I've already had a plant IDed on iNat. If I see an insect on the same species further down the track, do I need to get the plant it is on IDed again?

I know that if I have a photo with an insect on a plant, I can duplicate the observation (one for the plant ID, and one for the insect ID.

BUT, say I have already got that species of plant - in a different location - identified a couple of months ago.

Do I still need to get the most recent sighting of this plant species (the one with the insect pollinating it) identified so it can become ‘Research Grade’, and therefore be more reliable for researchers looking to see which insects pollinate which plants? Or is it good enough that I just add which plant it is in my observations without needing to have the plant species formally identified again?

yes this is completely fine :)

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That is good to know. Thank you!

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Overall it’s really up to the researcher to vet their data how they see fit and I wouldn’t worry too much about it. In my opinion it seems most streamlined to input the name of the plant on the insect observation (there’s an annotation field for it).

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For cases where you’re not sure about either the plant or insect, adding a link to the other observation in notes may be sufficient, like with these two:

Otherwise, Amy’s approach of adding the annotation field is more correct.

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