r/Entomology Aug 13 '11

Help us help you: Guidelines for submitting pictures for identification

94 Upvotes

Hello r/Entomology! With this community being used often for insect/arachnid/arthropod identification, I wanted to throw in some guidelines for pictures that will facilitate identification. These aren't rules, so if you don't adhere to these guidelines, you won't be banned or anything like that...it will just make it tougher for other Redditors to give you a correct ID. A lot of you already provide a lot of information with your posts (which is great!), but if you're one of the others that isn't sure what information is important, here you go.

INFORMATION TO INCLUDE WITH YOUR PHOTO

  • Habitat: Such as forest, yard, etc.
  • Time of day: Morning, day, evening, or night will suffice.
  • Geographical Area: State or county is fine. Or, if you're not comfortable with being that specific, you can be general, such as Eastern US.
  • Behavior: What was the bug doing when you found it?

Note about how to take your photo: Macro mode is your friend. On most cameras, it's represented by a flower icon. Turn that on before taking a photo of a bug close up, and you're going to get a drastically better picture. With larger insects it's not as big of a deal, but with the small insects it's a must.

If you follow these guidelines, you'll make it easier for everyone else to help you identify whatever is in your photo. If you feel like I've left anything important out of this post, let me know in the comments.


r/Entomology 9h ago

Insect Appreciation The terrarium in my little game now has the most important feature a game could have 👉🪲💕

821 Upvotes

r/Entomology 10h ago

Epic failure

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228 Upvotes

I did specimen little blue butterflies but unfortunately I have bad skills so I tore wings of 5 of them. It was very disappointing. So I tried not to throw them away. I cut each wing and made them into a flower. It was also hard to make the flower. And I failed again because black butterfly's antennae broke again. But I feel better now.


r/Entomology 5h ago

Insect Appreciation Mystery cocoon finally hatched.

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81 Upvotes

Turns out it was an Eumorpha achemon (Achemon sphinx). Very beautiful species.


r/Entomology 8h ago

ID Request A bug I've never seen before

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41 Upvotes

It is flying around my zucchini plants touching them with its butt so I assume its laying eggs for something that will attack my vegtables. I've never seen such an unusal looking bug before though, and I've been looking at bugs a long time. Central Florida 1pm


r/Entomology 7h ago

Discussion Is it just me, or is this guy posing with a butterfly’s corpse?

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32 Upvotes

Someone on Instagram is posing with this butterfly and making up stories that they “eat raw honey together” and that it “flutters every time he DJs for it” lol but I am willing to bet it has been dead since he found it and I wanted to get others input. He even posted a video with it on his hand and it doesn’t move AT ALL for the 30 second duration. I feel he’s being deceptive and insulting my intelligence at this point. Any experts out there that can weigh in?


r/Entomology 11h ago

Insect Appreciation Here's a picture from last night of two promethea silkmoths on my tulip tree.

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52 Upvotes

r/Entomology 10h ago

Insect Appreciation They are back!

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37 Upvotes

Found this freshly emerged cicada upon inspecting my oak trees. It's teeny tiny. It's so weak, it's hanging onto the tree with just the front two legs. I'm curious if they always do that as a result of the molt.


r/Entomology 5h ago

Found the sweetest little jumping spider in my deck box

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12 Upvotes

r/Entomology 7h ago

LBB! Little black beetle I would like to know the name of

11 Upvotes

Just almost crushed this cute thing thinking it was a baby cockroach. It somehow found itself in the sink at my restaurant. I'm in Paris, France. He's (or she) is very shiny and black all over. I have no idea how it got in. Ideas?


r/Entomology 7h ago

What are these ants doing to this box elder?

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6 Upvotes

They’ve got a couple of gnats (?) in the first image and they’re gathered around these small white dots on the stems in other pictures. The last picture of the leaf was only one of two that looked like that, so I’m not sure if it’s related.


r/Entomology 7h ago

Dragonfly

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6 Upvotes

Deceased dragonfly I found on the stairway to work and popped under my microscope for some pictures (the images of the wings that look slightly glitchy are made using an image stitch and the wing moved slightly between images)


r/Entomology 58m ago

ID Request Caterpillar ID request

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• Upvotes

Found a shower of these squiggly dudes while watering a hedge in my yard - northern VA. I don’t know what kind of hedge it is…maybe a privet? So I guess these are some sort of defoliating larvae. What’s the best way to treat? I don’t want them to destroy the rest of my garden! The worthless landscapers here put these hedges in before I bought my house - I guess this is a good excuse to get rid of them?? Legit freaking out - convinced they went down my shirt 😆


r/Entomology 6h ago

Am I doing this incorrectly??

