What is your favorite taxa to id?

Cerambycidae! This family, despite the 40,000+ described species, is very understudied. There are currently no Cerambycid faculty/professors in the USA that take graduate/PhD students (as I have been figuring out…). Many of the tribes have been created out of necessity, instead of being based on phylogenetics, so the whole family needs to be studied and revised entirely. I am currently working on learning all of Cerambycidae worldwide and hope to eventually work on this massive project. (Also looking for Coleoptera systematic professors to do my masters under) :P

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Yes, like @thomaseverest I really enjoy ID-ing mollusks. I am best at ID-ing marine mollusks in the parts of the world where I know the marine mollusk fauna quite well, either because I have lived there, or because I have spent a fair bit of time there: the Eastern Pacific, the Western Atlantic including the Caribbean, and the Eastern Atlantic.

I know the non-marine mollusk fauna of Great Britain quite well too.

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Tiger beetles most of all, but new ones run out quickly, so then Calopterini, which I adore (and there are plenty to go around). Then Cleridae, especially Enoclerus. And then sound observations, because they’re often neglected (maybe because it takes a lot longer to listen to a thing than look at a thing).

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small, “non-game” freshwater fish. I’m an aquarium hobbyist at heart and inat observations of a lot of the fish that end up in the aquarium trade can give a lot of insight into ecology, habitat, biogeography etc
Similar feelings about isopods and cockroaches, though I’m far less confident on my id skills for them and tend to just browse through observations

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that is a monumental task worthy of even a PhD thesis, or even a lifetime endeavour. I know a person who’s PhD thesis was more or less to catalogue the known species of moths within Hong Kong, and even now there are misidentifications, taxonomy revisions, and new species records.

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Smilax (greenbrier vines). They have a reputation for being hard to ID because some species are hugely variable, and because the flowers aren’t much help for ID. I keep meaning to branch out beyond Smilax of the United States, because there are many interesting species worldwide, but it’s hard to find good keys for them. Anyway I can never keep up with the US ones as they are a vine-we-love-to-hate for a lot of people. It’s really a fun challenge when someone posts very good photos of a puzzling specimen, or when they inadvertently mix two on the same observation!

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Yeah, it would definitely take a lifetime if not more. I hope to fill the role of the much need 'bycid expert, but right now, I only have this ambition. I am in the process of looking into graduate programs under Coleoptera systematists that I could work under, learn the process, and have funding. I will most likely have to learn how to do systematics on another family of Coleoptera simply due to funding, and then apply that knowledge later on in my career when I am able to do 'bycids. One of the big problems is that it is hard to find funding to solely do taxonomy or whatnot, so it would have to be a side part of a different project. If I go this route, I would definitely see myself being more happy, but it might be less stable due to funding. That being said, I know all of the rearing protocols and associated methodologies pertaining to the Emerald Ash Borer, so I could easily remain with working on invasive species. There aren’t really that many invasive 'bycids that cause nearly as much damage (primarily only ALB). So my current dilemma is if I should pursue systematics or stick with invasives where there is always funding. Any insights from anyone would be helpful! I’m thinking to do a masters in systematics and see how I actually like it and go from there.

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Meloidae (Beetles) :)

Very overlooked and also very under studied and observed.

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I got started on Eristalis because they were the neediest genus of hoverflies at Christmas 2020 (375 pages), I got stuck on them because they have enough diversity to be interesting, enough similarity to be challenging, and yet they are rarely impossible to ID - that seems to be the balance that sustains my interest I think.

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Ripiphoridae too. There are too many insect groups and not enough experts and funding. (Also, feel free to check my Meloidae observations. :slightly_smiling_face:)

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This is a taxon X life stage, but skipper (Hesperiidae) caterpillars. My favorite observations to look at are shelter-building caterpillars in general, but most of those are microleps and therefore difficult to ID as caterpillars. Skipper caterpillars are better documented because they’re bigger (and are butterflies). And since there are only a handful of subfamilies with pretty consistent traits, I can usually get them at least to subfamily even if the caterpillar is one I’ve never seen before. Although since I have zero personal experience with them, I’m still trying to figure out how to distinguish grass-feeding Australian skipper caterpillars (Trapezitinae) from grass skipper caterpillars (Hesperiinae)…

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Or, maybe the other way around: people’s identification knowhow naturally skews to the taxa they most enjoy.

Having had to learn a whole lot of Caribbean butterflies in order to publish my paper on them, I kinda know what you mean. Calisto is the only Satyrine genus in the Caribbean, most of the species are endemic to Hispaniola, and they all look very similar. However, most of them are also narrow habitat specialists, either high altitude or desert. That leaves only two that are commonly found in the places frequented by nonspecialists. Of course, most people dare not identify them past genus; so, tired of the constant retyping, I developed a copypasta:

Calisto confusa: Hindwing white bar distinct, nearly straight; lower pupil of forewing ocellus closer to rim than upper pupil.

Calisto obscura: Hindwing white bar indistinct, strongly curved; both pupils of forweing ocellus nearly equal distance from rim.

I am always thrilled when I find a Calisto that turns out not to match either of these.

Then there are the Hesperiidae of the Caribbean, which can also be a worthy challenge – the only Hesperiidae I know enough to attempt, although some of the Hesperini are still beyond me.

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One of my favorite groups is the plant tribe Bauhinieae, which has Bauhinia and several genera that were split off from it. The flowers are very pretty, and come in many different shapes and colors.

The three most commonly observed species (Bauhinia variegata, Bauhinia purpurea, and their hybrid Bauhinia × blakeana) are often mixed up, probably in part thanks to the mislabeled pictures that are everywhere online (even you, POWO?). This discussion has some useful information.

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I enjoy identifying Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) the most - I like IDing birds too, but there are loads of bird identifiers and not so many for fish, so I tend to ID fish more often.

My main specialty is tropical northeast Australian reef fishes, but I’ll ID any fish to the best of my ability - If I don’t know the exact species, often I can get it to at least family.

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I seem to be addicted to Unknowns. I have a tendency to rather enjoy cleaning up little messes left by others and giving IDs to Unknowns fits right in that box (my apologies to those whose observations end up Unknown because of a small mis-spelling you made in the name, or because it suits your workflow better, or any other number of perfectly good reasons). I skip around in all sorts of ways in Unknowns - I’m trying to clear out the Unknowns from the 2022 CNC; I look at the Unknowns worldwide that were observed a week ago, or six months ago; and I pick a taxa out of @jeanphillippeb’s Unknowns project and work on that.

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As a biologist, I love to identify all forms of life, but I like plants the most (horsetails, ferns, mosses) and I’m also interested in lichens. Professionally, I identify sanitary bacteria, which is also extremely fascinating. Molds are also amazing.

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