Bug Identification

Common "Bugs" of Colorado

What we often refer to as a "bug" can include insects, arachnids, and more! Bugs outnumber people in every ecosystem in the world and they can live just about anywhere. You may have looked at all bugs the same, but with a little practice, you can see the diversity of animal life all around you. Whether under rocks, inside leaf piles, or flying over your head, bugs are everywhere! Although many entomologists (bug-studiers) can spend their whole lives learning to identify certain species of bugs, identifying your bug to its family or order can be easy.

Tips for Bug Identification

The term "bug" isn't very scientific. Bugs could include flies, spiders, pill bugs, beetles, and more! So where do we start? When you want to identify a bug, it's important to make a good observation. Some bugs can be harmful, though, so be very careful not to touch them. Making observations about color, body shape, wings, and the number of legs can give you a pretty good idea what sort of bug you are looking at.

What to Look For

Wings. If your insect has wings, this can be a great identifier. Many insects have wings, but they may be concealed by a hard shell called an elytron. To be sure your bug does or does not have wings, observe it for some time and see if it flies.
Antennae. Look to see if your bug has long stalks coming out of its head. These are called antennae and can help the bug sense its environment.
Leg number. Try and get a good look at your bug and count how many legs it has. Insects have six legs and arachnids (spiders) have eight. Other information about your bug's legs can be helpful, too, especially if some legs are bigger than others.
Body shape. Many bugs have a very characteristic body shape. Take note of whether your bug's body seems to be in segments, has armor plating, or an odd shape. Is your bug flat or round? All of these characteristics will help you when you go to identify your bug.

Bug Identification on Your Phone

Using the power of artificial intelligence and numerous records of bugs found around the world, Picture Insect can help you identify any bugs you have found using only a picture. The app will look for characteristic features of your insect and give you a list of its best guesses about what your bug might be. You can use photos of the suggestions to select the bug most like what you saw. To improve results, make sure the bug is as clear and large in your photo as possible with as many characteristic features visible as you can.

iOS

Android

Major Insect Orders

In biology, we organize species of organisms into something called a taxonomy. Organisms are ranked by kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and finally species. To say organisms share an "order" means they are in a group of organisms that share an evolutionary ancestor and have similar characteristics. Because bugs can be so difficult to identify, starting with a big group like an order can make your identification easier. We will take a look at insect orders common in Colorado with links to more specific identification field guides prepared by Colorado State University. For a full list of field guides, including those not listed below, click here.

For more information, look through the online field guide Guide to Colorado Insects by Whitney Cranshaw and Boris Kondratieff.