I never had a big wishlist but there is one species I really wanted to find. Last years, I found it. Anegleis cardoni. It was one of my “wow” moments.
Another time was when I noticed ants carrying a Dictyopharid planthopper. They should be found locally but till now I only saw them twice or thrice. Since I were a hopper identifier, it was so exciting to find!
What dream species did you find? The species that you wished to see.
My wishlist contains mostly freshwater molluscs and fish. So often, these species are never observed because they are a) benthic, b) “boring”, or c) too tiny to get good photos of without the right equipment. So I’ve made it a long term goal to observe them more.
My second-wildest wishlist specimen so far actually came to me just a few weeks ago, a Black Sandshell river mussel, a vulnerable species in Canada that is a candidate species for federal protection. I found it in the very northwestern tip of its known range, about 4-500 kilometers northwest of the next nearest observation on the iNat map :)
I’ve been a birder since I was a teenager and after learning and reading about birds all my life one of my most wanted birds was a ground-cuckoo of the genus Neomorphus. Ground-cuckoos are essentially forest roadrunners and most species are obligate ant followers that live their whole lives following after army ant swarms in the neotropics. I took my first trip to Panama in 2016 for 13 days. Near the end of the trip we were staying at the Canopy Lodge in El Valle de Antón. We knew there had been some Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos in the areas recently. We were on a day trip up the mountains to an area called Altos del María and we got a call that the ground-cuckoos were back and attending a large ant swarm back down in the Valley. We hightailed it down the wet slippery mountain while guides kept an eye on the birds. We arrived to the location and hiked into the area as quietly as possible. The guides told us it was two adults and at least one juvenile bird hanging with the swarm. I remember creeping through the jungle and crouching down where the guide was observing them. We got settled and quiet and eventually the birds emerged from the foliage. They are large, beautiful birds. I got to watch them hunting to creatures disturbed by the ants and raising and lowering their head feathers. Absolutely stunning birds. I ended up getting some good pictures and soaking in the experience for about 10 minutes before they went out of view. Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo observation
Carpathian blue slugs!
I’ve been vibrating with excitement ever since I learned that they’re a thing that exists, so when I got lucky to find some during my brief visits to the mountains two years in a row I just sat there and stared at each baby for like 30 minutes as they leisurely crawled across the forest floor.
They’re so blue! I love them so much!!!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/225742590
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/226315685
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/226315684
Also, the dot-winged mantis!
I’ve been obsessed with them for years now, but they remained ever elusive. Until last year’s summer, when I decided to explore a different area around my city’s outskirts and suddenly came across the most beautiful little model I’ve ever seen TwT
Until a couple months ago I had never seen Atta texana despite living smack in the middle of it’s range. I had friends telling me since I’m the “bug dude” that they had them at their local park and ended up driving over for the sole purpose of checking it off the list. That said, the colony seemed quite young, and I saw no supermajors so I might need to head over to a better known colony to check it out. Maybe get one of the iconic “cutting the finger” shots with the major.
Another species I’ve been pining for for a couple months is Solenopsis geminata, which might shock some southeast Asian people cuz in my area it’s a native species, and quite rare since RIFA’s invasion. But I finally nabbed a couple shots of them last weekend, which is fun. No majors once again though, so it’s not the end of that.
I don’t know whether you’d call it a wish list, but I was expecting Verbena bonariensis to turn up as a pavement weed (I had seen it self-seeding in gardens and thought that it was only a matter of time before it jumped the garden wal) several years before I finally found one.
Last year I was at a known site, at the right time, and had Botrychium lunaria pointed out by a ranger. (I might have overlooked it, otherwise, but I would have been looking for it.) And there are several other plant species that I’ve seen because I visited known sites for the species outside my usual stamping grounds, or visited sites with habitats not found in my usual stamping grounds.
