29 insects ending with the letter E — each with origin, classification, and notes.
This page lists insects that end with E. 29 insects are detailed below. Each entry below is a doorway into a full profile — not just a name on a list.
Tiny beetles that bore beneath tree bark to lay eggs in galleries — under normal conditions they kill only weakened trees, but when populations explode during drought or after storm damage, they can kill millions of healthy trees across entire forests; the European spruce bark beetle has killed more trees than any other insect in European history.
A large, hard-shelled beetle whose males sport antler-like mandibles used for ritualized combat over females, a member of the most species-rich animal order on Earth.
A large, fuzzy, surprisingly cold-tolerant social bee that pollinates many crops honeybees can't reach — beloved by gardeners, declining alarmingly across multiple species.
One of the most economically damaging household insects in Britain — the adult is a harmless tiny pollen-feeder, but its larvae are the notorious "woolly bears" that devour wool carpets, stored clothing, taxidermy specimens, and museum collections; infestations can destroy irreplaceable textiles within months.
A fast-moving multi-legged predatory arthropod (technically not an insect but commonly grouped with them) — its venomous front "fangs" make it one of the few terrestrial invertebrates capable of delivering a painful bite to humans.
A beetle that escapes predators by snapping its body to launch itself into the air with an audible click — a remarkable mechanical hinge mechanism that can catapult the beetle up to 30 cm high.
The world's most destructive potato pest — a striped yellow-and-black beetle native to the Rocky Mountains that spread across North America and then Europe by the early 20th century, capable of stripping entire potato fields bare; Britain has so far kept it out through strict biosecurity controls.
A large family of dark-coloured, flightless desert beetles — including the mealworm beetle and the famous Namib fog-basking beetle that harvests drinking water from coastal fog on its textured back.
An ancient-wood-eating beetle whose larvae bore through structural timber in old buildings for up to 13 years — the ticking sound made by adults knocking their heads against wood to attract mates was historically heard in deathbed vigils and gave the beetle its sinister name; it has damaged medieval roofs across Britain and Europe.
An insect that feeds, reproduces, and navigates by animal dung — it rolls dung balls away from the pile, buries them, and lays eggs inside; the ancient Egyptians considered the scarab dung beetle sacred and a symbol of resurrection.
The heaviest insect on Earth — a male goliath beetle in its larval stage can weigh up to 100 grams, more than a small bird; the adults are strikingly patterned in black and white and can reach 110 mm in length; found in the tropical rainforests of Africa, they are popular in the insect-keeping hobby.
A large, fast-moving, predatory beetle that hunts at night — one of the gardener's best allies, consuming slugs, aphids, and other pests by the thousand, and a key component of healthy soil ecosystems.
A flying social insect that pollinates roughly a third of human food crops and produces honey from the nectar of flowers.
A common name for several stout-bodied scarab beetles that emerge in early summer in North America, the bumbling, light-attracted nighttime fliers familiar to anyone with a porch light.
Beetles whose antennae are often longer than their entire body — the larvae bore through wood for years before emerging as adults; some of the most destructive tree pests in the world, while others are important wood-decay specialists in old-growth forests.
A wingless parasitic insect — head lice are particularly common among schoolchildren, body lice can transmit serious diseases including epidemic typhus, and pubic lice are a sexually transmitted parasite.
Tiny non-biting flies that emerge in massive swarms from lakes and rivers — looking like mosquitoes but harmless to humans, with critical roles as fish food and as bioindicators of water quality.
A multi-legged arthropod with two pairs of legs per body segment (unlike centipedes' one) — slow-moving detritivores essential to forest decomposition, with some giant African species reaching nearly 40 cm long.
A strange, flightless beetle with a swollen, soft abdomen and a fascinating life history — females lay thousands of eggs, the tiny larvae (triungulins) climb flowers and hitch a ride on mining bees back to their burrows, where they feed on the bee's pollen stores and develop through multiple larval stages; when threatened, the beetles exude a blistering oil (cantharidin) from their leg joints.
A regional Northeastern U.S. name for tiny biting midges, especially common in coastal Maine and the Maritime provinces — small enough to bite through screens and disproportionately painful for their size.
The single reproductive female of a honey bee colony, mother to all 50,000+ workers, possessing distinctive elongated body, a smoother stinger she uses repeatedly, and a lifespan many times longer than worker bees.
A large family of beetles with characteristically short wing covers that expose most of the abdomen — the most species-rich beetle family, playing crucial roles as predators, scavengers, and even ant-colony infiltrators.
A large, often metallic-shelled beetle of the Scarabaeidae family — most famously the dung beetles of African savannas, sacred in ancient Egyptian religion as a symbol of rebirth.
A soft-bodied, colourful beetle named for its scarlet-and-black colour reminiscent of a British redcoat soldier — an important pollinator that visits flowers for pollen while hunting smaller insects.
Britain's largest insect — the male stag beetle's enormous antler-like jaws can be longer than his body but are used for wrestling rival males rather than biting; a declining species dependent on rotting wood in old gardens and ancient parkland; adults do not feed and live only a few weeks as adults after 3–7 years as grubs.
A wood-eating social insect — actually a derived cockroach — that builds elaborate colonies, decomposes vast quantities of plant matter, and causes billions in property damage annually.
Aquatic beetles that have evolved to live in ponds, streams, and lakes — the great diving beetle is Britain's most spectacular aquatic insect, an aggressive predator that will attack fish, frogs, and newts; it carries an air bubble under its wing cases to breathe underwater and can fly between ponds at night.
A small, oval beetle that gyrates in tight circles on the water surface — equipped with divided eyes that see above and below the waterline simultaneously, and with sensory organs that detect surface ripples like a sonar system.
A small blue butterfly of California's San Francisco peninsula — extinct since the 1940s, the first North American butterfly species lost to habitat destruction, and the namesake of the Xerces Society for invertebrate conservation.
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