gotta include Earth Defense Force 4.1 and such too
lots and lots of bugs there

it's on there! i could put a whole buncha the other edf games on here, too, but that seems redundant

luv dis concept, strongly feel Jade Cocoon / Escape from Bug Island / Zapper / Bee Simulator / Earthworm Jim belong in the creepy crawly pantheon as well

hm yeah i didn't think of earthworm jim at all but that fits! i thought about jade cocoon and passed because it's not all bugs, buuut yeah i should include it. i'll throw all those on here, thx

Underrated aesthetic. You could maybe include one of the 2D Metroids like Super or Fusion, a big chunk of their enemy rosters are very insectoid

hmmm yes very true!

https://www.backloggd.com/games/apidya/

I think "Takahashi Meijin no Bug-tte Honey" (Famicom) and "Bee 52" (NES) would be perfect for this list.

A few buggy games I think would suit this list (in no particular order):
Insecticide
Tempo
N2O: Nitrous Oxide
It Came from the Desert
Mansion of Hidden Souls
Exterminator (1989)
Cyber-Core
Pinobee: Wings of Adventure
Sound Fantasy
Bug Blasters: The Exterminators