General advice for finding bugs in the wild?

In addition to what others have written, I was surprised when I first started to seriously try to photograph insects that I could go back to the same location and find the same species. I mean returning a few days later or a year later.
For example, we find Orussus sp. every year in early May in the same spot, if not on the same log.

but if you opt for something like rock or log flipping, please, please return the cover items to their original positions as closely as possible.

Around here Orthoptera is so abundant and diverse that advice would sound ridiculous: go outside, look around. In just the past few days, I've gotten photos of three: a rather flashy late instar bush katydid nymph, an early instar nymph of what I think is a field cricket but I still haven't started looking at it, and a micropterous adult Melanoplus that reminds me of one from a few years back but I have yet to compare the two. How did I find them?

You ask for general advice, so I've come up with a pair of complimentary couplets based on how I search for insects visually:

First, search extensively and intensively. On the one hand, you find more bugs when you cover more ground, especially as you visit multiple habitats/food supplies. On the other hand, to insects we are giants who literally shake their world as we crash through it, so they flee and hide, and that's when we're trying to be stealthy! Sitting still for five minutes makes us just a feature in their landscape, so they come out of hiding and get back to business. Sustained looking also increases our chances of "seeing" camouflaged insects, not a trivial matter with orthopterans.

Second, search by context and by contrast. On the one hand, find the host plant, find the bug. And the same with countless other ecological relationships. On the other hand, depending on how strictly you define "in the wild," artificial surfaces situated "in the wild" offer contrasting backgrounds that can greatly help us find things, the extreme example being the moth sheet. Is an aphid on the hood of my car - where I can see it! - any less an aphid? In a sense yes, because for things such as plant parasites the host can be diagnostic. Even so, I'm told of a people pathologist who liked to say that an elephant on a flagpole is still an elephant. So I scan walls, walks, and all manner of outdoor artificial surfaces for out-of-context insects. And the same with natural contrasting surfaces. It's pretty easy to find Waldo on an otherwise blank page.

As it turns out, the three orthopterans I've photographed this week, I found by the contrast method while searching extensively: the cricket was on an exterior wall, and the katydid was on a mullein plant, not a host of katydids as far as I know, but a big thing in the environment with a uniform fuzzy surface against which bugs stand out. And the grasshopper I saw by that special kind of contrast perception: as I was walking along, it jumped and I saw by its movement where it landed (upon reflection, it's unclear how much I was guided also by sound: the snap of its jump and the smack of its landing on leaf litter). During these same days, I've been finding some interesting dipterans by searching intensively in the context of their very restricted habitat: after sitting still for even just a minute or two, they seem to materialize out of nowhere!

My project, like that of others on this site, is to record observations of arthropods in the vicinity of our homes, and that means covering the same ground, day after day, year after year. Were I to be turning over rocks and logs on every outing, I would quickly degrade the habitat and disrupt the lives of numerous species within this restricted locality. And should I develop an interest in cicada nymphs, would pragmatism counsel renting a backhoe? I realize that doing science sometimes takes both effort and a strong stomach, and am reminded of the late E. O. Wilson's famous biogeography study that began with exterminating all multicellular animal life on two small Caribbean islands. Things came back. Not the way I'd want my project remembered.

This is my sixth year doing bug photography, and in that time I have turned over some rocks, removed and replaced the bark on a section of fallen log, I've even beaten some branches to good effect along with other infrequent and limited acts of outright disturbance on top of the outright disturbance of walking through their world. Not without empathy, I can imagine science professionals feeling frustrated with us hobbyists who seem unwilling or unable to do the most basic things to bring bug and camera together, to which I would reply saying only that tried and true methods of entomological field work may not transfer directly to the hobbyist's situation.

Keep at it, m! As a slow learner, I still think that experience is fine slow teacher, but comparing notes with others is also good. Thanks for the question!

Half the time they're stuck deep in some thicket I can't see/reach them in. Try baiting them out, preferably with things of little interest to ants and other aggressive competitors. I've found Hibiscus stamens to be useful , but rose petals or cucumber might also produce results for you.


Also, some nocturnal insects either naturally lack or have microevolved an immunity to attraction to lamps; I've found simple nighttime walks to be surprisingly effective at locating these (many insects are insensitive to red light and putting a red filter over one's flashlight may discourage these from fleeing or otherwise behaving abnormally).

through meadow vegetation is the quickest method to capture a wide range of arthropod groups - guaranteed to be an instant success among entomology students. Such sweep nets are available from biological supply companies. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg for field collecting techniques. Try turning over ground cover (logs, stones), especially in moist soil/sand near water edges.