Top 20 Most Common Insects in Norway

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 silver y (Autographa gamma) has an interesting name that comes from the silver, y-shaped patterns on each of its wings. Patterns on those wings also provide for decent camouflage. Its colors can be different depending on the local climate. You may catch them in your garden given their love of taking nectar from flowers.

Ochlodes sylvanus has a wingspan of 28–32 mm, which is similar in size to Chequered skipper. Although called "large" this is still a relatively small butterfly and not much larger than either the small or Essex skippers. The body is rather squat. The antennae are hooked at their tips. The upperside of the wings is orange-brown with a brown border and some lighter spots. The underside of the hindwings is greenish-yellow, marked with sparse yellow spots. The male has a broad scented androconial dark line across the top of the forewings. On the hindwings of the females there are brighter square marks. When the wings are opened, the forewings are obliquely folded, masking the hindwings. The faint chequered pattern on both the upperside and underside, and also the hook-shaped antenna tips, help to distinguish the large skipper from these two orange skippers. The Lulworth skipper also has patterned wings, but does not have the hooked antennae. The caterpillar can reach a length of 28 millimetres (1.1 in). It has a large blackish-brown head and a bluish green body, with a dark line down its back and a yellow stripe along each side.

Interestingly, individuals belonging to orange tip (Anthocharis cardamines) occupy different habitats depending on gender: the males inhabit the edges of forests, whereas the females prefer meadows. When laying eggs, females release pheromones to deter other females from laying eggs on the same flowerhead. They are picky about choosing their host plants, and females will avoid plants not fully exposed to sunlight.

The forewings of this species are greyish to rufous brown. The hindwings are grey.

Cabbage white (Pieris rapae) derives its common name from its habits as a caterpillar, which is a ferocious pest for cabbage, kale and broccoli farmers. In North America, it is one of the first butterflies to emerge in spring, heralding the beginning of the season.

The tree bumble bee (Bombus hypnorum) is otherwise known as the new garden bumblebee due to its ability to survive in uncommon environments. They like living near humans, often overtaking birdhouses for their own uses. When they aren't evicting birds from their houses they do work for the good of the colony.

Despite its common name, only male specimens of common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) can accurately be described as blue; the females are predominately gray-brown, with only a dusting of blue and a scattering of orange spots. The adults live for only three weeks before dying.

The heart and dart (Agrotis exclamationis) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. A familiar moth to many, it is considered one of the most common of the European region. It occurs throughout the Palearctic realm from Ireland to Japan. This is a quite variable species with forewings ranging from pale to dark brown but always recognizable by the distinctively shaped dark stigmata which give it its common name. The wingspan is 35–44 mm. The hindwings are whitish (compared with other common Agrotis species, the hindwings of this species are usually paler than in heart and club but darker than in turnip moth). This species usually has a dark area at the front of the thorax, visible as a horizontal bar when viewing the moth head on. The differences are not consistent however; they are highly variable in both colour and markings, and identification of atypical or worn examples may prove impossible without examination of genitalia. See Townsend et al. This moth flies at night from May to July and is attracted to light, sometimes in large numbers. It also frequently visits nectar-rich flowers such as Buddleia, ragwort and red valerian. The larva is brown above and grey below and feeds on a variety of plants, both wild and cultivated (see list below). This is one of the notorious cutworms and often severs or fatally damages plants at the base. The species overwinters as a full-grown larva in a chamber in the soil before pupating in the spring. ^ The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.

The silver-washed fritillary (Argynnis paphia) is a beautiful, orange butterfly that is covered in black spots. It earns the "silver-washed" portion of its name through silver streaks you can find running along with it. It produces a scent using "scales" that allows it to distinguish itself when females are trying to locate it.