Field Guide

Land Invertebrates

Showing 41 - 50 of 193 results
Media
Glossy black spider wasp manipulating paralyzed spider
Species Types
Scientific Name
About 300 species in North America north of Mexico
Description
People notice spider wasps when they notice a female lugging a captured spider to its doom. In most cases, she will drag the spider into a burrow, lay an egg on the spider, and then hunt for more spiders!
Media
Photo of an eastern yellowjacket
Species Types
Scientific Name
Vespula spp.
Description
Yellowjackets are bee-sized social wasps that build paper nests, usually underground. Their defensive stinging can make them a major pest when they nest near people.
Media
Photo of an adult female field cricket
Species Types
Scientific Name
Gryllus spp., Acheta domesticus, and others in subfamily Gryllinae
Description
Field crickets and house crickets are celebrated singers. There are several species in Missouri.
Media
Honeybee worker on flower
Species Types
Scientific Name
Apis mellifera
Description
The honeybee is a major pollinator of many field crops and tree fruits. Native to the Old World, it is not native to North America. In 1985 it was named the official state insect of Missouri.
Media
image of Black-and-Yellow Mud Dauber
Species Types
Scientific Name
Three genera: Sceliphron, Trypoxylon, and Chalybion
Description
Mud daubers are among the most familiar solitary wasps. They belong to a number of related groups, but we call them all "mud daubers" because they all build their nests out of mud. One way to tell the different mud daubers apart is by the distinctive architecture they use.
Media
Dung beetle rolling a dung ball
Species Types
Scientific Name
Subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae
Description
Horses, cattle, dogs, and deer all drop manna from above to eager dung beetles, which collect, hoard, and guard the precious organic materials left undigested in the pile.
Media
image of Horned Passalus crawling on wood
Species Types
Scientific Name
Odontotaenius disjunctus
Description
The horned passalus lives in colonies in rotting wood. It is Missouri’s only representative of a beetle family called the “Bess beetles” or “patent leather beetles.” Oh, and it can talk to you, too.
Media
photo of a male reddish-brown stag beetle
Species Types
Scientific Name
About 40 species in North America north of Mexico
Description
Stag beetles are a family that, though not very colorful, have prominent pincers! Male stag beetles usually have enlarged, sometimes astonishing jaws. These “antlers” give rise to the common name.
Media
Photo of a meloe blister beetle, female, on ground
Species Types
Scientific Name
More than 400 species in North America north of Mexico
Description
The name is a warning: blister beetles are famous for their chemical defenses. Beetles in this family can exude an oil that can cause a person’s skin to blister.
Media
Click beetle resting on a brick wall
Species Types
Scientific Name
Approximately 1,000 species in North America
Description
Their streamlined shape is distinctive, but the behavior of click beetles is even more unique: Placed on their backs, these beetles flip suddenly into the air with an audible click.
See Also
Media
Photo of a Yellow-Collared Scape Moth
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
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
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.