I have a project where there’s a goal of finding and observing every single insect species in the world. And I want to know if I should keep the project or delete it, since only two people have joined (including me).
Projects can be just for you, so if you’re enjoying it, keep it.
Well, I did make it for fun.
I think the many, many insect species that are yet to be described by science are going to prove an issue there, but I don’t see any reason to delete the project if you’re having fun with it.
Feel free to dismiss me as a grumpy old man trying to spoil your fun, but I have to ask.
Go to the Explore page and click the iconic taxon button for insects, and there you go: 237,819 species currently observed on iNat. I don’t know what sources you have for the total number of described insect species there are (leaving aside all of those undescribed species, but still leaving the messy question of how may described species are now extinct), but that would tell you how far short you are from your goal. What would a separate project (requiring others to join this quixotic goal) tell you that you don’t see here?
And if you were talking about a personal project, without inviting others, you get the same data by filtering for insects on your “My Observations” page.
But however you want to manage this, good luck!
~90% undescribed.
~50-80% - insular.
The thing is. you just cannot do it.
islands are a beauty.
my goal. 1000+ first ids by S.29.
I wouldn’t say you’re an old man YET.
Hopefully, I’ll get some help.
Maybe more realistic to start with every insect Order, which itself can be a bit of a challenge (Streptistera, Zoraptera…) and work your way down from there. :)
If I could set it like that, I would. But I’m too lazy to go through every single order when I could just go with arthropods.
too lazy to do that and then every single insect is possible.
The census of described species is wrong. reinstations, synonymies and more. One of the thing that taught me about lots of undescribed species, often not even on iNat, are collectors’ websites.
Based on Larry’s figure of 237,819 species, I reckon you’d need to average more than 8 lifers per day for the next 80 years. What’s your current lifer rate and how do you think this might alter over time?
and that number is based on what species are already observed/IDed on iNat, excluding the majority that aren’t
order Neuroptera currently includes close to 7,000 species - iNat has records for ~1,500.
order Araneae (not insects but OP ‘could just go with arthropods’) has ~54k species, iNat has records for ~13k.
and if you were to survey all the places where these unknown-to-iNat arthropods are, you’d find a huge amount of undescribed species
Since you are enthusiastic about projects, you might be interested in joining this one:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/young-naturalists-community
It’s not goal-oriented, just full of young enthusiastic iNatters. (Don’t look for me there, I’m way too old)
Since you’re interested in arthropods, check out this one, which is just for fun:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/arthropod-faces. Maybe give yourself a goal of getting photos that show the faces, so you can post them here (this has the added advantage of making them more identifiable.)
And since you clearly want to make a project of your own, maybe start with a smaller goal. Lots of users have personal projects for their neighborhood, or favorite place to go iNatting. (I belong to one for my local public library, which has exactly 2 members.)