Can I generate a printable set without repeats?

Yes. Open Make a no-repeat card set, choose 1–12 cards, and press Draw card set. Every animal in that set is different. Choose Print / Save PDF after the photos load. A new set may contain earlier animals, and reloading the page clears your set.

No. Spiders are arachnids: eight legs, two body segments, no antennae and no wings. Insects have six legs, three body segments and usually antennae. The current insect collection excludes spiders, even though “bug” is often used more broadly in everyday speech.

How many insect species are there?

About a million have been formally described, and credible estimates for the true total run from four to thirty million. Beetles alone account for roughly a quarter of all known animal species.

Random Insect Generator

Beetles, butterflies and bees: pick one or make a no-repeat photo card set.

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Make a no-repeat insect card set

Choose 1–12 different animals for drawing prompts or a classroom activity. Print the photo cards or choose Save as PDF in your browser’s print dialog.

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Photo: Oakenking at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 2.5

Insectherbivore

Silkworm

Bombyx mori

The silkworm, the caterpillar of the domestic silk moth, is best known for its role in making silk. These insects thrive on mulberry leaves and have been raised by humans for thousands of years. Unlike their wild relatives, domestic silkworms rely entirely on people to survive and reproduce.

Silkworms spin silk cocoons that are harvested to make fabric.
They mainly eat white mulberry leaves but can eat other plants.
Domestic silkworms cannot survive without human care.

FarmAsia

View Silkworm profile Read more on Wikipedia

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About this insect generator

This random insect generator draws from the site’s insect collection, with a photograph, scientific name and facts for each result. The current collection includes insects such as beetles, butterflies, bees, dragonflies, moths and ants; it does not include spiders.

Insects are the overwhelming majority of animal life — over a million described species and likely several million undescribed — so no generator can be representative. This one is limited to widely documented species, which keeps results recognisable rather than serving you an unnamed weevil.

For a drawing or classroom activity, open the card-set controls and choose 1–12 different insects. Print the set or save it as a PDF, keeping the photo credits attached. Results are prompts for learning, not a way to identify an unknown garden animal.

Some of the insects you can get

A sample of the 111 insects in this generator. Press the button above for a random one.

What people use it for

Rated 5 out of 5
I put this on the board every Monday and the class has to write six sentences about whatever animal comes up. The photo does most of the work — they argue about it before I have finished reading the name out.
Maya Ellison
Year 4 teacher
Rated 5 out of 5
I use the ocean filter to stock a coastline in about thirty seconds. Getting the conservation status and the habitat alongside the name means I can describe the thing properly instead of inventing details.
Daniel Weiss
Tabletop game master
Rated 5 out of 5
Daily drawing prompts. Most animal randomisers just give you a word, which is useless when you need reference — here I get a photograph I can actually work from, and it keeps handing me species I would never have picked.
Priya Raman
Illustrator
Rated 5 out of 5
The bird generator is my flashcard deck now. I cover the name, look at the photo and try to call it before scrolling. Two hundred-odd species is enough that it stays hard.
Tomas Lindqvist
Birder
Rated 5 out of 5
My six-year-old asks for "one more animal" about forty times a night. The facts are short enough that she remembers them and repeats them at dinner, which was not something I expected from a random button.
Elise Moreau
Parent