INSECTA AU: THE COMPLETE WEBSITE GUIDE Filmed 20 October 2026 WELCOME TO A SMALLER WORLD A mystery is a brilliant beginning Right. A little creature has just turned your afternoon into a mystery. What is it? Where does it live? And how do you remember what you found? Welcome to Insecta. This is your complete guide to a website built for looking closer: exploring real insect evidence, keeping a private field notebook, playing with scientific clues, caring for captive invertebrates, and creating your own three-dimensional little wonders. You can begin with curiosity. The name can come later. Choose your own adventure This guide is for beginners, families and experienced insect enthusiasts. Follow it from start to finish, or use the video chapters to jump straight to a tool. We will work through real examples rather than just wave at the menus. Some sections use an isolated demonstration profile, clearly labelled on screen. Its photographs are credited references and its journal entries are examples, not new wildlife sightings. The interface shown was reviewed on the twentieth of October, twenty twenty-six; counts, events and available models will change. FIND YOUR WAY The homepage is your launch pad Start at the Insecta website linked below this video. The homepage gives you several ways in: Fieldbound for games, the keeper’s corner for pets, and the calendar for your next plan. The smaller shortcuts lead to the atlas, live discoveries, your logbook and the identification studio. Further down are Insecta TV, the discovery news feed, a real-world mission, your personal discoveries, upcoming events and a daily insect spotlight. Pick the doorway that fits what you want to do today. Your field kit and quick search The top navigation carries the main destinations. For the rest, open the three-line field kit menu. It groups the site into looking closer, your little world, and going further. That is where you will find Bug Maker, the photo and sound studio, habitats, the field lab and the slower expedition. The magnifying glass opens a quick search; Control K on Windows, or Command K on a Mac, does the same job. Type a page, common name or scientific name. Choose a suggestion, or continue into the full atlas. Make it your world Open the palette button to choose the immersive biome journey or the quieter field notebook. There are eight visual habitats, from gardens and woodland to mallee, coast and alpine country. You can also turn the little travelling bugs on or off. These appearance choices belong to this browser. A forest background changes the atmosphere; it does not restrict your atlas results to forest insects. When you want an actual habitat filter, use the controls inside the atlas or the habitat explorer. Set an area, then explore on your phone The location button lets you select a nearby town and a search radius. For a Wyndham outing, choose Wyndham and review the radius before saving. Distances to events and destinations are approximate straight-line distances. The device-location option is optional; a town is enough to get started. Signed-in settings can be remembered privately. On a phone, the bottom dock keeps the main destinations within reach, while the field kit still opens the full site. Photo forms offer both Choose photo and Take a photo; camera access remains your choice. PUBLIC EXPLORATION AND PRIVATE RECORDS Know where your information lives You can explore the public pages and play the newer games without signing in. Sign in with ChatGPT to keep your personal field records, photographs, pet care and calendar with your account. There are several different collections here, so let us separate them now. Your Fielddex contains your real records. Fieldbound cards are simulated game discoveries. The model favourites and Bug Maker shelf are creative browser collections. Earning a butterfly in a game does not record a butterfly in your garden. That distinction follows us throughout the guide. THE ATLAS Search the evidence catalogue Open Atlas and type a common name, scientific name or insect order. Let us try mantis. Victoria is the starting scope. Explore Australia widens the catalogue, and entries without Victorian evidence are labelled separately. The number at the top counts named catalogue entries, including source names that may still be synonyms or provisional names. It is not a verified count of distinct living species. Each result keeps its scientific name, region and source evidence together, so you can ask where the name came from before deciding what it means. Use the filters and change the view Refine the catalogue by insect order or evidence source, then sort by scientific name or the largest source record count. Photo gallery is useful for visual exploration; Compact list makes comparisons quicker. Clear search removes your text, while Clear filters resets the refinements. Use the page controls to continue through a large result set. A photo marked Genus reference shows a relative, not necessarily that species. Some names have no reusable verified photograph yet. Follow Photos and evidence when you need to investigate further. Three windows into the same world The catalogue draws on the Atlas of Living Australia, iNaturalist and GBIF. Their counts appear separately because the same underlying record can occur in more than one source. Adding