Field Guide

Mantidflies look like a cross between a lacewing insect and a praying mantis. They are small, delicate creatures with intricately veined wings, but the front half looks like a mantid, complete with raptorial forelegs.

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.

Whitebanded fishing spiders are often seen on tree trunks, walls, or other vertical surfaces, sometimes far from water. The coloration and markings can vary, but many individuals have an olive-green cast that helps them blend in with mosses and lichens. Note the bristly legs.

Plant bugs, or mirids, are a huge family of true bugs. They are often overlooked — except by gardeners and farmers. Most mirids eat plants, and some are agricultural pests. As a group, they’re an important food source for birds and other insectivores.

About six species of bird grasshoppers occur in Missouri. Most are attractively marked, large insects that gracefully fly from danger, almost like birds.

Female and male five-banded thynnid wasps look quite different. Both are banded with black and yellow, but the females are large and heavy-looking, while the males, often seen in groups, are much skinnier and have a scythe-shaped false stinger on the hind end.

The European hornet is a large, nonnative hornet that was introduced to New York in the mid-1800s. They now occur across most of the eastern United States, including Missouri. People may misidentify them as the highly publicized, so-called murder hornets.

The white micrathena has 2 short pairs of tubercles and a white abdomen with a few distinct black blotches on the upper side. In an odd way, it looks like it's wearing a turban. This is one of three Missouri species of micrathenas, also called spiny orbweavers.

Cockroaches well-known: they are flattened, small, brown or black, often shiny insects that can hide in tight crevices and lack specialized appendages. Recently, termites have been included in their order.