100 Insecta in a Month

Last year, one of my I-nat goals was to have research grade observations of at least 100 bird species (~1% of all birds) every month. I was able to achieve this goal comfortably, especial in the winter months with all the migratory birds. One of my I-nat goals this year was to have research grade observations of at least 100 insecta species (~0.002% of all insects) in any month (insects are somewhat seasonal here where I'm living compared to where I grew up so an every month goal was infeasible). Since the species population for Insects is orders of magnitude greater than Birds, I thought this was a comfortable goal, but have I been wrong. The biggest hurdle in achieving the goal is getting research grade observations for insects as identifying birds is much easier than insects for several reasons. 1) Birds are larger animals and can be easily identified from photos. Insects tend to be smaller and many insects need to be observed at the microscopic level to narrow down to a species. 2) The majority of birds have been described and named, while there are many insects that still need to be described/named. 3) More identifiers feel comfortable identifying birds (even amateurs), while insects usually require experts in the field for identification. Given all these hurdles, I was finally able to get to my goal in June with exactly 100 research grade insecta speices for the month and counting (see full list below). As always I liked to thank all the identifiers that put up with all my photos :), especially @brianahern and @tvl for all the Lepidoptera ids, @catherine_g, @trinaroberts @stephenluk for all the diptera ids, @bdagley, @pedro3111, @mettcollsuss, @something5067 @tiwane for the Hymenoptera ids, @ameeds, @mydadguyfieri for the Hemiptera ids, @elytrid, @reptipods for the Coleoptera ids, @jimjohnson for the Odonata ids and @tgrant999 for the Orthoptera ids. There were 72 identifiers that made this possible and I wouldnt' have hit 100 without all of them.

Julkaistu heinäkuu 1, 2023 03:40 IP. käyttäjältä muddphoto