Reference guide
I really want people to be able to find what they are looking for on this site, so in addition to the tag cloud, categories, and archives-by-date on the sidebar, I wanted to have a way to quickly scan through to find a specific critter. This page is a quick index of the arthropods on this site, categorized by their taxonomy, with thumbnails of my images. Clicking on the thumbnail picture will take you to the full-sized version of the image, and clicking on the name of the arthropod immediately above the thumbnail will take you to the main page where I talk about it. The main pages generally have additional pictures that may not be shown as thumbnails here.
Sometimes, there are multiple entries for a single species. Usually, one entry will be the larva/nymph and the other entry will be the adult, although sometimes it will be a case where two subjects that I originally thought were different species, turn out to be the same thing.
Subphylum Chelicerata – Arachnids (spiders, mites, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen)
Mites
Ticks
Varroa mites
Pseudoscorpions
Spiders
Cobweb spiders
Steatoda species
Male Steatoda specimen with separate entry
Crab spiders
Funnel-weavers (*North American species, not venomous*)
House spiders
Jumping spiders
Subphylum Crustacea – Crustaceans (Pillbugs, woodlice, crayfish, daphnia)
Amphipods
Isopods
Pillbugs
Woodlice
Water lice
Subphylum Hexapodia – Insects and Entognathids
Coleoptera (beetles)
Bark Beetles
Carrion beetles
Click beetles
Darkling beetles
Dermestid beetles
Carpet beetles
Anthrenus larva
Larder beetles
Flea beetles
Ground beetles
Calosoma
Tiger beetles
June beetles
Lady beetles
Leaf Beetles
Longhorned beetles
Diptera (true flies – two wings)
Black flies
Crane flies
Flesh flies
Muscid flies
Robber flies
Hemiptera (true bugs, cicadas, leafhoppers, aphids)
Cicadas
True Bugs
Assassin bugs
Seed bugs
Stink bugs
Water Bugs
Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps)
Ants
Wasps
Ichneumons
Black and White with Orange Legs, A Dot on the Back, and White on the Anntenae
Reddish Brown With Long, Straight Ovipositor and a Black Head
Vespids
Paper wasps
Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)
Butterflies
Fritillaries
Monarchs
Moths
Codling moths
Cutworm moths
Geometrid moths (inchworms)
Giant silk moths
Meal moths
Plume Moths
Prominent moths
Tiger moths
Arctia caja or Platarctia parthenos
Neuroptera (antlions, lacewings, and dobsonflies)
Antlions
Lacewings
Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids)
Crickets
Field Crickets
Gryllus veletis and Gryllus pennsylvanicus
Camel Crickets
Katydids
Plecoptera (stoneflies)
Tricoptera (caddisflies)
Subphylum Myriapodia – Centipedes and Millipedes
Centipedes
Millipedes
I just found a catapillar I can’t ID…how can I ID it?
I usually start with Bug Guide, with a search on whatever terms seem likely (like “fuzzy orange caterpillar” or “inchworm” or whatever), and see what comes up. If something looks close but not exact, I then click on the image to go to its page, then use the “browse” function to check out its relatives to see if I can find something closer.
If you can’t find it, but have a photograph, then just register on bug guide so that you can log in (it’s free), and then go to “ID Request” and upload the picture. Somebody will probably leave a comment within a couple of days giving you a likely ID, at least to the family level.
If you think you’ll want to ID caterpillars in the future, live east of the Mississippi, and want a good guide, I recommend Caterpillars of Eastern North America. It’s very good, with excellent pictures.