The Bugs Around You
Learn to read the miniature world crawling across your garden, porch, and windowsills. Identify common insects in seconds, distinguish helpful garden allies from pests, and separate genuine stingers from harmless mimics.
Like Duolingo, but for The Bugs Around You. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 9 levels across 2 sections, about 18 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Spotting and Sorting What You Find and Judging Threats and Coexisting. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Bugs Around You
- Insects always have exactly six legs (three pairs)
- Arachnids, including spiders and ticks, have eight legs (four pairs)
- Centipedes and millipedes (myriapods) have repeated segments each bearing legs
- An insect's body is divided into three distinct regions: head, thorax, and abdomen
- All legs and wings attach to the middle section (the thorax), which powers all locomotion
- Sensory gear sits on the head, while vital digestive and reproductive organs sit in the rear abdomen
- Insects are the only land invertebrates that have evolved flight
- Immature insects (nymphs and larvae) never possess fully functional wings
- Spiders and other non-insect arthropods never possess wings
- True bugs have wings that cross flat over their backs, forming a visible 'X' pattern when resting
- True bugs have specialized piercing, straw-like mouthparts for sucking fluids, rather than chewing jaws
- Informally people call everything a bug, but scientifically 'true bugs' are one distinct order
- Beetles protect their delicate flight wings under hardened front wings called elytra
- When closed, these hardened wing covers meet cleanly down the middle, creating a sharp straight line
- Unlike true bugs whose wings overlap, a beetle's wing covers do not cross over each other
- Insects with sharp, needle-like beaks stab plant veins to drink sap or pierce other insects
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Bugs Around You the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
You spot a spider creeping along a leaf. How many legs does an arachnid have?
Get it right to open this lesson and 8 more in the app.
How to learn The Bugs Around You, step by step
Go in order. 9 short levels across 2 sections, about 18 minutes in all, five minutes a day.
- 1
Spotting and Sorting What You Find
- The Quick Body Check
- Reading Insect Behavior and Roles
- 2
Judging Threats and Coexisting
- Separating Real Danger from Bluff
2 sections · 3 units · 9 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Questions about The Bugs Around You
How do I learn The Bugs Around You?
Go in order: start with Spotting and Sorting What You Find, then Judging Threats and Coexisting. On Tomo that's 9 short levels, about 18 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.
Is there a Duolingo-style app for The Bugs Around You?
Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. The Bugs Around You is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.
Is The Bugs Around You free?
Yes. The Bugs Around You is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.
How long does it take to learn The Bugs Around You?
9 levels across 2 sections, about 18 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.
Do I need any background to start The Bugs Around You?
No. It's pitched at a beginner level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
The Bugs Around You is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start The Bugs Around You today.
Download Tomo, search The Bugs Around You, and play your first lesson in under a minute.