These national parks have some beautiful bugs—see for yourself

22.01.2024 - 21:37 / nationalgeographic.com

When people plan trips to national parks and protected areas across the United States, they hope to see the wolves of Yellowstone or the alligators of the Everglades. But talk to any bug scientist, and they’ll tell you that the best things come in small packages.

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is famous for its diverse selection of brilliantly colored birds, says Kylle Roy, an entomologist working for the U.S. Forest Service. “But we also have a lot of really cool arthropods!”

In Hawai’i and other destinations around the U.S., little things rule. Here’s where to go to see these captivating critters. You can also tune in to National Geographic’s new series, A Real Bug’s Life, which begins streaming January 24 on Disney+.

Have you ever seen a spider smile back at you?

Don’t worry, these particular arachnids in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park are just one-quarter of an inch long and harmless to humans. And they aren’t smiling with their mouthparts—but rather, their abdomens. Known as the happy-faced spiders, these tiny, bright yellow spiders have markings that look for all the world like a big grin.

“The coolest thing about happy-faced spiders is that the mothers will take care of their young,” says Roy, who is also a Native Hawaiian.

The female spiders will hunt down prey and then share it with their spiderlings. This lifestyle is thought to exist in fewer than one percent of all spider species.

While you’re hiking through Hawai’i’s tropical rainforests, you should also keep an eye out for Kamehameha butterflies—another arthropod that exists nowhere else on Earth, says Roy. With bright orange and black wing markings, Kamehameha butterflies, or pulelehua, are Hawai’i’s state insect.

These islands are also home to 18 species of moth larvae with appetites rivaling that of the main character in the children’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Because unlike nearly every other caterpillar, which eat only plants, these ones crave flesh. Some species even have camouflage to make them look like sticks, hiding them from prey, before they lurch forward and clasp it with their forelegs.

A Real Bug’s Life

Caterpillar carnivory is thought to have evolved on the Hawaiian Islands in the absence of many other natural predators, says Roy. There’s even been an observation of carnivorous caterpillars attacking happy-faced spiders.

Most people are already familiar with the monarch butterfly.

With their wings outstretched, these insects are wider than an average adult human hand, their Halloween colors catch the eye, and their multigenerational, whole-continent migration earns the species tons of headlines. 

(Follow the monarch on its dangerous 3,000-mile journey across the continent.)

But did you know that not all of