These downloadable PDFs include a number of documents that may be useful when making sense of the specimens discovered during your BioBlitz.
Downloads
The Insect ID Flowchart will help your students get to the taxonomic level of order for identification.
Insect Order ID Flow Chart (PDF 806 KB)
The antennae & mouthparts, along with the Insect Characteristics, will be helpful if you try IDing to family or have conversations about important characteristics for invertebrate identification. The tracks sheet will be helpful in deciphering some of the signs that animals might have left behind.
Arthropod Identification Tools (PDF 1.5 MB)
Links
These links offer some useful keys for identification of a variety of arthropods. Identifying down to family is usually adequate for recording results in a BioBlitz, but continuing down to genus and species can be a fun challenge for older students.
Insect Characteristics
https://entomology.unl.edu/scilit/basic-insect-morphology
Arthropod Order Keys
https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Text_Keys/arthropod_keyA.htm
https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Text_Keys/arthropod_keyB.htm
https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Text_Keys/arthropod_keyC.htm
Arthropod Family Keys
https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Text_Keys/heteroptera.htm - Bugs
https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Text_Keys/neuroptera.htm - Lacewings
https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Text_Keys/orthoptera.htm - Crickets & Grasshoppers
http://esc-sec.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/AAFC_bousquet1990.pdf - Beetles
Taxonomic Keys to Several Canadian Arthropods (various taxonomic levels)
http://cjai.biologicalsurvey.ca/ejournal.html
Other Identification Guides
https://www.entsoc.org/syseb/systematics-resources/keys
https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q
http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/botw/
Additional Biodiversity Resources
These additional resources are good for validating identifications of specimens, learning more about biodiversity, and as general research tools for animals, plants, & habitats.
Arthropods
https://novascotiabutterflies.ca/index.html
Nova Scotia Natural History (Landscapes, Plants, Animals, & Habitats)
https://ojs.library.dal.ca/NSM/issue/view/349 - Natural History of Nova Scotia: Volume 1
Plants & Trees
https://ojs.library.dal.ca/NSM/pages/view/Plants - Nova Scotia Plants
https://novascotia.ca/natr/forestry/treeid/Trees_Of_Acadian_Forest2.pdf - Trees
Birds
https://www.natureinstruct.org/dendroica/spec.php/Canada
https://www.audubon.org/bird-guide
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/