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Home » Forums » General Discussion

Looking for an app similar to eBird, but for bugs

As the title would suggest, I'm looking for an app that I can log my observations in that will keep track of my "life list". It doesn't need to be used for science as eBird does, I'm more interested in just keeping track of what I've seen. Any suggestions?
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Contributed by Mwithro5 on 16 July, 2018 - 5:19pm

best option is inaturalist
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… John S. Ascher, 30 July, 2018 - 9:22pm login or register to post comments

A Problem
I think a problem here is that there are hugely more insects than birds, and they're hugely more difficult to identify.

There are fewer than 1,000 bird species in North America.
I recently tried Merlin Photo ID and it correctly identified a Spotted Sandpiper from a photo that I transferred from my Mac to my iPhone.

That's just not going to happen with insects. Considering just beetles and just in the United States, there are 30,000 species.

One obvious alternative to an app is bugguide. You can keep a database of what you've photographed and identified in a photo application (like Photos or Aperture on the Mac) or set up a database in database or spreadsheet software. I copy the URL from bugguide to Aperture in the comments for photos of an insect that experts here have identified.
… Stephen Hart, 17 July, 2018 - 9:57am login or register to post comments

… metrioptera, 16 July, 2018 - 6:28pm login or register to post comments

you could try iNaturalist
but beware of its AI feature that tries to identify your submissions. It gets insects wrong quite often...
… metrioptera, 16 July, 2018 - 6:26pm login or register to post comments

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