45 Examples of Six-legged Animals (A to Z List +Pictures) – Fauna Facts (2025)

Examples of six-legged animals include alderflies, antlions, ants, barklice, and moths.

Animals with 6 legs are called arthropods. The word “arthropod” is derived from the Greek words meaning jointed and foot.

There are many different kinds of arthropods, including insects, spiders, and crustaceans. Most arthropods have six legs.

All animals have at least four legs. But there are also some with six! Insects, spiders, and many other invertebrates all use their limbs for more than just walking.

Some use them to fly or swim; others to dig or even move around on dry land.

Examples of Six-legged Animals

1. Alderflies

These small, brown insects can be found near water. They use their six legs to cling to surfaces while they wait for prey to come by.

These delicate creatures are related to mosquitoes and have long, slender bodies. They can be found near waterfalls or in other moist environments.

2. Antlions

Antlions are a type of predatory insect. They eat other insects, usually by trapping them in their sand traps and then eating them alive.

3. Ants

Ants live in colonies where each individual has a role to play. They have six legs so they can move quickly around their environment and carry food back to the colony or help defend it from predators during battles with other ant groups.

4. Archaeognatha aka Bristletails

Bristletails are a type of primitive insect that can be found in many parts of the world. They have six legs, and most use them to scamper around on the ground looking for food. Some species can even fly.

5. Barklice

These tiny crustaceans live in the bark of trees. They are less than a millimeter long and have six legs that they use to cling to the tree’s surface.

6. Beetles

Beetles come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny 0.08-inch (0.20 cm) creatures to the giant Goliath beetle, which can be almost four inches (ten centimeters) long.

They live on every continent except Antarctica, and there are more than 350,000 different species of them.

7. Biting Lice

These tiny creatures are parasites that live on the skin and hair of their hosts. They feed on blood and can cause intense itching.

8. Booklice

These small, soft-bodied creatures can be found all over the world. They mostly eat mold and fungus, but they’ll also eat other insects or bits of food they find lying around.

9. Bumblebee

The black-and-yellow bumblebee is a familiar sight to many people. It’s one of the most common bee species in North America and was once thought by scientists to be extinct.

10. Butterflies

Butterflies are some of the most well-known six-legged creatures. They’re known for their beautiful wings, which come in a variety of colors. Butterflies can be found all over the world, and there are 17,500 species of butterfliesin the world.

11. Caddisflies

Caddisflies are small water-dwelling insects that live in various streams and rivers. They have four thin, doubled legs on their abdomen’s hind edge (belly).

12. Cockroaches

Cockroaches are some of the best-known six-legged animals. These pests can be found all over the world, and they’re known for being very hardy creatures. Cockroaches can survive in a wide range of environments, from freezing cold to searing hot.

Related Article: Do Cockroaches Produce Milk?

13. Crickets

Crickets have long thin legs. Their front pair are for jumping and the back two are used to dig burrows or scratch their way out of the soil when they’re buried. They also use them as antennae, touching each leg in turn with a tiny twig-like feeler called an antennule.

14. Damselflies

The damselfly is a relative of the dragonfly, but it doesn’t have its namesake’s large wings. Instead, it has four smaller pairs that are used for flying and swimming in lakes or ponds.

15. Dobsonflies

Dobsonflies have a long, thin body and narrow wings. They are predators that eat other insects. “Dobson-fly” is an old name for the insect; their scientific names are actually different genera of related bugs in the order Megaloptera (meaning “large wing”).

16. Dragonflies

These creatures are some of the most agile fliers in the animal kingdom. They can reach speeds of up to 35 miles per hour and can make quick turns that would give any human pilot a run for their money.

Related Article:

17. Earwigs

These insects have large pincer-like forceps on the end of their abdomens. These are used for defense and to hold prey, but also to help with mating. In some species, these appendages can be straightened or curved into a hook shape

18. Fleas

These tiny, jumping creatures can be a nuisance to both pets and people. They live on the blood of their hosts and can cause skin irritation and other health problems.

