6 insects starting with the letter W — each with origin, classification, and notes.
If you've been searching for insects that start with W, you'll find 6 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.
| Wasp | Water Beetle | Water Strider | Weevil |
| Whirligig Beetle | Whitefly |
A diverse group of stinging insects ranging from solitary mud-daubers to aggressive social yellowjackets — predators of garden pests, distinguished from bees by smooth bodies and the ability to sting repeatedly.
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.
An insect that walks on the surface film of still or slow-moving water using hydrophobic leg hairs that trap air — an iconic example of surface-tension locomotion and a model organism for materials science research.
A beetle with a distinctive elongated snout — among the largest insect families with over 95,000 species, including notorious agricultural pests of grain, cotton, fruit, and bark.
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 tiny sap-sucking insect pest that colonizes the undersides of leaves, weakening plants and transmitting viruses — a major problem in greenhouse agriculture and tropical food crops worldwide.
That's our current list of insects starting with the letter W. We add new entries every week — if you have a favorite insect starting with W that isn't on this page, let us know and we'll write it up.
Looking for more? Try insects that end with W, or contain W anywhere in the name.