Insect Identity
Bug Identifier & Spider ID
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
New: first aid for everything that can hurt you, a warning when a lookalike is more dangerous, and notes on your sightings. All offline, nothing uploaded.
Something just landed on your arm. You want two things, fast: its name, and whether it can hurt you.
Point your camera at it. Insect Identity answers in about a second — the species, a confidence score, and a plain verdict: harmless, irritates skin, may bite, can sting, or can be dangerous. The AI ships inside the app and runs on your phone, so it works in a basement, in the woods, on a plane, anywhere.
THE ANSWER YOU ACTUALLY WANTED
Every identification leads with risk, not trivia. Most bugs are harmless and the app says so plainly instead of leaving you guessing. When something genuinely matters — a black widow, a brown recluse, a tick, fire ants — it says that plainly too, along with what to do about it.
And when a harmless match has a dangerous lookalike close behind it — a cicada killer that might be a hornet, a spider that might be a widow — the result says so, instead of a green light it cannot stand behind.
FIRST AID, ONE TAP AWAY
For everything that can bite, sting or irritate your skin: what to do right now, and the signs that mean get help. Written from NHS, CDC and Mayo Clinic guidance, with the sources on screen.
A FIELD GUIDE TO 224 SPECIES
Not just a name. Every species carries its scientific name, size, what it eats, where it lives, when it's active, and the one thing actually worth knowing about it. Browse or search the whole guide any time, with no signal:
- Butterflies and moths — monarch, swallowtails, luna moth, hawk moths
- Beetles and ladybugs — Japanese beetle, fireflies, stag beetles
- Bees, wasps and hornets — honey bee, bumble bees, yellowjackets, paper wasps
- Ants, termites and household pests — cockroaches, bed bugs, silverfish, fleas, clothes moths
- Flies, mosquitoes, dragonflies and damselflies
- Grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, mantises, walking sticks
- True bugs and cicadas — stink bugs, spotted lanternfly, water striders
- Spiders, ticks, centipedes and millipedes
KEEP WHAT YOU FIND
Every identification is saved with its photo, date and confidence. Add a note, correct the species if the app got it wrong, and search it all later. Your collection becomes a record of your garden, your hikes, your house — how many species you have met, and when.
HONEST ABOUT CONFIDENCE
No identification app can promise certainty, so this one doesn't pretend. You get a best match with a real confidence score and the runners-up with theirs. A sharp, close, well-lit photo usually scores high; a blurry one scores low, and the app tells you instead of bluffing. If it cannot tell at all, it says it is not sure rather than putting a name on a guess. Treat any match as a strong lead, not a verdict — and never rely on it alone for decisions about bites, stings, or anything you plan to eat.
PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Your photos never leave your phone. There is no account, no sign-up and no server. The neural network is bundled in the app itself.
BUILT FOR THE DARK
A proper dark theme for the 2am "what is on my ceiling" moment, and haptics that confirm a result without you having to look twice.
Insect Identity Pro is an optional upgrade: it removes every ad, lifts the limit on your collection, and exports your sightings as a spreadsheet. Identification and the full field guide are never paywalled.
Reference photos by iNaturalist contributors (CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA) — credits: https://insect.chinesepowered.com/credits.html
Questions, or a species you'd like added? nelson@chinesepowered.com
Privacy policy: https://insect.chinesepowered.com/privacy.html
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
NEW: A real reference photo for all 224 species, next to your result, so you can check the match yourself.
NEW: First aid for everything that can bite, sting or irritate your skin: what to do, and the signs that mean get help. Written from NHS, CDC and Mayo Clinic guidance.
NEW: Lookalike warnings. When a more dangerous species is close behind the best match, the result says so, even when the app is not sure what it is looking at.
NEW: An "Irritates skin" rating, and every species re-checked against medical sources.
NEW: Add a note to any sighting, correct a species the app got wrong, and search your collection.
BETTER: No more full-screen ads when you come back to the app.
BETTER: Picking a photo from your gallery no longer asks for access to your whole library.
BETTER: VoiceOver reads out every result, warnings included.
FIXED: Photos in your collection no longer go missing after an app update.
The developer, Nelson Lai, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Used to Track You
The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
- Identifiers
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Purchases
- Identifiers
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Nelson Lai
- Size
- 90.8 MB
- Category
- Reference
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.4 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 16.4 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 16.4 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
13+
- 13+
- Infrequent
Medical Treatment information
Contains
Advertising
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Insect Identity Pro Forever $7.99
- Copyright
- © Nelson Lai