Many, many thousands of insect species still await identification. The most brilliantly painted insects are the butterflies and moths, some quite tiny and obscure, others true giants of the insect kingdom, dazzlingly crowned in gold and jewel-like colors. In Guanacaste, hundreds of species of bees, moth larvae, and tiger beetles make an appearance in the early dry season. When the first rains come, lightbulbs are often deluged with adult moths, beetles, and other insects newly emerged from their pupae. That's the time, too, that many species of butterfly migrate from the deciduous lowland forests to highland sites.
Many insect species are too small to see.
The hummingbird flower mite, for example, barely half a millimeter long, is so small it can hitch rides from flower to flower inside the nostrils of hummingbirds. Other insects you may detect by their sound. Male wood crickets, for example, produce a very loud noise by rubbing together the overlapping edges of their wing cases. There are many exotic-looking species that you can immediately recognize. Guanacaste stick insects are easily spotted at night on low shrubs.