Top 20 Most Common Insects in Iraq

The painted lady is a migratory butterfly that spends part of the year in Northern Africa and then migrates to Europe during the warmer months. Although the adults feed on nectar from flowers, the larvae feed on the leaves of nettles and thistles.

The Early Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) is a species of dragonfly in the family of the leaflets (Libellulidae), which belongs to the great dragonfly (Anisoptera).

Black stream glider is a medium-sized dragonfly with purple color on its body structure. In the male, the frontal area appears darker purplish grey. The eyes are dark brown above, with a purple colored tinge, which is bluish grey, lateral and beneath. The thorax is black, covered with purple pruinescence, which helps it appear deep blue. The legs are black and wings are transparent with a dark opaque brown mark at the base of hind wing, with a black spot on tip of the wing. The abdomen is covered with fine blue pruinescence. The female looks brown in the front and extends above. The eyes are dark brown above and appear more grey-ish below. Thorax is greenish-yellow to olivaceous, with the presence of a medial dark brown lateral stripe. In addition, a Y-shaped inverted stripes can be observed on the sides. Legs are black with anterior femora being yellow on the inner side. Wings are transparent with dark reddish-brown tip with a black spot, similar to the male. The abdomen appears bright yellow with medial, lateral and ventral stripes, colored black, however, the medial and lateral black stripes form a confluence at abdominal segments to enclose a wedge-shaped yellow spot.

Ischnura elegans can reach a body length of 2.5 - 3.5 cm and a wingspan of about 3.5 cm. Hindwings reach alength of 1.4 - 2 cm. Adult male blue-tailed damselflies have a head and thorax patterned with blue and black. There is a bi-coloured pterostigma on the front wings. Eyes are blue. They have a largely black abdomen with very narrow pale markings where each segment joins the next. Segment eight, however, is entirely pale blue. At rest, the wings of most damselfly species are held back together, unlike dragonflies, which rest with their wings out flat. The thorax of juvenile males has a green tinge. Female blue-tailed Damselflies come in a variety of colour forms.Juveniles may be salmon pink, form rufescens; violet, form violacea and a pale green form. The colour darkens as the damselfly ages. Mature females may be blue like the male, form typica; olive green thorax and brown spot, form infuscans or pale brown thorax and brown spot, form infusca-obseleta.

Selysiothemis nigra, the black pennant, is a monotypic species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It occurs in Central Asia and the Middle East. In Europe it is mostly confined to the coastal areas of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

It is very similar to the blue-tailed damselfly, Ischnura elegans but on that species the blue spot is mostly on segment 8.Females undergo a change of colour as they mature. The immature female is bright orange, the aurantiaca phase, but matures to a greenish-brown.

Adults are easily recognizable due to their impressive body size with 69–80 mm length, the leaf-shaped flaps on the bottom side of the abdomen tip which are unique in European species, and wing venation. The flaps give the narrow and long abdomen club-shaped appearance. Basic color is pale yellow with dark brown or black markings of variable size. The pterostigma is also similarly colored. In south Croatia and Montenegro, it is possible to observe completely black individuals, which is probably a consequence of them developing in cold springs. The adults fly in the summer, from the end of May until August.

The lime swallowtail (Papilio demoleus) has a beautiful black and white pattern, but it's considered a major pest to citrus trees. It feeds on nearly any type of citrus, including oranges and limes. This butterfly's small, green larvae are capable of defoliating an entire nursery grove. They are truly trouble makers in the citrus orchard.

The emperor dragonfly or blue emperor (Anax imperator) is a large species of hawker dragonfly of the family Aeshnidae, averaging 78 millimetres (3.1 in) in length.

The wingspan of Utetheisa pulchella can reach 3 - 4 cm. The front wings are narrow, white or cream coloured with a variable pattern of numerous small black spots located between the larger-sized bright red spots. Sometimes the red spots are merged to transversal bands. The hindwings are wide, white, with an irregular black border along the outer edge and two black markings in the middle of the cell. The head and thorax range from cream colour to buff yellow, with the same pattern as the wings. The antennae are long and monofiliform. The abdomen is smooth, with a white background. Caterpillars are warty, dark brown or greyish, with tufts of greyish hairs, an orange crossline on each segment, a wide whitish line along the back and two other lateral white lines.