Feedback

Selected Feedback

 

23/2/20 “This is a fantastic web site! It has the photos, genus and species info you will ever need as a budding entomologist! It must take a huge effort to keep it up to date!” Tracy Goldsmith (Scientist)

Thanks Tracy for the kind comments. Yes, we spend a looooong time working on the site. I’m not sure we quite realised what we were getting ourselves into 😉

27/3/19 “This website is the best one in Tasmania for assisting in identifying moths. I have been photographing them for about 5 years now and continue to find it hard to identify many of them and this site has been of great assistance. I would also be happy to assist in supplying any Lepidoptera photos. Thank you again.” Jim Duggan (Community Member)

It’s so good to hear when the Insects of Tas has helped people to pursue their interests. We love adding photos from others to increase the diversity (and locations) represented on the site, so we will happily take up your offer when we can. Unfortunately with just the two of us working on the site in our limited free time, we often don’t have time to process any more photos than we take. Thank you very much for taking the time to give us feedback, Jim.

26/1/19 I had posted some Tasmanian insects on Bowerbird in the hope of getting IDs, and then found your website that enabled me to identify most of them. A very useful resource. Robert Read (Community Member)

Thank you Robert. We use Bowerbird for identification help too, but we’re glad you were able to find some species using our site.

14/10/18 Hi, We found some weird thing that looked like an overgrown slater in our kitchen. Looked up your site, and found out is a Laxta cockroach!! Love your site super informative! Anonymous (Community Member)

(Very Belatedly, sorry!!). Thanks for the feedback and we’re very glad you can name your cockroach now 😉

7/9/ 18 I love this site! When I moved to Tasmania I was frustrated by the lack of resources out there on Tasmanian insects. Then this site happened and wow it is one of the absolute best ones on any insects! Sorry I cant think of a particular improvement to recommend, but Im confident that an upgrade by the site owners would be amazing. Celeste (Community Member)

Thanks for getting in touch Celeste. We’re currently on a steep learning curve to work out a new web platform infrastructure, and how to automate some of the moves so that we don’t have to manually transfer the 18000 + images ;-). Thanks for your show of optimism. It’s very heartening as we face this rather daunting task.

29/8/18 “I’m a wildlife lover. This website is really useful and helpful to me!! I’v found a tiny insect when cut my Calendula flower. I thought it’s a Cicada(looks like it!), but only about 5mm. I searched online “the smallest cicada in world”,but didn’t get any clue. At last I sent a letter to “insects of Tasmania”. I got the answer within 24 hours! The Psyllid is tiny but your help is huge to me. Thank you very much!!! Snowlotus ” A. Rademacher (Snowlotus) (Community Member).

Thanks Snowlotus. We’re happy to help when we can and interested to see what others are finding.

3/6/18 “Over the last two years I have become very interested in bugs of all sorts. They are so fascinating. I travel to Tasmania several times a year and not only like to find and photograph as many as I can but also spend hours trying to identify them. I have found this website to be invaluable in my quest. I don’t know what I would do without it. Thank you so much for the time and effort you have put into it.” Anonymous (Community Member)

It’s good to hear about others who like to hunt out the bugs, take their photos then ID them 😉 I’m glad we can be of some help. Thank you for getting in touch.

15/4/18 “From time to time I’m looking for reliable info on the creatures we find in & around our home for my children’s curiosity and mine – it is good to have a specific Tas resource” Anonymous (Community Member)

Thank you for taking the time to add to the site feedback.

13/4/18 “”Insects of Tasmania” is one of my 5 most visited and valuable resources for Australian insect identification. The information is presented in a way that makes searching easy, with clear photos and excellent taxonomic details. Thanks – please keep up the wonderful work you do.” Bron King (Community Member, Teacher)

Thank you Bron for the lovely comment and support.

11/4/18 “When our two noisy children forced us to abandon our attempts at bird watching, it was a joy to discover that there were other incredible creatures to learn about -that didn’t necessarily fly away at an excited toddler’s approach. With the assistance provided by Insects of Tasmania, our family has slowly but surely been increasing its knowledge and appreciation of the insect world at our feet. I can’t imagine not being able to refer to the wealth of stunning photos and information to assist with each discovery. Thank you for such a fantastic resource – it has enriched our lives and made bush walking, gardening and exploring with kids so much fun again!” Anonymous (Community Member)

It is great reading about your family enjoying the discovery of our small critters, and appreciating their huge diversity too. Thank you for taking the time to comment.

