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Ant
Bed-bug
Bee
Beetle
Bookworm
Bug
Butterfly
Caterpillar
Centipede
Chafer
Cicada
Cockroach
Cricket
Drone bee
Dung beetle
Firefly
Flea
Fly
Fruit fly
Glow-worm
Gnat
Grasshopper
Greenfly
Hornet
Insect
Katydid
Locust
Louse
Maggot
Mantis
Millipede
Mosquito
Moth
Nit
Sand fly
Scorpion
Silkworm
Spider
Termite
Tick
Vinegar fly
Wasp
Water beetle
Water insect
Weevil
Worm
This was just a selection. Look here for
MORE...
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Ant
| An ant guarding a mango |
|
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Used for a boy who is careful not to
let other boys near his girlfriend |
| At high tide fish eat ants; at low tide
ants eat fish. |
Thailand |
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|
| Even the sharpest ear cannot hear an
ant singing. |
Sudanese |
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|
| Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider
her ways, and be wise. |
|
Bible: Proverbs 6:6 |
|
| He who runs from the white ant may stumble
upon the stinging ant. |
Nigeria |
|
|
| In a battle between elephants, the ants
get squashed |
Thailand |
|
|
| None preaches better than the ant, and
she says nothing. |
|
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| She's got ants in her pants |
|
|
A state of restless impatience. |
| The constant creeping of ants will wear
away the stone. |
|
|
|
| To the ant, a few drops of dew is a
flood. |
Iranian |
|
|
| When the water rises the fish eat the
ants, when the water falls the ants eat the fish |
|
|
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| "Semut diseberang lautan terlihat, gajah
didepan mata tidak" - An ant across the ocean is seen,
but not the elephant nearby |
Malay / Indonesian |
|
This is a proverb for a person
who sees faults in others while not seeing obvious faults
in themselves |
Bed-bug
| You can't have more bed-bugs than a
blanket-full. |
Spanish |
|
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Bee
| Bees that have honey in their mouths
have stings in their tails. |
English |
|
|
| If you let the bee be, the bee will
let you be. |
|
|
|
| In that day the LORD will whistle for
flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees
from the land of Assyria. |
|
Bible: Isaiah 7:18 |
|
| The bee’s knees |
|
|
An excellent or the best person or thing. |
| The drone bee dies soon after the wedding
night. |
|
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| When the bee sucks, it makes honey;
when the spider, poison. |
|
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Beetle
| Beetle away |
|
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Move away quickly |
| Beetle brain |
|
|
Not too clever |
| Crime leaves a trail like a water beetle;
like a snail, it leaves its silver track; like a horse-mango,
it leaves its smell. |
Malawi |
|
|
| Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes
of its mother. |
Moroccan |
|
|
| In his own nest a beetle is a sultan. |
Egyptian |
|
|
| In the steppe even a beetle is meat. |
Russian |
|
|
| The dung beetle, seeing its child on
the wall, thinks it sees a pearl on a thread. |
Arabic |
|
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Bookworm
| Bookworm |
|
|
A person who is very fond of reading
|
Bug
| A bug |
|
|
A fault in a machine (computer) |
| As snug as a bug in a rug. |
|
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Very snug. Warm and comfortable. |
| Bug-eyed |
|
|
With eyes that stick out (e.g. bug-eyed
with fright) |
| Bug-hunter |
|
|
Entomologist |
| You can't have more bed-bugs than a
blanket-full. |
Spanish |
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|
| Big black bugs bleed blue black blood
but baby black bugs bleed blue blood |
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Tongue twister |
Butterfly
| Happiness is a butterfly. |
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| Proverbs are like butterflies, some
are caught, some fly away |
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| The butterfly counts not months but
moments, and has time enough. |
|
Rabindranath Tagore |
|
| The butterfly often forgets it once
was a caterpillar. |
Swedish |
|
|
| I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting
around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I
a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly
dreaming that I am a man? |
|
Chuang Tsu |
|
| You are like the butterfly that flies
from flower to flower. |
|
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| Love is like a butterfly, hold it to
tight it will crush, hold it to loose, it will fly.
