יומן של Entomology at OSU 1

I'm really enjoying seeing everyone's observations, from all across the United States! A few tips to help you avoid some common iNaturalist pitfalls.

iNaturalist is a great platform for insect identification. But, it is also a social media community of scientists and naturalists. You may notice that you can 'earn' the designation of 'research grade ID', if two or more people agree on an ID for your specimen. This data is actually used by scientists to study biodiversity of various organisms, across the world! Keep this in mind when uploading your observations. Scientists may very well use your observation in their own research. Thus:

1) an observation that does not have date or locality information attached to it is useless to the iNaturalist community. Without this data, there is no way to make any sense of the biogeography or seasonality of the specimen. If your camera does not automatically populate this information, you MUST add it in manually.

2) iNaturalist may give you ID suggestions, all the way down to the species level. However, if you are unsure of what the species level ID is, back off your identification to the family level or to the order level. An iNaturalist community member may pop in and help you with your ID. The iNaturalist algorithm is really good at pointing you towards what your specimen might be . . . but the algorithm might sometimes lead you astray. And, if you're asked to choose among several potential species, please don't guess. It's better to have an identification that is at the broader level of Order or Family . . . that is correct . . . than to have an incorrect identifcation that is to the more specific level of species.

If you're having trouble adding your observation to our Project page, please note that a requirement of the project is that you note the life stage of the organism that you observed. If you do not note the life stage (under annotations), you will not be able to add your observation to our project page.

A quick reminder . . . Your week 1 lab assignment asks for your iNaturalist 'INSECT' observations, and your final project should only include Insects. Several folks are photographing and uploading arthropods to our project page. However, your efforts should really be focused on finding and photographing INSECTS!

Different stages of insects are acceptable . . . nymphs or larvae, pupa, and adults. Juvenille insects are much more difficult to identify than adults. But, taking photos of caterpillars can help you build your virutal insect collection, and can also help you become more familiar with insect pests (caterpillars are often pests, even if the moths and butterflies of these same species are pollinators). A photograph of a caterpillar and adult stage of the same species counts as TWO insect observations. But, a photograph of two adults of the same species or two caterpillars (or other larval form) of the same species will only count as one observation.

You will not need to show me your insect samples, every week. I ask for your specimens in week 0.5, one, and five. You will then need to turn in the entire collection (on iNaturalist) during the final week of the term. All specimens that you want me to grade need to be added to our iNaturalist project page for consideration.

Once again, please hunt for your insect specimens early in the term, when it will be easier to find and photograph different species.