Commonly confused pairs of Australian arthropods

In the invertebrate world, there are many groups of cryptic species for which identification is difficult, or even impossible, from photographs due to their similar morphology and colouration. In some cases, a single identification gets applied indiscriminately to multiple different (and sometimes even unrelated) species; for example, the name Amenia imperialis is very commonly used for not only true A. imperialis, but all the other Amenia species, and a number of lookalikes (e.g., Rutilia) in an entirely different family. Not only are many online records (on iNaturalist and elsewhere) putatively of A. imperialis not that species, in most cases the photographs do not allow an identification to species anyway.

However, there are many instances for which it is possible to readily differentiate between several similar options. On iNaturalist, there are a number of invertebrates for which two common, morphologically similar species are often confused for each other, but are relatively easy to identify once you know what to look for. In many of these cases, the computer vision will offer both species as suggestions, creating further uncertainty. In this guide, I present ten pairs of commonly observed, and commonly confused, Australian arthropods, and highlight how to differentiate them. A number of these pairs have distributional differences between the two species that can help with identifications in some cases, but I will focus only on morphology here. Note that for all ten pairs there are far more differences between the two species than I have noted, but I have highlighted the most prominent differences/those that are easiest to see.

1 . Trichonephila edulis and Trichonephila plumipes (females)


Above, left: @jacksonnugent
Above, right: @kymelen


Above, left: @bushrevival
Above, right: @pardalotebellion

2 . Nyctemera baulus and Nyctemera amicus


Above, left: @cher63
Above, right: @vicfazio3

3 . Coelophora inaequalis (merged spot morph) and Micraspis frenata


Above, top left: @thebeachcomber
Above, middle left: @imcmaster
Above, bottom left: @jantly
Above, right: @reiner

4 . Papilio aegeus (female) and Papilio anactus


Above, top left: @halobaena
Above, bottom left: @thebeachcomber
Above, top right: @richie_south

5 . Nyssus coloripes and Nyssus albopunctatus


Above, left: @tjeales
Above, right: @debtaylor142

6 . Graphium choredon and Graphium eurypylus


Above, top left: @debjoliver
Above, bottom left: @scottytar
Above, top right: @dddwebbb
Above, bottom right: @dan_bishop

7 . Ptomaphila lacrymosa and Ptomaphila perlata


Above, top left: @mattcampbellaus
Above, bottom left: @vicfazio3
Above, right: @ianmcmillan

8 . Hemicordulia tau and Hemicordulia australasiae


Above, top left: @happywonderer
Above, bottom left: @ecologibel
Above, top right: @reiner
Above, bottom right: @benjaminlancer

9 . Delias harpalyce and Delias nigrina


Above, left: @karenmcgregor
Above, right: @nmain

10 . Mictyris longicarpus and Mictyris platycheles


Above, left: @thebeachcomber
Above, right: @w_martin

Julkaistu huhtikuu 20, 2022 08:36 AP. käyttäjältä thebeachcomber thebeachcomber

Kommentit

Excellent resource. Thanks for this.

Lähettänyt tjeales melkein 2 vuotta sitten

👍

Lähettänyt reiner melkein 2 vuotta sitten

Thabk you

Lähettänyt scottytar melkein 2 vuotta sitten

Great work!

Lähettänyt mattcampbellaus melkein 2 vuotta sitten

Great resource, thanks!

Lähettänyt ecologibel melkein 2 vuotta sitten

Thankyou, a great help, I will refer back to this.

Lähettänyt pardalotebellion melkein 2 vuotta sitten

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