ID'ing butterflies from Montana and Idaho

General
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I have posted several sightings from two of our most diverse and interesting western states in the US over the last several years, Idaho and Montana. Will someone please help me with getting these species confirmed?

I posted a photo my daughter took of the uncommon Rockslide Checkerspot when she was on a hike in Glacier Park last summer and felt bad that it was seemingly ignored. BAMONA took it up in a couple of days and confirmed the ID when I tried that 8 months later.

Can I do anything to help? As a Spokane, WA resident I visit locations in Idaho and Montana pretty regularly.

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Have you tried tagging one of the active identifiers of these species in iNat? You might get someone to take a closer look that way.
Also, if you’re good with butterfly ID, you might try identifying some similar observations for others, which may encourage other people interested in butterflies to take a look at what you’ve posted.

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I couldn’t find that observation, is it still up?

It’s not so much that the observation is ignored, but more in the realm of the identifiers being a bit outnumbered. Currently the USA has 3.1 million Butterfly observations and only 7 people have more than 100K ID’s in that group.

Looking over the profiles of the top identifiers for your area and tagging them in can help. I’d recommend having a few people that you can reach out to so you’re not tagging the same person too much. Also as m_whison said: place some ID’s as well. I’m much more willing to run through observations for other identifiers.

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Or better yet, combine the two: see who is an active butterfly identifier/observer, and identify as many of their observations as you can. Then tag them.

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I’m unfamiliar with “tagging”, please explain.

I sure would help with IDs, do I just apply a filter by region? Then see who’s reporting from Idaho and Montana?

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Make a comment on the observation and put in the username of the person you want to reach out to like @johnpbaumann that will send a notification to that person. Important: don’t add any capitalizations, I’ve had people capitalize the N in my name and I never get the tag.

To find people to tag, start by looking through the identifier list here https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=49.496246283514715&nelng=-102.32796802680737&place_id=any&subview=map&swlat=41.277310951647735&swlng=-126.54183521430737&taxon_id=47224 You can alter this by changing the boundary size, or by simply selecting a state.

If you want to place ID’s from this region here it is on the Identify page https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?verifiable=true&taxon_id=47224&swlng=-126.54183521430737&swlat=41.277310951647735&nelng=-102.32796802680737&nelat=49.496246283514715

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If you change the map boundary or select a different state in the Explore page, then you can open that in the IDentify page by clicking Filters in the upper right and click Identify.

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Thanks much!

Hey, unrelated question. Is it kosher to use photos of butterfly specimens in iNat? I don’t know where to find the rules…

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Yes, that is fine. Just make sure you change the date to the date it was collected (not the date photographed), and where it was collected. If you were not the collector, than credit the collector in the notes.