These creepy, crawly creatures may be the earliest residents of the Sonoran Desert. And once you get over the initial heebie-jeebies, you may be able to appreciate Arizona’s insects. The easiest to love, of course, are the graceful butterflies that populate the desert in the spring or those that migrate from Mexico in late summer and early fall. The great purple hairstreak, orange sulphur, and scandalous painted lady are colorful specimens to keep an eye out for. It may be a bit harder, though, to channel the warm fuzzies for the giant desert centipede and the cactus longhorn beetle, which feasts on the cholla and prickly pear cacti.

There are also a few spiders lurking in the desert, like the Arizona blond tarantula and the more common desert tarantula. Typically, they’re hiding underground in their silk-lined holes, but like Scottsdale club-goers, they do come out in search of mates. The same is true of the unnerving scorpion, which causes even the toughest of travelers (and cowboys) to halt. Luckily, of the 30 species in Arizona, only the bark scorpion produces venom that can be lethal. Stingers aside, tracking down these pinchers is a bit of a sport in Arizona, and hunters can search for the scorpions with an ultraviolet “black” light that causes their bodies to glow, or fluoresce.