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Atrocious Arthropods

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Reject humanity. Advance to crab.

There is something about small creatures that crawl, slither or fly that some people just find unsettling. Whether it's because they can be dangerous when they get into our food, can be potentially fatal with their stings or bites, their presence indicating uncleanliness and pollution or just because they can be very annoying when they buzz around.

Despite constituting the largest phylum in the animal kingdom and making up eighty percent of all animal life on Earth, arthropods - or arthropod-like creatures - have a habit of appearing in fiction as villains or monsters to be feared. The most common choices are scorpions, spiders, cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes, but even more "benevolent" arthropods such as butterflies, ladybugs, ants, and crustaceans can be used. Of course, it doesn't matter how dangerous or harmless these creatures are in real life.

Atrocious Arthropods are quite often aliens, monsters and robots due to how their designs lend themselves to large, scary creatures. They will often be the evil faction in the Bug War.

What Measure Is a Non-Cute? and evolution itself can be a factor in this trope, since humans seem to have a biologically ingrained panic response to arthropods, presumably to avoid the risk of transmissible diseases, and because of this, many people consider most arthropods to be scary or ugly. However, the general consensus is that this response may be easily overridden through frequent exposure to arthropods early in life. In most other cultures, arthropods are more likely to be considered appetizing food than objects of fear.

Compare Reptiles Are Abhorrent. Contrast Friendly Neighborhood Spider, Pretty Butterflies and Virtuous Bees. Related to Flies Equals Evil and Bugs Herald Evil.

Super-Trope to:

Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Anime & Manga 
  • Bleach:
    • Shawlong Koufang is one of the Arrancar, an advanced form of Hollow with Shinigami-like powers, whose Resurrecion form is earwig-themed and comes with Creepy Long Fingers that are capable of cutting up a (restrained) Hitsugaya.
    • Loly Aivirnne is a sadistic and abusive Arrancar whose Resurrecion form turns her into a giant centipede.
    • Nnoitra Gilga is an Ax-Crazy Espada with a praying mantis motif. His Resurrección, Santa Teresa, is the Spanish name for a praying mantis. His transformation grants him six arms, giving him an insect-like appearance, and his scythes are meant to evoke the image of a mantis' forelegs.
    • Kaname Tosen is a traitor Shinigami who underwent the Hollowfication process after joining with Aizen.His Hollow form is giant cricket creature.
    • Sosuke Aizen is the Big Bad of the pre-timeskip half of the series. His Hogyoku transformations are modeled after a butterfly, with his final form being a disturbing, eldritch butterfly-like creature.
  • Blue Gender: The Blue are giant bug-like creatures that serve as the main physical threats of the series. They were created by Gaia to cull the human race for the purpose of wiping out humans in an attempt to save the planet.
  • Digimon: Insectoid Digimon appear throughout the various anime series. A few of them have been partners to the heroes (Tentomon in Adventure, Wormmon in Adventure 02) but more often than not they appear as main villains or monsters of the week.
    • Digimon Adventure: The first antagonistic Digimon the team encounters is a Kuwagamon, an Insectoid Digimon based on a saw stag beetle. Other examples include Scorpiomon, a servant of the Dark Master MetalSeadramon and Dokugumon, a spider Digimon who served Myotismon.
    • Digimon: The Movie: Diaboromon is the main villain of the "Our War Game" portion of the movie. Sporting an insect-like appearance inspired by the Y2K Bug, it is an evil virus Digimon who wreaks havoc across the Internet.
    • Digimon Adventure 02: Arukenimon is an evil Ultimate Digimon based on a spider. She and Mummymon serve Yukio Oikawa, the second human villain seen in the series.
    • Digimon Tamers: Dokugumon appears as an evil Digimon again, this time trying to eat Rika and Renamon. She is defeated when Renamon digivolves into Kyubimon for the first time.
    • Digimon Adventure: (2020):
      • "The King of Insects Clash": Taichi, Mimi, Koshiro and their Digimon are attacked by an Okuwamon and a swarm of Kuwagamon when they reach a canyon. While MetalGreymon and Togemon take care of the Kuwagamon, Kabuterimon digivolves into MegaKabuterimon for the first time and slays Okuwamon.
      • "Garudamon of the Crimson Wings": A massive CannonBeemon commands a squadron of Waspmon to kidnap local Digimon to be used by the evil forces. It is defeated when Birdramon becomes Garudamon for the first time.
      • "The Wolf Standing Atop The Desert": Garurumon becomes WereGarurumon for the first time when Matt, Sora, Joe and their partners have to face a Scorpiomon ruling over a desert they are trying to cross.
    • Digimon Ghost Game: Arukenimon appears as a villain again. She is portrayed as a Digimon that likes to devour people's brains to gain their intelligence, and is one of the few antagonist Digimon that is genuinely depicted as evil and unsympathetic.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Cell is Dr. Gero's ultimate creation, made from the DNA of the galaxy's most powerful warriors. He is an insect-like creature who seeks to achieve his perfect form and is willing to wipe out entire cities to reach his goal.
    • Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon: The Hirudegarn is an ancient being of but pure destruction and one of the main antagonists of the movie. It's second form is that of a large, insect-like creature.
  • Gunbuster: The Uchuu Kaiju, or Space Monsters, are a race of Insectoid Aliens bent on eradicating humanity.
  • One-Punch Man:
    • The first villain Saitama ever faced was Crablante, a crab-like monster who didn't hesitate to kill children for making fun of him.
    • Two of Dr. Genus's artificial mutants qualify — Mosquito Girl, who is based on a mosquito and is enjoys draining people of their blood; and Carnage Kabuto, a rhino beetle mutant who enjoys fighting and destruction.
    • The Monster Association is a villain group of humans turned monsters. Some of their members are arthropod creatures such as Awakened Cockroach, Centichoro and Bug God.
  • Space Battleship Yamato 2199: When the crew are investigating a habitable planet in the Beemla System, they are attacked by a giant arthropod. Hieroglyphs in an ancient ruin suggest that it is a feral form of the fallen civilization's livestock.
  • TerraforMARS: The Terraformars are humanoid cockroaches who were created to help humans adapt to Mars but evolved and now seek to destroy humans.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: A number of villains and antagonists have used insect decks.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Insector Haga is the most well known example in the franchise. A highly respected duelist who specializes in insect monsters when introduced, Haga shows himself to be an underhanded cheater when he throws Yugi's Exodia cards into the water. In his return in the Battle City arc, Haga sabotages Jonouchi's deck by slipping in a card that allows him to turn the latter's monsters into insect monsters. The Waking the Dragons filler arc has Haga go full on villain by joining the doomsday cult the heroes are fighting against.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds:
      • In the second episode, Yusei duels a man named Lenny who wants to take his D-Wheel. Lenny uses an insect deck that focuses on beatdown and swarm tactics.
      • Rudger Goodwin is the leader of the Dark Signers, the Evil Counterparts to the Signers. He uses a spider deck with his ace monster being the Earthbound God Uru who resembles a giant spider.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL:
      • Semimaru is an underground Dueling criminal who was reincarnated as a Barian with a cicada-like appearance. He also uses an archetype of insect monsters called Cicadas.
      • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL (manga): Kyoji Yagumo is a ruthless and cruel Numbers Hunter with a Spider deck.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Aso is a member of the Knights of Hanoi and uses an insect deck focusing on the Motor Worm archetype. In contrast to the other examples on this list, Aso is a villain with a noble goal, namely saving humanity from the Ignis.