10/4/18 “Insects of Tasmania is a fantastic site. I’ve done several collecting trips around Tasmania and have used this site as a quick visual ID for a number of specimens outside of my group of interest.” Nathan Butterworth (Scientist, University Student, Teacher)

Very much appreciated Nathan.

10/4/18 “This site has been extremely useful for my university studies as I have been required to identify multiple insects for my PhD. The site has provided a great resource for verification of IDs.” Anonymous (University Student)

We are pleased to hear the site has proved useful for verifying your ID work. We are of course indebted to all the experts who have helped us.

9/4/18 “I am keen to draw & paint Tasmanian insects of interest. Locating attractive photographic images is very difficult. I would appreciate your further study and upgrade to your website.” Anonymous (Community Member)

Thank you for the support. There are certainly plenty of beautiful Tasmanian critters to inspire the creative among us.

7/4/18 “Love this site. I do macro photography and enjoy sharing my photos. I like to be able to identify the subjects in my photos. Such a wonderful and useful resource for all to use.” Susie Board (Community Member)

We’re glad to help. The more named photos of invertebrates that are shared helps everyone to learn, and hopefully care more. Thank you for contacting us Susie.

7/4/18 “Love this resource. I use it constantly to see what bugs have been caught in our wasp trap, and to identify new species I haven’t seen before. Very useful for minibeast units.” Anonymous (Teacher)

Kids love to match the things that they find and give them a name. We’re glad the site is useful for your unit.

6/4/18 “This website has been most helpful to me in identifying insects we find around our school in Launceston. If I find a dead specimen that I can mount into a container for class use, this website has enabled me to identify the Genus and Family names, plus local common names so I can correctly label the specimen.” Anonymous, (Teacher).

It is fantastic that you are willing to do this for your classes. I’m sure your students really benefit, and appreciate, being able to have some close contact with the species you have found.

6/4/18 “I am a farmer and find this website invaluable in identifying beneficial and pest insect species.” Anonymous (Community Member)

That is such good news! Thank you for the contact.

6/4/18 “I use this site to help with the identification of insects and spiders, I have a special interest in the macro world and particularly enjoy photographing spiders. ” Anonymous, (Community Member)

We’re happy to hear that this helps enhance your macrophotography, although we aren’t much help with the spiders 😉

5/4/18 “This is a fantastic reference site. I frequently use the site to identify insects I have photographed and submitted to iNaturalist. I would not be able to supply this data without this site.” Shane Richards, (Scientist)

We’re glad it works both ways as we have had help from the iNaturalist community to identify some of the species on the site. Thanks for letting us know.

5/4/18 “Excellent resource” Jenny Smith (Community Member)

Thank you, Jenny.

5/4/18 “I love this site. I use it regularly to ID insects I have photographed and to help others, including students I teach, to ID their discoveries.” Deon (Community Member, Teacher)

Thanks Deon. It’s fabulous to read that you are making some use of it in the classroom!

5/4/18 “The best resource I have found in helping to identify Tasmanian insects of all kinds. Because I have no prior expertise in this field, I would have to say it most educational as well!” Colin Vincent, (Community Member)

Thank you for the supportive comment. We’ve found it very educational putting it together too!

5/4/18 “I have found the ‘Insects of Tasmania’ site to be an excellent resource for identifying local insects- and do we have some local insects! Very necessary given the amount of unique species found in localities around our beautiful, abundant state.” Adam Carl Johnson (Community Member)

Thank you for the contact. Our insects are so diverse and interesting….who can resist them? 😉

5/4/18 “i’d be lost without this site, it is without a doubt my favourite and most used online reference, i frequently get asked to identify insects from pictures and always link this resource in my answers many people who i’ve introduced to the site now use it to identify there own, family and friends finds it is a valuable resource and well worthy of funding.” Spikey

Thanks for your feedback and photographic contributions to the site Spikey!

5/4/18 “I work as a professional in the agricultural sector and this page is absolutely fantastic to assist field staff and growers with identifying insects and assisting with decision making – mostly I get sent photos from the field and I reply with a link (from your page) to the appropriate insect so as to reassure the person who found the specimen that it has no economic impact or is actually beneficial! Sometimes obviously it does have economic impact and some form of control measure is undertaken, but mostly people know what the “bad ones” are and don’t have to ask me! I also conduct soil health surveys which sometimes involves sifting through spade-fulls and unearthing copious invertebrates some of which I then come running to your website to confirm the identity of!” Anonymous, (Scientist)

That’s great news that our site is being used this way. Thank you for letting us know!

