Insect Guide

Basics

Excluding beetles and queen ants, there are 49 different species of insects in ATITD. These insects are used primarily for Fishing Lures, and also to cover the tuition costs of the increasingly expensive levels of the Fly Tying skill. They are split up into six classes, each class covering a different type of activity you can perform to find insects. These classes are:

• Ground Dwelling
• Wood-Tree Dwelling
• Water Dwelling
• Herb Dwelling
• Livestock Dwelling
• Crop Dwelling

Each of the above classes, with the exception of Crop Dwelling, contains 7 different insects (Crop Dwelling has 14). Some of the insects are more common than other ones. Insect rarities are randomized each telling.

The insects you receive are only defined by the class of insect (which covers the activity you are performing, for example Crop Dwelling in the case of harvesting carrots) and the rarity of that particular insect in question. This means that it doesn't matter whether you are growing carrots, leeks, or barley; any of the crop dwelling insects can be found on any of the crops, and the crop dwelling insects do not seem to prefer any type of crop over any other.

To maximize your collection, obviously you will want your Arthropodology skill to be as high as possible. Arthropodology skill seems to have no effect on the chances of finding any particular bug, however, as it seems more tied to sheer luck. Finding all the insects in a particular class will grant you an achievement.

Ground Dwelling Insects

Blister Beetle, Clay Slug, Corkscrew Asp, Mud Asp, Pickel Slug, Queen Maggot, White Mealybug

How to obtain:

• Digging
• Collecting Slate
• Collecting Clay
• Collecting Dirt
• Collecting Sand or Mud (not in the same spot)

By far the quickest way to gather these is attending a dig; you will have Pickle Slugs overflowing your pockets, and with some luck the rarer insects too. Those looking for rarer insects are advised to collect a lot of slate, the second quickest method of obtaining Ground Dwelling Insects. Limestone is not bad either, but avoid collecting dirt and clay as methods of obtaining insects.

Wood-Tree Dwelling Insects

Ash Centipede, Desert Millipede, Golden Asp, Horned Hookworm, Red Cricket, Ringed Wasp, Wooly Aphid

How to obtain:

• Gather wood

This is the simplest class of insects to cover; even players not looking for them will easily acquire even the rarest insects in this class over time due to extreme necessity of wood and frequency of having to gather it in ATITD.

Water Dwelling Insects

Bloodworm, Bristleworm, Footworm, Glass Worm, Needleworm, Nippleworm, Oyster Mite

How to obtain:

• Pick papyrus plants
• Gather Water (not in the same spot)
• Collect a gem from a Water Mine

The best way to obtain the rarest insects here is by growing papyrus along the Nile. Picking a papyrus plant gives a good chance of finding a clutch, and it is rather easy to harvest hundreds of plants per hour if you are efficient. You will also gather many insects by collecting water in jugs and using the Water Mine, though these methods are not the ones to pursue if you are specifically trying to find the rarest insects.

Herb Dwelling Insects

Camel Weevel, Feather Midge, Grass Slug, Honey Fly, Salt Mite, Sand Mite, Slime Moth

How to obtain:

• Forage an herb, whether successful or not

Sadly, this is a hard class of insects to deal with, as there isn't much you can do to speed up your harvesting of herbs. The best solution is to forage often, and forage every single herb you see, even if it pains you to add to your overflowing pile of Discorea and Fool's Agar. Eating food that raises your speed and dexterity before heading out will increase the speed of your foraging and therefore your yield of the rarest insects in this class.

Livestock Dwelling Insects

Bat Mite, Hairy Slug, Rose Mite, Skinlicker, Stone Fly, Toad Sawfly, White Sawfly

How to obtain:

• Slaughtering Camels, Sheep, Chickens, or Rabbits

This would seem to be a very hard class of insects to find, and indeed a lot of people have trouble here, but there is a simple solution: Rabbits! These breed so quickly and carrots are so easy to grow nowadays that with a couple of rabbit hutches under your command you will soon be overflowing with Livestock Dwelling Insects. Chickens are a good supplement, however camels are likely to be the slowest method of obtaining these insects.

Crop Dwelling Insects

Clearwing, Corn Maggot, Dew Fly, Fruit Maggot, Leafhopper, Leaf Snapper, Nightwing, Orchid Hopper, Raspberry Moth, Rose Swallowtail, Ruby Hornborer, Snowberry Butterfly, Spittlebug, Woodmoth

How to obtain:

• Harvest a bed of flax, barley, or wheat
• Harvest any vegetable
• Collect Thorns

The nightmare class; even after obtaining the "Harvested 77777 Flax" achievement it is very difficult, but not impossible, to find all of these bugs

Insect Rarity Data for Thorns shows just how much of a nightmare the rarest insects are to get: Thorn_Insect_Data