Insect and Spider Resources

Many people visit Monticello Park to look for birds, but there are also many arthropods in the park.

Insects and spiders can be difficult to identify. Sometimes they can be identified only to genus, not to species. The best online source for identification information about insects and spiders is BugGuide, operated by Iowa State University. You can use BugGuide to either find a photo that matches what you have seen at Monticello Park, or submit a photo of what you have seen for identification assistance by experts. Insect Identification is another website that provides aid in identifying arthropods.

• BugGuide
• Insect Identification for the casual observer

These websites focus on arachnids:

• Spiders.us for the casual observer
• Spiderz Rule common US spiders
• Pseudoscorpions of the World

These websites aid in identifying butterflies and moths:

• Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA)
• North American Moth Photograpers Group at the Mississippi Entomological Museum

This website is for the identification of flies, as part of the Zurqui All-Diptera Biodiversity Inventory:

• How to Identify Flies

These books provide information for identifying and understanding insects and spiders:

• Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America Eric R. Eaton and Kenn Kaufman, 1984
• National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America Arthur V. Evans, 2007
• A Field Guide to Insects: America North of Mexico Donald J. Borror and Richard White, 1998
• Insects, Spiders, and Other Terrestrial Arthropods George C. McGavin, 2009
• National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders Lorus and Margery Milne, 1996
• Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity: With a Photographic Guide to the Insects of Eastern North America Stephen Marshall, 2017
• Stokes Guide to Observing Insect Lives Donald Stokes and Lillian Stokes, 2017
• Beetles of North America Arthur V. Evans, 2014
• A Guide to Eastern Butterflies Paul A Opler, 1998
• Butterflies and Moths David J. Carter, 1992
• Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America David Beadle and Seabrooke Leckie, 2012
• Caterpillars of Eastern North America David L. Wagner, 2005
• Spiders of the Eastern United States: A Photographic Guide W. Mike Howell and Ronald L. Jenkins, 2003
• Spiders and Their Kin Herbert W. Levi and Lorna R. Levi, 2001
• The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre Jean-Henri Fabre, 1991
• Bugs in the System: Insects and Their Impact on Human Affairs May R. Berenbaum, 1995
• Life in the Undergrowth David Attenborough, 2005