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American Entomological Society has, apparently, their whole list of common names on-line. You can search the Common Names Database, or download a PDF document with Phylum, Class, Order, and Family names. There are about 2,100 names in the database as of March, 2004. There is an on-line procedure for proposing new common names. (Link corrected 4/23/2006.)

Doing a few tests, I found that the database does not include many common names in widespread use by North American insect watchers. For instance, there are only three common names listed for Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies). There are only seven common names listed for members of the Brushfoot butterfly family (Nymphalidae). There are 143 names listed for Diptera, 491 for Doleoptera, 141 for Hymenoptera. The listings emphasize insects of economic importance.

Link updated 11/8/24 as per comments.
https://www.entsoc.org/publications/common-names

2,000 names
A few years ago i've killed some time collecting English names of insects and selected others arthropods all over the Web, and put together a list of well over 11,000 -- but soon abandoned the project. The 2,000 advertised on the referenced site is less than impressive by any rate.

Gone.
As of 8-31-05, this page is not available.

 
Page moved, entry corrected
It looks like the page has just moved. I corrected the entry.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

 
Moved again

 
latest address...
is here, as of today

The page has a link to a spreadsheet list of 2,313 common names as of 26 Oct 2024.

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