About this puzzle
Every insect in this puzzle passes the insect test: six legs, three body parts, and an exoskeleton. That means no spiders and no worms, which turns out to be a great conversation starter with kids. Alongside favorites like the ladybug, firefly, and bumblebee, the list adds the science words students need for a bug unit, including thorax, abdomen, antenna, larva, and chrysalis.
It fits well into a spring science lesson, a backyard bug hunt, or a butterfly garden project. Young solvers can start on easy mode, while older students can try the harder setting and then label a diagram using the body-part words. The notes below explain each insect in a sentence or two, with details accurate enough for a classroom yet fun enough to read aloud.
The 26 words in this puzzle
Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.
In every version (12)
- Beetle
- Beetles are the largest group of insects, with hundreds of thousands of known species. Their hard front wings close over the back like a shell to protect the flying wings underneath.
- Bumblebee
- Bumblebees are big, fuzzy bees that can warm up on chilly days by shivering their flight muscles. They live in small colonies, often in holes in the ground.
- Butterfly
- Butterflies taste with sensors on their feet, which helps a female choose the right plant for her eggs. They go through complete metamorphosis: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
- Cricket
- Crickets chirp by rubbing their wings together, and they hear through ears on their front legs. They chirp faster as the temperature rises.
- Dragonfly
- Dragonflies can move each of their four wings separately, letting them hover and dart. Their young, called nymphs, live underwater and hunt other small creatures.
- Firefly
- Fireflies are beetles that make light through a chemical reaction in their abdomens. Each species has its own flash pattern for finding a mate.
- Honeybee
- Honeybees share the location of flowers with a waggle dance that signals direction and distance. Worker bees are all female; males are called drones.
- Ladybug
- Ladybugs are beetles, not true bugs. Both the adults and their larvae eat aphids, and a single ladybug can eat thousands of them during its life.
- Mantis
- The praying mantis is an ambush hunter that snatches prey with spiny front legs. It can swivel its triangular head to look over its shoulder.
- Mosquito
- Only female mosquitoes bite, because they need protein from blood to make eggs. Male mosquitoes drink flower nectar and plant juices.
- Moth
- Moths are close relatives of butterflies, but most fly at night. Many moths have feathery antennae, while butterflies usually have thin antennae with a little club at the tip.
- Wasp
- Wasps have a narrow waist between the thorax and abdomen. Many help gardens by hunting caterpillars and other pests, and some build papery nests from chewed wood.
Added in Medium and Hard (8)
- Abdomen
- The abdomen is the rear section of an insect's body and holds most of the digestive organs. Insects breathe through tiny holes called spiracles along their sides.
- Antenna
- Adult insects have a pair of antennae on their heads. They use them to smell, touch, and sense their surroundings, a bit like a combined nose and fingers.
- Caterpillar
- A caterpillar is the larva of a butterfly or moth. It spends this stage eating and growing, shedding its skin several times before forming a pupa.
- Chrysalis
- A chrysalis is the hard case a butterfly forms during its pupa stage. Inside, the caterpillar's body is rebuilt into an adult butterfly. Most moths spin a silk cocoon instead.
- Cicada
- Periodical cicadas in eastern North America spend 13 or 17 years underground before emerging together. Males make their loud buzz with drum-like organs called tymbals.
- Grasshopper
- Many grasshoppers sing by rubbing a hind leg against a wing. Their ears are on the sides of the abdomen, just behind the hind legs.
- Termite
- Termites eat wood, relying on microbes in their gut to break down tough plant fibers. Some African termites build mounds taller than an adult person.
- Thorax
- The thorax is the middle section of an insect's body. All six legs, and the wings if the insect has them, are attached here.
Added in Hard (6)
- Aphid
- Aphids are tiny, soft insects that suck sap from plants. Some ants guard aphids in exchange for honeydew, a sweet liquid the aphids give off.
- Earwig
- Earwigs have a pair of pincers at the tip of the abdomen. Despite an old myth, they do not crawl into people's ears; they hide under damp leaves and logs.
