Thanks to the children’s novel Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, most of us are familiar with the circular shape of an orb weaver spider web. Charlotte certainly had no trouble creating a new web overnight, but it might be more complicated than you think.

Imagine enjoying beautiful summer evenings without the nuisance of mosquitoes. Humans and other animals know mosquitoes as annoying, buzzing bloodsuckers. Well, at least female mosquitoes are. Only female mosquitoes suck blood, which they need to provision their eggs with essential amino acids.

If you live in our northern states, some years spring can’t come soon enough. Seeing your first butterfly of the year must be a sure sign that spring has sprung — unless it’s a mourning cloak butterfly. Mourning cloaks are a type of tortoiseshell butterfly. Along with a handful of butterflies known as anglewings, tortoiseshells are the first butterflies we see flying in late winter or early spring.

If you’re a Star Wars fan, they may remind you of the Sarlacc and its deadly sand pit in the "Return of the Jedi." In their adult life stage, antlions are pretty innocent. With long, slender abdomens and two pairs of translucent wings, they resemble dragonflies or damselflies and mostly feed on nectar and pollen.

Imagine a grizzly bear that can run over 135 miles per hour. Obviously, a grizzly can’t run that fast, but factoring in their smaller size, that’s what tiger beetles are to their potential prey.

When it comes to finding a potential mate for female Australian walking sticks, they can afford to “swipe left” all day. That’s because many species of walking sticks (or phasmids) are parthenogenic, meaning they can successfully produce offspring without needing to mate. This is a form of asexual reproduction where the growth and development of an embryo occurs without fertilization.

There are nearly 2,000 species of scorpions in the world. And while individual species may live thousands of miles apart, they have one thing in common: they glow a beautiful blue-green color under ultraviolet light. A thin, transparent film in the outermost layer of their exoskeleton contains a protein that glows when exposed to ultraviolet rays, which are found in regular sunlight.

Beware the dragonfly – This is great advice if you are just about any other flying insect, because dragonflies are incredible predators that rule the buggy skies. They are considered some of the best hunters in the insect world. Thanks to a combination of amazing eyesight and maneuverability, they catch whatever prey they set their sights on 95 percent of the time.

Praying mantids are among some of our best-known and well-liked insects. Part of their popularity comes from the fact that: They can be found in all of the lower 48 states, so you’ve likely had an encounter with one at some time. They are more animated than other insect species, moving in ways that are almost human-like. And they’ve also been popularized by being featured in movies like "A Bug’s Life," "Kung Foo Panda," and "Goosebumps" to name a few.

As described by Edward O. Wilson — who is perhaps the best known American biologist, researcher, naturalist and author — invertebrates are: "The Little Things That Run the World." And indeed they do, in so many ways.