those numbers would count some evidence twice. Open the coverage notes at the bottom of the atlas to see the regional queries and methods. A historical specimen, a community identification and a recent photograph can all be useful, but they answer different questions. A high record count does not establish present-day abundance or tell you an insect is native. Field guides and personal lists Switch to Field guides for the smaller, curated set of introductory profiles. Here you can filter by habitat, origin in Australia, and your own seen or wishlist status. For example, choose Native grassland and Native to explore that combination. Mark as seen is a personal checklist mark; Wishlist is a reminder to investigate something later. Those actions do not create a photographic field record. When you actually make an observation, use Log a sighting and record its evidence, date and context. Read a species or taxon page Open a result to see its taxon page. Guided profiles add field characters, a useful observation, identification limits, an ecological role and habitat links. Catalogue-only entries direct you to the available evidence instead. The source panel links out to taxonomy, photographs and occurrence records. Scroll to the monthly chart and recent source records when available. Those bars describe when records were reported, across life stages and collection methods. They are not a promise of what will be flying today. Check whether the page reports a live retrieval or a labelled saved fallback. LIVE DISCOVERIES Find inspiration near Wyndham Discover shows openly licensed public insect photographs from iNaturalist. Choose Around my area, a town and a radius. The search uses the public town centre, not your device’s exact position. Each card has the community name, date, observer, quality label, source link and photograph credit. View evidence takes you to the original observation. Research grade describes community agreement; it is not guaranteed expert confirmation. An old or generalised observation is a useful lead for planning, not a guaranteed encounter or permission to enter a property. Explore a profile and review your own record A public profile lets you search an iNaturalist username. Enter the username itself, rather than an email address or profile URL, and choose Show public sightings. If signed in, you can remember your own public username privately. Review my record is for an observation that belongs to you. Its review asks you to confirm ownership before opening a private draft. The draft brings across public metadata and the source link, with tentative confidence; it does not copy the photograph or submit anything back to iNaturalist. Review every field and use your own original image. THE SIGHTINGS MAP Read the landscape Map turns public Victorian observations into an interactive radar. Start near a town, then use the plus and minus controls or drag to explore. Numbered markers group nearby records; zooming can separate them. The list beside the map is another way to choose a sighting, especially on a small screen. Search loaded sightings filters that current set, rather than every observation in the database. To search somewhere new, move the map and choose Search this area. Refresh reloads the chosen area, and the town control brings you back. Filter and keep uncertainty visible Use insect group, observation period and identification filters to narrow the map. On a phone they are gathered in the Filters panel. Open a record to see its date, observer, public place, location accuracy when supplied, and evidence link. An obscured point stays approximate. Your private journal coordinates are not placed on this public map. Use Wishlist for an insect you want to investigate, or Atlas to compare references. A quiet patch on the map can mean little reporting effort; it does not demonstrate that insects are absent. YOUR FIRST FIELDDEX RECORD Start with the original photograph Now let us make a field record. Open My Fielddex, sign in, and choose Add a discovery. Start with your own original photograph: JPEG, PNG or WebP, under eight megabytes. The form reads available camera metadata on your device before resizing the image. In this demonstration, the clearly labelled reference image has invented camera details so we can see the process safely. The date, local camera time and GPS fill themselves in. Embedded locality, camera model and accuracy may also appear when available. Missing metadata is perfectly ordinary; enter what you know. Review the metadata A camera clock can be wrong. GPS can be imprecise. Check the imported values rather than accepting them automatically. Fields you have already edited are protected from normal autofill; Use photo details instead deliberately replaces those values. Undo autofill restores the earlier fields, and Undo photo and autofill removes that newly chosen photo too. The image uploaded to your journal is resized and stripped of embedded metadata. The reviewed fields you save remain part of your private record. Keep the original image separately, and remember that metadata cannot supply a species identification, habitat or weather observation. Get the spelling right, or keep an open ID Begin typing in Scientific name or group. Search common names or scientific names, then select a result to copy its spelling. A name