I am trying to learn how to ID insects myself while I can see them instead of posting them to iNat and then not being able to get a species because I missed capturing a critical part for identifying. I am trying to find insect keys for any insects in Ohio, specifically Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptra, and Trichoptera. I’ve looked online and I cant find a single ID key or chart anywhere.
1 Like
Welcome to the forum!
Try checking the Department of Natural Resources, Ohio State University ( they do have an agriculture program) and county extension offices.
There are several books available, too.
I usually look into Orthoptera only. I’m not in America. Some grasshoppers of the world remain unidentified yet, such as a few Tetrigidae species. I doubt there is complete key to species. I rarely look into American species. On a state level, it is more manageable. Moths are the more complex ones.Key to species are sometimes from articles and books from a hundred years ago. Some recent keys are in books with copyright protection and has not reached public domain status. If govs ever publish info, it is public doman.
I mainly use https://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/ for Grasshoppers, crickets, katydids. It is not keys. The keys may be in some linked articles if available and appears to not be complete.
Stick insects, Mantodea will be in other websites. I have no idea on flies, termites and other insects.
There are many resources, but modern species-level keys for North American insects can be scarce or non-existent. Some ideas:
1-You are on iNaturalist already, an excellent resource! Join BugGuide.net if you have not done so already. If you look at “guide pages” (Info tab for any given taxon) you will sometimes find a key written by editors there. You may also find keys linked on publicly-available sources, such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Those sources tend to be older, but may still be helpful.
You can also use the Browse function on BugGuide to scroll through images of, say, genera within a family. This takes some practice.
2-Books are very useful for getting an overview, and some contain keys. A simple visual key to groups can be helpful for learning. Some recommendations:
- General insects: Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America; Abbott Insects of North America (Princeton Field Guides)–looks good, but I do not have it.
- Coleoptera: Evans, Beetles of Eastern North America is very good; some groups, such as Carabidae, are super-diverse and challenging.
- Lepidoptera: Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies is nice–there are several others; Beadle and Leckie’s Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America is great.
- Diptera are diverse, and there is no single guide. Skevington’s Field Guide to the Flower Flies of Northeastern North America is great for that group. General guides above should be helpful.
- Hemiptera: I’m not aware of any recent guides for that group.
- Hymenoptera: there are some recent guides to North American bees and wasps, but I’m not familiar with them. Some groups are very difficult, with ID from photographs iffy.
- Orthoptera: Capinera’s Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, etc. is useful, but not comprehensive
- Trichoptera are diverse and difficult–BugGuide and iNaturalist are your best bet for distinctive species.
3-Practice photography for insect ID with common species in a group. Try to get dorsal, lateral, and ventral image. Ventral views can be difficult to get, and you often have to capture and insect to flip it over. I often chill insects briefly in a refrigerator to get these. Most insects can survive a brief chill at refrigerator temperatures. Pay attention to laws and rules about capturing wildlife in your location. Most state and national parks, for instance, forbid collection without a permit. Sometimes temporary restraint in a container for photography is not prohibited, but check if in doubt. Be aware of conservation issues for rare species.
Edit–Parting thoughts:
Definitive species-level ID for many groups requires expertise and microscopic examination of a specimen. Many things cannot be identified with confidence from images. It is an excellent idea to look at ID resources to inform your photography.
For some diverse groups, the taxonomy is unclear and/or obsolete. Expertise to assist with identification of some groups can be hard to find. In some cases, apparently well-marked individuals within diverse groups represent undescribed species. Conversely, many apparently distinctive species are really groups of cryptic species. DNA barcoding is revealing many of those.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.