14 insects ending with the letter H — each with origin, classification, and notes.
This page lists insects that end with H. 14 insects are detailed below. Each entry below is a doorway into a full profile — not just a name on a list.
One of Britain's most extraordinary camouflaged insects — at rest, the buff-tip moth is almost indistinguishable from a broken birch twig, with its pale yellow-buff wing tips and grey middle aligned to mimic a stub of birch; the hairy, yellow-and-black larvae are gregarious and can strip a tree of leaves in days.
A brilliantly coloured day-flying moth of chalk downland and coastal grassland — the six-spot burnet has six vivid red spots on metallic blue-black forewings, a warning colouration that advertises its toxicity; burnet moths produce hydrogen cyanide from their own tissues as a chemical defence, making them poisonous to predators; conspicuous in sunshine on downland flowers, flying weakly but apparently without concern for predators.
Moths with transparent wings that convincingly mimic wasps and bees — the hornet moth looks exactly like a hornet; other species mimic bumblebees or wasps so precisely that even experienced naturalists hesitate; adults are active by day and fly fast; larvae bore in tree trunks, stems, and roots for 2–3 years.
A large, fast, exceptionally hardy insect that has been on Earth for 200+ million years and is now a near-universal urban pest, the species behind most "cockroach" stories.
Britain's only day-flying member of the silk moth family — the male emperor moth is one of the most spectacular insects on British heathland, with large owl-like eyespots on all four wings; the male can detect a female's pheromone from up to 11 km away; the caterpillar is a vivid green and black jewel, and the silk cocoon was once harvested.
The largest moths in the world — powerful fliers with streamlined wings, capable of hovering in front of flowers like hummingbirds while feeding with enormously long tongues; the deaths-head hawk-moth has a skull-pattern on its thorax and squeaks when disturbed.
A blood-feeding annelid worm — used in medicine for over 2,500 years, with modern medical leeches still approved by the FDA for restoring blood flow to reattached body parts and skin grafts.
A large, pale-green silk moth of eastern North America with long curved hindwing tails — adults that don't eat at all, living only a week to mate and die.
A large, furry, pale grey moth whose caterpillar is one of the most extraordinary in Britain — vivid green with a dark saddle, a fierce face-like pattern, and two whip-like tails that it waves when threatened; adults are beautifully marked with grey and cream patterning and are among the most striking moths of woodland edges and riverside willows.
The small, light-brown cockroach species responsible for nearly all kitchen-pest cockroach infestations worldwide — fast-breeding, hard to eliminate, and the bane of restaurants and apartment buildings.
A small, primitive, wingless insect with a silver-gray scaly body and a long-evolutionary lineage, found in damp homes feeding on starches, paper, and book bindings.
Small, bell-shaped moths whose caterpillars are among the most damaging to gardens and orchards — they roll leaves into shelters bound with silk and eat the enclosed tissue; the codling moth (apple's worst enemy) and the light brown apple moth are tortrix moths, and European vine moth damages grapevines worldwide.
A large nocturnal moth with cryptic gray-brown forewings camouflaged like tree bark, concealing brilliantly colored hindwings flashed in startle displays to confuse predators.
A small white moth bound to yucca plants in an obligate mutualism — the only insect that pollinates yucca, while yucca seeds are the only food its larvae can eat.
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