Not sure if this qualifies as a bug or feature request. IMO I think it may be a bug, as its a feature that is inconsistently applied.
Platform (Android, iOS, Website): app, website
Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.):
For an observation with generic ID of phylum Mollusca I cannot select Lifestage = egg. My only choices are Juvenile or Adult. The Egg option only becomes available once the observation has a co-ID from someone else, or if it is ID at species level at upload. This prevents the observation from popping up in the “Gastropod mollusk eggs and egg masses” project- a rather self defeating scenario as it is prevented from being seen by those who COULD identify it! This is important as the egg masses are quite alien looking and not usually well ID by casual IDers.
Generic phylum Mollusc no egg lifestage- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47587702
ID Mollusc with egg lifestage - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28283806
Mollusc with co-ID + egg lifestage- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/35656269
This is a bit of a side note, but observations will not appear in the Gastropod mollusk eggs and egg masses project unless they are identified to Gastropod or finer, not just Mollusk.
What do you mean by the part in bold? I assumed you meant that if two people identified as phylum Mollusca then you could add lifestage = egg but having tried it this doesn’t appear to be the case. I’m guessing the problem is that the problems is that egg is only available at a lower level. This may actually be correct since Wikipedia says “Nearly all produce eggs”. I can’t find any info on which molluscs don’t produce eggs (in a quick coffee break search). The life stage graph for molluscs does include egg though. I didn’t think that included life-stages which are only available at lower levels.
Currently egg only pops up for gastropoda and cephalopoda, as far a mollusks are concerned. So not a bug. If there are other mollusk taxa which should have an egg value for life stage, please make a request at https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/lets-talk-annotations/627 (I promise, we’ll get back to it soon!)
Thanks for the replies all. It appears I may have misconstrued or misunderstood some of the processes going into categorising and IDing a mollusc eggs mass.
I had always been under the impression all Molluscs came from eggs. I have written to the Mollusc curator of my state museum seeking clarification about this. Will share if they get back to me with anything pertinent.
I also wondered if that was the case. There are bivalves that brood but I’m pretty sure they don’t have eggs. I would imagine that chitons are scaphopods are broadcast spawners (like abalone and other primitive gastropods) and who knows about the other obscure groups. I suppose the only reason for wanting to have the egg option for mollusk would be if you didn’t know if they were from a gastropod or a cephalopod.