Neolucanus castanopterus, was 1/1 now 1/35
Leptotarsus alexanderi, I was 1/2 now I am 2/3
Cerozodia hudsoni, still 1/1
Gynoplistia ocellifera still 1/1
Gasteracantha unguifera, was 3/3 now 3/7
Algidia viridata, was 3/4 now 17/23
What great fun going back and revisiting all of these! I have big gaps in species IDās in more remote places so Iām sure thereāll eventually be more!
Living in New England and being an amateur to iNat and wildlife photography means the stuff Iām seeing is essentially always something that someone else has seen, with more care and a better camera lens than myself. However, I was lucky to visit the Turks and Caicos islands about a month ago, where I saw a fly that I previously thought was a member of the genus Penniverpa. This was already a big surprise as the genus had no previous records in these islands, and you can probably guess I was excited - this was an actually substantial contribution to science!
Yesterday I, through the needed help of someone much more learned on flies than I am, got the observation reidentified to the genus Insulotitan, an even more unrepresented genus that was also an iNat first for the islands. I doubt itāll make it to species given GBIF has no records of the flies from Turks and Caicos as well (and it appears species are best defined by where they are found, considering the lack of physical specimens/photographs available on iNat or anywhere else), but Iām still immensely excited and proud to have been able to see this animal! Observation:
Truly is. Feels like something comically assigned to a dinosaur genus before they find out itās already in use by an insectā¦ (which happens a lot in paleontology)
Rare for a city dweller like me was one of my last weeks observation, the first of its kind for Amsterdam. Although unconfirmed, I think the CVS identified it correctly.
Second RG observation in the world, and the first and only one in the United States. I plan on looking for more, given this wasnāt very difficult to find
this was coolā¦ we are pretty sure itās the first iNat record for this European moth in the U.S. I think LepSoc published the first official finding of this species in their 2024 issue
Iāve been identifying and observing some Euglesa lately and now E. compressa has gone from 4 observations to 25 verifiable observationsā still not a lot, but an improvement, for sure! However, that means that that species is no longer my rarest. Itās now Euglesa equilateralis, a fairly similar looking species, and my first research grade iNat first!
Iāve also observed E. walkeri form mainense, and E. adamsii, which would both be iNat firsts, but those observations have yet to be confirmed.
Edit: Also E. fallax (E. walkeri f. mainense)
(E. walkeri f. mainense)
