About Insect Arena
Seven competitions on reviewed photographs of 5,335 insect species from across the insect orders except butterflies and moths. Name an insect from its photograph, choose its Latin name, search for it by any of its names, pick a region where it lives, tell its family, estimate its body length, or match photographs to names.
Seventeen collections run from Familiar Insects through ground beetles, scarabs, longhorns, bees, wasps, ants, hoverflies, dragonflies, damselflies, true bugs, cicadas, grasshoppers and mantises to lacewings, mayflies and other orders. Play the familiar insects, one collection or a balanced mix. Families and where each insect lives come from GBIF; body lengths are quoted from published references.
How to play
- Goal
- Recognize the world’s insects from their photographs and learn their names, Latin names, where they live, families and body lengths.
- How it ends
- Finish ten questions or ten pairs, exhaust the sprint clock, or make one sprint mistake.
- Record
- Best score, highest Length Reserve or fastest Matching finish, with time and the player’s name.
- Recognition Sprint: choose the pictured insect from eight names, mostly related insects. You have 90 seconds and one wrong answer ends the run. Most correct answers wins; the time of the last one breaks ties.
- Latin Names: choose the scientific (Latin) name of the pictured insect from eight, mostly of related insects. Ten photographs; a wrong answer scores nothing. Most correct answers wins, then the faster total time.
- Name Search: identify ten photographs. Type part of a common or scientific name, a former name or an alias and choose the insect from the list. A lesser-known insect of the same genus also counts. Correct answers rank first, then faster time.
- Where It Lives: each named insect comes with six of thirteen regions of the world. Exactly one is a region where it lives in the wild, native or established; the other five have no record of it. Complete ten questions.
- Insect Family: choose the family of the named insect from eight, each shown with two of its best-known insects. Ten questions; most correct answers wins, then time.
- Length Reserve: estimate the adult body length in millimetres. You start with 1,000. A guess inside the published range costs nothing; outside it you lose more the further off you are, up to 100 per insect when ten times too big or too small. Ten estimates; highest reserve wins, then time.
- Matching: select a photograph, then its insect name, or drag one onto its partner. Match all ten pairs. Each wrong pair adds three seconds; fastest adjusted finish wins.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Tap / click | Choose answers, regions, families and matching pairs |
| Drag | Drag either side of Matching onto its partner to make a pair |
| Type an insect name | Filter the Name Search list; Enter chooses a unique result |
| Length estimate · mm | Enter an estimate; a number pad supports controllers |
| Enlarge | Inspect the photograph while the clock keeps running |
| 1–8 | Choose an answer in the pick-one competitions; in Where It Lives select a region, then the same number or Enter confirms |
| Standard controller | D-pad navigates controls; A selects, Y opens Rules; in the Name Search list, left and right jump between first letters |
Tips
- Count the wings Beetles hide their flight wings under hard wing cases, flies have two wings, bees and wasps four; that alone separates many look-alikes.
- Read the genus Latin Names offers relatives, so the first word is often shared; the second word decides.
- Body only Length Reserve measures head to the tip of the abdomen: antennae, legs, tails and wings do not count.
Good to know
Every photograph retains its creator, chosen licence, original title and source links. Creator credits appear beside the photograph; Full photo credit opens the complete attribution and sources. Opening full credits during a question, leaving the tab, restoring an unfinished run or a mid-run photo-loading interruption makes that attempt practice. This is a quiz: nothing in it is advice on stings, bites, pests or handling insects.
Watch how to play
Questions
Why are there no butterflies or moths?
They have their own game, Butterfly Arena. Insect Arena covers the rest of the insects: twenty-one orders, from beetles and bees to silverfish and fleas.
Why do fewer insects appear in some competitions?
An insect joins Where It Lives only with at least 100 GBIF records and a clear set of regions, and Length Reserve only when a published reference quotes its body length. Insects recorded nearly everywhere, or named after their region, are not asked.
Where do the facts come from?
Names come from iNaturalist and English Wikipedia, families and where each insect lives from GBIF occurrence records, and body lengths from published references cited per insect.
