Three years ago, I uploaded a single, fuzzy photo of a tiny… ant? wasp? I could not be sure so I left it at Narrow-waisted Wasps, Ants, and Bees. A year later a top identifier agreed with me.
The years passed.
Then two days ago, out of nowhere, an Identifier whose profile charmingly says they are “working on going through unsorted hymenopteran observations, trying to strengthen my knowledge and salvage observations that can get IDed further” identified it to Chalcidoid Wasps.
I gasped. Then, on a lark, I tagged a prolific Chalcidoid identifier, noting my awareness of it being a wild long shot.
Behold the tenth Hexacladia on iNaturalist! And the first iNat Observation in Mexico! (It might be the second though, per the comments, as I did not check to see which came first.)
We are soon to leave this property, which has a total of 315 square meters, a little better than half of which is our home. From time to time I see the thought expressed that Observers should perhaps delete Observations that languish at Family or higher. I never have and perhaps the species from my Observations made here will continue climbing after I am gone (they are currently at 490).
Anyone else have a story of a languishing Observation of theirs being identified years later?
I’ve had some plant observations from years ago that suddenly got a species ID or an agreeing ID. I think one was from 8-9 years earlier. I can’t say that my patience paid off given that I’d completely forgotten about those records! But it’s fun to see them dusted off and revived.
I semi-forget many of mine until something jogs my memory again but I never really forget them, which is why when I looked at the other nine examples of Hexacladia and saw the unusual antennae, I thought about another Chalcidoid I had seen years earlier with similar antennae and mentioned it in the comments, thus providing a second Observation for Mexico (or, again, possibly the first of the two, I still have not checked the order).
Eight or nine years though! Goodness. That is amazing.
This sort of thing is generally very satisfying from an identifier’s perspective, too!
I go through a lot of old butterfly/moth observations, and it’s always pleasing to be able to put a better (or just a first confirming) identification on something. Or frankly, even a broader, disagreeing identification, kicking it in the right direction.
So many interesting observations sit unloved for so many years!
What would be even more satisfying – that I don’t think I have ever seen happen – is if the observer had gone dormant but then comes back when the years-later ID is added. I suppose that would only happen if they had subscribed to email notifications of ID updates.
I’ve seen it happen! Or at least, something similar - I’m routinely impressed with how “sticky” iNaturalist can be!
I see it most often in situations where, for example:
7 years ago: original poster provided a wrong species ID
7 years ago: three people provided the correct species ID; the observation now sits at research grade, but the original poster never updated their ID
3 years ago: last time the original poster had any iNaturalist activity (according to their profile page, etc.)
Today: I provide another confirming ID
Within 20 minutes: the original poster corrects their ID
Haha - what? Where has this person been for three years?! Welcome back! Sometimes I see them get involved again, sometimes not. Typically, the poster didn’t have many observations - they must have subscribed to email notifications.
Regardless - I’m quite impressed with how often this seems to happen. I think it’s a low-key argument for additional identifications on old observations - anecdotal, impossible for me to measure, but surely it drives some new engagement.
Anyway, sometimes there are posts on the forum reporting some outsiders are skeptical of the iNaturalist endeavor. No doubt that’s true, but iNaturalist sure also seems to have a lot of latent appreciation/good will/interest, even among those not especially involved!
People get busy in life and sometimes step away from an activity for a while, then return years later. Kind of like my eBird account. That shouldn’t be surprising. Jobs, family, other hobbies, alien abduction … lots of reasons they might vanish for a bit.
But as @comradejon said, it is also very fun from a IDer perspective. Sooo Satisfying lifting a years old observation out of it’s limbo
… which happens much more often to me
I have tons of observations dating way back that periodically get updates on them. Many from 10+ years ago.
People are so focused on instant gratification they get upset if someone else doesn’t provide an ID in a few days to a week, but I remind them that for many of us, especially those of us who work or travel in areas that don’t have a lot of iNat users, it’s not uncommon for observations to go with zero input for many years.
I find the notifications to be really wonky on my end, so I’ve missed where somebody provides a species ID for months to years, all because the notification disappeared or easily got overlooked with the way iNaturalist is set up.
I had this happen just yesterday where somebody updated a beetle observation for me, and I realized there had been a previous comment that I had a parasitic wasp egg that could be made into a separate observation. Never got a notification on that comment. It was made two years ago.
I also had a situation where I was homeless for over a year, had almost no access to the Internet, and finally got back and spent hours going through notifications only to find a nasty comment from a scientist about such a delay in updating an observation.
I’m pointing all this out because while I like iNaturalist, there are definitely issues when it comes to clear notifications, and respect for amateur naturalists, which is why patience is absolutely key, because you never know what is going on in the lives of people who don’t have secure academic positions.
I believe so. But I’ve definitely had some observations where I just quickly snapped photos, not realizing I was capturing either an uncommon or rare species!
Patience and possibly… boredom?
(And no doubt a little shot of my own ignorance.)
I took a shot back in May 2023 down at my local park. I mean, to be honest, I was just trying out a new photo technique (4k video stacking) on the first available still subject I found, which happened to be what I presumed to be, a regular ol’ black lake midge of which we literally get millions of that time of year.
Well, the final stacked shot turned out better than I imagined so I decided to post it anyhow even though I had tons of other shots of the lake midges.
Then about 3 months ago I got my first IDer drop in and explain (in nice detail!) that my ID was incorrect but that they believed it might be a much, much rarer species. Intrigued, I waited and 2 months ago another IDer popped in and confirmed that it actually WAS the rarer species.
How rare? As Winnie the Pooh’s Tigger sings, “I’m the only one!”
That’s right, the only one on iNat. Wow. And my only ‘solo’ species on my list.
Thanks to the great ID work of zoology123 and karyorelicta4662!
lol