Meadows
67 species found in this habitat
Alpine Carabus
Carabus alpestris
A metallic green or bronze ground beetle of high alpine meadows. It is a nocturnal predator of slugs and soft-bodied inv...
Alpine Hover Fly
Sericomyia silentis
A large hover fly with bold yellow-and-black banding mimicking a wasp. It visits alpine flowers for nectar in mountain m...
Alpine Long-horned Grasshopper
Anonconotus alpinus
A small, flightless bush-cricket of high alpine meadows. Its green and brown coloring provides camouflage among mountain...
Alpine Marsh Fly
Elgiva solicita
A snail-killing fly of wet alpine meadows and bogs. Its larvae are specialist predators of aquatic snails....
Alpine Shield Bug
Carpocoris purpureipennis
A colorful shield bug found in alpine and subalpine meadows. Its coloring varies from green to brownish-purple depending...
Ambush Bug
Phymata americana
A small crab-like bug that waits motionless on flowers to ambush visiting pollinators....
American Owlfly
Ululodes quadripunctatus
A dragonfly-like neuropteran with split eyes and long knobbed antennae. It catches small insects on the wing during twil...
Arctic Flower Fly
Platycheirus melanopsis
A small hover fly with a dark body and distinctive pale facial markings. It is an important pollinator of Arctic wildflo...
Banchine Wasp
Banchus falcatorius
A stout black-and-yellow ichneumon wasp that mimics social wasps in appearance. It is a solitary parasitoid of moth larv...
Blind Ringlet
Erebia pharte
A small, dark ringlet butterfly with reduced or absent eyespots. It flies in damp alpine meadows during the short mounta...
Case-bearing Leaf Beetle
Cryptocephalus sericeus
A brilliant metallic green to golden beetle with a cylindrical body shape typical of case-bearing chrysomelids. Adults a...
Cobalt Milkweed Beetle
Chrysochus cobaltinus auratus
A subspecies of the cobalt blue milkweed beetle with slightly more golden-green coloring....
Common False Blister Beetle
Oedemera lurida
A small olive-green or brownish beetle found commonly on flowers across Europe. Unlike the related O. nobilis, both sexe...
Cuckoo Bee
Nomada flava
A slender, wasp-like bee with yellow and black banding that lacks pollen-collecting structures. It is a brood parasite t...
Dark Soldier Beetle
Cantharis obscura
A dark-colored European soldier beetle often found on umbelliferous flowers. Its entirely dark elytra distinguish it fro...
Desert Blister Beetle
Epicauta puncticollis
A soft-bodied beetle that produces cantharidin, a blistering toxin, in its hemolymph. It feeds on desert wildflowers aft...
Desert Longhorn Beetle
Crossidius hirtipes
A hairy, brightly marked longhorn beetle of the American Southwest. Adults visit desert wildflowers for pollen and necta...
Desert Seed Bug
Melacoryphus lateralis
A small red and black seed bug found in arid habitats across western North America. It feeds on seeds of desert wildflow...
Diamond-Backed Spittlebug
Lepyronia quadrangularis
A North American spittlebug with a distinctive diamond-shaped pale mark on its back. It is found in wet meadows and mars...
Eastern Hanging Scorpionfly
Bittacus strigosus
A North American hangingfly that hunts small insects while dangling from vegetation. Females assess male quality based o...
Elongate Leaf Beetle
Oreina elongata
A slender metallic beetle that feeds on alpine dock and sorrel. It is found in moist mountain meadows throughout the Alp...
European Amazon Ant
Polyergus rufescens
An obligate slave-making ant that raids colonies of Formica ants to steal pupae. The kidnapped workers then perform all ...
European Fire Ant
Myrmica rubra
A small reddish ant capable of delivering a noticeable sting, common across European meadows. It has recently invaded pa...
Five-spotted Burnet
Zygaena trifolii
A small day-flying moth with glossy blue-black forewings bearing five red spots and entirely red hindwings. It is found ...
Garden Acerentomid
Acerentomon gallicum
A minute soil-dwelling proturan commonly found in gardens and meadows of western Europe. It lacks eyes, wings, and anten...
Giant Robber Firefly
Photuris lucicrescens
A large predatory firefly from eastern North America that mimics the flash patterns of Photinus species. Females lure Ph...
Giant Robber Fly
Promachus fitchii
A large, bristly predatory fly with powerful grasping legs and a sharp proboscis. It ambushes prey in mid-air with remar...
Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn
Agapanthia villosoviridescens
A longhorn beetle covered in golden-green hairs found in European meadows. Larvae develop inside the stems of thistles a...
Grass Sawfly
Pachynematus clitellatus
A small, inconspicuous greenish sawfly associated with grasses. Larvae are smooth, pale green and feed on various meadow...
Haldeman's Tumbling Flower Beetle
Mordella haldemani
A small black tumbling flower beetle found in eastern North America. It is commonly seen on composite flowers in summer ...
Halictid Bee Strepsipteran
Halictophagus silwoodensis
A tiny strepsipteran parasite of leafhoppers described from Silwood Park in England. Males have the characteristic twist...
High-altitude Hover Fly
Platycheirus alpinus
A small hover fly with flattened front legs, found in alpine and arctic habitats. It is an important pollinator of mount...
Hunt's Bumble Bee
Bombus huntii
A medium-sized bumble bee with orange, black, and yellow banding commonly found in the western United States. It is an i...
