Ed Baker

This directory was originally written for publication in the Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists' Society and Metaleptea. Since the internet is a dynamic place, I have decided to maintain a more current list at this address. If you have any suggestions to add to the list please contact me.

Over the last few years there have been a number of new, high-quality, internet resources for those interested in orthopteroid insects. So far, comprehensive taxonomic databases have been created for the orders Orthoptera, Phasmida, Mantodea and Blattodea. These use the Species File Software and contain complete lists of taxa, valid and invalid names, type data and references. Although primarily of use to those interested in the taxonomy of the relevant order it has a number of more general uses, including generating a list of species known to occur in a particular geographic region, and finding the current binomial combination of species (many species of phasmid, for example, are seen for sale using outdated names).

Three orthopteroid groups have enthusiastsʼ groups; blattodea (Blattodea Culture Group), phasmida (Phasmid Study Group) and mantodea (Mantis Study Group). Although the Mantis Study Group is not active there is work underway to re-create the group online. All three groups have websites making use of the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomyʼs Scratchpad system. This system allows for the creation of professional quality websites that can store and make easily accessible a vast quantity of data.

There is a large number of sites relating to these orders, in particular Blattodea and Phasmida, and the following list is not intended to be comprehensive. As always with internet sites there are a great deal out there which fall short of what one would expect, be it due to poor design, being factually incorrect, or not having been updated for a number of years. All of the
sites I have listed below are being actively maintained by communities that have a good knowledge of ʻtheirʼ order.