Identifying Insects

For your collections

Insect Identification

Once you catch your insects, you will need to identify them for your collection. In some cases, identifying to the order is sufficient, but in other cases you might want to be more specific. I typically identify my insect specimens down to the family and common name. I recommend you invest in a good set of field guides that identify to the major families. I like The Peterson Field Guide Series because it uses specific anatomical identifiers like tarsal segments and wing venation. I also recommend a field microscope with a magnification of 60x to 100x. Another excellent resource for identifying specimens is www.bugguide.net. In fact, BugGuide.net is probably the resource I use most in identifying insects down to the genus and species.

Once I have identified the specimen, I then prepare the labels. I use 2 labels on my pins. The first label, just below the specimen, contains all of the collecting data ie, date found, location, and who collected it. The second label contains the common name. I seldom use a third label, but when I do it contains the genus and species.

How Do we Categorize Living Organisms?

Taxonomy is the science of the classification. Each discovered living organism is given a scientific name and that is the name used by scientists worldwide. Some organisms are also known locally by one or more common names. and some common names describe more than one type of organism. A water Bug, for example is used to describe both the Smokey-brown Cockroach and a type of water insect. Scientists use scientific names to avoid confusion. Below is an example of the scientific classification (the taxonomy) of a type of Honey Bee found in North America North of Mexico.
  • Kingdom – Animalia
  • Phylum – Arthropoda
  • Class – Insecta
  • Order – Hymenoptera
  • Family – Apidae
  • Genus Apis
  • Species – mellifera

Binomial Nomenclature

Originally developed by Carolus Linnaeus, binomial nomenclature is a system of classification by which organisms are hierarchically classified into increasingly specific groups. The Honey Bee example above shows the seven basic taxonomical classification, Kingdom being the broadest category and species being the most specific.