I know iNaturalist is full of nerd, but not many are really nerds™, and few have been able to observe and record all the species within a genus. Have you observed all the species in a genus? tell us below your history
(in my case, I’ve done some monospecific genus u.u)
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I was pretty excited to get my third and final Phaethon last month: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=67567&user_id=tiwane&verifiable=any&view=species
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Not that I know of… some monospecific ones (there is even a family: sagittaridae ;-)) as well, but I don´t feel they really count
@tiwane Those tropic birds are very beautyful! Congrats on seeing them all! I was able to observe P.aethereus in Galapgaos and it was a very special moment for me… only knew them from nature documentaries before
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The first non-monotypic one that comes to my mind is a very fine genus of weird lizards endemic to Sri Lanka, Cophotis. There are multiple species in that genus! (For the smallest possible value of “multiple”.)
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Ooh, I thought of another, even more speciose genus! Also from Sri Lanka, this one features surprisingly pointy frogs, Taruga. (For the next-smallest value of “multiple”.)
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Thanks! I grew up in Hawaii and wasn’t aware they were so easily viewable until 2019…
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Only monotypic ones for me, alas… but I am two-thirds of the way to completing the Subfamily Sequoiodeae.
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If I count a planted dawn redwood I’ve got that one, but I don’t want to count it. :)
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If we’re counting cultivated plants, I have an entire phylum covered (but only if we are including monotypic ones).
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I can think of six pairs of bird species, which I could observe:
Aix (both not in their native range, though)
Actitis
Milvus
Thalasseus (let’s see how long this genus holds…)
Uria (even sitting side by side on the same rock)
Sturnus (at least by the current taxonomy)
No higher values per genus come to my mind yet
Right after posting I found one: the genus Bucephala, consisting of three species
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If we counted off-iNat life lists, I would have that one.
Mostly ones with very few species: Meleagris (2), Aechmophorus (2), Cyanocitta (2), Melospiza (3), Euphagus (2), Parkesia (2), Vermivora (2).
Incidentally, there are probably things other than birds, I’m just most aware of birds.
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Best I can do are a few dispecific genera: Calycoseris (2), Cusickiella (2), Eucrypta (2), Gymnosteris (2), Monoptilon (2), Polyctenium (2), Sarcobatus (2).
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It looks like I’m one away from completing grackles, missing Quiscalus nicaraguensis Nicaraguan Grackle
Other species are lugubris, major, mexicanus, niger, and quiscula. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/9599-Quiscalus
Rough-winged swallows and Archilochus hummers and Cyanocitta jays (2) are safe to claim.
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I’d be curious what is the most species-rich genus that someone has seen all the species from. Must be difficult, but as several genera are restricted to one region, it is likely. For insects there are many genera with dozens of species, but any person is lucky to see only a portion of them. There is always an extreme rarity or two that holds out from a clean sweep of all the species in the genus.
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The problem is that the more species-rich a genus is, the more likely someone will do a major revision, split off new species, and then once again you haven’t seen all the species.
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It’s not something I’ve generally paid much attention to, but I’m sure I have quite a few, the most species rich of which immediately jumps to mind is Anguis with 5, while the one I’ve taken the greatest joy in completing must be Cerastes with 3. The latter was 4 for a while, meaning I was missing one, until they decided C. boehmei was really just a freak C. vipera, saving me a potentially somewhat troublesome trip to perhaps not the safest region of Tunisia.
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Five is impressive! You are the new leader in this friendly competition.
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I’ve inatted every species in the genera Zanclus, Labrichthys, Bolbometopon, Pandion, Ornithorhynchus, Tachyglossus, Wallabia, Oryctolagus, Vombatus, Megaptera, Xenus, Irediparra, Stizoptera, Scythrops, Chelonia, Entomyzon, Numida, Scenopoeetes, Anseranas, Acanthochromis, Ellochelon, Selenotoca, Aldrichetta, Gymnorhina, Exallias, Yarica, Intellagama, Notechis, Triaenodon and Delphinus- - but they’re all genera with only a single species!!
More seriously though, I’ve completed the genera Phylidonyris (3 species), Strepera (3 species) and Monotaxis (2 species)
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