Species you've found again after a long gap

I unexpectedly found this Humbertium interruptum last night (24 May 2025), which, after checking iNat, I hadn’t seen any individuals of since the first time I saw them, with my last observation being on 28 December 2022 — a gap of 2 years, 4 months, and 26 days. I do go out at night semi-regularly and check the same spots, so it’s all the more surprising to find them again after 2 years. I was worried the long dry season in 2023 had wiped them out since I didn’t see any in that year and the next, but I’m glad it didn’t! I do wonder where they hang out in the dry season.

What are some species that you suddenly saw again after a long time of not seeing them in the usual spots?

1 Like

Started counting rediscoveries of species that have not been seen (worldwide) for 90 years or more. Am aware of 8 such species that i rediscovered, with the help of some fantastic identifiers as listed in the respective observations:

Platopsomyia flavida

Pilea pachycephala

Miconia plicatifolia

Miconia abscondita

La Vega Figwort (Scrophularia pluriflora)


Salvia subaequalis

Citharexylum stenophyllum

Gesneria brachysepala

Species that i had already seen and found again, after a long time…
4 and a half years: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=any&taxon_id=53843&preferred_place_id=7526&user_id=mreith

3 Likes

I haven’t seen Tricolored Blackbirds between July 2022-November 2024.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/289019350
This morning. Last one was in 2022, and before that 2020.

1 Like

How the heck did you rediscover not 1, but 8 species that haven’t been seen in 90 years?!?!

Well, just go somewhere where diversity is high and not a lot of people work. I think i found one more, that has not been seen for 90 years or more:

Ornarantia biferana

3 Likes

How do I convince my parents to spend a lot of money to go to a place like that

1 Like

Even though I’m the only person who would even care that much, sadly

You probably don’t, but you make it a savings goal for when you are old enough.

1 Like

this!

This is my sighting of the beetle Cilibus ovalis. Last record is from 1953 and only previous records from 1870. I found it one night in a ludicrously tiny nature reserve that’s only 200m by 500m.

There’s only two records for this pretty moth Ecnomophlebia argyrospila Mine and the type specimen collected in 1927.

This lace bug Lepturga magnifica had also not been recorded since the type specimen was collected in 1927 until I photographed two in 2020

2 Likes

Indeed. That reserve’s website describes the only trail: “Owenia nature walk circuit 900m, 20 minutes.”

But yet it is nevertheless important. Also from the reserve’s website: “a valuable remnant of the once vast dry rainforests that have since been largely cleared for agriculture” And: “More than 40 species of birds have been seen in the park including the black-breasted button-quail which leaves circular depressions on the track as it spins around feeding on the forest floor.”

2 Likes

It shows the importance of even small reserves. I have noticed that small reserves seem to only work for some ecotypes. The dry vine forest like this one or brigalow forest for some reason seem to support a surprising amount of biodiversity even when reduced to a fenceline or creek. But other forest types seem hollowed out and dead even with fairly large reserves, like southern ironbark forests or Purga Nature Reserve where the endangered paperbark seems to be the only species left.

1 Like