this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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What are good resources to learn about bug identification? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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For years I’ve gone hiking and camping and do a lot of photography. Some of my favorite photos have been macros of various bugs doing their thing. This year I wanted to focus on finding more bugs and trying to take pictures of as many different species in my region as possible.

I’ve been looking for an arthropod equivalent of a birding guide for my area (New York), but have only found a single book that’s 13 years old. It’s “Insects of New England and New York” by Tom Murray. Is this one good? Are there any others I’m not finding? Do these books become outdated? I imagine this book doesn’t feature the infamous spotted lantern fly, so I wonder if it’s missing anything else. It’s also limited to insects, so I’d need something else for spiders and other non-insect bugs.

I’ve found a few websites too, but the best one I’ve found is also limited to insects. So any resources or tips would be greatly appreciated.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The iNaturalist app is pretty good to at least get you a family or genus at minimum. It works for plants, animals, bugs, pretty much anything. I once used it to identify some pink foamy caviar looking stuff, which it identified as snail eggs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

On this, I really like seek (an app by iNaturalist) for plants and the like.