- Exoskeleton
- An insect's skeleton is on the outside, made largely of a tough material called chitin. To grow bigger, an insect must molt and form a new, larger exoskeleton.
- Flea
- Fleas are tiny wingless insects that live on animals like cats and dogs. For their size they are amazing jumpers, leaping many times their own body length.
- Larva
- A larva is the young, wormlike stage of insects that go through complete metamorphosis. Caterpillars, beetle grubs, and fly maggots are all larvae.
- Stick Insect
- Stick insects look so much like twigs that hungry birds pass right by. Some even sway gently back and forth, like a twig in the breeze, to complete the disguise.
A few facts to share while you solve
- Spiders are not insects: they are arachnids, with eight legs and two main body sections instead of six legs and three.
- Scientists have described about a million species of insects, more than all other animal species combined.
- Monarch butterflies from eastern North America migrate as far as 3,000 miles to spend the winter in the mountains of central Mexico.
Four versions of this puzzle
Pick a version with the buttons above the grid. Each one has its own grid and answer key, and your progress on each is saved separately in this browser.
| Version | Words | Grid | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 12 | 12 × 12 | The 12 most familiar words, reading forward across and down. |
| Medium | 20 | 15 × 15 | Twenty words across, down and diagonally. No backwards words. |
| Hard | 26 | 16 × 16 | Every word, in all eight directions including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. |
| Large print | 12 | 11 × 11 | The 12 most familiar words on a small grid with big letters. No backwards words. |
Hard and large print versions
Hard insect word search: all 26 words on a 16 × 16 grid, hidden forward, backward, up, down and along both diagonals, with filler letters borrowed from the word list. Print it without the word list for an extra challenge. Play the hard version, or see all hard word searches.
Large print insect word search: the 12 most familiar words on a 11 × 11 grid, printed with big letters and a big word list, and no backwards words. Play the large print version, or see all large print word searches.
Printing this word search
Press Print / PDF above the puzzle. You get a clean one-page sheet with the title, the grid, a word list with tick boxes, and optional name and date lines. The answer key prints on a second page. Prefer a file? Download it as a PDF or an image to print later or drop into a worksheet. Whatever version is showing on screen is the one that prints, and the large print version prints with bigger letters.
How to play online
- Find a word from the list in the grid. Scanning for its first letter is the quickest way.
- Drag across the word from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
- Found words get highlighted and crossed off. Stuck? Hint circles the first letter of a word you haven’t found.
Read the full guide to solving word searches, with tips that make big grids much faster.
Questions and answers
Why isn't a spider in the insect word search?
Spiders are arachnids, not insects. An insect has six legs, three body sections, and usually antennae and wings. A spider has eight legs, two body sections, and no antennae or wings. Ticks and scorpions are arachnids too. We left them out so the puzzle can be used to teach the difference.
What age is this insect word search for?
It suits kids from about kindergarten through fifth grade. Younger children can look for familiar insects like Ladybug and Cricket on easy mode. Older students can tackle Exoskeleton and Thorax, then use those words to label an insect diagram.
Is a ladybug a bug?
Not in the scientific sense. A ladybug is a beetle, with hard wing covers that close over its flying wings. Scientists reserve the name true bug for insects such as stink bugs and cicadas, which have mouthparts shaped like a straw for sucking plant juices.
Is there an answer key for this insect word search?
Yes. Choose Print / PDF above the puzzle and keep “Add an answer key page” ticked. The key prints on its own page, with every word highlighted. While playing online, Show answers outlines any words you haven’t found yet.
Can I print copies for my class or group?
Yes. Every puzzle on BetterWordSearch is free to print for personal, classroom, library and homeschool use. Print as many copies as you need. To change the words or make several different versions of the grid, use the word search maker.
What changes between Easy, Medium, Hard and Large print?
Easy hides the 12 most familiar words, reading left to right and top to bottom. Medium uses 20 words and adds diagonals. Hard hides all 26 words in every direction, including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. Large print uses the same words as Easy on a small grid and prints with big letters.
