Insects

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

Bugtopia

See bugs from around the world, including beetles, mantids, spiders, and more.

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Events

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Visitors looking up, holding binoculars to their eyes

nhm

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!

Learn more

weekly

11:00 am

Saturdays and Sundays

nhm

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!

Learn more

weekly

11:00 am

Saturdays and Sundays

nhm

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!

Learn more

weekly

11:00 am

Saturdays and Sundays

nhm

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!

Learn more

weekly

11:00 am

Saturdays and Sundays

nhm

Festivals

Bug Fair 2025

Come to NHM on May 17 & 18 for the 39th annual Bug Fair, our two-day festival celebrating our bug-eyed and multi-legged friends!

Learn more

10:00 am

Stories

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

Elephant Hill Community Nature Celebration and Habitat Survey

Join community members and scientists, Saturday, October 14, to celebrate and study nature on Elephant Hill, an open space in North East L.A. valuable to humans and wildlife.

Welcome to the 2023 LA BioBlitz Challenge

Help discover the incredible biodiversity all over Los Angeles!

Green returning to the Angeles National Forest in Southern California six months after the Station Fire.

Where There's Smoke

A look at what we know and don't know about how growing wildfires impact our natural world, and how we can learn to cope

Children looking at flowers with magnifiers

Nature Gardens Turn 10

A look back—and forward–at all the nature thriving in NHM’s Nature Gardens.

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Caterpillar Races

Make your very own caterpillar. Then, race yours against your family or friends!

Insect Symmetry

Use one of our templates to make your very own symmetrical insect.

Simetría de Insectos

Use una de nuestras plantillas para hacer su propio insecto simétrico.

Gulf Fritillary butterflies, one with wings open and another with wings closed.

Butterfly Flash and Dazzle

Use our butterfly template to create your very own “flash and dazzle” butterfly.

Brillantes Alas de la Mariposa

Use nuestra plantilla de mariposa para crear su propia mariposa con alas brillantes.

News & Press

Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County’s Dr. Luis Chiappe Co-Authors Paper on Relationship Between Feathered Dinosaurs and Beetles

“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

Effort Connects More Than a Billion Objects in Scientific Collections Across 73 Museums in 28 Countries

Findings Shared in New Paper Published in Science Magazine on March 23, 2023