I was initially looking for a good book on identifying Imperial Moths because apparently there are different subspecies here where I live. When searching Google Books, I really could not find what I was looking for. After that, I took a closer inspection of an observation of an Imperial Moth - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67119215 by @akahl (same picture below).
The most surprising aspect of the observation is that it original occurred in 1983! What are the oldest observations by observation date, and should it be encouraged to upload very old observations? My apologies beforehand if this topic has been created already.
I think @brentturcotte rightly excluded the series of pinned beetles preceding the 1857 specimen because their dates appeared contrived.
FWIW, I’ll also note that photos of things not personally observed by the poster in the wild don’t really fit the definition of an iNat observation. That puts a theoretical limit on the oldest “real” iNat observation of sometime in the early 1900s (founding date of iNaturalist minus oldest living iNat observer at the time).
Looking through every observation with an earlier date than the blue racer, I think you’re right. Every earlier observation appears to be a preserved specimen, upload of a photograph that is not their own, or a photograph of a photograph (or text description).The title belt for earliest iNat observation made independently by the observer belongs to Bill Schaaf (hoaryherper) then. Very cool!
