The most beautiful insects in the world

Author: Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation: 10 August 2021
Update Date: 1 November 2024
Anonim
15 Most Beautiful Insects In The World
Video: 15 Most Beautiful Insects In The World

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Insects are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. Currently, there are more than a million described species and perhaps most are yet to be discovered. Furthermore, they are very abundant in number. For example, in each anthill there can be as many ants as there are human beings in the city of São Paulo.

However, they are not the most admired animals by the human population. Their articulated paws, their exoskeleton and, of course, their great differences from us, generate a lot of rejection. Whether or not it's your case, after reading this PeritoAnimal article about the most beautiful insects in the world you will surely enjoy them a little more.


Insect classification

Before discovering some of the most beautiful insects in the world, we should talk a little about what they are to understand them a little better.

insects are animalsinvertebrates and arthropods. This means that they do not have an internal skeleton and that they have articulated legs. Within arthropods we can also find crustaceans and arachnids. So beware, spiders are not insects, although they are arthropods.

Furthermore, insects are hexapods, that is, have six legs and your body divides into head, chest and abdomen.

Types of insects

There are many types of insects and within each group there are thousands and thousands of species. They occupy all possible habitats and are distributed all over the world. These are the most abundant types of insects:


  • Gifts. Includes many of the most beautiful insects in the world. It's dragonflies and maidens.
  • Orthoptera. It includes locusts and crickets.
  • Lepidoptera. In these groups we find flying insects such as butterflies and moths.
  • Diptera. It's the flies and the mosquitoes.
  • Dictopters. Cockroaches, termites and praying mantises.
  • Hemiptera. Includes insects well known to farmers: cicadas, bugs and aphids.
  • Coleoptera. It is the group of insects with the greatest number of species. We're talking about beetles.
  • Hymenoptera. They are, perhaps, the most enigmatic insects: bees, wasps and ants.

Cutest flying insects in the world

Now that we know these animals better, we are ready to discover some of the most beautiful insects in the world according to our survey. For that, let's divide them into flying and non-flying insects.


Starting with flyers, the presence of wings on an animal is something that always catches our attention, including an insect. In fact, when we imagine a beautiful insect, a butterfly almost always comes to mind. Do you think of any more? We leave you a list of the most beautiful flying insects in the world.

1. Long Dragonfly (Sphaerophoria scripta)

Despite its name and appearance, it is neither a dragonfly nor a wasp. This cute insect is actually a Diptera. It's about a fly of the Syrphid family.

These flying insects are distributed almost all over the world and are pollinators, like bees. Its color is due to a survival mechanism known as Bayesian mimicry. Predators mistake them for wasps, so they decide it's best not to eat them and avoid a sting.

2. Blue Maiden (Calopterix virgo)

Odonate is one of the most beautiful colored insects in the world. These flying insects are very common in small rivers and streams across Europe. Their presence indicates that the water is of high quality, as they need very clean, fresh and oxygen-rich water.

Males are metallic blue color and the females have a color reddish brown. Both come together and copulate as they fly and the outline of their bodies forms a heart.

3. Schoenherr's blue weevil (Eupholus schoenherri)

This beetle can be found in Papua New Guinea. It belongs to the family of weevils, also known as weevils. Your electric blue and aqua green colors - in addition to characterizing it as a beautiful insect, they indicate its bad taste to predators. So, beetles avoid unnecessary death and predators a heartbreak. This type of visual communication is called aposematism.

4. Atlas moth (atlas atlas)

This flying insect is considered one of the biggest moths in the world, with up to 30 centimeters of wing span. It inhabits the tropical forests of Asia and the silk of its large larvae is much appreciated.

However, it is not only one of the most recognized beautiful insects worldwide for its size, but its colors and shapes have also earned it this deserved fame.

5. Striped bug (Graphosoma lineatum)

Bedbugs are very common animals among us, although they often go unnoticed or we confuse them with beetles. However, many of them could be on this list of cute bugs.

The striped bug is herbivore and it can be easily seen in umbelliferous plants such as fennel, dill and hemlock. Its bright colors, as in the previous case of the blue weevil, are a warning about its unpleasant taste.

6. Podalist (Iphiclides podalirius)

Along with the dovetail butterfly (papiliomachaon) é one of the most beautiful butterflies that can be seen in Spain. Witnessing its flight is a real spectacle, due to its showiness and its large size. Females can reach more than eight centimeters in wingspan.

In its coloration, the ocelli of its hind wings stand out. Predators mistake them for their eyes, so they direct their attacks elsewhere, avoiding further damage. It is a very common type of communication between animals.

7. Ruby tail wasp (Chrysis Ignites)

This one green and pink insect belongs to the Chrysididae family. Members of this family are known as "cuckoo wasp". This is due to the fact that they are parasitoid insects, that is, they lay their eggs in the nests of other insects. When the chrysidians' larvae hatch from their eggs, they devour the larvae of their guests. Its vivid colors make it stand out among nature's beautiful insects.

8. Mantis orchid (Hymenopus coronatus)

Praying mantises are characterized by their great ability to camouflage in the middle that surrounds them. The orchid praying mantis, as its name indicates, is camouflaged by mimicking one of these flowers. This allows you not only to go unnoticed by predators, but also deceive their prey. These approach them thinking it is a flower and become the lunch of this beautiful insect.

This other article about the most poisonous insects in Brazil may also interest you.

9. rainbow grasshopper (bicolor dactylotum)

This colorful insect, also known as a painted grasshopper, lives in North America, including Mexico. It is part of the Acrididae family. Your intense colors and drawing patterns, as in previous cases, are a feature of aposematism: their function is to ward off predators.

10. Emperor Moth (Thysania agrippina)

The emperor moth or great gray witch is a moth, that is, a nocturnal butterfly. Her drawing patterns allow us to include her in this list of the most beautiful insects in the world. Though the most amazing thing about her is not her color, but her size. These flying insects can reach a wingspan of 30 centimeters.

If you want to learn more about colorful insects, check out this article on butterfly types.

Most beautiful non-flying insects in the world

It is less common to find beauty in a wingless insect. However, as we'll see now, it's also possible. We left you some of the cute non-flying bugs.

1. Catarina cockroach (Prosoplete)

If there's one animal you certainly didn't expect to find on the list of the most beautiful insects in the world, it's a cockroach. However, we consider that species of the genus Prosoplecta deserve to be in it, as these Asian cockroaches are very similar to ladybugs, animals that arouse the sympathy of most of us.

2. Velvet Ants (Family Mutillidae)

Velvet ants are fur-covered insects. despite its name, are not ants, but a kind of wingless wasp. A well-known example is the panda ant (Euspinolia militaris), which is in danger of extinction. Despite its sweet appearance, the females of this beautiful insect have a stinger and have a very painful bite.

If you want to read more articles similar to The most beautiful insects in the world, we recommend that you enter our Curiosities section of the animal world.