Hello, fellow iNaturalists! I recently found a book, Rindge, 1975 . I want to use it to help me distinguish between members of the family Ennominae. However, I have hit a problem. While I took Anatomy in High School, I did not take Zoology, so I am having trouble understanding what is being said for …

Bugguide does have a glossary, although it’s got a lot more entries than it does info at the moment. https://bugguide.net/node/view/110001/bgpage Arnett’s Handbook of North American Insects has a rather comprehensive glossary as well, but it’s not selling cheaply these days, apparently.

Here’re two online introductory courses for entomology: https://projects.ncsu.edu/cals/course/ent425/library/tutorials/index.html https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/ This one has a glossary section: https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/glossary/ And this classic entomological dictionary is freely a…

Which terms in particular are you referring to?

When I have trouble with entomological terms, I usually ask Google to “define X” and if that doesnt work, I search the term on Google Images. I’ve been doing this since day 1, and it’s served me well.

I am not sure when the book refers to “Vein M2”, " R1+2 (I just realized that the editor does not contain superscripts or subscripts!), or cells Cu2. It sounds like the book is going into very fine detail about the different veins and intermediate lines on the wings. A figure pointing to these struc…

Moths can have their own terminology. A basic very useful glossary with images (e.g. all the veins numbered on a forewing image) is from the Pacific Northwest Moths site: http://pnwmoths.biol.wwu.edu/about-moths/glossary/

Since you’re now looking within the Geometridae family, some of ID features of Noctuids don’t “translate” perfectly. However no good info goes to waste. That’s a good primer and if you keep moth-ing you’ll invariably have a Noctuid or ten.

So I’m just an enthusiast, but this is what I have learnt. M2, Cu2 etc. are the names that are given to the veins that are present in the butterfly’s wings. The above system (Comstock system) is not the only vein naming system. There is also a Numerical Notation system. There seems to be a general…

How do you find these things? It takes me several hours just to find a reliable source on Google that is not Wikipedia. I am not sure if I would have found the Rindge, 1975 book without @treichard ’s help. I guess it is just the right wording and persistence.

Help with understanding Entomological terms

Nature Talk

haemocyanin11 October 6, 2020, 2:10am 8

Thanks @krancmm ! I will check it out! Also, do you suggest looking at the wiki about Noctuid moth identifying features by @mamestraconfigurata?

Topic		Replies	Views
Advanced Coelopteran Identification course Nature Talk	10	348	September 3, 2024
Needed: more people to help ID moths and other insects Nature Talk	41	4059	August 16, 2020
Insect wing venation identification website Nature Talk	11	1818	January 12, 2021
Some moth memes I made Nature Talk fun , silliness	65	4668	August 28, 2022
What is the Best Way to Learn a Species? Nature Talk question , taxonomy	47	4147	December 16, 2019

Help with understanding Entomological terms

Related topics