Can relate.
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I would argue that you do not even need to get to the jungle in either of those countries to observe amazing wildlife (although I only saw the very northern tip of Peru) .. of course the rainforest are overflowing with life and this IS a naturalists dream for sure! However, I do love the intimacy and alieness ( is that even a word.. hmm 
) of the higher altitude wildlife so much. It can be so different and is underobserved as well. This for example was a super interesting catch and not much has happened concerning this genus here on iNat since I ovserved it
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I think calling those deaders are funny
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I didn’t get photos, but I got to see a Leach’s and a Wilson’s Storm-Petrel in the Puget Sound this week! The Wilson’s Storm-Petrel was the first one ever seen from land in Washington State!
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Yeah, I agree, I should say wilderness (Aka away from cities and agriculture). I am just biased towards jungles. Even at like 3700m I can find it a bit hot without the shade. But there are some high altitude lifers on my target list.
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I just got underwater housing for my phone a couple of weeks ago. Has opened up a whole new world of things to see and document.
Best ones from the past few days is the Northern Clearwater Crayfish (not rare but still cool)
Then there is this darter, the Blackside Darter, a little over 400 observations on inaturalist.
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One that has been on my bucket list for a long time. The Sundew Bug Setocoris droserae A species of carnivorous Mirid that is immune to the sticky traps of sundews and lives on the plant feeding on other insects trapped by the sundew’s leaf traps. This one is a nymph but now I know where to look I’m after a phot of the adult.
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Ugh the only thing worse than knowing that huntsman spiders exist is knowing that social huntsman spiders exist.
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I politely vut srongly disagree, but I might be extremely biased (dedicated some years of my life on the study of sociality in spiders)
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This past summer I found two butterflies that I have never seen before. One is the Ocola Skipper (photos below) which has a purplish, iridescent sheen on its wings. I didn’t know what I had when I got some photos that day. But, when I processed them on a computer, I could see the wings with the purple showing. I also found a Swarthy Skipper. It is kind of a dull little butterfly. But the significance of the find is that the park where I found had been restoring a former flat, grassy soccer field to a more natural area. The new habitat is sloped with a little stream flowing through it. There are some ponds and a lot of native plants. The naturalists in the park are very interested in what was coming to that newly restored area. So, they are happy to hear about those skippers and anything else that is found there. The naturalists can’t go out looking for things as much as they would like. They have to be in the nature center pretty much all day. While these are probably very common species, they are new to me. These finds are the result of our local parks running events the past three Septembers (using iNaturalist) where they want people to go out and find pollinators in the parks. So, I am searching for new things. I have found a lot of bees, flies, butterflies, moths and other things that I never knew were out there.
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Haha I would dislike huntsman spiders less if they weren’t so fast on their legs.
I have a colony of social house spiders (Philoponella congregabilis) in my backyard. They’re pretty cool!
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Male Ptilophorus wrightii today! (and 31 calendar firsts total.)
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It was technically last week, but I’m only going through the photos now, so… This frog! I mean, look at it! It’s so cool! Such a neat little creature (ㅅ´ ˘ `)
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This moth was my favorite lifer from this week. It looks most like Acleris maccana to me, but little moths are not my strong suit.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320932915
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I found a house centipede. Not only have I not observed such a centipede before (I’ve observed a different kind of centipede in the same house), it’s something I want to have in the house, as they eat cockroaches, which I’ve observed in the house.
Walking in the woods, I found what I’m fairly sure is a passionflower plant.
This mushroom hasn’t been identified further, but it doesn’t look like any others I’ve observed.
This spider doesn’t look familiar either.
This mosquito may not be a lifer, as I’ve previously observed some sort of mosquito or midge on my computer screen that hasn’t been identified to family.
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Probably, based off of the leaves. Here’s my one observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/310614892
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Ecuador week 3 processed.
I had been wanting to see a Paratropis for a couple years, so was good to finally see one. Focus wasnt perfect, but I did find one a week later, so will see how those pics look when I get to them.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/321337200
Target Tortoise Beetle?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/321769432
Complex Ophiocordyceps dipterigena?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320995885
This snake which the guide said “no-venom” but Im not so sure, it looks pretty close to a Western Ribbon Coralsnake, but waiting for someone who knows these things better for ID.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320995890
This orchid which I am guessing is in Peristeria, but I dont really do flowers, so not confident.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/321337257
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Eee! Tortoise beetle!!! I saw my second one ever today!!! They are so odd, and seem so out of place in temperate Arkansas–they look like something I would expect from a tropical rainforest :)
Here was my first:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/305813832
As for the second, I will probably add it in a few weeks, seeing that I literally am a few weeks behind in adding observations. Ooops…well, I know it was a lifer anyway, the one I saw today was bright gold!! 
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Target? Looks more like an owl eye to me.
I’ve only ever seen one, but it was only the second observation of one in my state (Alaska). Turns out they’re very rare here.
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I have been lucky enough to see a few different species over the years. Though photos are not as good. But these are a couple of my fave species I have shot.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28601020
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28540196
I was going to say we dont have them in NZ, but of course when I looked into it there is a couple introduced species.
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