Does this cross into the territory of purposely adding bad ID's?

Assuming good will, the researcher may want to compare (1) the initial automated identification, (2) the community-sourced identification, and (3) the identification derived from molecular techniques/expert taxonomists. That would seem an interesting study!

I would hope, if that were the case, that they would acknowledge the work put in by identifiers on the site, and even offer the possibility of collaboration and co-authorship on an eventual publication to the top identifier(s). That would also have the benefit of including an author who understands well how iNaturalist works. It might be worth reaching out to them, assuming good intentions, and suggesting such a collaboration.

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I was just wondering what ā€œmolecularā€ ID techniques could be used for insects that were released? I assumed youā€™d need tissue for those kinds of assays - and cheek swabs and blood draws arenā€™t the kind of thing that works with bees and wasps? Iā€™m laughing to myself about swabbing a wasp, but am also genuinely curious, because maybe there are techniques I donā€™t know about.