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.

Leaf-footed Bug, family Coreidae
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

Butterflies & moths; mouthparts consisting of coiled tubes for sucking; wings covered with tiny colored scales

LEPIDOPTERA; butterflies & moths

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
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
insect_7.gif (334 bytes)  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

insect_7.gif (334 bytes)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.