Hi all,
As part of a school assignment, I need to ID a bunch of insects that I’ve photographed down to family, and I have a bunch of specific questions about identification in general such as:
“Can snakefly larvae be keyed down to family, or only adults?”
“Where can I find keys that are free, public and accurate to my location?”
“Are these two features sufficient/appropriate for IDing the family of an insect in this order?”
It’s stated that the iNat forums aren’t for asking people to ID things (I figure to cut down on the number of “Help, what is this?” posts), so I was curious about what is and isn’t acceptable.
I wouldn’t be asking “what family is this” because I consider that cheating; my questions are more geared towards learning how to use keys, what features are useful for IDing certain orders, and any other background info needed to get started.
And if this isn’t the place for that sort of thing, where else would you recommend I look?
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When I was in school, I was a nature nerd. I owned several field guides for various groups of plants and animals. Your school or local library, I hope, would have books like that. I’d recommend that’s where to start–since those books are written specifically to help people with your goal.
Scientific keys are usually very technical (perhaps you’re at that level–but it takes much time to learn the jargon before the keys are useful). And they’re often behind a paywall (as you suggest–not always freely accessible). But Google Scholar is a good place to start searching for those. You just have to be an internet sleuth.
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You could also pop a question into the comments of your observation? Someone who can have a stab at (say) identifying a snakefly larva will probably the sort of person who can answer them :)
That would be my suggestion
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Those conversations on a particular obs are probably the best way to learn. Taxon specialists - if they can see - from your response to their IDs or comments - that you are interested and responsive
will often reply with useful info. You need to see … for this. Link to my journal post about those. Out of range. Renamed. Has been split or swapped. See the photos on this obs / link. Active iNatters are (almost all) willing and eager to share their knowledge!
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Here for example the info from the taxon specialist - is with an obs with a good clear picture. All useful to future observers and identifiers across iNat.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18140713
(I am digging back down thru Cape Peninsula Needs ID at Order, for the few I can nudge along down the taxon levels)
If you’re a student, go talk to the librarians at your school library. Either the library will have the kind of information you’re looking for or the librarians will, very likely, know how to find the info for you.
You can also go talk to teachers at your school (other than the one making the assignment!) and ask them how to find the information you want. You are asking exactly the sorts of questions that indicate you are both interested in this subject and capable of independent thinking; good teachers should want to encourage you.
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I think your example questions are good, and some may already exist or fit into an existing topic on the forum. I would do a search before you start a new topic for them. I know some similar questions have popped up in the IdentiFriday thread, for example (looong thread). Note: If a forum thread you may want to add a question to is already closed, you can message one of the moderators and ask them to reopen it for you.
You could also look at the profiles of the top identifiers for your organisms of interest and check if they have written any journal posts. Some people write a guide specific to identifying/distinguishing their favorite-to-ID taxa on iNaturalist. I’ve found some helpful tips that way and have occasionally written my own mostly as a reminder to myself. It’s also another way to contribute info to the community once you’ve figured it out for yourself. (Maybe your instructor would be willing to give extra credit for a well-researched journal post?)
Definitely ask the teacher for field guide recommendations, especially if this is a class assignment and there’s an expectation that you will key things out using a particular method.
Additional tip if the class assignment permits group work: Team up with class mates and meet for ID sessions. I teach botany in the same lab room as our entomology, mycology, and lichenology classes. I often see students come in after labs are done for the day to meet in groups with microscopes out, a stack of field guides on the table, working on ID’ing their collections together. I know you said you took pictures so that’s different from ID’ing specimens, but if others have the same assignment maybe you could still all get together (maybe even on zoom or chat) to help each other out. Big caveat: Don’t do this if your teacher would consider it cheating!
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Bugguide.net is often a good source for this kind of information. Go the the page for your taxon of interest and look at the Info and Books tabs. The Info tab will often have tips on identification and the Books tab may have links to specific keys or taxonomic papers.
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