Interesting! What is that and where can I find it?
Just back from a birding trip with :
- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/318371412 A great stone curlew (my top favorite)
- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/318369722 These Oriental Darters (the sneke bird)
- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/318375629 The Peacock Pansy!
Honorable mention to this spider, who i’ve seen before but never photographed: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/318372599
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I will message the person who I know is one of the most knowledgable on South American harvest at some point later in this trip, with all my really curly ones. This is one of them. But I expect more. Harvestmen unknowns is kind of the aim of these trips.
Week one of seven, I stayed at https://www.unpocodelchoco.com/ a reserve that mostly focuses education and internships, but allows the occasional tourist to help funds. It was nice because I had the freedom to explore alone, which lots of places understandably arent so keen on.
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I searched for this plant most of the summer and finally found it on a walk Monday.
Dwarf fireweed
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/317858814
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Erianthus (the grass, not the grasshopper).
A walnut tree with fruit. I later found a young walnut near home. I have two observations of an unidentified Juglandacea from last year after Helene, but I’m fairly sure it’s a hickory.
Holly
Ragweed
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Oh, I got bit. Normally I release the head close to the ground and they immediately crawl away with no problems. This one decided to stay and bite me 4 times on my finger. Pretty sure I got some slight necrosis from it. Do not recommend. 
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Gall week kicked off a new obsession for me and it’s led to seeing some really awesome things that have probably been right under my nose for years!
There were so many branches and leaves at eye level in this woodland that I wasn’t even going to bother scouring the fallen ones for galls, but I’m so glad I made an exception for this particular cluster of old leaves because look what was on it
Then just yesterday I saw a ton of these spikes on some saskatoons, caused by a possibly-as-yet-unnamed/undescribed Blaesodiplosis species. On one of the same plants I saw a bunch of white, fuzzy galls, but haven’t had as much luck finding photographs of similar structures that are found on A. alnifolia specifically
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A couple of new beetles for me.
Thallis dentipes in the Pleasing Fungus Beetle family Erotylidae
And a cute little weevil Euryporopterus funereus
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I think it’s the same link as for the Peacock Pansy…
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Oof. It is. Lemme fix dat real quick…
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Australian Grapevine Moth
Sometimes I travel for literally hours to find “stuff”. The irony with this lifer observation was it was in my own backyard. Initially thought it was a butterfly too! Oops.
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One week full of lifers, but I’ll chose the last one. We were warned to look for snakes when packing down the tents, instead I got a social huntsman:
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I got some kind of grass I’m pretty sure I haven’t observed before.
I also got a bur on my sock, but that hasn’t been identified, beyond being a seed of some plant. I’m pretty sure it’s not what I call the bur bean (possibly tick trefoil), which grows near my old house.
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Ecuador week two.
Genus Sturnira. From a mist net as part of research my guide was doing, whilst I was looking for invertebrates.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/319423898
Tityus simonsi (7th on inat)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/319815431
Hyperthaema
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320072392
Prostygnus vestitus (Inat 1st, thanks to the IDer)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320019768
Another, what is that one. In the Family Manaosbiidae. But quite different to known ones so far.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/319423884
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Dang, now I want to visit Ecuador.
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Me too!!!
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This week would probably be the Eastern Hellbender. Been looking for one for about a decade. The one I saw was dead but whatever, it still counts.
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I dont know if its the Frequency illusion, but I have noticed many people mentioning Ecuador on the forums recently. I did Peru last year, and Colombia the year before. All of them are great options once you get into the jungle.
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A Fraternal Potter Wasp, first I’ve seen, photographed, and posted to iNat;
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