Do you need some help getting creative for our Let’s Get Bugged art contest?

Check out these real-life insects to get those “bug” juices flowing!

The Angular-Winged Katydid is found all over the world, and its eardrums are located in its front legs? To hear all it has to do is point its legs in any direction.

Did you know that it serenades at night? The male Katydid has a file-like patch on one forewing and a scraper-like area on the other. When it rubs these together, a song is created. It can even control the volume by raising its wings to make a small cavity. Mr. Katydid can then tune it up or tune it down.

The Asian Lady Bug is also known as the Halloween Lady Beetle. This is because it seeks out warm places to hibernate in late October. They don’t even need a costume. They’re already red with black spots.

Here’s a fun fact. Did you know the European Mantis is a cannibal? Females are well known for eating the male after she has mated with him. However, once her babies (or nymphs) hatch, they often will eat their siblings. That must be why these insects prefer to live alone.

Did you know the Brown Crane Fly may look like a giant, ugly mosquito, but it’s all show? This insect doesn’t sting or bite.

The Luna Moth doesn’t have a mouth, so the adults can’t eat anything. However, that doesn’t stop them from getting up to four inches wide (10cm) and five to six inches (12.7 to 15.2cm) long. And unlike other moths, they come in shades of lime green to yellow-green. I suppose that’s why they’re also called the ‘Moon moth.’

Have you ever been stung by a Bumble Bee? Even though it hurt, you may want to know that it was a female that did it; the males have no stingers and are called drones. These hairy insects also have ‘pollen baskets’ on their legs and are the best known out of 25,000 bee species.

The Yellow Garden Spider is a very common ‘orb’ web spider. This means it always builds round webs, which can reach up to two feet (0.6m) across. Strangely enough though, each night it eats the old web, then constructs a brand new. Talk about renovations!

Have you ever heard of a Mud Dauber? It’s an insect that belongs to the wasp family. The female of this species builds a specialized nest consisting of mud tubes about 1 inch long. She constructs these cells side by side in a protected area like under an eave or in a barn. Once she finishes the nest, she then begins to fill them with food.

She finds a spider, paralyzes it with her venom, then stuffs it into the tube. She then lays her egg on top of it. Once all the cells are full of spider-food and eggs, she covers the whole nest in with more mud.

The eggs are now left on their own to hatch and mature. And unlike other aggressive wasps, Mom Mud Dauber doesn’t defend her nest. She’s already moved on to a new location for her next batch of eggs.

Everyone knows why the Stink Bug is called by that name – it stinks! But did you know even the babies can defend themselves with an odor so powerful, even the hungriest of predators is turned off?

So now you know what you didn’t know before about some well-known bugs.

What do you think about these insects? “Bug” us with your thoughts in the comments section!