Top 20 Most Common Insects in Tonga

Hyblaea puera, the teak defoliator, is a moth native to south-east Asia. It was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1777. The species has also been recently reported to be present in Central America and Africa. The caterpillar feeds on teak and other trees. It is considered to be one of the major teak pests around the world.

Despite its name, american cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is not native to the Americas but rather to Africa and the Middle East, from which it arrived as a result of human commercial patterns. Notably quick and rather resilient, this species is capable of limb regeneration. It requires a certain level of moisture to thrive, and it will avoid drier areas unless it has access to the required level of water.

The wingspan is about 7 cm. It is similar to Hippotion brennus and Hippotion joiceyi but distinguishable from the former by the lack of paired subdorsal white spots on the abdomen and from the latter by the lack of a dorsal white median line on the thorax.

The female gray wall jumper lays her eggs in cracks or other hidden areas. The young and mature spiders feed on flies, making them useful residents in a household. They do not make webs, but carefully hunt and jump on their prey.

The australian cockroach is a tropical species of cockroach that is not cold-tolerant. Like most cockroaches, it feeds on decomposing organic matter. However, it also feeds on plant matter more than most cockroaches. It tends to get accidentally transported around the world through commerce and shipping.

Aiolopus thalassinus is a species of grasshopper belonging to the family Acrididae, subfamily Oedipodinae. It is present in many countries of Europe (but not the British Isles or Scandinavia), and in the Afrotropical realm to Asia and the Pacific islands. The colouration of this species is generally from clear brown to dark brown. Females have a size of 21–29 mm and males of 15–19 mm.

The wingspan is about 1 cm. Both the forewings and hindwings are composed of feather-like plumes. These are buff with brown marks. When resting, the moth sits with its abdomen curved up into the air and its wings held at right angles to the body with the plumes folded.

Meadow argus has two brownish wings, each covered with two distinctive black and blue eyespots as well as white and orange marks that appear on the edge of the wings. The underside of the wings are mainly unmarked, except the lower part of the forewing has similar markings as the upperside.The wingspan measures 4 cm in males and 4.5 cm in females.

The wingspan is about 30 mm. Adults have translucent whitish wings with broad dark brown borders. The body is whitish below, and brown on top of head and thorax as well as the end of the abdomen. There is a tuft of light brown "hairs" on the tip of the abdomen, vestigial in the male but well developed in the female. It is formed by long scales which are carried in a pocket on each side of the 7th abdominal segment, from where they can be everted to form the tufts. Unfertilized females are often seen sitting around with the tuft fully spread, forming two flower-like clumps of scales, which move slowly to spread their pheromones. These have been identified as consisting mainly of (E,E)-10,12-hexadecadienal and (E)-11-hexadecenal. From its closest relatives, the cucumber moth is most reliably distinguished by microscopic examination of the genitals. In the male, the clasper's harpe is twice as long as it is wide, with the costa and sacculus running almost in parallel and being strongly sclerotized, and a rounded cucullus. From the center of the harpe, which is otherwise only weakly sclerotized, a thin spine extends. The uncus is covered in bristles and ends in a small tube; it is a bit longer than the tegumen which in turn is about as wide as it is long. The vinculum is almost quadratic, and the anellus forms a small triangular plate which is more strongly sclerotized. The aedeagus is almost straight, strongly sclerotized below, and has a flattened curved process at end. In the female genitals, the ostium is transverse and oval, and the antrum broadly sclerotized. The ductus seminalis insert from above, a bit before the forward edge of the antrum. The bursa copulatrix is long and slim, with the forward third particularly narrow; its wall is covered with many short spines, and the hind end almost seamlessly merges into a short and barely distinguishable ductus bursae.

Vagrans is monotypic genus with the species vagrant (Vagrans egista) a species of nymphalid butterfly found in forested areas of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia.