I’ve noticed a large discrepancy in how often my spider and bug observations get ids vs things like birds and other large animals, I was wondering if anyone else has that issue or if it’s more a seasonal issue due to the large increase in observations over the summer!
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Yeah, though I wouldn’t inhernetly call it an “issue” myself. Invertebrates often require much more specialized knowledge, are generally more poorly described in the first place (in other words there are high rates of undescribed species), and are often impossible to identify from photos alone (requiring microscopic images or even dissection). There are some high-profile exceptions (e.g., butterflies), of course–I’m mentioning VERY broad patterns here.
At the same time, there are a lot of spiders, bugs, etc.! So there’re arguably more potential observations compared to the bigger animals, with fewer potential identifiers. This is even without considering the geographic coverage (the number of people who specialize in specific regions shrinks the potential global identifier pool even further).
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That’s super fair, it’s a pretty niche area of knowledge, I just wondered if there’s usually an uptick during the fall and winter in id-ing older observations
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I was going to say basically the same thing. In some cases, it’s also a photography ability/limitations problem. But I took a quick look at your profile and I think your images are good as far as arthropod stuff goes.
If you want more attention/interaction on those observations, there are things you can do that might help, like adding notes - even something like “not sure if it’s possible to ID to species level, but any closer is appreciated” - or noticing who IDs spiders, insects, etc in your area or generally and tagging them in observations that haven’t gotten any other IDs yet.
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I’ll definitely give that a shot! And thank you aswell I try my best to get good shots of the animals! The apple version of the app definitely has issues towards the community aspect of the site!
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Yeah, I’m on android but I use the app only for adding my own observations and the computer for everything else, especially for IDing and interacting on posts. I think it’s what a lot of users do.
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That makes a lot of sense!
Echoing the sentiment that for most arthropod groups, in many places there is an acute shortage of skilled IDers relative to the number of observations, and often there is also a lack of field guides and other resources that are intended for photo ID.
I think many people do try to catch up during the winter, but it is difficult to make sure that everything gets looked at. This is both because of sheer numbers but also because for taxa where a large percentage of observations are unlikely to show enough detail to determine the species, we can’t use Needs ID vs. Research Grade to filter for observations most in need of attention.
You could consider picking a taxon that interests you and getting a field guide that will help you learn how to ID them yourself. (Note: I emphatically do not recommend relying solely on the CV for this – my experience is that it takes a bit of practice to learn what features to look for, and often there are many species not represented on iNat because of the difficulty of photo-based ID.) This has a couple of advantages: you may get the satisfaction of an ID more quickly; learning how a taxon is ID’d can help you take better photos; many IDers also appreciate when an observer is obviously interested in and is trying to understand their taxon, and they are more likely to spend time looking at your observations or provide tips.
It is OK to tag IDers for help, but I recommend doing this in moderation – don’t tag half a dozen people for every single observation within minutes of posting it. Wait a couple of weeks, check for regional expertise (the leaderboards on the observation pages are global), check profiles (some people don’t like to be tagged), and be selective about which observations you tag people on (i.e., maybe only tag people for observations that seem particularly interesting or unusual, or ones that you have made an effort to ID yourself and want someone to check your work).
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I can only add to find projects your observations fit. There is a project for just about everything! I found some collection projects, those collect what fits automatically, and some regional ones I need to remember to enter myself.
Projects help get the photos seen by interested people.
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I wonder if you were involved in the City Nature Challenge at all?
Those projects are sitting at 40% RG - so even willing identifiers are wading thru a HUMUNGOUS backlog.
For the Global project (no local project available) one third of obs are insects. Arachnids only 3%
31 K insects in that single project - which you can filter by taxon and/or location.
Wherever you can help to ID the grunt work - you free up the time and knowledge of taxon specialists for the truly interesting obs.
25% of IDs by 130 users
We. Need. More. Identifiers at any level - butterfly, dragonfly, sommer fly, not a fly. Every little helps.
PS this is one of the longest threads on the forum. IdentiFriday - where the latest post IS Arthropods.
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The point of helping with higher level IDs frees up time for specialists to work on more specific IDs is such a good point I’d never thought about before!
Also I love the paper you shared, I wish I could make one of those map graphics for myself!
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You can put your name into this world map
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The same is true with me. I rely on iNaturalist to help me identify most of my plant and invertebrate observations.
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Depending on your knowledge level, you can help refine observations stuck at various taxonomic levels, see this how-to.
For example I’m certainly no expert but I know my broad arthropod classes and orders, so I go through observations stuck at Arthropoda and try to refine them to taxonomic levels like Insecta, Crustacea, Myriapoda, etc. I like to think of it as a baton being passed from one person to another, like a relay race.
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Gridlock in the city. We turn the lights green, and the traffic moves. One block further. Your turn …
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I looked at your arthropod observations–there were only 30 or so–and most of them were species that are difficult or impossible to identify at anything other than genus or higher. They were also not very close-up (no details) and often dark. I almost always pass up identifying photos like this because it’s almost always impossible to be able to tell what they are–and takes extra time to zoom in and lighten the image. I’d recommend that you do some cropping at least before you post. The arthropod should fill as much of the frame as possible, ideally.
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Thankfully traffic isn’t quite as slow as moving observations can be (years…) - it only feels like it!
I agree. Cropping to increase the view of the subject and adjusting contrast / under-exposure are things you can easily do even on a phone but a lot of phone users don’t bother to do that. Simple editing can often make a really bad photo IDable.
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See the gridlock comments on this - IDing is a rewarding learning curve. 5 year wait - then to RG at sp today.
ultra localised in this area, nice one - @botaneek who seeks out rare and unusual plants!
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