Online Guide To Keying Insects

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This Web project was developed as part of "Internet Resources" courses offered by the Biology and Geology departments of the California State University, Los Angeles in 1995 and 1996. It was submitted to the instructors for evaluation and then placed on-line by the Electronic Desktop Project (EDP). EDP does not update or maintain any of the material of this project, and does not vouch for validity or correctness. Furthermore, the student developing this project was instructed about the rules of copyrights. EDP can in no way be responsible for the inclusion of copyrighted material within this project.

This home page is designed as a reference guide to identifying and understanding the insects that are most common within the Southern California region. This guide is designed to assist you in keying unknown insects to their ORDER.

Definition of Insects:

Most insects are herbivores. Therefore, they are the richest known taxa known to man. There's an estimated of more than 10 million species exist. Insects belong to the phylum Arthropoda and therefore exhibit as their most characteristic features a hardened outer shell or exoskeleton and a segmented body with jointed appendages. The segments by the body are not all alike but are fused into three regions: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. Each of which serves its own set of function.

Identification:

Insects have three pair of legs, 3 body regions (head, thorax, and abdomen). Often 1 or 2 pairs of wings. One pair of antennae (antennae rarely absent). Mouth parts typically consist of a labrum, a pair of mandibles, a pair of maxillae, a hypopharynx, and a labium. Genital ducts open near posterior end of body. Winged insects differ from all other invertebrates in the possession of wings; wingless insects differ from most other arthropods in having 3 pairs of legs and a pair of antennae.

ORDER is a branch of classification that species share common features. This linear classification technique is based on their evolutionary history. Below is a list of orders covered by this guide.

Other orders not covered by this home page:

But check them out in THE NET
COLLEMBOLATHYSANURAEPHEMEROPTERA
STREPSIPTERADICTYOPTERAISOPTERA
THYSANOPTERAPHTHIRAPTERANEUROPTERA
MECOPTERATRICHOPTERASIPHONAPTERA

OTHER ENTOMOLOGY SITES ON INTERNET

World Wide Web sites.

Gopher sites.

FTP sites

Start here:

To begin keying your specimen.

Reference:

The following has been added by the Electronic Desktop Project:

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