What Leaderboard(s) Have You Been Surprised To Find Yourself At The Top Of?

[regnierda]

I was looking at the leaderboards for Polygonum buxiforme the other day to find someone who might be able to help with an ID when I realized I’m the 3rd top identifier and 2nd top observer of verifiable observations of this species in the world!

The other week, I had the top United States IDer of a certain grass species respond to my request for ID assistance that I should ping someone more familiar with the species. They were surprised when I told them they were the number one IDer in the US.

These experiences got me thinking, “are there any other leaderboards I’m somehow on?” So I checked the verifiable, worldwide leaderboards of plant species on my life list and was surprised to discover I’m on several:

• Polygonum buxiforme: 3rd identifier @ 4 IDs
• Polygonum buxiforme: 2nd top observer @ 7 observations
• Ellisia nyctelea: 2nd top identifier @ 126 IDs
• Carex aggregata: 4th top observer (tied for 3rd) @ 8 observations (thank you to @sedgequeen, who with her IDs on 6 of my observations also landed herself the 2nd top identifier spot of this species w/ 6 IDs!)

I was curious about the subspecies I’ve observed and found that I’m on the leaderboards for most of them:

• Solidago canadensis hargeri: 2nd observer @ 12 observations
• Lepidium virginicum virginicum: 2nd observer @ 11 observations
• Chenopodium berlandieri bushianum: 1st observer (!) @ 6 observations
• Panicum dichotomiflorum dichotomiflorum: 1st observer (!) @ 5 observations
• Setaria pumila pumila: 3rd observer (tied for 1st (!)) @ 2 observations

I can understand the Carex and Polygonum spots, I guess, as these genera can be really difficult to photograph and identify. However, I was very surprised about my spot on the Ellisia leaderboard as it’s so easy to identify (at least it is in my state where there’s not a whole lot else that looks quite like it) – I did go through all of Nebraska’s observations of this species, but I’m still surprised that’s enough to make me 2nd in the world.

As for the subspecies, I think maybe it’s a combination of (1) maybe people don’t worry about subspecies all that much as I thought they did, and (2) most of these subspecies are kind of a pain to distinguish from the other subspecies in their respective species?

What about you? Have you ever been surprised to find yourself at/near the top of a species’ leaderboard? What species was it? Why do you think you’re on that leaderboard?

[neylon]

I was rather surprised by how rarely Dufourea monardae was reported, and even more so when I saw I was at lead observer https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&taxon_id=452978&view=observers

[wildwestnature]

@neylon

Dufourea monardae

We think we saw one today, and we’d be tempted to tag you on the observation, but another leaderboard you’re on is our observations: you’re the #8 identifier of all our observations lifetime. So you’ll probably see it this week anyway

[lj_l]

I don’t check larger leaderboards too often so I decided I might as well check now! For bivalves (the main group I identify in) I place in 8th place for identifications. That’s honestly a lot higher than I expected. Same thing for Class Mollusca, where I place in 46th. When I first joined iNat, the numbers on the leaderboard looked very high. Now I realize that all you need is a little dedication, and I’m very glad there are so many other identifiers who are putting time and effort into this website.

Anyway, some bonus leaderboards I found:

Anadara chemnitzii:

One of the first taxa I checked, because I know I and a few other users (Thanks @amr_mn!) spent the past few months identifiers trying to correct many wrong ID’s. In fact, many of us have more ID’s than there are observations of the species:

Callinina georgiana:

A freshwater gastropod species I felt had too few identifications for the amount of observations it had (around 1300 observations). Since then, I’ve been tracking observations of the species.

Unionida:

One of the first groups I learned how to identify. The first bivalve group, for sure!

Sphaeriinae:

A subfamily I incidentally discovered while looking for Unionids. Also, they are occasionally misidentified as Unionidae on iNat. I’m also the #1 observer for this group, as long as the genera Musculium and Euglesa in it.

Corbicula:

A widespread, often invasive genus I also found while looking for Unionids. I’m also #1 observer for the species Corbicula fluminea, because of a unique population near where I live.

Anadara:

Most of my ID’s of this genus were corrections, especially between A. brasiliana and chemnitzii. Very recently, I learned about a few other rarely-observed species like A. sercenada and A. hemidesmos which means I’m probably going to look through even more Anadara to correct even more observations.

Euglesa compressa, probably the only taxon where I’m both the top observer and identifier:

I’m also #1 observer on numerous other Euglesa species because of how under-observed they are. I made a post about them on this thread: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/be-on-the-lookout-for/53457

[tcriley]

I’m second on the Cottonwood Leaf Beetle identifiers leaderboard, even though I stopped identifying them a couple years ago. I really thought someone would’ve knocked me down the leaderboard by now.

Edit: I was also a little surprised to see I was the only one really observing Stenochironomus macateei. I get hundreds on my windows at night, but I guess I’m the only one experiencing that since everyone else has less than five observations and I have over 100.

[DanielAustin]

Rather than leaderboards for particular taxa, I am more motivated by the leaderboards for specific places – especially countries.

With iNat so widely used in my native UK, I’m currently only managing a paltry ranking of 258th (of 143,099 total observers). But I visit Madagascar frequently and am 1st at the top of that leaderboard (of 2,385), although the second-place observer is hot on my heels!

I’m also working on climbing the leaderboards for Seychelles (currently 6th of 781) and Turkey (41st of 14,745).

Has anybody developed any add-ons to create maps or charts that show visually, say, how many countries a user has contributed obs for?

