I identified one of my photos as a [Texas Grass Tubeworm Moth] [Acrolophus texanella]. Since then, someone has come along and identified it as a weevil (Cleonis pigra), and someone else has identified it simply as Lepidoptera. This is causing it to be finally identified as “Winged and Once-winged Insects”. I’m guess it was an accident on this user’s part, but how do I get this corrected?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30850263 . Is there any chance at all that it is not at least an Acrolophus species . . . or at the very least in the Tineidae family? ???
I’m asking this not only for this specific case, but also for if and when I come across this again, where someone is calling a bird a fish.
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Hi kcthetc1. It isn’t against the rules to add an ID unless they are knowingly adding a wrong one. Though looking at that weevil photo, I wonder if it might be a mistake. Best bet is probably to ask them why they made the ID (which I just did) and recruit any others who might legitimately know the species to help. Meanwhile I suggest you turn off community ID for just this observation, and it will stick with your ID.
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I’m fairly sure this is a mistake. The identifier who added the weevil ID is the top identifier of Texas Grass Tubeworm Moth so presumably knows the difference between a moth & a weevil!
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You can always make a duplicate of the observation and delete the original. This will restart the ID process.
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Just tag identifiers for the needed taxa, asking them for help, and they’ll help you.
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based on how the community ID works I think removing then re-adding the ID might fix the issue.
I commented on the observation, but I will put it here so people don’t have to click through. I would bet misclick.
Looks like a misclick where he meant to add the ID for the moth A. piger. Type in piger in ID box and A. piger and the weevil are the first two options. The weevil used to be C. piger, but is now C. pigra? Hopefully he will hop on to confirm/correct the ID
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yeah i think it’s valuable to keep in mind, that unless you have evidence otherwise, it’s good to at least start out assuming it was an honest mistake. That sure seems the case here. And, even if they don’t respond, it will get corrected over time. Generally it’s not best practice to call out specific users on this forum as it just leads to spillover drama in some cases.
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I’ve accidentally done something like this in the past where the same genus is used for both a plant and a vertebrate, and I just absent-mindedly clicked the wrong one.
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This really does happen a lot. I’ve often thought that there must be a way to change how iNaturalist works so mistakes like these jump out at the identifier at the time, especially where the mis-identification causes a change in Kingdom. That would be a different topic, I know, so I won’t take that any further here.
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As I wrote in my post, I was fairly confident that it was an unintentional mistake, but now several others have jumped on, and identified it as simply Lepidoptera, which doesn’t get me any closer to an actual correct ID (to species if possible). One person suggest that I turn off community ID, but I would like an expert to confirm. Others suggested I " tag identifiers ", and being somewhat new to iNaturalist, I’m not sure exactly what that means. I do like the one suggestion that tells me to delete, and re-submit, but the primary reason for my post was to learn how to deal with the multiple issues that came up with my submission for future reference.
I did say that in my post, but intentional or not, the result is the same, and that is what I was trying to address . . . what happened, not so much why.
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And I see that I did make a poor choice of words in “blatantly” Lol I simply was trying to say “very obvious”, not suggest that it was done intentionally.
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For each taxa the website shows you top identifiers (rights side of the page in browser).
@fffffffff has told you how to find them. Tagging just means putting their username in a comment with a @ before it like charlie has done. That means they’ll be notified even if they have stopped following your observation after identifying. That user is the top identifier of both the species & genus. I’m guessing he hasn’t logged on since charlie tagged him.
It means it’ll show up in Identify as Lepidoptera rather than insects so increases the chance of a Lepidoptera expert seeing it. In this case I doubt it matters as I’m sure it’ll be sorted next time that user logs on, but if the incorrect id was from someone who wasn’t bothered about fixing it then it might help.
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You should be able to edit the topic’s title if you like, click on the pencil icon.
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Try writing a message to the person who made the wrong ID asking him to take another look. His profile says he logged on to iNat yesterday, so a message should reach him.
It seems that some identifiers do not check their dashboards regularly. When someone does a lot of IDs, they may need to elect not to be notified every time someone clicks “Agree.” Otherwise, important feedback can get lost in the clutter.
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So when I see that list of top identifiers, is it fairly safe to take them as experts? Or could it include someone who simply thinks they know, and therefore makes a large number of ID’s. I am providing sightings to the retired entomologist that created and manages the South Carolina state moth database. Occasionally I photograph a moth that he personally is not familiar with, and we are looking for as close to absolute confirmation before adding to the database, especially where new state records are concerned. We are always ideally looking for : 1. Absolutely yes. 2. Absolutely no. Or 3. Absolutely cannot be identified to species with certainty (one of those three in a perfect world). I am nothing close to a moth expert, but am providing many valuable moth images to be reviewed for consideration for the SC state database. So far, just since this May, I have provided at least 11 new SC state records, hundreds of new county records, and over 700 total records (species by county, by month).
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Of course if you have time better check in which region this expert is doing ids, and you can check how right their ids are, anyway you don’t loose anything from asking another person, if you’re not agree you can ask someone else. Discussion leads to the truth. I’m not familiar with the situation about North American entomologists on iNat, but I’m sure there’re people willing to help you.
You need to work out which of those ‘Top Identifiers’ you can trust to make informed IDs. The people who are kind enough to explain why it is, or isn’t that.
We have no way to tell which are simply clicking agree unfortunately - until experience and engagement gives an answer.
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