45 Introduction

Introduction

The hemipteroid orders are next, with an emphasis on those taxa found in northern BC. Your goal is to learn how to identify various common insects to order and/or family level using the keys in your text, online resources, other students, and me (when in doubt, ask an entomologist). The lab should take you approximately three hours to complete. A short quiz will be available when you have finished the lab, so that you can practice your identification skills.

The hemipteroids include three orders of insects:

• Psocodea, including the lice (formerly order Phthiraptera) and the booklice/barklice (formerly order Psocoptera);
• Thysanoptera, the thrips;
• and Hemiptera, the true bugs

If your collection includes orders or families not covered in the lab, they still need to be identified to family. If you need help with that, please let me know!

The level of detail you need to see in order to separate out the number of families in a given order will increase rapidly starting this week! If you are working entirely online, I hope that my minimal photography skills are up to the challenge. If you are having difficulty seeing what the key asks for, or you aren’t sure what a photo shows, please ask, or arrange a time to visit the lab and observe the insects in person.