    Comic Books 
  • The DCU:
    • Blue Beetle: The New 52 reimagines the Reach with a more insectoid look while retaining their role as an antagonistic race of conquerors.
    • Green Lantern: Parallax is the cosmic embodiment of fear and the creature that possessed Hal Jordan to make him evil. It's appearance is a cross between a dragonfly and reptile.
    • Supergirl: Godship, the main villain of Bizarrogirl, commands an army of large insect monsters.
    • Superman:
    • Wonder Woman (1942): The Robert Kanigher run featured the Termite Queen, a one-shot villain who appeared in issue #58. She was a monster termite with a vicious hatred of humans and the ability to telepathically command termites, which she used to make them consume metal and wreak havoc.
  • Giantkiller:
    • The first Daikaiju Jack fights is Ig, an insectoid creature resembling a beetle.
    • Issue #3 introduces Zomm, a giant moth-like Daikaiju.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • Fantastic Four: Annihilus is the insectoid tyrant of the Negative Zone. He views all other living creatures as a threat to him and believes the only way to survive is to kill everyone else.
    • The Incredible Hulk: Miek, one of Hulk's companions in Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, doesn't start out this way but becomes this over time. Miek belongs to an insectoid race native to the planet Sakaar. After he encounters several tragedies, including his species facing extinction, Miek becomes obsessed with getting revenge on those who have wronged him, escalating to him withholding the truth about how the Hulk's wife and children truly died so the Hulk would go Worldbreaker and become a machine of complete rage and destruction.
    • Spider-Man:
      • Mac Gargan aka the Scorpion is a former private eye who was transformed into a scorpion-based villain after he underwent an experiment funded by J. Jonah Jameson.
      • Richard Deacon aka the Human Fly was a two-bit criminal who stumbled upon a scientist's lab while fleeing the police. The scientist's experiments transformed into a superhuman using the genetic code of a housefly. Deacon killed the scientist and used his new powers for criminal pursuits.
    • X-Men:
      • The Brood are insectoid aliens who serve as antagonists to the heroes. The Brood's goal is to reproduce and consume all resources, and they have been shown to be very sadistic when torturing their victims.
      • Madrox: Sheila DeSoto, the fiancée of mob boss Eddie Vance, is the true villain of the story and is a mutant with the ability to take on a terrifying insectoid form. She got engaged to Eddie in order to kill him and take over his racket, and murdered a Madrox duplicate when he learned of her plans.
  • Vengeance of Vampirella (2019): In issue #9, Vampirella and her friends are attacked by a swarm of insect demons. They kill most of them but one of the demons survives to inform Nyx of the battle.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Animated 

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Godzilla: Arthropod-themed Kaiju appear throughout the films as antagonists.
    • Son of Godzilla: The Kamacuras are giant praying mantises who try to eat Godzilla's son, Minilla. There is also Kumonga, a Giant Spider that is much more dangerous than the Kamacuras.
    • Godzilla vs. Megaguirus: The titular Megaguirus is a Dreadful Dragonfly and the main antagonist of the film. She can siphon energy from her opponents and use their powers against them.
    • Godzilla vs. Megalon: Megalon is an insect Kaiju that seems to be a cross between a mole cricket and a rhino beetle.
    • Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth: Mothra averts this by being a heroic moth Kaiju. However, her dark counterpart Battra plays this straight, albeit as a Well-Intentioned Extremist. While he also protects the Earth, he is only concerned with the Earth, and any of its inhabitants who threaten the planet will also face his wrath, which happened to the Cosmos civilization when they created a weather control system. In the present day, he awakened to stop an asteroid headed for Earth, but was enraged by modern humanity's pollution and began attacking civilization as punishment.
    • Godzilla vs. Gigan: The main villains are a race of cockroach-like aliens who want to take over Earth after their own planet was destroyed by pollution.
    • Ebirah, Horror of the Deep: The titular Ebirah is a giant shrimp mutated by the nuclear waste of the terrorist organization Red Bamboo who use him to guard their island base.
    • The Return of Godzilla: Shockirus are giant sea lice which were mutated by feeding on Godzilla's radioactive blood. At five feet long, they were certainly large enough to be a threat to humans, even if not quite Kaiju-sized.
    • Godzilla (2014): The MUTOs are the villainous Kaiju of the movie and resemble giant insects. They are a somewhat sympathetic example: Their goal is merely to reunite with one another, have offspring, and ensure the resurgence of their species. Even with the amount of destruction they cause, they are at least sympathetic in this regard. In addition, they usually only cause destruction solely because they're so large and act more like actual animals.
  • Men in Black: Edgar the Bug is a giant, sapient roach from outer space that doesn't mind destroying our world, and thinks wars are good because it means more food for his family.
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie: Ivan Ooze commands two arthropod-themed robots, which he uses to attack the city. One is based on a hornet and the other is based on a scorpion.
  • Wild Wild West: Doctor Loveless is the main villain and has a spider Animal Motif. His flag has a spider on it, his secret base is in Spider Canyon and the film's climax has him trying to kill President Grant with a Spider Tank.