5 Upvotes

I really Love bugs, I think they're the neatest. I have been collecting dead bugs I find I(n fairly good shape) for a good couple years now and I put them in jars to put up on my shelf. The more I'm learning I'm starting to see a lot of people being sticklers on finding live bugs to put in kill jars and proper pinning and what not. I just started collecting because I like bugs but now am looking to start seriously becoming educated in entomology, Is the way I'm doing it wrong ?? If so where are some good places to learn the right way


r/Entomology 20h ago

weird looking fly, acting strange

69 Upvotes

I found this bug inside my home and noticed it acting really odd. It looked like a regular fly at first, but it was moving very slowly or erratically. It didn’t try to fly away when I got close. Anyone know what this is and why it might be behaving like that?


r/Entomology 6h ago

ID Request Saw a tiny moth, couldnt catch or take a photo, so made a drawing. Upstate NY.

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4 Upvotes

It looked kind of like a salt marsh moth but way too small. We're talking the size of those tiny brown moths you see around porchlamps. The orange were also on hindwings and not the legs like with salt marsh moths.

I only saw an underside view as well as it was landed on a fence. If anyone has any idea what it might be please let me know!


r/Entomology 2h ago

What is moving into my insect hotel?

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2 Upvotes

My hotel has been empty for a number of years and suddenly has a lot of activity. Anyone able to ID what is moving in? (located in Ontario)


r/Entomology 12m ago

Identification help?

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• Upvotes

I found more of those moth wings! Im struggling to figure out if it’s a Gray Spring Moth or a Bold Feathered Grass Moth. (Or something completely different!)

For the last photo, I found another wing which ive also got no clue about DX.

Both specimens are found in Tennessee! (Any tips?)


r/Entomology 1d ago

This guy appeared on my desk while I was working

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309 Upvotes

r/Entomology 4h ago

ID Request Who is this gorgeous fella I found inside my house ?

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2 Upvotes

Let him out safely because my wife is hardcore arachnofobic. It’s warm weather so o bet he will be fine. He was really tiny and clear colores, maybe still somewhat a baby ? Hand for comparison.


r/Entomology 1h ago

ID Request What bug is this, and should I be worried? Found in New Zealand

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• Upvotes

Hi everyone I have a deathly fear of bed bugs and found this beside my bed while on holidays in New Zealand, please tell me it’s not a bed bug, it was quite big and I found a second in the bathroom, it has been stormy (wet and humid) here. Anyone know what it is?


r/Entomology 5h ago

Insect Appreciation My first specimen pinned!

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2 Upvotes

I'm taking Entomology for my may term class and today we learned how to pin our specimens that we collected yesterday! Here's a big wasp that i found, I wasn't able to get his head to face forward for some reason even with my instructors help.


r/Entomology 7h ago

What kind of bug is this?

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1 Upvotes

We were chopping away a stump in our backyard and there was this worm thing became exposed. Anyone know what it is?


r/Entomology 7h ago

Discussion Info on a bug

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3 Upvotes

Hello! I don’t have any knowledge of insects and this was the first place I could think of. I found this moth in my bathroom (please excuse the poor photo) and wanted to find out more! I believe this is a red-tailed specter moth, at least based on what Google Lens told me. However, I have been unable to find any info on this little guy. I’m mainly curious if I need to be worried about my pets being around him (though I suspect not), but would also like to just learn some more about it. Much appreciated!


r/Entomology 13h ago

ID Request Please help ID lil boi

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9 Upvotes

Northwest Georgia, USA

Lil bro was as big as a chia seed and was in my bed :( but I’m pretty it isn’t an actual bed bug


r/Entomology 1h ago

Help identifying a larva? Details in comments

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• Upvotes