3/4/18 “This is a wonderful site. Im still getting used to the new and interesting insects here in Tassie that I have not seen in my previous state. But I wonder if you have any suggestions as to where one can go for help when finding an insect in the veggie patch that doesn’t seem to be listed?” Anonymous, (Community Member).

We’re glad that the site is helping you get to know your new neighbours ;-). Feel free to email us if you have general enquiries and we’ll try to help, or suggest where to try next. Thanks for getting in touch.

30/3/ 18 “This page has been so helpful to me thank you for this site amazing site!” Anonymous, (Secondary School Student)

This site was originally motivated because we wanted a resource for secondary school students, so we are really happy that you find it useful. Thanks for the comment!

24/3/18 “Your collection of species and IDs is invaluable to me, even over here in Perth – there’s enough overlap that I can ID some species that I can’t find anywhere else online 🙂 And of course, it’s a useful resource to point others to.” Daniel Heald, (Community Member)

It is so great to hear that a site targeted at Tasmanian species is still of use on the opposite side of the country. Thanks for letting us know Daniel.

21/3/18 “In the past I have been frustrated at the difficulty of finding out anything about the insects I find. Just looking at all the pictures on this website is helping me to get familiar with the different orders and families of insects. Being able to identify a specific insect means that I have a name to use to look up more information about that insect. This is one of my most frequently accessed websites and I am aware that you must put a tremendous amount of work into it, so I just wanted you to know that your efforts are greatly appreciated.” Anonymous (Community Member)

What generous feedback. Thanks so much. We do put a lot of time into the site, so we are very happy that it has proven useful to others.

19/3/18 “I belong to a local botanical art group and we do sometimes paint insects relating to the plants we paint. Your site is a very useful resource in our work and we would submit a request to use photos as necessary.” (Anonymous, Community Member)

It is lovely to hear that the site is used beyond identification. We are also happy to respond to photo requests in their different forms. Thanks for contacting us.

15/3/18 “A most useful resource supported by a community of interested naturalists, ecologists and scientists. It is the first port of call for many wanting to know what there particular insect is. If there is one addition I would like to see, it would be to expand the site to include invertebrates that are not ‘insects’, or to have additional links to other such sites.” (Anonymous Scientist)

Thank you for the feedback and suggestions. We have tried to stick to insects and pseudo-insects just so that we have a chance of being more accurate, and initially we thought they were underrepresented. Workload prevents too much ambition though and there are just two of us running this. John Douglas already had an excellent Tasmanian Spiders site before we started up so we left spiders to him. We have a list of suggested links under under the menu on our front homepage. This can be easily missed if you enter our site from different pages.

12/3/18 “Fascinating site, been looking for info like this for ages.” Anonymous (Community Member)

We’re glad you found it interesting!

9/3/18 “I find this site very helpful and i use it all the time. Dont get rid of it!” Anonymous, (University Student)

We’re trying to plan ahead to ensure that the site can be ongoing. We just have to hope the plans work out!

9/3/18 “I have been using the “Insects of Tasmania” site almost daily since I discovered it. It is an invaluable site to identify insects, both to resolve curiosity issues but also to rule out any poisonous propensities the beastie under review may have…thanks for all the information available, so far I have managed to identify everything I searched for.” Dianne Ayers (Community Member)

It’s so lovely to hear that you regularly use the site, and then find what you were looking for. Thanks for getting in touch.

8/3/18 “A good and interesting resource” Anonymous (University Student)

Thank you!

7/3/18 “I was wondering if you have a list of local native plants that would help encourage beneficial insects, if grown along side the vegetable/ fruit garden. I am attempting to grow mainly native plants in the non-vegetable garden.” Anonymous (Community Member)

We’d love to oblige but unfortunately this is beyond our area of current expertise and we don’t have such a list. We’d recommend asking at one of the local native plant nurseries.

7/3/18 “We have found this site very helpful in the use of identifying local insects, especially the beneficial ones in the garden. Which has resulted in us reducing the use of chemicals in our garden.” Anonymous (Community Member)

This is really heartwarming to hear. Thank you for telling us.

7/3/18 “I find the Insects of Tasmania a particularly useful site for identifying many of the insects we get ”just over the waters” in South Gippsland, Vic. There are so many similar or the same, and as insects are one of my many loves, it is helpful to be able to identify them and this site does that well for me. Many of my photographs are used on my local Landcare Group’s website and field displays for other people locally to use therefore, making you site doubly useful. Thanks for all the work you do, it is much appreciated. 🙂 ” Mrs Kaye Proudley (Community Member)

Thank you Mrs Proudley. It’**s great to hear from a “Mainlander’ ;-). We do share many species in common so we are glad that the site is useful, and doubly pleased that it can help with landcare group educational displays.

