Insect Identification: Experts and Guides to ID That Bug You Found

So, you want to know what that bug is. Maybe it’s eating your garden. Maybe it snuck into your house. Or maybe you’re outside and just found something fascinating and you want to learn more about it. If you’re like a lot of people, you probably think asking the Entomological Society of America (ESA) is the perfect place to start. But here’s a little secret: While ESA’s members are all entomologists, the people behind the scenes at ESA headquarters in Annapolis, Maryland, are not. If you send ESA an email or tag us on Twitter or Facebook with an insect identification question, you’ll get a meeting planner or journal publisher or certification manager or (ahem) blog editor on the other end. Simply put, we are not the insect identifiers you seek. But wait! The good news, of course, is that here at ESA we know the experts—nearly 7,000 entomologists who belong to the world’s largest membership society for insect science. And we can point you to the best resources that our members have built for learning about and identifying insects and related arthropods.

Some resources:

• Facebook

  • Entomology Group

  • Insect Identification Group

  • Ask an Entomologist

  • Southern Forest and Tree Health Diagnostics Group

• Twitter

  • @BugQuestions (Ask an Entomologist)

  • @RecluseOrNot (Recluse or not?)

• Reddit

  • r/whatsthisbug

Click here to read the full article “Insect Identification: Experts and Guides to ID That Bug You Found” at Entomology Today which has many other links to various places where you can get that bug identified.