match is a spelling and reference aid; it has not examined your insect. If you type your own group or identification, the form asks you to review that name before saving. Unsure? Choose I don’t know yet, save an open ID. That gives you a Mystery insect at the broad Insecta level, with Unidentified confidence. Evidence first, a narrower identification when you can support it. Add the useful field details Check the date, then choose Wild discovery or My captive pet. Add a habitat, life stage and honest identification confidence. In the notes, describe behaviour, visible characters, the plant or the setting. Open More field details for time, number observed, locality, conditions, observation method and optional coordinates. You can enter a general place without precise GPS. Current location is optional and asks for browser access if used. A larger count or a more confident label does not earn extra field points. Accuracy matters more than making the record look impressive. Save it, then reveal the card Review the form and choose Save discovery. A saved photograph reveals a Fielddex card. The card groups records under the name you entered, and shows your confidence, recorded habitats and life stages. A notes-only record is welcome too; it appears in field records and can receive a photograph later. The card reveal and achievement are encouragement to observe carefully. They are not verification of your identification. Search your collection, or filter Wild finds, My pets and Needs a photo to choose what to investigate next. KEEP YOUR NOTEBOOK USEFUL Correct an entry without losing its photo A spelling mistake is easy to fix. Open Field records, find the entry using its name, locality or notes, and choose Edit. Update the name or details, then choose Update discovery. The record and existing photograph stay together. If you choose Delete, the confirmation offers Edit instead and Keep record before the destructive action. That is your moment to stop if you only meant to correct a typo. Deleting a field record removes its saved photograph too; its separate seen-checklist mark can remain. Details, lists and backups Open a record or card for its individual observations and photograph. Field records also lets you search notes and filter by confidence. The Seen checklist and Wishlist are separate personal lists, useful for remembering what you have supported or want to investigate. Export CSV for a spreadsheet, or JSON backup for structured record metadata. These exports contain the location precision and notes you recorded, so keep them private. They do not contain a full photo archive: download photographs separately from the individual records and keep your originals. The notebook does not automatically contribute records to biodiversity databases. Progress, passport and achievements Your collection header shows a level, photo-card total, wild habitats and achievements. A wild photograph with a recorded habitat stamps the habitat passport; captive records stay separate. Open Achievements to see what each milestone asks for and your next step. Insights summarises your own records and recording habits. These are views of your effort, not measurements of natural insect abundance. You can turn discovery sounds on or off. There is no need to invent a species name, a location or extra observations to make progress. Choose whether to join Field League Field League is an optional way to compare fieldcraft with friends. Open How points work before joining. The system rewards a spread of supported names, wild photo dates, habitats, stages and useful evidence, with limits on repeated contributions. Coordinates, quantity and confidence do not add bonus points. Join the league opens a public nickname and avatar profile, with an explicit sharing choice. Public entries show that nickname, avatar and progress totals; your photographs, notes, exact dates, locations and taxon names stay private. You can leave later. These are self-reported records, not verified biodiversity rankings. THE DISCOVERY STUDIO A photo can give you leads The discovery studio has two tools: Photo detective and Sound explorer. In Photo detective, choose a clear picture with one animal filling the frame, or try the credited spiny leaf insect reference. Select Find tentative groups. First use downloads model weights and runtime files; allow time and use a connection suited to the download. Your photograph is analysed on your device and is not saved by this studio. Here, the model suggests a stick insect, but also offers other groups. It is giving us leads to test, not naming a Victorian species. Understand the result before saving anything The bars show relative model pattern matches, not calibrated identification confidence. Many Australian insect groups are missing from this general model. The reference example even reports that it could not find a clear match. Use Explore group in atlas, the field key, or a specialist reference to test a lead. Review tentative record opens a draft with uncertainty in its notes; you still review it before saving. Download tentative clues keeps a small report of the model and its suggestions. Keep your original photograph and, where possible, add another useful angle. Listen with Sound explorer Sound explorer accepts a short WAV, MP3, M4A, OGG or WebM recording, under twenty