Identifying other things.

["Philip Veerman" <>]

These are all good and tantalising ideas. Really hard to do. Mainly because the vast number of species, let alone the life forms: larvae, sex differences, then the identifying features are often so small and technical. Martin's request any on-line keys (preferably that don't require corpses and microscopes to use) sounds good but a huge ask. Maybe technology will become the answer to this. Add to that there are surely many undescribed species.

 

Maybe a guide book to the most common or conspicuous species would be good. But then again from what region? It would be my assumption that terrestrial arthropods are much most geographically variable than birds.

 

I have a book Insects of Australia by John Goode that might be what Martin is asking about it is a key to major groups and highlights some species. But then again look at Michael Braby's book that is just about Butterflies, imagine that for all the other groups, it would be a huge collection.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: martin butterfield [
Sent: Wednesday, 26 January 2011 11:40 AM
To: Beth Mantle
Cc: Bron King; Margaret Leggoe;
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Identifying other things.

The problem I have at the moment
is not having - and not knowing where to get - the knowledge to use the on-line
image resources without scrolling through several thousand images (eg I 
thought an ex-beast I found recently was a large sawfly but it was subsequently
IDd by a guru as  a small cicada!).  I will probably be buying a Field
Guide to Australian Insects in the near future and that may help if it has a key
to (say) family level.  Do you know of any on-line keys (preferably that
don't require corpses and microscopes to use)?

Martin

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Beth Mantle <> wrote:

Hi Bron and Margaret,

I'm a macro enthusiast and honorary entomologist (due to my role at the Australian National Insect Collection) and would be super keen to see a special interest group evolve.

My invertebrate Flickr photos are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/froggybeth/collections/72157625336330790/

It will be possible to set up community groups through the Atlas of Living Australia portal (www.ala.org.au) - this might be a nice option for ACT insect and arthropod enthusiasts.

Cheers,

Beth

Sent from my iPad

On 26/01/2011, at 9:48 AM, Bron King <> wrote:

Hi Margaret,

My main photographic interest is in arthropods too, so I agree - perhaps we should start one? :-)

At the moment I upload to Flickr where I've had excellent help - especially in the Spiders of Australia group http://www.flickr.com/groups/australianspiders/pool/with/4915034125/which is visited regularly by very
knowledgeable people. I've found spiders not discovered before here in middle Melba!

It's possible there to create sets http://www.flickr.com/photos/bronking/sets/ and post photos to the
Field Guide to Insects of Australia http://www.flickr.com/groups/oz_insects/ again, photos are identified
during conversations with other interested photographers. And that's just the beginning of the many thousands
of groups/set/galleries to explore.

While you're there, visit Australian Birds http://www.flickr.com/groups/australianbirds/ !

Also I'm happy to have chats re insects off this chat line. If you have a mysterious creature
there's a chance I've had it too so we could compare notes.

cheers,

Bron King



At 10:36 AM 25/01/2011, Margaret Leggoe wrote:

I see many unusual insects and spiders in my rambling on our nature reserves.  I don’t believe I should keep putting photos of them on this chatline.  Does anyone know of a similar group to COG that is interested primarily in insects etc to whom I could send photos for identification? 
Thank you
Margaret Leggoe