    Gamebooks 
  • Lone Wolf: Archlord Gnaag has the appearance of a hideous, humanoid fly. He's one of the most dangerous Darklords thanks to his intelligence and careful planning, and serves as the Big Bad for most of the Magnakai arc.

    Literature 
  • All Tomorrows: The Qu are Insectoid Aliens who feel it is was their right to take living creatures of all stripes and reshape them into the Qu's ideal image.
  • Animorphs: The Skrit Na are an insectoid race who are allies of the Yeerks, the villains of the series. They start out as insectoid but change to a less insectoid appearance as part of their life cycle.
  • Journey to the West:
    • The Scorpion Lady is an evil demon who tries to get Tripitaka to sleep with her. Her true form is that of a large scorpion.
    • The Spiderling Spirits are seven spider demons who take the form of human women and try to eat Tripitaka.
    • The Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord is a centipede demon and the adoptive brother to the aforementioned Spiderling Spirits. He tries to poison the main protagonists and takes Tang Sanzang hostage, refusing to let him go even when Monkey threatens his sisters.
  • Starship Troopers: The Bugs are the alien antagonists of the novels and are utterly ruthless in their war against humanity. That said, it is left unclear which side actually started the war between the humans and the Bugs, and the Federation did expand on planets that had been claimed by the Bugs.
  • Spellsinger: The main villains of the first two books are the Plated Folk, a nation of genocidal insects with a taste for the flesh and blood of sapient mammals. Averted with the Weavers of Gossameringue, a spider nation who are rather scary, but are allies to the heroes.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel: The monsters of the week in "Fredless" are vicious giant bugs. Subverted when its revealed that Angel inadvertently stole their children. Once the baby bugs are returned, the rest of the hive leave peacefully.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The She-Mantis is the Monster of the Week in "Teacher's Pet". She is a mantis monster who takes the form of a human teacher in order to find male human virgins to mate with. During the mating process, she bites the male's head off.
  • Doctor Who: The Macra from "The Macra Terror" are a race of expansionist alien crabs who have taken over a human mining colony to get the phebotinum the race needs to survive.
  • House of the Dragon: The Pirate Craghas Drahar aka "The Crabfeeder" owes his nickname to the fact that he feeds the hapless sailors he catches to hungry crabs.
  • Power Rangers: Many villains and monsters have an arthropod theme.
    • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Scorpina is a minion of Rita's who can transform into a giant scorpion-like creature. Other examples of arthropod monsters are Stag Beetle, Commander Crayfish, Spidertron and Grumble Bee.
    • Power Rangers in Space:
      • "Wasp With A Heart" has two insect-themed monsters, Waspicable and Sting King. The former is a subversion of this trope, being a kind-hearted creature that is being forced into evil and pulls a Face–Heel Turn after being befriended by Cassie. The latter plays this trope straight and tries to kill the Rangers.
      • "The Barillian Sting" has the Barillian Bugs, a race of scorpion-like aliens whose sting can transform the victim into one of them, as Carlos learned the hard way.
    • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Scorpius is an alien warlord who is basically a cross between a spider and an octopus. His daughter Trakeena is a humanoid in insectoid armor and takes over as the main villain after Scorpius dies. For extra points, their ship also resembles a cross between a dragonfly and a scorpion. There was also a monster of the week who was based on a lobster.
    • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: Arachnor is the Monster of the Week in "Web War". She is a spider-like demon with the ability to scan the Rangers' weapons and find their weaknesses. She was defeated using Carter's Battilizer
    • Power Rangers Wild Force: The villains of "Forever Red" are generals commanding the remnants of the Machine Empire, the villains from Power Rangers Zeo. The generals are recycled costumes from Beetleborgs and thus are based on insects.
    • Power Rangers Ninja Storm: The Thunder Rangers are a subversion. They start out as evil Rangers but are revealed to have sympathetic motives, namely avenging their dead parents which they were tricked by Lothor into believing the Wind Rangers' mentor was responsible for. They ultimately pull a Heel–Face Turn.
    • Power Rangers: Dino Thunder:
      • Demagnetron is a the monster of the week in "Game On". He is part diving beetle, part rhododendron and part magnet.
      • Insectolite is the monster of the week in "Burning at Both Ends". He is a cross between a centipede, a pansy and a satellite.
    • Power Rangers Megaforce: The Warstar are a race of insectoid beings who are out to conquer Earth. Their leader, Admiral Malkor, is a moth-like being and one hell of a Bad Boss.
  • Red Dwarf: One of the GELF types the Dwarfers have encountered over the years is the Psiren, a creature which resembles a giant assassin beetle. Said creature also lures unsuspecting crew in with their illusions so that they can suck out their brains with a straw.

