Insects, A Key to ten big Orders

A KEY TO THE "BIG TEN*" INSECT ORDERS
*NOTE: These are traditional orders used in many field guides in circulation. Nowadays the Isoptera has been merged into the Blattodea, and the Homoptera into the Hemiptera.

See if you can "key out" the insect in the picture at the right. The insect's right-side wings are exposed indicating two pairs of wings, or four in all. When this species is at rest, its back wings are hidden beneath its thicker, darker front wings. Also, you can't see the mouth parts, but they are of the "sucking" type.

For help in understanding how the following key works, check out our Identification Keys page.

1 Wings absent or, as with beetles, hind wings hidden beneath thick, sometimes hard, sometimes leathery, front wings, or wing coverings (Careful: If there's a crack down the back, probably that's where the thick front wings meet, with regular flying wings folded below, as in the above image...)	Go to... 7
1 Wings clearly visible when the insect is at rest, not hard like thin plastic	2
2 Butterflies & moths; mouthparts consisting of coiled tubes for sucking; wings covered with tiny colored scales	LEPIDOPTERA; butterflies & moths
2 Not butterflies & moths; mouthparts not coiled tubes; wings not covered with tiny colored scales	3
3 One pair of wings	DIPTERA; flies
3 Two pairs of wings	4
4 Front wings longer and with considerably larger surface area than hind wings	5
4 Front wings with about the same area as hind wings	6
5 Wasps and bees; tarsi ("feet") 5-jointed, usually thin-waisted	HYMENOPTERA; wasps & bees
5 Not wasp or bees; tarsi 2- or 3-jointed, waist usually thick	HOMOPTERA; cicadas, aphids
6 Antennae short stubs, compound eyes very large, body slender	ODONATA; dragonflies
6 Antennae hairlike, eyes not particularly large,thick-bodied	ISOPTERA; termites
7 Wings entirely absent	8
7 With wings, though they may be hidden beneath a hard or leathery wing covering; look for straight crack down back, where thick wings meet	12
8 Bodies narrow-waisted, antlike	HYMENOPTERA (worker ants, etc.)
8 Bodies thicker	9
9 Bodies thick, ± egg-shaped	HOMOPTERA; cicadas, aphids
9 Bodies more slender	10
10 Most of body whitish, soft-bodied, or ant-like (termites)	ISOPTERA; termites
10 Most of body not whitish, usually hard-bodied	11
11 Antennae with 4 or 5 segments, mouth parts sucking	HEMIPTERA; true bugs
11 Antennae with many segments, mouth parts chewing	ORTHOPTERA; grasshoppers, crickets
12 Rear end (abdomen) with tweezerlike appendages	DERMAPTERA; earwigs
12 Rear end without tweezers-like appendages	13
13 Mouth parts sucking, usually straw-like	14
13 Mouth parts for chewing	15
14 Front wings thick (leathery) and often colored at the base, but clear at the tip; beak rises from head's front or bottom	HEMIPTERA; true bugs
14 Front wings of same texture throughout; beak rises from back part of bottom of head	HOMOPTERA; cicadas, aphids
15 Front wings with obvious veins, when at rest the edges over the back often partly overlapping one another, usually not conspicuously hard	ORTHOPTERA; grasshoppers, crickets
15 Front wings without veins, when at rest the edges over the back meeting one another in a straight line, usually hard like thin plastic	COLEOPTERA; beetles

OK, the test insect is a Hemiptera, a "true bug." It's a Leaf-footed Bug of the family Coreidae, but I'm unsure what its genus and species are.

You might like to look at the Earthlife.net's more extensive key to the orders.