We have become increasingly interested in the photography of insects over the past few years. One motivation for this is that with iNaturalist it is possible to identify insects much more rapidly (and with less effort and resources) than what was possible previously. But it isn’t just knowing what insect you are seeing and photographing. It is that with iNat you are contributing to the building of a data base of where, when, and what types of organisms you are seeing. You are contributing to building a global data base that can, and is, being used for a better understanding where life is found on Earth. See our discussion of biodiversity and citizen science here.

There is more to it. While there are already tens (or hundred’s) of thousands of iNaturalist observations that show where popular biota (“biota” includes animals, plants, fungi and such) when it comes to less popular biota like insects there can be much fewer observations. For example, there are currently 1519 Beetle observations on iNaturalist from the state of Florida. Of these there are 380 species with more than 20 observations – and only 140 species with more than 100 observations. There are 305 beetle species with 5 or fewer observations from Florida. And Florida has many iNaturalist observations – as of November 2025 there were 4.5 million iNaturalist observations of all kinds (and 84 thousand beetles).

Consider Ecuador, a tropical country with huge elevational, climatic, and vegetation variations. As of Nov 3, 2025 there were 1289 beetle species with research grade (verified by at least one observer as well as the AI algorithm) on iNaturalist. Of these only 150 species had twenty (20) or more observations. There were 625 species with 5 or fewer research grade observations and 220 species with only 1 such observation. Even in Oklahoma, where we live, we are making observations in our backyard of insects that have not been previously reported from our state.

The reason why observations are needed is that to map the distribution of a particular species across the landscape – and to begin to understand why it has that distribution – you need many observations. Many species are active only at one time of the year and to understand when they are active and observable we need observations throughout the year. One quickly sees that many observations are needed to begin to describe the occurrence in space and in time a given species.

Now that we appreciate how few insect observations are made relative to more easily seen biota (like common plants, birds, mammals) how to we begin to make more such iNaturalist observations? iNaturalist requires a photo of biota to begin the identification process. The vast majority of cameras now are cell-phone cameras. These are fine for people-portraits and larger objects and landscapes, but are poor for smaller insects. Larger butterflies, moths and beetles can still be photographed by such phone cameras, but when the size of the insect becomes small (say 10mm or less and under dark conditions) it becomes difficult to see key features for identification. The best photographic equipment currently are digital single lens cameras (or mirrorless cameras) with a close-focusing (so-called “macro”) lens. Most normal lenses don’t focus close enough to get large images of small insects. But to get acceptably sharp images over the insect’s body one has to choose small apertures (f-stops like f16 or such) and this makes photography with available light difficult since the shutter speed needs to be long. Thus a flash becomes necessary – and this is in any case essential for photography at night.

In summary, a macro lens and a flash (ring flash is usually best) are needed, along with a standard interchangeable lens camera. The ring flash produces less harsh shadows that a standard flash, though is somewhat more cumbersome to use. A ring flash with supplementary focusing light is most convenient. Otherwise one hand needs to hold a light source while the other holds the camera.

Finding insects

Insects are virtually everywhere, but to find them requires a bit of knowledge. Many insects are pollinators of flowering plants so a good place to start looking is in flowers. Then, many other insects eat or suck the juices of plants. Stems and leaves are where many of these are found. Lights are the most convenient what to find moths, as many come to lights at night. But moths are most sensitive to ultraviolet light and special light arrangements can be used to attract them. Other insects also come to such lights.

Unfortunately, long use of UV lights can stress insects and many die as a result of a night’s mothing activities. We turn off our lights when we are done photographing what comes, usually after a couple of hours. One quickly discovers what tends to come night-after-night and which insects are only rarely seen. Routine observations at a particular location will provide details about the seasonality of insects and how their appearance may be related to variations in the meteorological conditions. Warmer weather brings out more insects than cooler weather, and tropical locations, for a variety of reasons, have the greatest insect diversity.