Chaparral broomrape along I-5 in Southern California
18 Likes
Thank you! I would love any assistance IDing them 
2 Likes
22 Likes
I found a cute moth and was happy to see it was a life list species for me!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/218949125
11 Likes
I’ve got one I definitely wasn’t expecting to find, however it is captive/casual.
Oysters
Barnacles
This is the first time I’ve ever seen an oyster, I’ve never even seen a shell until now. I have no idea how they got where they did, it’s not public land, and I don’t know why someone would use them for fishing… They either washed up there after the recent floods, or someone travelled quite a long distance to sit in a random pull-off from the highway to eat a few oysters, and then left the shells there.
8 Likes
Memorial Day hike resulted in 40 observations and 44 “life firsts” (calendar view). My favorite were plentiful monkeyflower bushes in bloom all along the canyon. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/218779528
10 Likes
I saw my first pseudoscorpion!
27 Likes
Androsace helvetica, had no idea this flower even exists, but got lost on a via ferrata and there it was, away from any trails high up in the rocky cliffs…
19 Likes
Long road trip and that was where lunchtime happened to find them.
3 Likes
caught a pine hawkmoth in the moth trap the night before, new hawkmoth species for me and not the most common albeit not particularly vibrant or fresh.
other hawkmoth species caught so far for 2024 are as follows
Poplar hawkmoth on the 6th of May
Lime hawkmoth on the 10th
Eyed hawkmoth on the 19th
with any luck the 2 elephant hawk species will arrive soon enough as well as the long awaited privet hawkmoth.
15 Likes
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/218830980
Apparently a clustered broomrape, which has very few inat sightings here (although a number of records collected by botanists).
16 Likes
Toxopsiella sp.
Thanks to the couple people who figured this out to genus, with this being the second observation on inat of the genus (and first live observation). https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/217658993
16 Likes
New month new lifers! I added 8 species to the iNat ‘Sequoia-Kings Canyon’ insect list - 2 wasps, 3 bees, 2 moths, and a fly - that is approaching 1,000! My favorite lifer was not new for the park list, but quite a surprise to encounter. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/219882543
17 Likes
Those antennae!
2 Likes
Caracolus excellens
I was the first to identify this lovely giant snail in Haiti. It’s endemic to Hispaniola but only identified in the Dominican Republic so far.
14 Likes
The way this is phrased made me think, “Whoa! I’m supposed to have a “Lifer” this week? Am I supposed to have one every week? And not just one, but more than one, so that I can have a favorite? … I guess I am not spending enough time iNatting!”
But all kidding aside, I did have a couple of Lifers, and this Hawthorn Mining Bee (A. crataegi) was my fave, because it is the first time I have ever successfully IDed Andrena to species level.
I’m no entomologist: usually I’m just happy to get a genus-level ID for insects.
11 Likes
Yeah, it’s rather addicting and it’s good to have goals… then you photograph someone and think “Wow! There’s my lifer this week!” just to go through your observations and see you saw one two years ago. Oh well, back outside…
3 Likes
I had been wanting to see mature oxyopids (lynx spiders) for a while, and just yesterday I found three! It also happened to be my first day outside trying out my new (but cheap) flash and DIY diffuser. Here are two of the lynx spiders:
Mature female Oxyopes aglossus
Mature male Oxyopes salticus.
24 Likes
