Field Guide

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.

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.

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.

Meet the horse fly: Stealthily, one will land on your back, slice your skin, and lap your blood. By the time it starts to hurt and you swat at it, the painful, itchy welt is rising.

Fireflies are amazing beetles that use “cold light” (bioluminescence) to attract mates. They are commonly seen as they fly and glow in summer evenings.

Notoriously numerous, boxelder bugs overwinter in nooks of tree bark and rocks, but they will settle for warm crannies of your house. The box elder tree is the food plant of this harmless insect.

A strikingly large black wasp with smoky black wings that shine with blue iridescence, the great black wasp is often seen busily eating nectar and pollen from flowers in summertime.

Bald-faced hornets are fairly large social wasps. They are mostly black, with white or ivory markings on the face, thorax, and toward the tip of the abdomen. They make large, rounded, papery, gray nests, usually in trees and shrubs.

Sooner or later, most Missouri gardeners learn about squash bugs, which feed on the foliage of squash, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, and other plants in the squash family.

Soldier beetles are most often seen on flowers. Many species in this family are pollinators. Yellow, orange, and red are their most common colors, besides black and brown.