    Toys 
  • Transformers: A theme consistently followed by the franchise from nearly day one, with an overwhelming amount of Transformers with arthropod alt-modes, mostly insects, being evil.
    • Transformers: Generation 1: The Insecticons are Decepticons with insect alt modes. In addition to serving as Mooks for Megatron, they possess the ability to convert any sort of matter into Energon for the Decepticons to use.
    • Beast Wars: The Predacons have many insect, arachnid, and crustacean alt modes among their ranks, with their insignia looking noticeably insectoid. The arthropod Predacons are Waspinator (wasp), Inferno (ant), Scorponok (scorpion), Quickstrike (part snake, part scorpion), Tarantulas (spider), Rampage (crab) and Blackarachnia (spider). Blackarachnia does pull a Heel–Face Turn but doesn't quite shake her Predacon ruthlessness. To drive the point home, toyline exclusive combiner Tripredacus is made of three arthropods: two insects (a beetle and a cicada), and a lobster.
    • Transformers Film Series: The Decepticons are given monstrous animal-like features to contrast with the more human-looking Autobots. Some of them have arthropod features such as Megatron, Demolishor, Scalpel and Frenzy. There is also Scorponok whose robot mode is a scorpion.
    • Transformers: Animated: Waspinator and Blackarachnia are sympathetic variations of this trope.
      • Before she became Blackarachnia, Elita-1 was an Autobot cadet who, along with her friends Optimus and Sentinel, went to the planet Archa Seven looking for a Decepticon ship. The trio were attacked by Giant Spiders and Elita was presumed dead. In reality, she had used her ability to copy powers from other creatures allowed her to survive being injected with the spiders' venom but she was also transformed into a techno-organic Transformer with a spider alternate mode. Blackarachnia hates the Autobots, particularly Optimus and Sentinel, for abandoning her and has sided with the Decepticons. However, her main goal is to reverse her transformation into a techno-organic and she is depicted as a Tragic Villain.
      • Wasp was once an arrogant but promising Autobot cadet until he was accused of being Decepticon spy by Bumblebee (the real spy was Longarm Prime aka Shockwave, who had framed Wasp). Wasp was imprisoned and driven mad by the experience, swearing revenge on Bumblebee for ruining his life. He broke out and ultimately fell in with Blackarachnia who convinced him to undergo a procedure that transformed him into a techno-organic Transformer with an insect alternate mode.
    • Transformers: Prime: In addition to the Insecticons, we also have Airachnid. A sadistic spider-like robot, Airachnid served as a mercenary during the Cybertron War, holding no allegiances to either side. Not only does she hunt other species into extinction for sport, but she also murdered Arcee's first partner Tailgate.

