Here’s the new numbers since the last CV update, to compare with my original tally that spanned a few different updates:
Out of 1624 worms identified using the CV, 47 were correctly identified to species, 480 correctly to a taxon above species, 710 incorrectly to species (of those, 440 to Lumbricus terrestris), 369 incorrectly to a non-species taxon, and 18 observations were not actually of earthworms.
All IDs: 32.5% correct, 67.5% incorrect.
Species IDs: 6% correct, 94% incorrect.
Nonspecies IDs: 56.5% correct, 43.5% incorrect.
It seems like when observers use the CV cautiously, it’s a little more right than wrong (seeing as how there is only one widespread order of earthworms, that’s still pretty bad! most family and genus IDs are wrong) but it’s even worse than the CV of some months ago when trying to ID species. Not very encouraging, but I’ll still hope the next update changes something.
My thanks to the few people who are uploading identifiable photos and/or IDing cautiously!