Bug Facts covers useful information about the most commonly found insects, which includes butterflies, beetles, ants, wasps, bees, praying mantis and many others.  Plus a few creatures that are commonly mistaken for insects, but actually non-insects in North America.  Topics range from insect development to simply odd interesting facts.  Written for adults and children alike, we invite you to explore the world of insects. There is also a checklist for children to use, much like one would find in a Bird Watcher's guide. 

Insects belong to a class known as arthropods.  What is an arthropod?  The technical definition is: 

: any of a phylum (Arthropoda) of invertebrate animals (as insects, arachnids, and crustaceans) that have a segmented body and jointed appendages, a usually chitinous exoskeleton molted at intervals, and a dorsal anterior brain connected to a ventral chain of ganglia.

This website concentrates on insects, though we do sneak in a  crustacean, one which might just surprise you.  We invite you to study insects, but as with all forms of arthropods...look and please do not touch. 

If you have a question about a particular insect and can't find the answer, we invite you to visit our Contact Us page.  If you live in or are visiting Illinois, we suggest you visit the Field Museum in Chicago and check out their Entomology Exhibits.  It is superb and one of their Entomologists helped tremendously in putting together this site and editing the publication it was based upon.

ATTENTION:  Teachers, parents, students and bug lovers!  There is a pdf link for you to use on each page.  Please feel free to use this link to print individual pages for your classroom, homework, field trips or hobby.  To those that wish to link to us, please do and if you are an educational resource we will exchange a return link. 

Note:  The content of this website including the pdf downloads are excerpts from the publication Bug Facts: A Young Explorer's Guide.  All Rights are Reserved and seriously Copyrighted of course.  Our aim is to get this publication into the hands it was meant for; those that want to learn about insects.  If you want to use one of our illustrations outside the classroom or nature center, please simply ask using the Contact Us link.   Our very talented illustrators and we would appreciate it.

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