megabytes and no longer than two minutes. Preview the recording and inspect the waveform. For longer clips, slide the start point to choose the ten-second analysis window, then Explore sound categories. Our licensed example is a cricket recording from the north-eastern United States, credited to Thatcher; it is not Australian field audio. The result includes Insect and Cricket, alongside other possible sound categories. It does not establish which species was calling. Keep the recording and its context A waveform shows changing loudness, not the identity of the caller. Wind, traffic, birds or several animals can dominate a recording. Keep the original audio and note when, where and in what habitat you heard it, and whether you actually saw the caller. Download the tentative clues if useful, then compare the rhythm and other evidence with appropriate references. Stop cancels work in progress. The Models and methods links identify the image model, sound model and open-source runtime, so the limitations are visible rather than hidden behind an impressive-looking answer. BUILD YOUR FIELD SKILLS Use what you can actually see The Field lab starts with an introductory identification key. Choose Adult or Juvenile or uncertain, then the visible number of walking legs. For an adult with six legs, choose the character you can support: scaled wings, hard wing covers, grasping forelegs, a narrow waist, or another visible feature. Our grasping-foreleg example offers mantises as a group to compare, with a reminder to inspect more characters. Juvenile and eight-legged branches change the advice. If you cannot see enough, choose uncertainty and obtain another view. Clear selection starts the comparison again. Life cycles, vocabulary and sources Scroll down for complete and incomplete metamorphosis. These diagrams help explain why a juvenile and adult may use different food and habitats. Search the glossary when a word such as elytra, exuvia or taxon interrupts your reading. The field-photo checklist suggests the whole animal, top and side views, useful detail and contextual notes. The responsibility notes remind us to leave shelters and habitat intact. Sources and methods explain the atlas coverage, personal data and model limitations; Image credits identifies the reference photographers and licences. Those footer links are available throughout the site. PLAN A HABITAT VISIT Choose a landscape, then a microhabitat Open Habitats to explore eight broad settings: gardens, woodland, wetlands, native grassland, cool forest, mallee, coastal country and alpine areas. Choose one and read its microhabitats, suggested observation method, seasonal notes, insect groups and ecological idea. For western Melbourne, the grassland section is a useful starting point. A habitat label is broad; a sheltered plant, exposed patch and damp edge can offer very different conditions. Use the suggested observation as a small, repeatable mission, and record a no-find visit honestly as well as a successful one. Check a destination before travelling Places to begin lists example destinations with approximate distances from your chosen town. Plan a visit opens the land manager’s information, where you can check access and current conditions. Nearby records requests insect occurrence evidence within five kilometres of the destination’s general point. Open a taxon or the full ALA area query to investigate. These may be historical records, not insects waiting beside the car park. Close records returns to the habitat notes. The field-profile links offer further learning, while Play this habitat opens its simulated expedition setting. PLAY AT YOUR OWN PACE Discovery Trail: read, choose, learn Let us play. Choose Discovery Trail from Play. It has twelve stops across four biomes and no timer. Set a nickname if you want, then Start discovering. Read the clue and choose an insect in the scene or its numbered field card. Need a field clue gives a useful hint without a penalty. In our first example, a freshwater connection points to a dragonfly rather than an earwig or butterfly. After an answer, read the explanation and source. Even a wrong choice gives you something concrete to look for next time. Travel, finish and keep the progress separate Every third stop asks about habitat or fieldcraft before travelling onward. Your route and progress save after each choice in this browser. Correct answers build a streak, but there is no speed bonus in this mode. Finish the trail to collect research experience, tokens and game cards, then open the linked profiles or try a new trail. The How to play button explains the rules, and Start a different trail asks before replacing an unfinished route. All of these are simulated discoveries. They never appear as real sightings in your Fielddex. BIOME RUSH AND YOUR CREW A faster way to test the clues Biome Rush uses four short rounds, with thirty-five seconds in each biome. At base camp, choose a ranger name and colour, then Start Biome Rush for a solo run. Bonus contracts are optional: collecting different insects, maintaining a streak, or making accurate decisions can earn research tokens. Read the mission, then tap a matching insect or numbered card; keyboard one, two and three work too. Correct choices earn points and charge the field tools. Incorrect choices explain the lesson and reset