Welcome

The Rose Garden Pond in the University of Michigan Dearborn Environmental Study Area is home to a variety of aquatic insects, or insects that spend all or part of their life under the water. This key was developed to help identify those insects. Each insect pictured and identified in this key was caught in the Rose Garden Pond during the summer and fall of 2002 and the winter of 2003. The key is primarily intended to identify only those insects that have been caught in the Rose Garden Pond. However, these insects live throughout the Great Lakes Area, hence, this key can be a useful tool in identifying insects to at least the genus level in similar pond ecosystems in Southeastern Michigan.

The key is separated into 8 sections. The first section is a key to identify the order of the insect you have found. The next sections describe the orders of insects and include keys to identify the families of insects. Each insect family has a page devoted to the different genera found in the Rose Garden Pond, with pictures and a brief written description.

 

Use the Key

The Rose Garden Pond

Insect Identification: The Basics

 

Thanks

I want to thank Judy M. Nesmith, a biologist in the department of Natural Sciences at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for sponsoring my independent study, Dr. Richard Merritt, a professor in the department of Entomology at Michigan State University for aiding in difficult identification, Claire Tait for proofreading, the staff of the Environmental Interpretive Center for their support, and Julie Craves, the director of the Rouge River Bird Observatory for providing the adult Odonata pictures.

 

Copyright

All photographs and illustrations on this site are copyrighted. Feel free to use them for educational purposes with permission only. Please e-mail me to request permision.

 

Created By

Andrew Tluczek

For questions or comments please e-mail me.

Or you can e-mail the Environmental Interpretive Center which hosts this site.