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Caterpillar
| Even caterpillars can fly if they would
just lighten up. |
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| If caterpillars were meant to fly, God
would have given them wings. |
|
|
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| If only I were a bird! Ah, but eating
caterpillars? |
Palestinian |
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|
| Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar
is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar. |
|
Bradley Millar |
|
| The butterfly often forgets it once
was a caterpillar. |
Swedish |
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Chafer
| One chafer knows another. |
Irish |
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Cicada
| Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent
fireflies burn themselves. |
Japanese |
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Cockroach
| If you step on people in this life,
you're going to come back as a cockroach. |
|
Willie Davis |
|
Cricket
| All flying insects that walk on all
fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however,
some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you
may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on
the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust,
katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged
creatures that have four legs you are to detest. |
|
Bible: Leviticus 11 |
|
| It is not summer until the crickets
sing. |
Greek |
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| The cricket cries, the year changes. |
Cameroonian |
|
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| You can catch a cricket in your hand
but its song is all over the field. |
Madagascar |
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| You don't teach a cricket to jump |
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Drone bee
| The drone bee dies soon after the wedding
night. |
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Dung beetle
| The dung beetle, seeing its child on
the wall, thinks it sees a pearl on a thread. |
Arabic |
|
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Firefly
| Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent
fireflies burn themselves. |
Japanese |
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Flea
| Even a flea can bite. |
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| Even good dogs have fleas. |
Russian |
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| If a flea had money, it would buy its
own dog. |
Jamaican |
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| If you lie down with dogs, you'll get
up with fleas. |
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| It is easier to guard a sack full of
fleas than a girl in love. |
Jewish |
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| The brave flea dares to eat his breakfast
on the lip of a lion. |
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| The fatter the flea, the leaner the
dog. |
German |
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Fly
| A fly may conquer a lion. |
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| Do not draw your sword to kill a fly. |
Korean |
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| Do not remove a fly from your friend's
forehead with a hatchet. |
China |
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| Every fly has its shadow. |
Portuguese |
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| Flies will easily fly into the honey
-- their problem is how to get out. |
Iranian |
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| Haste is good only for catching flies. |
Russian |
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| If you do not let my people go, I will
send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your
people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians
will be full of flies, and even the ground where they
are. |
|
Bible: Exodus 8:21 |
|
| In that day the LORD will whistle for
flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees
from the land of Assyria. |
|
Bible: Isaiah 7:18 |
|
| It's easier to catch flies with honey
than with vinegar |
|
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| Laws catch flies, but let hornets go
free. |
Scottish |
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| Laws, like the spider's web, catch the
fly and let the hawk go free. |
Spanish |
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| The flight of the eagle will not stop
that of the sand fly. |
African |
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| The fly flutters around the candle till
it gets burnt. |
Dutch |
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| The most fragrant of flowers are eaten
by the green-fly. |
Malawi |
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| The spider and the fly can't make a
deal. |
Jamaican |
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| Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies
like a banana. |
|
Groucho Markx |
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| To be as small as a vinegar fly and
want to shit like an elephant |
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Too big for your boots |
Fruit fly
| Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies
like a banana. |
|
Groucho Markx |
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Glow-worm
| As day breaks, the glow-worms say: 'We've
lit up the world!' |
Indian |
|
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| It is foolish to show glow-worms by
candle light. |
Italian |
|
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Gnat
| Human knowledge will be erased from
the world's archives before we possess the last word
that a gnat has to say to us. |
|
Henri Fabre |
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Grasshopper
| All flying insects that walk on all
fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however,
some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you
may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on
the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust,
katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged
creatures that have four legs you are to detest. |
|
Bible: Leviticus 11 |
|
| Riding an elephant to catch grasshoppers |
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Using a sledge hammer to crack a nut |
Greenfly
| The most fragrant of flowers are eaten
