I want to start practising my identification skills using keys and stop relying on the knowledge of others. Is there a good place to look for these as a simple google search never seems to provide much. I am in the UK so somewhere that offers UK specific keys would be great. Thank you.
1 Like
Are there particular groups of insects that interest you?
I really dont have a specific group that i focus on, I try to record as much of a variety as possible. But for example i was just looking for a key to the british species of anthomyiidae and came up empty handed as usual.
@sbushes might know
1 Like
Unfortunately, as I’m sure you’ve figured out already, a lot of keys are hidden behind paywalls and membership walls. There is still a lot of gatekeeping in science. Having said that it is sometimes easier to find physical copies of keys than it is find them online. If you live near a university or large public library you might be able to get access to physical copies for free or very low charge.
1 Like
UK might be the best place to start such an endeavor - not too many species, but a great history of citizen science and a good amount of printed or online resources for all kind of arthropods - just go through the various recording schemes for example:
https://www.brc.ac.uk/recording-schemes
As you mentioned flies, I know there are good keys for Sarcophagids and Calliphorids, and you should also check the Flickr account from Steven Falk (Diptera, Hymenoptera);
you have the britishbugs.org.uk ; Aphids (influentialpoints) ; Fly mines and Leaf mines of UK ; Psocodea (barkflies) …
I can also recommend the Tanyptera Project Youtube channel.
I wish we had a similar situation here in Austria…
3 Likes
If you just google what you want you will find tons of books, there’re enough websites with pdf/djvu to download those. UK also has hundreds of websites for any group.
Probably the best overall source for UK insect keys is this :
https://sites.google.com/view/mikes-insect-keys?pli=1
But it realllllly depends on which family (or order, etc).
Resources are scattered in general, and it takes a bit of asking around sometimes to find the best option. I second all the ones @carnifex mentions …though I should say the recording scheme for Agromyzidae (fly mines) (@barrywarrington ) say their site is the only one which is fully up to date for UK - https://agromyzidae.myspecies.info/
You need to become a member to get access, but Dipterists Forum has the UK Anthomyiidae keys :
https://dipterists.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/Anthomyiidae%20Handout%20Vol%201%20(text).pdf
See also
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149164524@N06/albums/72157683076413535/page2
Anthomyiidae is one of the hardest fly families to start keying Diptera though!!!
Feel free to send me a PM in future if there is something specific you can’t find 
3 Likes
It seems like almost all keys are UK-specific.
Great resources, thanks for responding
1 Like
The out of print Royal Entomological Society Handbooks are available to download from their website. Out of print doesn’t necessarily mean there is a newer edition. For many insect families, these are still the latest published keys.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.