Every month, a different mix of bugs arrives in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Collecting all the insects is important for players to fill out their critterpedia and museum — and to earn some extra bells on the side.
Bug catching can take a moment to master. It can be difficult to sneak up on bugs and catch them before the little insects fly or run away. Aggressive bugs, particularly scorpions and tarantulas, will take you out of commission if you aren’t fast enough to catch them.
Further reading
Bug-catching tips
There are a few ways to ensure that bugs will be caught. You will want to be sure you have the vault pole, ladder, and bug net in your inventory. Bugs will appear all over the island, meaning you will have to wander the entire island to find different types of bugs. If you’re working to only catch bugs, then ensuring that two bug nets are in your inventory could be helpful. Then, if one net breaks, you won’t have to return to Nook’s Cranny or craft one in the middle of the hunt.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that the mole cricket is the only insect that requires a shovel. When hunting this little beaut, bring a shovel and listen for cricket chirping noise. Where the noise seems to be the loudest, start digging. Eventually, the mole cricket will pop out. You will need to quickly switch to the net to catch this bug.
You can also sneak up on pesky bugs. Scorpions and tarantulas, for example, are best caught with sneaking. When one of these aggressive bugs is seen, hold the net in hand, hold down A, and slowly approach them. This allows you to walk slowly up to these bugs. When their front legs are up, stop approaching and just wait until they put their front legs down again before continuing to approach. Once close enough (or right as they’re about to run at you), let go of A and catch that mean bug.
Bug list
Animal Crossing: New Horizons follows real-world seasons closely. This means that each month, new bugs will be introduced and will match when the bug would appear in real life. Additionally, this means that the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere will get different insects from one another. It’s also important to remember that different bugs will show up at different times of the day.
Changes in June
In the northern hemisphere, players get a handful of new bugs to add to their collections. This includes the emperor butterfly, firefly, drone beetle, Goliath beetle, rainbow stag, and mosquito. You also have until the end of the month to catch a common butterfly, yellow butterfly, peacock butterfly, firefly, ladybug, violin beetle, pill bug, and centipede.
The southern hemisphere gets their first glimpse of the emperor butterfly, Rajah Brooke’s birdwing, and dung beetles. The southern hemisphere also gets the added bonus of not having any bugs leave the island this month, so you’ll have plenty of time to catch the new buggy arrivals!
Here is a list of the insects currently available in-game.
Northern hemisphere
- Common Butterfly (160 Bells)
- Yellow Butterfly (160 Bells)
- Tiger Butterfly (240 Bells)
- Peacock Butterfly (2,500 Bells)
- Common Bluebottle (300 Bells)
- Paper Kite Butterfly (1,000 Bells)
- Great Purple Emperor (3,000 Bells)
- Emperor Butterfly (4,000 Bells)
- Agrias Butterfly (2,500 Bells)
- Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing (2,500 Bells)
- Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing (4,000 Bells)
- Moth (130 Bells)
- Atlas Moth (3,000 Bells)
- Madagascan Sunset Moth (2,500 Bells)
- Long Locust (200 Bells)
- Mantis (430 Bells)
- Orchid Mantis (2,400 Bells)
- Honeybee (200 Bells)
- Wasp (2,500 Bells)
- Darner Dragonfly (230 Bells)
- Banded Dragonfly (4,500 Bells)
- Firefly (300 Bells)
- Pondskater (130 Bells)
- Diving Beetle (800 Bells)
- Giant Water Bug (2,000 Bells)
- Stinkbug (120 Bells)
- Man-Faced Stink Bug (1,000 Bells)
- Ladybug (200 Bells)
- Tiger Beetle (1,500 Bells)
- Jewel Beetle (2,400 Bells)
- Violin Beetle (450 Bells)
- Citrus Long-Horned Beetle (350 Bells)
- Rosalia Batesi Beetle (3,000 Bells)
- Drone Beetle (200 Bells)
- Goliath Beetle (8,000 Bells)
- Rainbow Stag (6,000 Bells)
- Bagworm (600 Bells)
- Ant (80 Bells)
- Hermit Crab (1,000 Bells)
- Wharf Roach (200 Bells)
- Fly (30 Bells)
- Mosquito (130 Bells)
- Flea (70 Bells)
- Snail (250 Bells)
- Pill Bug (250 Bells)
- Centipede (300 Bells)
- Spider (480 Bells)
- Scorpion (8,000 Bells)
Southern hemisphere
- Common Butterfly (160 Bells)
- Paper Kite Butterfly (1,000 Bells)
- Emperor Butterfly (4,000 Bells)
- Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing (2,500 Bells)
- Moth (130 Bells)
- Wasp (2,500 Bells)
- Damselfly (500 Bells)
- Mole Cricket (500 Bells)
- Citrus Long-Horned Beetle (350 Bells)
- Dung Beetle (3,000 Bells)
- Bagworm (600 Bells)
- Ant (80 Bells)
- Hermit Crab (1,000 Bells)
- Wharf Roach (200 Bells)
- Fly (60 Bells)
- Snail (250 Bells)
- Pill Bug (250 Bells)
- Centipede (300 Bells)
- Spider (480 Bells)
- Tarantula (8,000 Bells)
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