    Video Games 
  • Darksiders: Some of the bosses and enemies have arthropod-like appearances.
    • Darksiders I: Among the villains in this game are The Chosen, abyssal creatures from the Abyss that predate angels and demons. Two of them qualify as Atrocious Arthropods: Silitha, a Giant Spider who feeds those who wonder into her territory to her young or keeps alive as her prisoners if they have information, and the Griever, a massive, feral, insectoid beast. Both of these creatures also have offspring, the Broodlings and the Swarm respectively, who serve as enemies to the player.
    • Darksiders II: Some of the enemies featured are Stingers, hornet monsters that swarm death and can only be stopped from spawning by destroying their hive, and Scarabs, insect monsters encountered in the dungeons of the Dead Kingdom. The latter have larger and stronger variants called Scarab Hulks.
    • Darksiders III: One of the bosses is Sloth of the Seven Deadly Sins. His appearance is that of a large, green, grotesque bed-bug. He also calls upon insectoid monsters to fight Fury.
  • Devil May Cry:
    • Devil May Cry 1:
      • Beezlebubs are insects possessed by demons, causing them to grow to enormous proportions. Blue Beelzebubs resemble flies and can spit out maggots that stop you from using guns, while green Beelzebubs resemble mantises.
      • Phantom is a massive spider/scorpion demon who serves as one of the bosses in the game.
      • The Kyklops are lesser demon enemies that resemble the aforementioned Phantom.
    • Devil May Cry 2: One of the game's bosses is Noctpteran, a giant moth demon under the command of Arius.
    • Devil May Cry 4: Agnus is the Evil Genius of the Order of the Sword, the main villains of the game. In his boss battles, he takes the form of a large insect demon.
    • Devil May Cry 5:
      • The Empusa are insect-like demons who deliver all the stolen blood back to the hive which serves as the center of the Qliphoth.
      • Gilgamesh is a massive, cockroach-like demon that serves as a boss for Nero.
  • Eternal Darkness: One of the Ancients is Chatturr'gha who serves as one of the three main antagonists of the game. His physical form resembles a giant crustacean.
  • Flower Knight Girl The Pests are the primary antagonistic threat of Spring Garden, being grotesque Big Creepy-Crawlies of various insect species that, once upon a time, were previously beneficial insects that were pets/companions to the inhabitants. But since the introduction of a "Pestification poison" into the region, they've changed into hostile arthropods that have threaten the lives of Spring Garden for centuries, causing innumerable death and grief.
  • Mario Bros.: Shellcreepers notwithstanding, the two main foes that the Mario Bros. face are both arthropods, being Sidesteppers, which are crabs, and Fighter Flies, which are... well, flies.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Hanzo Hasashi goes by the code name Scorpion. He frequently goes through the Heel–Face Revolving Door and can transform into a giant scorpion in Mortal Kombat 4.
    • D'Vorah is a villain and a member of the Kytin, an insectoid race whose bodies are essentially humanoid hives of insect colonies. D'Vorah is one of the least trustworthy characters in the games, willing to ally with anyone she believes will assure her survival. This often means she is on the side of the villains.
  • Resident Evil: Some of the Bio-Organic Weapons or B.O.W.s for short, have been insects or arachnids transformed into terrifying monsters.
    • Resident Evil: The Web Spinner and Black Tiger are spiders who have grown into giants as a result of exposure to the T-Virus while the remake introduced the Chimera; a creature created by combining human and fly DNA.
    • Resident Evil 0: Two of the bosses the main protagonists Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen face are the Stinger and the Centurion a giant scorpion and centipede respectively.
    • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis: The Drain Deimos and Brain Sucker are massive humanoid insects encountered on multiple occasions by the protagonist Jill Valentine.
    • Resident Evil – Code: Veronica: One of the bosses fought by Chris Redfield is a giant black widow spider which was created by the T-Virus.
    • Resident Evil 4: The Novistadors are giant insects who serve as a host of the Las Plaga parasites, they are capable of turning themselves invisible as well as spitting corrosive acid as an offensive weapon.
    • Resident Evil 5: The Reapers are African cockroaches that have been transformed by accidental exposure to Uroboros.
    • Resident Evil 6: The J'avo are a class of mutant whose body parts transform into arthropod creatures.
    • Resident Evil 7: Giant insects created by the Mold are encountered in the Old House as common enemies.
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: In the Senpou Temple area some of the Buddhist monks have become infested with centipedes as part of their pursuit of immortality. The infested will only be resurrected when killed unless they are given a death blow using the Mortal Blade.