the streak. Illustrated game insects are group representations, not identification photographs. Comfort, gadgets and Overdrive Open comfort settings for calm, stationary targets and sound-effect controls. Calm targets are on by default. Focus mode gives the game more room; leave it when you want the normal page again. Between biomes, choose a gadget from the offered cards. Its effect stacks with earlier tools, and a default is packed if the countdown expires. Open Bonus field tools to see the charge. Scan removes a wrong choice; Overdrive doubles the next three correct scores. The guide button explains the current costs and gadgets. These tools are optional; recognising the clue remains the main task. Host friends or join a room Host friends opens crew setup. Choose Team mission to combine points toward a goal, or Friendly race to compare scores, then Create crew room. Share its seven-character code or invitation link with your intended players. A friend uses Join crew, enters the code, chooses a name and colour, then marks Ready. Up to six rangers can play, and the host starts or rematches. Preset crew signals replace open chat. Our demonstration is a one-person practice match in an isolated local room; no real friends or public players are represented here. Multiplayer time keeps moving while settings are open. Your deck, workshop, journey and rankings At the finish, progress and rewards are saved once. Field deck lets you search the game cards and filter discovered or still-to-find entries. Open one for its field clues and reference links. Bronze, silver and gold mastery represent repeated game discoveries, not rarity in nature. The Workshop spends research tokens on cosmetic auras with the same gameplay. My journey holds personal records, milestones and recent runs. Live rankings has separate Trail and Rush boards, and an optional public nickname profile. Browser game progress depends on its private cookie; clearing cookies can remove your access. THE SLOWER FIELD EXPEDITION Walk into the little world The field kit also opens Field expedition, the slower walking adventure. Choose a focus such as Flower watcher, then Begin adventure. Move with the arrow keys or W A S D, or tap a numbered microhabitat to travel toward it. At a nearby lookout, use Inspect nearby or E. The camera challenge asks for three frames: aim the reticle and choose Snap photograph, or press Space. Calm camera removes target movement. A good game photograph earns game credit; it is not a photograph of an animal you encountered outdoors. Research, unlocks and shared challenges After the photographs, answer an evidence question, read the feedback and add the encounter to your research collection. Complete six encounters for an expedition, with an ecology question along the way. The Field map shows regions unlocked by research experience; the real habitat guide remains available at any level. Research collection has search, discovery filters, field characters and mastery requirements. Quests show your progress, and controls include day or night and reduced motion. At the finish, Challenge a friend gives a shared seeded route. It shares a game challenge, not your private journal. THE KEEPER’S CORNER Meet the guide, then your own animal Pets has care guides and private keeper records for the spiny leaf insect and the Kuranda tarantula. Switch between them, then use Food and water, Healthy home, Moulting and help, and Life cycle. Each care note links to its source. Expand Photograph and licence to check the reference image; the tarantula photograph is representative, not proof of that exact locality label. Kuranda is a locality or trade label rather than a resolved species name, and a tarantula is a spider. The keeper tools deliberately extend beyond the insect atlas. Keep a calm, useful journal Edit pet lets you set a name, life stage, last moult and enclosure notes. Log care or a moult records what happened on a date, with your own observations: food offered, food eaten, a water check, renewed leaves, cleaning, a moult or a note. Those are distinct events; offering food does not mean it was eaten. Relevant tarantula food entries can add a prey-removal check. Add pet photo opens a captive logbook draft. Keep pet observations marked captive, and use actual evidence rather than filling gaps with an assumed routine. Review reminders and moult mode Add care reminders first opens a plan for review. Read it before adding; the checks are editable reminders, not automatic feeding instructions. Today’s checks can be marked and undone. Moult or recovery mode pauses feeding checks in the website and new calendar exports while other relevant checks continue. A moult date alone does not decide that an animal has recovered. Use the guide’s sources and advice specific to your animal. If you change a care schedule or moult mode, replace the old exported phone-calendar snapshot too; it cannot update itself. MAKE TIME FOR TINY THINGS Use the calendar The calendar combines public events with your private plans and care checks. Times on this page are shown in Melbourne time. Move between months, choose Today, or select a day to see its agenda. Public-event scope can show nearby and online events, saved events, or the wider set. The Show filter separates club meetings, care, events, field trips and personal