae are grubs that bore in wood or other plants. Some are serious pests.
Media
![image of a Spittlebug and nest on plant stem](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2013/02/spittlebug.jpg?itok=H3jcK6cN)
Species Types
Scientific Name
About 60 species in North America north of Mexico
Description
The nymphs of spittlebugs and froghoppers are famous for hiding in small foamy masses of fluid. The “spit” conceals them as they suck juices from plant stems. The adults resemble leafhoppers.
Media
![image of a Leafhopper on leaf](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2013/02/leafhopper.jpg?itok=5Wi5ZoFV)
Species Types
Scientific Name
More than 3,000 species in North America north of Mexico
Description
The leafhoppers are a large and diverse family of sap-sucking, hopping insects. You can distinguish them from similar groups of hoppers by the hind legs, which have at least one row of small spines on the hind tibiae (“shins”).
Media
![Two-marked treehopper clinging to a stem](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2013/02/two_marked_treehopper.jpg?itok=eYs1f9fO)
Species Types
Scientific Name
More than 260 species in North America North of Mexico
Description
Treehoppers can resemble thorns, bark, weird plant bumps, or tiny leaves. If you can recognize one of these as an insect, you're doing well!
Media
![Photo of a whitebanded crab spider, yellow individual, on ox-eye daisy flower](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2013/08/smooth_crab_spider_08-02-13.jpg?itok=1mbtGvJG)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Misumenoides formosipes
Description
The whitebanded crab spider is a small, whitish-yellow or yellowish-brown crab spider commonly found in flower heads. Often its carapace is slightly greenish, with a broad whitish-yellow midband bordered by darker, thinner sides of yellowish brown.
Media
![Photo of an orchard orbweaver with a black background](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/field-guide/orchard_orbweaver_McKeever.jpg?itok=k0JQPXSK)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Leucauge venusta
Description
The orchard orbweaver is a small, colorful, greenish, delicate spider that makes circular webs in low bushes and damp woodlands. It typically hangs in the middle of its web, its back to the ground.
See Also
Media
![Photo of a Yellow-Collared Scape Moth](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2012/06/scape_moth.jpg?itok=-C79oNCa)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Cisseps fulvicollis
Description
The yellow-collared scape moth is more often “orange-collared.” And whether you think it looks more like a firefly or a wasp, it’s still a moth!
Media
![image of Plume Moth on blade of grass](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2013/06/plumemothdb.jpg?itok=mHLwIYWX)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Nearly 150 species in North America north of Mexico
Description
Slim, delicate plume moths are instantly recognizable by their T-shaped silhouette, long legs, and muted shades of tan and brown. It can be hard to separate the various species.
Media
![Photo of an Isabella Tiger Moth](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2012/06/isabella.jpg?itok=DGWZ86EN)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Pyrrharctia isabella
Description
Not many people know the adult Isabella tiger moth when they see one, but we’re all acquainted with its caterpillar, the woolly worm, or woolly bear.
About Land Invertebrates in Missouri
Invertebrates are animals without backbones, including earthworms, slugs, snails, and arthropods. Arthropods—invertebrates with “jointed legs” — are a group of invertebrates that includes crayfish, shrimp, millipedes, centipedes, mites, spiders, and insects. There may be as many as 10 million species of insects alive on earth today, and they probably constitute more than 90 percent all animal species.