    Web Videos 
  • Pop Cross Studios: Christian has painted numerous monsters in his art channel, several of which are arthropods. Prominent examples include:
    • What if Pokémon were SCPs?: Three of the uglier, more dangerous Pokemon in this series are Bug types: Scizor (mixture of crustacean and mantis powerful enough to kill black bears), Heracross (gigantic rhinoceros beetle powerful enough to kill Asian elephants) and Giratina (gigantic centipede-shaped entity regarded as Satan himself).
    • Tayruns Adventures And Beast Chronicling: The Leather-backed Omni-Stomper is basically the Ed-209 depicted as a gigantic bipedal invertebrate (though what type is not certain) which is highly territorial and attacks anything that enters its turf (luckily, it still can't climb, so its victims can evade by hiding at the top of a hill until it clears off).
    • In the Depths of the Everyverse features Christian's original characters Tayrun and Kayla, exploring the caves of the titular dimension. One of the numerous creatures that attacks them is a gigantic aquatic scorpion with a tail that ends in a humanoid mannequin, which it uses to pretend to be a drowning person to lure Kayla into its grasp.
    • Phobias as Demons: Arachnibus and Entomantis are two demons who eat people that suffer from specific phobias. Arachnibus eats arachnophobes, so as its name implies, it takes the form of a gigantic spider with Slasher Smile patterns covering its abdomen and fangs, whereas Entomantis eats entomophobes, and takes the form of a gigantic hornet with four legs shaped like a mantis' arms. Arachnibus can inject its prey with a venom that paralyzes them and increases their fear, whereas Entomantis' venom attracts smaller stinging insects to its victims to continue tormenting them.