plans. Public listings still need organiser confirmation. For care items, record a check, skip it when appropriate, or undo an accidental mark. A tick records what you checked; it does not assess an animal’s health. Create and edit a repeating plan Choose Add meeting or plan. Enter its title and kind, first date, start time and duration. Repeat can be once, daily, weekly, fortnightly, the same date each month, or the same weekday each month. Add an end date if needed, then review the time zone and alert lead time. A place, private HTTPS meeting link and notes are optional. Save schedule. My schedules lists the repeating plans and their edit controls. Editing changes the whole schedule. Removing it also removes its check history, so review the confirmation rather than using removal to fix a time. Take a private calendar snapshot with you Phone reminders exports the next ninety days as an ICS file. Choose your plans and care with alerts, filtered public events, or everything in the current filter. Import the downloaded file into your calendar app and check that its alerts actually work. This is a snapshot, not a live subscription. After changing a plan or moult mode, replace the earlier imported snapshot to avoid stale or duplicate reminders. Private exports can include your notes and meeting links. Keep those files private. Insecta itself does not send background push notifications. FIND YOUR ENTOMOLOGY COMMUNITY Events, opportunities and coverage What’s on has an events calendar, opportunities and communities, and source-coverage notes. Search a talk, place or organiser, then filter by area, type and upcoming or archived dates. Use the mini calendar for a particular day, or Find moth nights for that kind of outing. Save an event to revisit it and export an individual or filtered calendar. Organiser details is the place to confirm booking, eligibility, access and changes. Refresh checks the Victorian calendar source. Dates with unresolved conflicts are flagged and kept out of exports rather than presented as dependable appointments. THE KEEPER’S SUPPLY DESK Find a source, then check the details Where to buy is a directory, with categories for pet insects, other invertebrates, enclosures, food and supplies. Search a shop or animal, filter by the shop’s state, and clear the filters to widen your view. A shop’s location is not its delivery coverage. Listing source and published business-registration links help you check a lead, while stock, prices and shipping belong on the seller’s current website. Open the official-rules section before a purchase and confirm the exact species and origin. A directory entry or business number is not a wildlife permit. Auctions, expos and enclosure planning Auctions and expos separates verified current opportunities from closed examples. If no current public auction has been verified, the page says so; an archived sale is not an invitation to bid. Follow the organiser for current terms and dates, and add a confirmed date to your own calendar if useful. The enclosure and pet-planning notes help you ask about space, ventilation, food, access and ongoing costs before bringing an animal home. This directory is a research tool. The guide does not make a purchase, place a bid or register you for an event. THE REAL 3D COLLECTION Search a cabinet of specimens The 3D Lab opens a global collection of models with their creators and sources attached. Search a name, group, museum or creator; use quick group buttons or Filters to narrow the result. Reference type separates scientific scans, artist models, fossils and references whose creation method is unconfirmed. Access and licence can find downloads, direct files without an account, public-domain material or reusable Creative Commons models. Sort by recommendation, name or smaller GLB files. Victorian atlas match means that name has Victorian record evidence; it does not mean the scan was made in Victoria. Turn a real specimen around Open a model in the 3D inspector. Here is a Smithsonian beetle labelled Julodis undetermined, with no species determination supplied. Drag to rotate, zoom with a wheel or pinch, and pan using the viewer’s supported controls. Reset, Front, Side and Top provide repeatable views. Some Sketchfab models also offer zoom buttons, Mesh and Surface modes. Fullscreen is available where the browser permits it. Look closer gives three observation prompts. Tick the ones you have explored, but keep not visible as an honest result when the scan misses a fine structure. Notes, downloads and your shelf Specimen notes records the reference type, creator and available geometry information. Download shows the current licence and file options. Our Smithsonian example is CC0, with direct GLB links; other providers may require a free account, or offer viewing only. Check the creator’s current source and licence before reuse, and use Copy credit to retain attribution. Save model adds a browser-local favourite; Saved opens that shelf. Export list downloads the current filtered metadata, while the share button copies a link to a model. Scans can contain holes, missing thin parts or colour artefacts and are not automatically print-ready. BUG MAKER: MAKE A LITTLE WONDER Choose an insect blueprint Now the creation studio. Open Bug Maker from the field kit or 3D Lab. Choose