Io Moth
Automeris io
Named after Io from Greek mythology. Hindwings display large eyespots that flash open to startle predators. Caterpillars...
Japanese Maple Sawfly
Megalodontes cephalotes
A colorful web-spinning sawfly with a large head, bright orange body, and distinctive long antennae. It is associated wi...
Japanese Pine Cricket
Xenogryllus marmoratus
Known as 'matsumushi' in Japanese, this cricket produces a distinctive high-pitched chirp. Along with the bell cricket, ...
Large Bloody-nosed Beetle
Timarcha goettingensis
A somewhat smaller relative of Timarcha tenebricosa, with a similarly rounded, convex, black body and fused wing cases. ...
Large Mountain Grasshopper
Stauroderus scalaris
A medium-sized grasshopper common in European mountain meadows. Males produce a distinctive rapid clicking song....
Lined Tiger Moth
Grammia virgo
A boldly patterned moth with black forewings bearing thin cream stripes and bright pinkish-red hindwings with black patc...
Madagascar Spittle Bug
Bourgoinrana madagascariensis
A small, dark planthopper that produces frothy spittle masses on plant stems as a nymph. Adults are dark brown to black ...
Meadow Katydid
Conocephalus brevipennis
A small short-winged katydid found in moist meadows and bog margins....
Mountain Fritillary
Boloria napaea
A small fritillary with rich orange-brown wings marked with black spots. It occurs in damp alpine meadows alongside stre...
Mountain Hover Fly
Arctophila superbiens
A furry, bumblebee-mimicking hover fly of alpine meadows. Its dense body hair helps it retain heat in cold mountain envi...
Mountain Long-legged Fly
Dolichopus alpinus
A metallic green fly with long legs found in damp alpine meadows. Males perform elaborate courtship displays using their...
Mountain Robber Fly
Machimus rusticus
A powerful aerial predator found in dry mountain meadows and rocky slopes. It catches other insects in flight with its s...
Ornate Tiger Moth
Arctia flavia
A rare alpine tiger moth with cream forewings bearing irregular brown markings and orange-yellow hindwings with dark spo...
Owlfly
Libelloides coccajus
Dragonfly-like neuropterans with large eyes and clubbed antennae. Fast aerial predators that catch prey in flight. Often...
Pale Grass Blue
Zizeeria maha
One of the smallest and most common butterflies in Japan, known as 'yamato-shijimi.' Found everywhere from city sidewalk...
Patterned Tumbling Flower Beetle
Mordella fasciata
A small black beetle with distinctive pale zigzag bands formed by pale pubescence on the elytra. It visits a wide range ...
Red-Tipped Tumbling Flower Beetle
Mordellina pustulata
A small tumbling flower beetle with dark elytra bearing reddish markings, found across Europe. Larvae develop inside the...
Robber Fly
Promachus rufipes
Aggressive aerial predators that catch other insects in flight. Inject prey with neurotoxic saliva that paralyzes and li...
Rose-stem Gall Wasp
Diplolepis spinosa
A gall wasp that creates spiny galls on the stems of wild roses in North America. Each gall contains a single larval cel...
Rossi's Alpine Grasshopper
Podisma pedestris
A flightless brown grasshopper of alpine and subalpine meadows across Europe. It walks rather than flies through dense m...
Scarlet Malachite Beetle
Malachius aeneus
A small beetle with brilliant red and metallic green coloring. Males have peculiar orange head appendages used during co...
Scudderia Katydid
Scudderia furcata
A slender, bright green fork-tailed bush katydid common in meadows and gardens. Its forked subgenital plate is a key ide...
Silvery Blue
Glaucopsyche lygdamus
A small silvery-blue butterfly with a neat row of round black spots ringed in white on the grey underside. It is one of ...
Slender Robber Fly
Leptogaster cylindrica
A delicate, narrow-bodied robber fly with an extremely slender abdomen. It hunts small insects among tall grass stems....
Small Apollo
Parnassius phoebus
A high-altitude alpine butterfly with translucent white wings bearing small red and black spots. It flies weakly over al...
Southern Damselfly
Coenagrion mercuriale
A rare and declining European damselfly with a mercury-symbol-shaped mark on segment two. It is restricted to base-rich ...
Spotted Crane Fly
Nephrotoma appendiculata
A brightly marked yellow-and-black crane fly common across European meadows. Its leatherjacket larvae develop in soil, f...
Swiss Brassy Ringlet
Erebia tyndarus
A dark butterfly with a greenish metallic sheen on its upperside. It is endemic to alpine meadows in the Swiss Alps....
Thatching Ant
Formica obscuripes
A mound-building ant of western North America that constructs large thatched nests from plant debris. Workers are bicolo...
Thistle Gall Wasp
Isocolus scabiosae
A minute gall-inducing wasp that forms swellings on knapweed flower heads. It has been studied as a potential biocontrol...
Tumbling Flower Beetle
Mordella aculeata
A small, humpbacked beetle that tumbles erratically when disturbed. Adults are commonly found on flowers where they feed...
Turkish Owlfly
Libelloides rhomboideus
A striking owlfly with rhombus-shaped wing markings found in Anatolia and the eastern Mediterranean. Active on warm sunn...
Wood White
Leptidea sinapis
A delicate, fluttery butterfly with rounded white wings and a small grey wingtip patch. It has a weak, dancing flight cl...
Yellow Owlfly
Libelloides longicornis
A beautiful owlfly with long clubbed antennae and bright yellow-and-black wings. It perches on grass stems with wings sp...