6/3/18 “I LOVE this website!! I’m always using it to identify new insects I find in my forest reserve! It’s WAY better than a book as it us kept up to date and has several pics for most species so you get to see variations too. Keep up the great work!!” Helen Robertson (Community Member and Scientist)

You lucky thing to have your own forest reserve! We’re so glad that we can help identify your critters from a distance ;-). We have been surprised at the variations within species too! Thanks for getting in touch.

6/3/18 “Hi, I saw a wonderful green leaf-bug in the garden this morning. It looked like it was laying eggs. All day I’ve been wondering what it is, and now I have just found it on your site. (It’s a type of cricket!) We have recently planted some new native plants and have noticed different types of insects and birds around. It’s great to know which bugs are welcome and being able to identify them enhances our enjoyment of our garden. Thank you.” Stephanie (Community Member)

It was lovely to read your story Stephanie, and I’m glad that you tracked your cricket down on our site. It is great to recognise your own garden fauna and then be able to attract new species. I’ve had a similar experience at home.

6/3/18 “A well documented and colourful site and an excellent resource for adults and children alike. I find it invaluable when trying to identify insects found while bushwalking.” Anonymous (Community Member)

Thank you for your wonderful support. We’re glad that we can help!

6/3/18 “I use this site on a daily basis to identify insects for my post-graduate research project. It’s a very useful resource – I hope to be able to use it long into the future!” Anonymous (University Student)

We’re pleased “Insects of Tasmania” is useful at post-graduate level. We hope to keep the site alive and well too. Thanks for the feedback.

4/3/18 “I often visit this site to help me identify unusual species of insects I find. This has assisted in my research at UTAS, and with Mount Roland Rivercare, in gaining an understanding of the distribution of Tasmanian species. ” Barbara Alsop (University Student)

Hi Barbara. It’s great the that site can be of use for research and for environmental groups. Mount Roland Rivercare sounds like a wonderful, community organisation. Thanks for getting in touch.

2/3/18 “Thanks for creating this site. It is just what I have been looking for to help my students identify insects during our ecosystems unit.” Anonymous (Teacher)

We’re glad it is a useful resource for your students. We hope they find it easy to navigate. Thanks for the response.

26/2/18 “Wonderful and informative site that explains the importance and diversity of Tasmania’s insect population in a highly accessible/child-friendly and fascinating way! We need more insect lovers and enthusiasts, please keep up the good work!” Nakita (University Student)

Thank you for the wonderful support Nakita. We really try to make the site work for beginners through to experts. We hope that the more people who know about insects, the better off our environment will be.

24/2/18 “I have found the Insects of Tasmania site very useful in identifying insects found in my garden.” Anonymous (Community Member)

It is amazing how many different insects visit our local gardens. A lot of our images are taken at home. Thank you for letting us know.

24/2/18 “I LOVE this site! I use it almost every day and find it quite invaluable :)” Ainslie (Community Member)

Aww thanks so much Ainslie, we’re glad you find it useful!

20/2/18 “In trying to collate a checklist of the insects recorded in the Peter Murrell Reserves, I have found Insects of Tasmania an invaluable resource. I turn to it regularly and find its information trustworthy and easily accessible. Thank you for maintaining it.” Peter Jarman (Community Member and Scientist)

Thank you for the feedback, Peter. Getting the identifications has been a real team effort with scientists, hobbyists and general enthusiasts all around the world. We’re glad the site is useful.

19/2/18 “Definitely has a purpose. I love insects and want to know if I’ve encountered a rare new or endangered species.” Anonymous (University Student)

We both find the same thrill when you find something easy. We’re lucky. It’s relatively easy to do in Tasmania! Thanks for the feedback.

19/2/18 “Love this site, use it regularly!” Anonymous (Community Member)

Great to hear! Thanks for getting in touch.

18/2/18 “This website has provided me a vital resource for art. I have been making a series of images of Tasmanian insects for my young daughter, and will shortly been having an exhibit at a local gallery. This website makes it so easy to learn about the local insects and the stunning photographs are an excellent resource.” Matt Sullivan (Community Member)

We are really happy to hear that our site is being used beyond the science sphere. Thank you Matt and good luck with your exhibition! If you’d like, take a photo and we will put it up here. I’m sure everyone will be interested.

18/2/18 “Hi, we have just moved house and are meeting loads of insects that we don’t know yet. I am looking for info on identification.” Anonymous (Teacher)

Thanks for the contact. We’re really glad that the site is useful for identification. We hope you find lots of interesting things in your new surrounds.