Beetle, Ant, Butterfly, Dragonfly, Mantis, Stick insect or Bee. These are creative body plans using insect anatomy ideas, not reconstructions of a photograph or certified species models. Give your design a name. In Shape, adjust the head, thorax, abdomen, legs and antennae. Winged plans have the relevant wing controls; the beetle has opening wing covers. Restore this body plan returns its starting proportions. Small changes can transform the character while the six-legged blueprint stays in place. Learn by taking a closer look Rotate and zoom the model, then try Top, Front, Side, Reset and automatic rotation. Anatomy colours distinguishes body regions. Separate parts pulls the model apart to help you inspect them, and Mesh shows its structure. Tap a part, or use the buttons under Learn, for the head, thorax, abdomen, legs, antennae and wings. Read the body-plan field note and maker mission, then compare with a real scan. The model simplifies joints, proportions and wing folding. The learning value is in asking where structures attach and how the regions relate, rather than treating every shape as a species-level character. Invent a colour story and keep the design Colour offers body and accent colours, plus plain, spotted or striped patterns on supported parts. Surprise me makes a new creative combination. These colours do not identify a real species. In Keep it, Save to my shelf keeps up to twelve designs in this browser. Your current draft also saves here when browser storage is available. Keep creating reopens a shelf design. Copy design link carries an editable design for someone else to open; it is separate from your private Fielddex. Download an editable copy if you want to move devices or protect against cleared browser storage. Pick the right file for the job There are four exports. GLB keeps geometry and colours for 3D software. STL supplies geometry without colours; treat its longest dimension as eighty millimetres in a slicer, then inspect the overlapping parts and thin features before printing. Print readiness is not guaranteed. PNG takes a picture of the current studio view. JSON preserves an editable Insecta design. We tested all four downloads, then used Import design JSON to reopen the saved beetle after changing to another plan. That small JSON file is the one to keep when you want to return and carry on designing. INSECTA TV AND DISCOVERY NEWS Watch, then investigate Insecta TV gathers the published documentaries on one page. The latest episode is featured at the top. Season links jump through the archive, individual players let you watch here, and Watch Season in order opens the corresponding YouTube playlist. Watch on YouTube opens the original video, where its description holds research sources, visual credits and narration details. English captions are available in the player. The channel is Insecta, at Insecta A U. Use the atlas and Fielddex links to turn a film’s question into an observation of your own. Follow new names back to the paper Discovery news starts on the homepage and continues on its full page. Choose Across Australia or Victorian connections, then filter by insect group or search a species, habitat or place. Stories are ordered by paper publication date. Expand Species and paper details for the named species, authors, journal citation and DOI. Read the paper opens the original research, with access labels distinguishing open material from abstracts or restricted full text. New means newly described to science; it does not mean newly arrived in your suburb. The selection is curated, and its source-check date is displayed. RSS and further reading The RSS link provides a feed of additions to Insecta’s curated news selection. Add that address to a feed reader if you want to follow new stories. It is separate from the calendar’s ICS snapshot, and it is not an exhaustive real-time alert for every new insect species. The journal links at the bottom take you to original taxonomic research and current issues. When a headline excites you, keep following the evidence: the region, methods, comparison characters and original paper are where the story becomes useful science. YOUR FIRST REAL-WORLD MISSION Put the whole site to work Let us bring it together. Choose Wyndham and a useful radius. Open Habitats, pick a setting you can reach, and check the land manager’s current visitor information. Use Discover or Map for inspiration, then the atlas for references. On your walk, photograph gently and note the date, habitat, behaviour and plant when you can. Back in Fielddex, review photo metadata, choose the broadest identification you can support, and save the record. A future correction belongs in Edit. The games, 3D lab and videos can help you decide what to look for on the next visit. Look closer, one useful question at a time You do not have to use every tool at once. Start with one question: what can I actually see? Keep the original photograph, keep uncertainty visible, and use the sources when you want to go further. Back up private records and creative designs in the formats that suit them. Explore, play, build something wonderfully strange, and leave the real habitat working. That is Insecta: a whole smaller world, with room for your next discovery. The website, chapters, source credits and useful links are below. We will see you out there, looking closer.