by the green-fly. |
Malawi |
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Hornet
| Laws catch flies, but let hornets go
free. |
Scottish |
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Insect
| An insect |
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An insignificant or contemptible person. |
| I always felt that insects are the general
rule, and everything else is a special case. |
|
Paul Bystrak |
|
| One tiny insect may be enough to destroy
a country. |
Ancient Arabic |
|
|
| The big fish eat the little fish, the
little fish eat the water-insects, and the water-insects
eat the weeds and mud. |
China |
|
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| We can allow satellites, planets, suns,
universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed
by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created
at once by special act. |
|
Charles Darwin |
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Katydid
| All flying insects that walk on all
fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however,
some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you
may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on
the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust,
katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged
creatures that have four legs you are to detest. |
|
Bible: Leviticus 11 |
|
Locust
| The mantis seizes the locust but does
not see the yellow bird behind him. |
China |
|
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Louse
| A louse in the cabbage is better than
no meat at all. |
|
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| Don't draw a sword against a louse. |
China |
|
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Maggot
| Like a moth in clothing, or a maggot
in wood, sorrow gnaws at the human heart. |
|
Bible: Proverbs 25: 20 |
|
Mantis
| The mantis seizes the locust but does
not see the yellow bird behind him. |
China |
|
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Millipede
| We keep an eye on the scorpion and the
serpent, but we do not watch out for the millipede. |
Sicilian |
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Mosquito
| As different as an elephant and a mosquito |
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| He can swallow a camel but chokes on
a mosquito. |
Lebanese |
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| In heaven you won't hear the mosquitoes. |
Finnish |
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Moth
| He dreads a moth who has been stung
by a wasp. |
Albanian |
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| Moth-eaten |
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|
Old-fashioned ; out of date (e.g. moth-eaten
ideas) |
Nit
| Don't be such a nit-picker! |
|
|
Nitpicking = giving too much attention
to unimportant details |
| He's a nitwit |
|
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He's a stupid person. A foolish person. |
Sand fly
| The flight of the eagle will not stop
that of the sand fly. |
African |
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Scorpion
| Even the hand of compassion is stung
when it strokes a scorpion. |
Persian |
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| We keep an eye on the scorpion and the
serpent, but we do not watch out for the millipede. |
Sicilian |
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Silkworm
| Don't feed a silkworm that's sleeping |
|
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Let sleeping dogs sleep |
Spider
| Laws, like the spider's web, catch the
fly and let the hawk go free. |
Spanish |
|
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| The spider and the fly can't make a
deal. |
Jamaican |
|
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| When spiders unite, they can tie down
a lion. |
Ethiopian |
|
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| When the bee sucks, it makes honey;
when the spider, poison. |
|
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Termite
| A termite can do nothing to a stone
but lick it. |
Sudanese |
|
|
| Flying termites fly into the fire |
|
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To act on impulse |
| Termites live underground. |
Ethiopian |
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Tick
| A tick |
|
|
An unpleasant or worthless person |
| You are like a tick in a dog's ear. |
|
|
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| I'm full as a tick on a fat dog! |
|
|
Expression used in the US south after
a full meal of chicken, fried steak, BBQ or whatever |
Vinegar fly
| To be as small as a vinegar fly and
want to shit like an elephant |
|
|
Too big for your boots |
Wasp
| For every grape a hundred wasps. |
Persian |
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| He dreads a moth who has been stung
by a wasp. |
Albanian |
|
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| I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent
and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic
wasps with the express intention of their feeding within
the living bodies of caterpillars. |
|
Charles Darwin |
|
| The fangs of the green snake and the
sting of a wasp don't really make poison -- that is
only to be found in a woman's heart. |
China |
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|
| Waspish |
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Bad tempered |
| Women are like wasps in their anger. |
English |
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Water beetle
| Crime leaves a trail like a water beetle;
like a snail, it leaves its silver track; like a horse-mango,
it leaves its smell. |
Malawi |
|
|
Water-insect
| The big fish eat the little fish, the
little fish eat the water-insects, and the water-insects
eat the weeds and mud. |
China |
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Weevil
| For every bean full of weevils God supplies
a blind grocer. |
Arabic |
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Worm
| Don't feed a silkworm that's sleeping |
|
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Let sleeping dogs sleep |
| God gives every bird his worm, but he
does not throw it into the nest. |
Swedish |
|
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| Never look for a worm in the apple of
your eye. |
Proverb |
|
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| With money, a dragon, without it, a
worm. |
China |
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