I received many replies to my inquiry about arthropod ID professional development—thank you to everyone who offered information and advice. Below is a summary of the responses.
Workshops: Acarology workshop at Ohio State: https://acarology.osu.edu/programs Ambrosia/bark beetle workshop at Univ of Florida: http://www.ambrosiasymbiosis.org/academy/ Florida Medical Entomology Lab offers a 2 week intense course for mosquitoes (adult and larvae) for $500 Ant ID course offered by California Academy of Sciences ( https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/ant-course) For aquatic insects, contact Society for Freshwater Science’s Taxonomic Certification Program. American Museum of Natural History has courses such as The Bee Course, The Lep Course, etc. Workshops are often offered at conferences rather than standalone Richard Bradley from OSU teaches a short spider course at Stone Lab during the summer. Eagle Hill in Maine (www.eaglehill.us) offers a series of summer field courses. Other advice: Contact and nurture relationships with regional specialists. Reach out to groups such as The Coleopterists Society ( http://coleopsoc.org/default.asp?Action=Show_SocietyInfo) and Systema Dipterorum (http://www.diptera.org). Some experts are willing to help for an exchange of specimens or for a cost. Also, local BioBlitzes are a great way to meet taxonomic experts. Similarly, locate a local expert with whom you can share specimens. Many entomologists are self-taught with aid from experts. Some good spider references: Ubick et al’s Spiders of North America, supplemented with Kaston's Spiders of Connecticut and Paquin and Duperre's Guide d'identification des araignées de Québec. Subscribing to the World Spider Catalog will allow access to these resources. Regularly practice running through reference keys using known arthropods in a collection iNaturalist can be a good resource for practicing and observing. Note: Many groups are largely unexplored or require techniques such as SEM or molecular analyses to ID to species.
