Bugs

Exhibitions

Scanning Electron Microscope Lab

See how big discoveries can come from the tiniest things in the Gem and Mineral Hall.

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Exhibition | NHM

Spiky, Hairy, Shiny: Insects of L.A.

Meet your tiny neighbors!

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Exhibition | NHM

Nature Lab

Live animals and hands-on interactives show you L.A.’s wild side.

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Children standing around the Paleo Play Zone, a counter with imitation sand and fossils, with mounted taxidermy up high on the wall in the background

Exhibition | NHM

Discovery Center

Dig for dinosaurs, wonder at live insects, and organize your own diorama.

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Butterflies photographed from above on a pink background

Exhibition | NHM

Butterfly Pavilion

Watch butterflies take flight around you in this seasonal exhibition.

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Events

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Visitors looking up, holding binoculars to their eyes

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Tours & Activities

Nature Gardens Exploration

Enjoy NHM’s one-of-a-kind Nature Gardens while learning more about urban wildlife. Visitors of all ages are welcome to stop by anytime during the hour and stay as long or short as you’d like!

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weekly

11:00 am

Saturdays and Sundays

Opossum on a stick sculpture with an audience in the background

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

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daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

nhm

Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

3:00 pm

Stories

The Fairy Poppy Bee's Dance of Fragility and Resilience

Discover one of the 1600 species of native California bees and the intimate portraits in conservation photographer Krystle Hickman's forthcoming book, The ABCs of California Native Bees

best_slug_photo snailblitz 2020 banana slug on the ground

Congratulations, Banana Slugs!

California finally has a state slug, just in time for Snail Search 2025

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sign with an arrow pointing at two large black shiny beetles held by Lisa Gonzalez

Meet the World's Juiciest and Biggest Beetles with NHM's Lisa Gonzalez

What is Beetlejuice?

An adult petroleum fly Helaeomyia petrolei taken with a keyence microscope

Get Stuck on Petroleum Flies

KQED’s Deep Look gets up close and personal with the Tar Pits most successful (and smallest) predator

From Butterflies With Love

A behind-the-scenes look reveals how the butterflies in our Pavilion help protect their native habitats

A snail stretches its body from a green leaf onto a bright pink flower.

Snail Love

Discover the secrets of snail love and show your love for the slimiest Angelenos—it's time for SnailBlitz 2024!

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Pollinator Plants Scavenger Hunt

Forest Urban Live Invertebrates Collections Manager

NHMLAC Discovery Talk with Forest Urban

Join Forest Urban, Manager of Invertebrate Living Collections, as he goes behind-the-scenes of NHM’s Insectary, explores the new Bugtopia exhibit, and shares what he and his team has been up to during the museum's temporary closure.

Marvelous Metamorphosis

Clasificando insectos

Bug Hotels

Create your own bug hotel for your garden and see who comes to visit!

News & Press

Understanding Our Coast: A Guide to Southern California Marine Pillbugs

A review of nearly 200 marine pillbugs, or underwater roly-polies, will improve ocean monitoring off the coast of Southern California.

“Symbiosis between Cretaceous dinosaurs and feather-feeding beetles” published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

The paper looks at amber fragments preserving the remains of feathers from the Early Cretaceous and larvae related to modern feather-feeding beetles in intimate contact

A Global Plan for Parasite Conservation

Parasites are unseen heroes that maintain ecosystem stability; they are scarcely studied and highly threatened by global change, and now there is a global plan to conserve them.