Insect larvae

There are many reasons to be curious about the juvenile form of an animal, especially since adult forms are often more conspicuous. Insect larvae are especially distinct from their elders. However, iNaturalist lacks a method by which every Observation of a larva is classified as such in a consistent manner, so one cannot simply do a search for "larvae" and get a list of every single one observed. Therefore, this project aims to create such a convenient list.

This is exclusively for holometabolous insect larvae of all kinds - no adults, no pupae, no eggs, no hemimetabolous nymphs. If ever you see an observation that is clearly of an insect larva, please add it to this project. (Of course, adults, etc. may happen to be in the same picture as a larva.) Although technically adults, larviform adult insects such as some lampyrids and phengodids will be included, for it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the larva from the adult. Also, galls are acceptable, as long as it is known to be of a holometabolous insect; ideally, the larva itself should be visible in a picture, but it is not absolutely necessary since that requires digging into the gall.

There is already another project for insect pupae: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pupae

The project icon and cover photos are from my Observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1946476 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2091915 respectively. less ↑