Resources for identifying things photographed

• Encylopedia of Life (announced 2007 May 9, first release 2008 Feb 27)
• Tree of Life
• Discover Life includes IDnature guides, a work in progress
• Intkey, an interactive identification programme based on the DELTA (DEscription Language for TAxonomy) system. Available data include (as of 2007 Jun 30) British insects; British spiders; butterflies and moths (simplified); crustaceans; flowering plants; and many other things, some very specific.

The structure of the following headings and subheadings does not correspond exactly to official taxonomy.

1. Eukaryotes → Green plants → Land Plants (Embryophytes)

1.1 Seed Plants (Spermatopsida)

1.1.1 Conifers

1.1.2 Flowering Plants (Angiosperms)

Ontario Wildflowers

Wildflower Identification for ‘the northeastern and north-central parts of United States and adjacent Canada’

Tree Identification for ‘Northeastern and Central North America’

1.1.3 …

2. Eukaryotes → Metazoa → Bilateria → Chordata → Craniata → Vertebrata → Gnathostomata → Tetrapoda

2.1 Amphibia

2.2 Amniota

2.2.1 Synapsida → Therapsida → Mammalia

2.2.1.1 Monotremata platypus, echidnas

2.2.1.2 Marsupialia opossums, kangaroos, etc.

2.2.1.3 Eutheria placental mammals

2.2.2 Diapsida → Archosauromorpha → Crocodylomorpha crocodiles

2.2.3 Diapsida → Archosauromorpha → Dinosauria → Theropoda → Cœlurosauria → Aves → Neornithes

2.2.3.1 Paleognathæ emus, ostriches, etc.

2.2.3.2 Galloanseræ fowl, ducks, etc.

2.2.3.3 Neoaves

• North American Bird Sounds at Naturesongs.com

2.2.3.3.1 Gruiformes cranes, rails & coots

2.2.3.3.2 Ciconiiformes storks, herons, ibises, pelicans, etc.

2.2.3.3.3 Pelecaniformes boobies, cormorants, frigate birds, etc.

2.2.3.3.4 Charadriiformes plovers, auks, murres, puffins, gulls, terns, sandpipers, etc.

2.2.3.3.5 Phœnicopteriformes flamingos

2.2.3.3.6 Podicipediformes grebes

2.2.3.3.7 Falconiformes falcons, hawks, eagles, vultures, osprey, secretary-bird

2.2.3.3.8 Procellariiformes albatrosses, shearwaters, petrels, storm-petrels

2.2.3.3.9 Gaviiformes loons

2.2.3.3.10 Sphenisciformes penguins

2.2.3.3.11 Strigiformes owls

2.2.3.3.12 Apodiformes hummingbirds & swifts

2.2.3.3.13 Caprimulgiformes nightbirds

2.2.3.3.14 Columbiformes doves & pigeons

2.2.3.3.15 Psittaciformes parrots, etc.

2.2.3.3.16 Piciformes woodpeckers, etc.

2.2.3.3.17 Coraciiformes bee-eaters, kingfishers, hornbills, etc.

2.2.3.3.18 Passeriformes perching birds

2.2.4 Diapsida → Lepidosauromorpha lizards and snakes

2.2.5 Testudines turtles, etc.

3. Eukaryotes → Metazoa → Bilateria → Arthropoda

• Guide d'identification of Québec insects, spiders, myriapods, ...
• Common North American Arthropods: ‘over 1,000 ... photographs of live, unposed insects & arachnids, organized by taxon, with scientific and common names’
• Insect Orders and Common Families: part of entomology course, University of Florida, includes descriptions of identifying characteristics for common families
• BugGuide.net
• A field guide to common Texas insects (Texas A&M University)
• Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders, L. Milne & M. Milne, Audubon Society, 1980. 989 pp., ‘702 identification pictures’ (colour photographs), ‘more than 600’ species covered (‘with notes on 250 others’), key by shape. Photographs are all of living animals.
• Insects, spiders and other terrestrial arthropods, G.C. McGavin, Dorling Kindersley, 2000. 256 pp., ‘over 650 ... photographs and illustrations’, ‘more than 550’ species. Many photographs are of dead specimens; photographs are generally larger and more clear than those in the Audubon guide.

3.1 Insecta

• John Meyer's course notes on insect Morphogenesis: nice, well organised description of moulting, metamorphosis (a-, hemi- and holometabolous), larvæ, pupæ
• Lyman Entomological Museum and Research Laboratory, McGill

3.1.1 Lepidoptera moths & butterflies

• Lynn Scott's Lepidoptera Images (Moths of the Ottawa Area). She cites Covell, Handfield, Snyder & Adams as resources for identification.
• Ian Kimber's UKmoths
• Charles V. Covell, Jr. A Field Guide to the Moths of Eastern North America. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin (Peterson Field Guide Series), 1984)
• Louis Handfield. Le Guide des Papillons du Québec (version scientifique). (Boucherville: Broquet, 1999) (McGill has a 1997 ‘Liste des lépidoptères du Québec et du Labrador’) See Association des entomologistes amateurs du Québec
• John Snyder. Web Images of North American Moth Species: Links to Photos and Drawings of Nearly 2,300 Moth Species. http://www.furman.edu/~snyder/leplist/
• James Adams' Helpful Hints
• Holland, W. J. (William Jacob), The moth book: a popular guide to a knowledge of the moths of North America. ‘With forty-eight plates in color photography, and numerous illustrations in the text, reproducing specimens in the collection of the author, and in various public and private collections.’ Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1903, xxiv + 479 pp. (In the 1920 edition that McGill has, the reproduction of the colour plates is nowhere near as good as in the 1905 edition. I have a copy of the 1968 Dover edition, in which the colour plates are mostly good, although the colour alignment is off in a few plates; and of the 1908 edition, in which the plate colours are good.)
• Holland, W. J. (William Jacob), The butterfly book: a popular guide to a knowledge of the butterflies of North America. ‘With 48 plates in color-photography, reproductions of butterflies in the author's collection, and many text illustrations presenting most of the species found in the United States’. William Briggs, Toronto, 1898, xx+382 pp. I have the 1st edition.

3.2 Arachnida spiders, mites, etc.

3.2.1 Araneæ spiders

• Kaston, B.J.. How to know the spiders. 1953. 220 pages, 552 text figures. I don't have this book, but it seems to be a classic.
• Emerton, J.H. The Common Spiders of the United States. 1902. 225 pages. Reprinted by Dover, 1961.
• World Spider Catalog by Norman Platnick, American Museum of Natural History: no images, not directly useful for identification, but a complete list of families; counts of genera and species; and an exhaustive bibliography. The 'Generic List' page lists 3565 current genus names and the associated families.
• Key to Spider Families for Black Rock Forest, New York (Am. Mus. Nat. History)
• Spider Eyes Project by Gie Wyckmans: 177 drawings of eye layouts for 170 genera, labelled by genus, based mainly on drawings from Bösenberg's Die Spinnen Deutschlands, Stuttgart, 1901. Sorted as in Bösenberg, apparently based more or less on the geometrical arrangements of the eyes. Some drawings (unspecified) added or modified by Wyckmans; some drawings are unlabelled, apparently related to whether they were added or modified by Wyckmans, but the genera can be inferred from the image filenames. Some genus names are obsolete; cf. my attempt at establishing the corresponding current names.

4. Eukaryotes → Metazoa → Cnidaria jellyfish, sea anenomes, etc.

• Identification Chart for Jellies (Gulf of Mexico); Jellyfish Survey (UK)