    Western Animation 
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog:
  • Dino-Riders: The Rulons are a race of Beast Men who serve as the villains of the setting. Amongst them are Antor, an ant creature, and Lokus, a locust creature.
  • Godzilla: The Series: A number of the evil Kaiju Godzilla fights are arthropods: the Megapede, Fire Monster, Giant Scorpion, Giant Spider, El Gusano Gigante, the Giant Bees, Giant Termites.
  • Jonny Quest: The eponymous robot in the episode "The Robot Spy." When first discovered, it looks like a bowling ball that's 30 inches (75 cm) in diameter. The Quest team put it in a storage shed overnight, intending to examine it more closely in the morning. Left alone, the ball spouts four very long articulated legs, and opens one big eye. Under the command of its master Dr. Zin, the robo-spider then goes sneaking around the facility, aiming to analyze Quest's newest Secret Weapon.
  • Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures: "Digital Doublecross" has Jonny and Jessie having to deal with a virus created by Surd which has infected Questworld and created digital duplicates of them. While trying to evade said duplicates, Jonny and Jessie head into a hive level where they also have to fight off bee-like monsters.
  • Megas XLR:
    • Gorrathh is the leader of the [[Aliens Are Bastards, the Glorft]], an alien race that has all but completely wiped out humanity in the future. In the first episode, Gorrath's mech displays the ability to transform into a spider-like form.
    • The R.E.G.I.S. Mark 5 is a spider-like alien robot hellbent on destroying everything in sight.
  • Men in Black: The Series: Edgar's race of insect aliens appear as villains in the series. The Queen orders a bounty on Agent L's head as revenge for Edgar's death.
  • Mummies Alive!:
    • Scarab is an ancient wizard who murdered Presley in his previous life as a young pharaoh. He can transform into a beetle creature in battle.
    • Jakal's evil brother Arak has armor based on a scorpion.
  • The Mummy: The Animated Series:
    • In "Trio", Imhotep fuses with a spider creature called the Nihansan that was sealed away.
    • One of the recurring villains is a beetle creature called the Scarab.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Subverted with the Changelings, a race of creatures that look like a cross between a Pony and a winged insect. They're initially introduced as a Horde of Alien Locusts who terrorize Equestria and have a Horror Hunger for love. However, it's eventually revealed that they're being deliberately starved for love by Queen Chrysalis, and once they learn more about friendship, they make a Heel–Face Turn, complete with a metamorphosis into more beautiful forms which resemble a cross between a deer and a stag beetle. Queen Chrysalis, however, plays this trope straight, refusing to change and eventually forming a Big Bad Ensemble with some of the former villains of the series in a bid to conquer Equestria.
    • The main characters have fought creatures resembling insects. These include the Bugbear (a vicious cross between a bear and a bug), Flyders, flying Spiders who apparently consider Ponies to be food, and the Flash Bees, which have electric stingers and are highly aggressive.
  • The Octonauts: A skull spider from "The Beetle Invasion" attempts to eat one of the Bombardier beetles alive with an evil grin on her face. Kwazii deals overcomes his arachnophobia by stopping her.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
    • Roach Coach from "Insect Inside" is a roach in a humanoid robot suit who commands an army of cockroaches to take over Townsville.
    • The Monster of the Week in "Bubblevision" is a giant ant creature.
    • In "Power-Noia", HIM torments the girls with nightmares revolving around their worst fears. In Buttercup's case, her nightmare is being attacked by giant spiders due to her arachnophobia. The climax has the girls fight HIM who has taken on the form of a freakish, scorpion-like creature.
  • Steven Universe: Steven and the Crystal Gems spend much of the series battling a variety of mysterious creatures, some of which resemble insects and crustaceans, such as the Centipeetle and Colossal Crab. Subverted when it's revealed those creatures are actually corrupted Gems, so they are more Brainwashed and Crazy than outright villainous.
  • Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go:
    • "Flytor": One of the creatures mutated by Skeleton King to attack Shugazoom is a crab.
    • "The Stranded Seven": The heroes crash land on a planet whose feline inhabitants are being terrorized and oppressed by a race of praying mantis creatures called the Mantidons.
    • "Invasion of the Vreen": The heroes battle the Vreen, a race of mutated insects who seek to devour Shugazoom.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): In "Enter The Fly", Baxter Stockman's latest failure drives Shredder to call in Rock Steady and Bebop to take on the Turtles. Since the unstable dimensional interface requires somebody be sent back through the portal to maintain the balance, Baxter is selected to be sent through a portal to Dimension X while Rock Steady and Bebop are teleported to Earth. But unlike what the title may hint to older viewers the teleportion itself goes on without a hitch. Unfortunately, Krang sees no use in keeping a human ally alive for no apparent reason, and heartlessly orders for his execution. Its then that he is shoved into Krang's disintegration unit and a housefly gets caught in the process and fuses with Baxter, transforming him into a deranged fly-creature, with both human and fly thoughts and desires.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): In "April's Artifact", April and the Turtles are accidentally transported to another dimension where they are attacked by giant wasps.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): The Turtles face quite a few of them, like the cockroach in "Cockroach Terminator", the mutant wasp in "Parasitica" and Baxter Stockman after he mutates with fly DNA.

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