What are some of your favorite taxa that very few people are interested in?

Every time I’ve seen a morrell in the wild, I’m kind of amazed. I thought everyone found them fascinating. But posting a picture a month ago, was one of the few I couldn’t get a confirmation ID on.

Absolutely! I love myself some Nephrotoma.

I used to just let my observations simmer in the genus ID pool. But at some point, I took matters into my own hands and now I’m one of the top IDers! XD (moreso in the UK though)

They’re surprisingly easy to ID. Top view of the head, abdomen and wings and a side view of the thorax and abdomen are sufficient enough to get an ID in the UK. Don’t know about other countries though…

I use the key and crib sheets at https://dipterists.org.uk/cranefly-scheme/homefrequently when IDing them (though I more or less have the frequent species learned off at this point.) and when getting an “out of UK” ID request I look to https://ccw.naturalis.nl/index.php for some pointers.

1 Like

We have a very similar set of species to the UK one (ofc only in European part, in Asia it’s more complicated, as there’re lists of species where many have no pics or photos and no keys of course), I id ours with a Stubbs and Kramer key you linked and I think it lacks only a couple or so species, but there’s just nobody to check if my ids are right, like, in some species I’m 100% sure and others I seem to know, but won’t be surprised if a future expert will reid them despite my “knowledge”.
For all tipulids I try to get these shots: top head, lateral antennae view, top thorax&abdomen, lateral body view, ventral head view, genitalia from all 3 angles, good wing shot, leg colour if it’s needed for a group.

Any time I see something I can roughly identify from previous knowledge, but is less common or a bit unusual in some way, it piques my interest.

Things I’ve been enthusiastic to spot before starting to use iNaturalist included:

  • Sundew plants
  • Liverworts
  • Monotropa uniflora
  • Horsetails
  • Freshwater Jellyfish (one summer in the 1990s, this one lake was full of them for part of a week)

Also, most amphibians and invertebrates that are not parasitic or otherwise “pests” generally interest me.

1 Like

I like mosses and liverworts, even though many of them won’t get to research grade since that may require microscopy. I know some people actively avoid making observations of them for that reason, but I’m more likely to try to get a sample and actually put it under the microscope.

2 Likes

My mosses and liverworts usually get IDed to species within days, only slightly behind birds. The key is to include a habitat shot and a clear 10x macro shot of a single leaf. And guess it may depend on whether there’s a bryologist regularly going over your area or not.

3 Likes

I think Timemas are fascinating. Well, all stick insects are intriguing, but Timema especially so.

Some of them are Parthenogenetic. The ones I see around here do mate and stay together in pairs, with the much larger female carrying the little male around on her back. Those I’ve found were mostly in live oak trees, hanging out between a pair of close-lying leaves.

3 Likes

Yup, you need an active local expert, I have tons of microscoped mosses and they are stuck at family level.

Yes, when I post mosses on my trips to Germany, they get ID’d fairly quickly, which is always a pleasant surprise. I guess it really depends on whether there’s a local expert around on iNat.

You have to use a microscope. For example, Turbonilla snails are about the width of a fingernail and pencil lead thick. You have to ID them by their ribs so a microscope is 100% required.( this is completely wrong I’m not sure what went through my head)

Anyway
In addition to my love for marine micro bivalves, I love Scaphopods ( tusk shells). I have consistently found five species on the emerald coast and only know what the name of two of them are (ivory tusk and American tusk shell). I wish I had an easy way way to figure out what the rest are named. Isolated pictures of species are easy to find but harder to interpret when you can’t compare the shells side by side. Maybe I was just being lazy last time I tried to research it (I don’t really remember how hard I tried) but I feel like someone has figured out at some point what the five species in FL are.
I guess I’m going to have to be that person.

3 Likes

Their observations don’t look that small, like this 6 mm one is big enough for any macro lens. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4923759

2 Likes

you are right, I don’t know what I was thinking but I shouldn’t have generalized. I will say though, it help a lot. Most of my turbonillas have really tight grain so it can really beneficial.

1 Like

Go google for the Southwest Florida Shell Guide and once you are in it, search for Dentaliidae. That will give you 5 of the larger species of tusk shells.

For small tusk shells that have a slightly different shape, search in that same shell guide for Gadilida.

1 Like

Diplurians! Particularly cave adapted ones.

1 Like

I found a new name, the Pillsbury tusk! Three down, two to go! (I have never found the Antillean or reticulate tusks before).
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143875384
https://www.shellmuseum.org/shell-guide
Thanks so much! I Knew about the website previously but not the family names so I guess that was my lazy excuse in the past for not being able to compare side by side.

Also, I couldn’t find any Gadlilida in the database. My other tusks are the same shape and size (~inch) so I am a little doubtful they are in there anyway. My two nameless tusks are 1) octagons with ribs on the corners and smaller ones in the center of the sides. it also has a bit of the bands that the Antillean tusk does. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143889820
and 2) the same but the small ribs are big making it look like it has 16 sides
However, this may be just variance within the same species because at the tip it only has 8 sides implying the side-centered ribs are just very large sub-ribs because they didn’t use to be present at all. I posted them separately anyway just in case (and cause I had already gone to a lot of trouble to sorting them)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143878436

Actually, now that I post this, I feel they probably are the same. This means that the tusk I have the most of has no name on its dixie cup :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:.

To find the other group of much smaller tusk shells maybe you could look for Cadulus which is a major genus within that group.

On the main iNaturalist site find Marlo, and ask him how many regular tusk shells there are in Florida.

After closer examination, I have decided they actually are both Antillean Tusks. All my tusks have names! Thanks so much!

there’ one problem though, Antalis antillarum is not accepted on iNaturalist

I looked it up and that species is accepted by MolluscaBase, which has the taxonomy that we use, so I will simply add that species to the iNaturalist database. However right now I am waiting on an international phone call, so I will have add the species when the call is over.

2 Likes

I get quite excited by the site of golden flies. I’ve only gotten to see them a couple of times but I love them. I don’t often take an interest in flies but something about the Chyromyidae feels magical.

1 Like