Reddit reviews Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America (Peterson Field Guides)

If you're interested in fostering a moth obsession, I recommend this book to help set the stage!

The Peterson Field Guide to Insects: America North of Mexico should suit you just fine. Of course it covers a wide range and isn't specific to just your area but you should still be able to get to the family level with this book. The only downside of this book is that it was written a while ago and so some names and classifications have changed, but other information is valid and accurate. I personally have this and would recommend it. I am not aware of other field guides for insects that are specific to eastern/central North America except where specific orders or insect types are concerned, like the Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America, or perhaps something relating to specific geography like the Rockies or PNW or something.

I'd also suggest ditching the Audubon guide. Quite frankly, it's rubbish. Poorly organized, and a number of the photos are incorrectly ID'd. I highly recommend the Kauffman Guide to Insects by Eric Eaton for a broad overview of North American insect fauna.

Otherwise, if you're focusing on butterflies, the Peterson guides are quite useful. The eastern and western volumes by Opler are both useful, but lack quality keys.

The recently revised Peterson guide to Northeastern moths by Beadle & Leckie is impressive in its coverage (but by no means comprehensive) but similarly lacks any sort of useful key for identification.

If you're looking for other field guide recommendations, I'd be happy to share!

Peterson is pretty good.