16 Butterflies in Alaska: From Arctic Blues to Alpine Fritillaries
Most people picture moose, bears, and bald eagles when they think of Alaska wildlife.
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Delve into the fascinating world of insects — the most diverse group of animals on Earth, covering beetles, butterflies, ants, bees, and thousands of other six-legged creatures and their behaviors, habitats, and roles in ecosystems.
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Most people picture moose, bears, and bald eagles when they think of Alaska wildlife.
Alabama’s mix of coastal plains, pine forests, river swamps, and Appalachian foothills gives butterflies an unusually wide range of habitats to work with, and the state has repaid the favor with an equally wide roster of species.
Oklahoma’s mix of tallgrass prairie, river bottoms, and eastern hardwood forest supports one of the richest beetle faunas in the southern Great Plains.
Step outside on a warm New Mexico evening and turn on a porch light, and within minutes you will likely have company.
Florida’s warm, humid climate is a paradise not just for people, but for wasps too, and the types of wasps in Florida range from docile pollinators to genuinely aggressive stingers.
Not every buzzing insect in your backyard is a mosquito.
Hawaii sits roughly 2,400 miles from the nearest continent, yet hundreds of butterfly records have piled up across the islands over the decades.
The types of moths in Minnesota number well over a thousand, yet most residents notice only a few: a hummingbird-like blur at a petunia bed, a giant silk moth on a porch screen, or a caterpillar chewing a cabbage leaf.
Beetles hold more described species than any other insect order, roughly 40 percent of known insects.
Iowa’s wasp population is far more diverse than the two or three species most residents recognize on sight.
Most people can name exactly two bees: the honey bee and “that big fuzzy one.” Michigan actually hosts dozens of distinct bee groups, from metallic green sweat bees no bigger than a grain of rice to carpenter bees that drill perfectly round holes into porch railings.
Step into any Ohio meadow between April and October and you will likely cross paths with a butterfly before you notice the flowers it is feeding on.
Maine’s mixed forests, coastal meadows, and backyard gardens support an unusually wide range of caterpillars, and not all of them are safe to pick up.
The types of beetles in Minnesota run from a red-and-black milkweed specialist that squeaks when picked up to a metallic green sprinter that hunts along sunny woodland trails.
The types of moths in Texas number in the thousands, and plenty of them break the “dusty night flyer” stereotype.
Britain is home to 36 different dragonflies, and most gardeners walk past several of them every summer without knowing which species they’ve just seen.
Step near almost any pond, ditch, or slow-moving creek in Ohio between late spring and early fall, and there’s a good chance a dragonfly is already watching you.
Insects make up roughly 60% of all known arthropod species, and only a small fraction of them ever bother humans at all.
Texas is home to nearly 30,000 documented insect species, making it one of the most insect-diverse states in the country.
Insects outnumber nearly every other animal group on the planet, and a surprising cast of predators has built entire lifestyles around hunting them down.