Animals that start with A

The antlion is the larval stage of a kind of flying insect often called a lacewing. Antlions get their name because they eat mostly ants. They live in dry, sandy areas and make their cocoons out of sand stuck together with silk. They catch ants to eat by digging small pits in the sand. Ants fall into the pits and have trouble getting back out, and the antlion comes out from hiding at the centre of the pit and eats them.

Aphids, also called plant lice, are a tiny, sapsucking insect. They are attracted to fresh new shoots of plants, especially developing fruit and flowerbuds. They can do a lot of damage to crops, and gardeners do not like them. Aphids can be killed by poison, removed by squirting them off with water from a hose, or their numbers can be reduced naturally by encouraging aphid-eaters like ladybugs and wasps into your garden.
The aphids in the picture are on a the developing flower bud of a rose.

An appaloosa is a breed of horse with a distinctive spotty coat. Appaloosas are usually used as a stock horse.

Arachids are creatures with an external skeleton and eight legs. Arachnids include spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites and harvestmen.

Asp is another word for snake, particularly a venomous snake. The historically named asp was probably an Egyptian cobra.

An avocet is a wading bird with long, thin legs and a upwards curving bill. It lives near shallow wetlands such as mudflats, salt pans, and lakeshores, where it can walk and feed. It uses its long bill to find insects and small animals in the water.