19. Fruit Flies

Another common six-legged creature is the fruit fly. These tiny insects are found all over the world, and they love to eat rotting fruit. They can also be a nuisance in homes and restaurants, where they often contaminate food.

20. Fungus Gnats

Fungus Gnats are little black flies that live in soil or decaying matter. They have very short, stubby wings and two clawed legs on each side of their body. Their faces look like a scorpion’s head with four eyes surrounding the mouthparts which they use to pierce fungi spores so they can feed off them.

21. Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers are familiar insects. They have long bodies with a strong, hard shell on their backs called an exoskeleton.

They have six legs and long antennae. They are green or brown, with yellow stripes on their back. Grasshoppers generally live in grasslands but they can also be found near forest edges and in fields.

22. Honey Bees

Honeybees are one of the best-known insects, and their distinctive coloring makes them stand out from other six-legged creatures. The image at right shows a honey bee’s face on its thorax.

The body of a honey bee is divided into three sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head has two large eyes, two antennae, and a mouth. The thorax has six legs and two wings. The abdomen has six segments and holds the bee’s organs.

23. Lacewings

Members of this insect family have wings with a lace-like design. They are sometimes called “aphid lions” because they eat aphids and other small insects, which are their prey.

Lacewing larvae have a voracious appetite and can consume up to 100 aphids per day. They are also known to eat other small insects, such as caterpillars, mites, and beetle larvae. Adult lacewings do not typically eat insects, but they do drink nectar from flowers.

24. Leaf Insects

Leaf insects, or Phyllium pulchrum, are some of the most interesting six-legged creatures around. These insects get their name from their uncanny resemblance to leaves.

They can be green, brown, or even gold in color, and they blend in perfectly with their surroundings. Leaf insects are found all over the world, but they are especially common in Southeast Asia.

25. Lice

Lice are insects (small, six-legged creatures that live on the bodies of other animals) that suck blood from their hosts. They can be very irritating and unpleasant to have around.

There are several different types of lice, but the most common is the head louse. These tiny creatures can be difficult to get rid of and often require special treatments.

26. Mantids

Mantids are a kind of praying mantis. They’re very big insects, measuring up to seven inches across the wingspan. Their heads have extremely flexible necks and they usually eat other bugs such as butterflies or grasshoppers.

27. Mayflies

Mayflies are aquatic insects that live in most freshwater bodies. They go through a complete metamorphosis, meaning they change from an egg to many different larval stages before becoming adults.

Their larvae have six legs for swimming and breathing underwater until their final molt when the adults emerge with wings to fly away from predators.

28. Moths

Moths are insects that have six legs. They also only have one pair of wings, which means they can’t fly – the adults at least. There’s a different type called caterpillars (larvae) who do actually grow two pairs of wings.

29. Praying Mantis

The praying mantis is a well-known six-legged creature. This insect can be found all over the world, and it gets its name from the way it holds its arms up in a prayer-like position. Praying mantises are predators, and they eat other insects. They’re also known for their quick reflexes.

30. Proturans

Proturans are tiny, worm-like creatures that live in moist environments like soil and water. They have long, thin limbs that they use to move around and capture food.

Proturans are not very common, but they can be found in many parts of the world. They come in a variety of colors, including red, yellow, and green.

31. Scorpionflies

These unusual creatures have a pair of large, membranous wings as well as six legs. They can be found in the eastern United States and Canada. They eat small insects but they also love to scavenge carrion.

They are not a pest and have an important role in the environment, as their presence is seen as a sign of nature’s healthiness.

32. Snakeflies

These strange insects have a long, thin body that looks like a snake’s. They use their two pairs of wings to fly and can be found in many parts of the world.

33. Springtails

These are very small creatures, and they look like ants. They can be found anywhere there is soil or decaying organic matter.

They are very important in the environment because they help to break down organic matter. This helps to recycle nutrients and make them available for other plants and animals.

• Stick Insects
• Stoneflies
• Strepsipterans
• Sucking Lice
• Termites
• Three-Pronged Bristletails
• Thrips
• True Bugs
• Two-Pronged Bristletails
• Wasps
• Web-Spinners
• Zorapterans