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Photo#114861
Unidentified Insect - Orthops scutellatus

Unidentified Insect - Orthops scutellatus
Sitka, Sitka County, Alaska, USA
June 2, 2007
Size: <1cm
I have no idea what this insect is. Any help would be appreciated. I have a couple other pictures and a little more description at:

http://www.sitkanature.org/1000species/?p=47

I am quite new to this, but anticipate having many more insects to try to get identified from photos. I know that this is a difficult group, and photo identification to species (or even genus/family?) is probably unlikely in many cases. I have a pretty decent macro setup and am willing to try to get photos that give the best chance at identification, so any advice to that end would be helpful as well.

Moved
Moved from Orthops.

Moved
Moved from Plant Bugs.

It looks like Orthops...
There are two species recorded in the US and Canada, i.e., Orthops scutellatus and campestris. But, Orthops scutellatus is more possible.

 
Neartica
only lists O. scutellatus?

 
Actually, I am not sure of the existence of O. compestris...
According to PBI, O. compestris was recorded in the US before 1973. But, Dr. Schwartz stated O. scutellatus was the only species in North America in his 1999 paer. Therefore, the record of O. compestris was done possibly due to misidentification.

Welcome!
This is a true bug, Order Hemiptera>Suborder Heteroptera. I would guess from the heart-shaped pattern between the bases of the wings that it's in the Family Miridae (Plant Bugs)- but wait until an expert verifies that.

As for best views, that's a complicated subject- a lot depends on what group it's in.

As a general rule, though, you can't go wrong with an overhead whole-animal shot like this one. For spiders, especially, a frontal shot showing the eyes is good, too. A side view helps sometimes (especially with dragonflies), and any time you can see veins in the wings, make sure one of the pictures shows that. And if you see any structures sticking out of the tip of the abdomen, get a closeup of those.

Most important, though, is to just post things and not worry too much whether you have the best possible views for identification

By the way, the system doesn't handle boroughs and other similar jurisdictions very well- it might be better to put that information in with the city/location part, separated by a comma- and leave the County/Parish/District/Region part blank.

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