Picture Insect: Spiders & Bugs 4+

Very great app even without subscription!

Although without buying a subscription, you get many popups, you can easily press “continue with limited version”. I’m considering buying a subscription because I use this app so often as a gardener! For example, today I was able to identify some green lacewing larvae that were helping my garden rid of aphids. I’ve successfully identified many insects on this app and it even helped me realize that the butterflies I was finding weren’t painted ladies, but a different species. I really love using this and learning more and more about bugs. I’ve been able to identify so many spiders including crab spiders, orb weavers and a species of harvestmen I didn’t even know existed! This app also has all ladybug identifications and has helped me identify many different species. I cannot recommend this app enough.

For those saying this app doesn’t give enough information about species- you can always look them up and learn more as well as how to deal with pests. (It’s what I do!) I use this app to get my identifications and then do further research.

I also love how you can look back on all your identifications and pictures you have. It really feels like you have your own little collection made by you.

Developer Response ,

Hello, thanks so much for the good comment, no matter you paid or not, you can always email to us for support at support@pictureinsect.com.

Very accurate!

I’ve used this app for a little over a year now and identified whatever happens to spark my curiosity. The results are usually very close to an actual species, and it’s 99% guaranteed for an accurate genus classification from the 3 options it gives you. I have an older iPhone, so my camera is not all that great and I take a lot of fuzzy-ish photos of small spiders, but the accuracy is still very spot on for what the image can convey! It’s amazing how this app can pick up small details like tiny dots or spines that are barely visible from an image.

The brief overview of the insect is also very insightful, although most times general about toxins or venoms (lower risk, higher risk, aggressive vs. passive, etc.). I like how it gives you a map of where the insect is commonly found and for what time of year, as well as photos from other members or sourced from online to further identify your specimen.

My only criticism is the pop up every time I open the app asking me to upgrade to premium, but other than that, there are no ads whatsoever and the free version works great for me.

Overall, fantastic app for the free experience! I’m no scientist so I’m not sure I would recommend this for academic studies (even though I bet it’d be a good head start to identifying a genus/family if you’re not sure), but it sure is a helpful tool for anyone curious about a bug! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Needs Work

An ok app. Like many ID apps, it will often try to identify to a level not possible from the photo, resulting in misinformation. For example, if I post a photo that is only identifiable to family level, it will always attempt a species ID anyway. As far as accuracy goes, it is hit or miss. I was pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of some ID’s such as a least skipper photo I posted, but it also gets other obvious and distinctive insects such as the Coral hairstreak wrong (I study butterflies so that is largely what I tested). For many insects this probably isn’t a big deal, but it would be best to leave ID’s at a higher taxon level like family or genus if it is just going to make inaccurate species ID’s. It would also be good to have a comment system of sorts since correcting the ID is confusing if the photo isn’t identifiable to species and the app put the insect in the wrong family or order. Information about the insects themselves is usually fine but some entries are about the wrong organism (Ex: Mormon fritillary description talks about Tortoiseshell butterflies which are in a different genus). I can’t see a reason to use it over other ID apps unless accuracy improves.

Developer Response ,

Sorry to hear you are unsatisfied with the identification accuracy. Please try changing the angle or distance to make sure the camera is focused on the species. If it still doesn't work, please email to support@pictureinsect.com for further assistance.