Insects & Bugs for Hangman 🐛

Clues for every word

A one-line clue for every word, easy to hard, each one checked against a source - read them out when you run your own game. These words and clues are separate from the ones in the online game, so they won't give its answers away.

Bug

Everyday name for many minibeasts; scientists keep it for one insect order with piercing, sucking mouthparts.

Silk

Natural protein fibre, most often taken from the cocoons of insect young, that can be woven into cloth.

Pupa

Life stage between young and adult in many insects, usually still and not feeding, but very active in mosquitoes.

Drone

Male in a honey bee colony; unlike the female workers, it has no stinger and gathers no food.

Swarm

Large group of insects or other animals milling about one spot or moving together as one.

Nymph

Young form of some insects that already looks somewhat like the adult; its final shedding of skin turns it into one.

Louse

Wingless insect that usually spends its whole life on one bird or mammal, gluing its eggs to hairs or feathers.

Moult

To shed an outer layer such as skin or feathers; insects shed their outer shell, usually so they can grow.

Nectar

Sugary liquid that flowers make to attract pollinating animals; it is the sugar source for honey.

Midge

Small insect of almost every land area bar dry deserts and polar zones; some kinds pollinate cocoa trees.

Bluebottle

Insect nearly twice the size of a housefly, with a bright metallic abdomen and red eyes.

Harvestman

Usually long-legged minibeast often mistaken for a spider, though not closely related; it has no venom or webs.

Shieldbug

Insect, mostly a sap-sucker, with a hard plate over its back; it gives off a foul-smelling liquid to deter predators.

Pond Skater

Small, long-legged insect that moves about on top of water, its body covered in tiny hairs that repel water.

Froghopper

Insect that can jump many times its own height; the sap-sucking young of many kinds hide in blobs of foam.

Katydid

Insect often shaped like a leaf; its name copies the loud, three-beat song of one North American kind.

Red Admiral

Black-winged insect with bright bands and white spots; in northern Europe, often on ivy flowers just before winter.

Monarch

Insect with orange, black and white wings; in eastern North America it migrates south each autumn to Florida and Mexico.

Thorax

Middle part of an insect's three-part body, between the head and the abdomen; it carries the legs and any wings.

Springtail

Six-legged creature, usually under 6 mm long, that likes damp places but is no longer counted as an insect.

Proboscis

Long, tube-shaped mouthpart some insects use to suck up food; in animals with a backbone it means a long nose or snout.

Arthropod

Animal with an outer skeleton, a body made of segments and paired jointed limbs, such as insects and crustaceans.

Invertebrate

Any animal without a backbone; by one estimate, 97% of all animal species are this kind.

Mandible

Mouthpart, found as a pair in insects and crustaceans, used for biting or cutting food; often simply called a jaw.

Pheromone

Chemical signal an animal gives off that sets off a response in others of its kind; well studied in insects.

Water Boatman

Insect of ponds and slow rivers whose four back legs end in oar-shaped feet for swimming; it swims right side up.

Swallowtail

Large, colourful insect, mostly tropical, named after the forked shape of some kinds' back wings.

Spinneret

Organ that makes silk threads, found on spiders and some insect young; most spiders have six of them.

Lepidoptera

Second-largest order of insects; its name comes from Greek words for 'scale' and 'wing', and scales cover its wings.

Stridulation

Making a sound by rubbing body parts together, mostly linked with insects; the sound is often called a chirp.