ByJason Bittel
Published January 22, 2024
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+.
Smiley spiders in Hawai’i
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.
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.
Monarch butterflies in California
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 the monarchs travel to Mexico each winter? In fact, there’s a distinct population of monarch butterflies that live on the west coast of North America, and which have their own travel plans.
“Western monarchs are monarchs that grew up as caterpillars west of the Rocky Mountains,” says Emma Pelton, senior conservation biologist at the Xerces Society. “And the generation that makes that migration to overwintering sites primarily ends up clustering along the Californian Pacific Coast and into northern Baja Mexico.”
While the best areas to see western monarchs by the thousands include parks and preserves such as Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove, Natural Bridges State Beach, and Lighthouse Field State Beach, Pelton says you can sometimes spot the orange and black butterflies at much more urban sites, such as the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
The best time to see overwintering western monarchs will be between late November and January, she says. And warmer, sunny days are the best.
“When you’ve got thousands of monarchs flying around and it’s about 55 degrees and sunny, they’re going to go out and seek nectar,” says Pelton. “It can be a really magical time.”
Water-loving flies in Western lakes
Many of us try to avoid flies while on vacation. But these free-diving ones might be worth the trip to Mono Lake in California, Lake Albert in Oregon, or Great Salt Lake in Utah.
“Most flies spend their life on the ground or in the air,” says Floris van Breugel, a neuroecologist at University of Nevada, Reno. “Very few flies actually try to crawl into water, because that would be kind of a death spell.”
But alkali flies are built differently. With bodies covered in water-repellent hair, these insects are able to plunge below the surface of briny bodies of water thanks to a layer of air trapped by their all-natural sweater vests. Once below the surface, the flies lay their eggs and even pause to feast upon some algae.
Because these bodies of water are very high in salt content and other alkali compounds, van Breugel says there aren’t any fish that would normally prey upon water-going flies. This has allowed the alkali flies—also known as brine flies—to make use of an untapped resource.
“On a warm, sunny, summer day, you can often find little flies crawling around underwater, and they’ll seem kind of like they’re shimmering, thanks to the bubble around them,” says van Breugel.
(These are the 10 top U.S. national parks to spot wildlife.)
Of course, while some might be grossed out at the thought of going to see a carpet of living flies on a beach, van Breugel notes that these animals are doing something very few other creatures can do. Not to mention the role flies play in the ecosystem at large.
“Mono Lake, in particular, is a really important stopover point for migratory birds that are going from the southern to the northern hemisphere,” he says. “And they rely on these flies to feast on and build up energy stores.”
Synchronous fireflies
Kids love fireflies, and with around 2,000 species of the bioluminescent beetles in the world, there’s plenty of wonder to take in. But the U.S. has several locations where the light show takes on an altogether different character.
Fireflies, also known as lightning bugs, have evolved to communicate with each other via soft glowing patterns emitted from the beetles’ backside. In most species, it’s the males who fly and flash, dabbing out blink combinations like Morse code, which the females see and respond to, if they’re in the mood.
This means that most nighttime firefly flashes you see are the males competing with each other for the females’ attention.
However, something strange has happened with the fireflies of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina and the fireflies of Congaree National Park in South Carolina.
(See the brilliant show fireflies put on in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.)
“In these lineages, the males have evolved the ability to synchronize their flashes,” says Sara Lewis, an entomologist and author of Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies.
This means that when the weather is warm and the time is right, visitors to these light shows won’t just see a few dozen fireflies flashing in the dark, but thousands and thousands of lightning bugs lighting up all at once and then going dark as if someone just flipped a switch.
Of course, like any world-famous wildlife phenomenon, the synchronous fireflies draw a huge crowd—meaning that visitors must first win a lottery ticket in order to visit. And this is why Lewis has a bit of different advice.
“Honestly, I think that the best place to go to see fireflies is right in your own backyard, neighborhood park, or local forest. I am not kidding about this,” says Lewis. “There are 170 different firefly species around the U.S., and they’re all pretty amazing.”
National Geographic’s A Real Bug’s Life streams January 24 on Disney+
Jason Bittel is writing a book about animals for National Geographic. You can follow its progress here.
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