3 insects starting with the letter O — each with origin, classification, and notes.
If you've been searching for insects that start with O, you'll find 3 detailed insects below. We're not interested in giving you only a list of names — every entry on this page links to a full profile with the kind of detail you'd actually want to know.
For insects, that means taxonomy, habitat, diet, life cycle, and ecological role.
| Oil Beetle | Orange-tip Butterfly | Owlfly |
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 delicate white butterfly of spring hedgerows — males have vivid orange wingtips that give the species its name, while females are white with black tips, easily mistaken for other whites; the underside of both sexes is marbled green and white, providing perfect camouflage on cow parsley flowers where they roost.
A dragonfly-like insect with massive owl-like compound eyes and clubbed antennae, related to lacewings, that hunts mosquitoes and small flying insects on the wing at dusk.
That's our current list of insects starting with the letter O. We add new entries every week — if you have a favorite insect starting with O that isn't on this page, let us know and we'll write it up.
Looking for more? Try insects that end with O, or contain O anywhere in the name.