Insect Zoo - Small Wonders Up Close

A stop on San Francisco Zoo: Exhibit by Exhibit, a free self-guided tour.

Inside this building, the smallest animals in the zoo get the spotlight. The Insect Zoo began in 1979 as a temporary exhibit and proved so popular that it stayed.

Terrariums hold Madagascar hissing cockroaches, tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, walking sticks and velvet ants, which are really wingless wasps. Watch harvester ants carry food and tend their eggs, and find the working beehive: real honeybees fly in and out through a tube that leads outdoors.

Keepers mist the giant walking sticks twice a day and bring them fresh leaves daily, sometimes gathered in Golden Gate Park. Insects and their relatives make up most of the animal species on Earth, and many pollinate crops or recycle dead plants back into soil. Check the daily schedule for Incredible Insects in Action, a close-up demonstration with keepers.

Getting here: Enter the Exploration Zone near the carousel and follow the path past the Red Panda Treehouse to the Insect Zoo building.

Did you know?: Keepers incubate the eggs of the giant walking sticks for as long as 18 months before they hatch.

Photo op: Get close to the beehive glass and use your phone's macro mode to catch bees at the entrance tube.

For kids: Madagascar hissing cockroaches hiss by pushing air out through breathing holes along their sides. Listen for one.

Nearby: Restrooms are by the Great Hall and Education Center at the west edge of the Exploration Zone.

More on Wikipedia: Madagascar hissing cockroach · Western honey bee · Phasmatodea

Insect Zoo - Small Wonders Up Close

Stops on this tour