Identification Guides – Insects: General

Printed

Britain’s Insects: A field guide to the insects of Great Britain and Ireland by Paul D Brock (Princeton Wild Guides 2021) – 608 pages. This covers 1,653 insect species with 2,600 photos and a distribution map for most species. The photos are larger than in his 2014 book and there is plenty of additional information, such as a seasonality chart for each species, and a much clearer structure for each Order and group of species.

A Comprehensive Guide to Insects of Britain & Ireland by Paul D Brock (Pisces Publications 2014) – 540 pages. This covers 2,500 insect species with 2,900 photos and a distribution map for most species, but photos are more cramped than in his 2021 guide and there is less detail about each species.

Collins Field Guide: Insects of Britain and Northern Europe by Michael Chinery  (1972 Collins 3rd edition 1993) – This was the unsurpassed standard field guide for 50 years, covering 778 commonly found species. It still has the advantage of more explanatory text about each group of insects than in later field guides.

Insects of Britain and Western Europe by Michael Chinery (1986 Collins: revised 2007) –  This complements Chinery’s older book and has more illustrations of species (on each right-hand page). But it covers all of Western Europe so has some species not found in Britain.

Handbooks for the Identification to British Species is a highly technical series covering a wide range of insect Orders and genera, published by The Royal Entomological Society (RES). These are the expert guides for professional entomologists and serious amateurs. Many of the out-of-print older volumes are free Pdf’s to download. More recent volumes are published for the RES by the FSC (Field Studies Council)

The Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects Peter C Barnard (Wiley-Blackwell 2011). Not an identification guide but an overview of how all the British insect species relate to each other, and how many there are: from the overarching Classes (these group similar Orders together) to Orders and Families. Getting that overview in our heads assists identification, as it helps us narrow down the search for the identity of any insect species we come across.

Identifying British Insects and Arachnids: An annotated bibliography of key works ed. Peter C Barnard (Cambridge University Press 1999). Although many new identification guides have been published since 1999, for some of the less well-known families and groups of species this book remains a valuable source, if you decide to become an expert in a few groups of species.

Websites

Field Studies Council (FSC) publishes many WildID fold-out guides. These are written by experts but each is intended as a short introduction to identifying a small group of insects species. Some of these are listed below.

https://www.field-studies-council.org/shop/

https://www.field-studies-council.org/product-category/publications/?fwp_publication_type=fold-out-guide

Buglife is the UK organisation that campaigns for conservation of all kinds of insect. It is a voluntary membership organisation. Their bug directory is a simple Q&A method to help your first steps towards identifying a species: https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs/identify-a-bug/

Google Lens: Go to google.com and there is a camera icon at the right of the search bar. Click on this, and you can drag and drop any image and it will do its best to identify it – so can be used for any flora and fauna, vertebrates and invertebrates etc. (as well as buildings, landscapes – anything, in fact.)  Worth a look, but treat identifications with caution!

Apps