[arnim]

A recent topic on the forum has been knowing your own back yard. I didn’t participate, but anyone who does that will climb a leaderboard for species in their chosen limited domain. That’s a natural outcome.
I’ve got a vast and boringly repetitive collection of the biodiversity in our coastal dunes here, but my guess is that someone will find this interesting or relevant at some point in time. A lot of the native species are mundane, and often I’m at the top of the leaderboard for those plants.
What’s surprising and in fact disturbing, is how often my vast and boringly repetitive reporting of the weeds we have here on this coast, bump me to the top of the list for the global count for these weed species. Providing an example, the tree lupin leaderboard has the vast majority of New Zealanders owning the top 25 positions, for a plant that is not native in this country. This is by far not the only example.

[shameimaruaya]

Phyllococcus oahuensis which is an extinct species. I of course provided figures before giving ID.

[raewyna]

I had never thought to click on the Leaderboard for anything until now but when I post observations I often look at the “About” page for a species so had already realised that I had become a top observer for a number of micro molluscs - eg https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/391754-Liratilia-compta. This happened accidentally as I extended my interest in seashells into the “tiny ones” and continued getting to smaller and smaller specimens where I now filter sand and use a microscope to photograph them. The species are all common in the location where I collect them, but because they are so small most people don’t see them and many of them haven’t even been described. So when something is identified it usually has few other observations.

On seeing this post, I looked at a few other leaderboards and was surprised to find I’m 4th for bird observations for my region but at the top for number of species. To me that shows that we need more people out there doing iNat as my input is not really that significant. I don’t post everything by any means, usually just what is less common, or hasn’t been uploaded at that place recently.

[neylon]

Well… I would likely not be the guy to ID that. I’m useless outside of Bombus, and mostly just check that. Feel free to tag me though.

[kenneth_g]

Nematoda…the entire phylum solely because I ID one species: Beech leaf disease. Also Psocodea (4th worldwide) because of 3 species I know.

[sedgequeen]

“Carex aggregata: . . . . @sedgequeen, who with her IDs on 6 of my observations also landed herself the 2nd top identifier spot of this species w/ 6 IDs!”

Oh, really. I hardly know this species. But I do send ID requests to one of the continent’s very best researcher of sedges and I report what he writes, quoting him. So it goes. (He’s not on iNaturalist. I keep hoping to lure him in.)

[andrew-gray]

There’s some random plants I found on my vacation in Arizona and Utah that it turns out are so rare that just the few observations I uploaded placed me as top observer. I know of are Sophora stenophylla, Asclepias welshii, and Phlox gladiformis. I was actively searching for A. welshii though. Obviously the Southwest is very different from Ohio but I figured I couldn’t spend the whole trip taking pictures of stems and leaves of every plant I saw, so I pretty much only took pictures of plants that were either in bloom, had cool foliage, or I was specifically looking for. And then some of those random blooming plants just so happened to only have like 20 observations on iNat or something.

[jhousephotos]

I became the top identifier of Lochmaeus manteo in my state because of one user uploading dozens of observations in a very short time span. lol

Also, I’m both the top observer and identifier for the grapevine beetle in Arkansas.

[whaichi]

I’m the top observer and identifier for several insect and spider species in South Korea – as well as being the top identifier for the country overall – but a couple of surprises for me were …

During a week-long trip to the United States last summer, I went out a few evenings to see what I could find on the side of buildings and my observations put me top of the leaderboard for a few species in Nebraska:

Summary

• 10 observations of Parapediasia teterrellus (Bluegrass Webworm Moth)
• 8 observations of Acrolophus popeanella (Clemens’ Grass Tubeworm Moth)
• 6 observations of Fissicrambus mutabilis (Changeable Grass-Veneer)
• 6 observations of Diabrotica barberi (Northern Corn Rootworm)
• 2 observations of Eoreuma densellus (Wainscot Grass-Veneer)

I also show up in the Top 5 for other species and there are two (Xorides albopictus and Haimbachia squamulellus) where mine is the only iNat record for the state. (Interestingly, another iNat user in Korea helped me with identifying X. albopictus.)

A trip to the USA in 2019 resulted in 3 evening observations of Listroderes costirostris (Vegetable Weevil) that put me top of the state leaderboard for Mississippi.

I really didn’t expect to find myself at the top of any leaderboards for the United States given the number of iNat users there so those were all a big surprise.

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For identifying, I’ve recently been going through Unknowns in Asia to identify those as best I can. Having a few hundred IDs in some countries won’t get me anywhere near the Top 250 of the identifiers leaderboard but in Mongolia I’m in the Top 40.

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I mentioned this in another thread somewhat recently, but when I joined iNaturalist and was identifying Lycorma delicatula (Spotted Lanternfly) observations in South Korea my IDs for that one species were enough to also put me at the top of the global leaderboard for the Superfamily Fulgoroidea.

[eyekosaeder]

I am “top identifier” of fly genus Polyporivora (but I started IDing them because no one else really was and I liked them, so I cannot say I’m surprised there) but that has placed me in 6th for the entire family of Platypezidae. I just hope no one starts thinking I’m good at IDing these flies. Outside of that one genus I really have no clue at all. XD

Nowadays, I usually identify ladybeetles. With the amount of existing observations and the top identifiers (richyfourtytwo, cpu, and that_bug_guy) still being very active, I’ll never get anywhere near the top of that list (im in 68th at the moment, which I guess is surprisingly high though) haha.

I don’t think I’m on the observation leaderboard for any species with more than a few obs.

[Ajott]

I hate that I am the top identifier of Dolomedes fimbriatus… a species that actually cannot reliably be distinguished from the visually similar Dolomedes plantarius (am the top IDer for this one as well) in almost all cases…

I actually only IDed a handful of observations to species, yet the leaderboard claims that I have IDed more then 1000 to species… why? Because I did not specifically disagree with the overconfident species ID of the OP when confirming the genus and now I am showing up on that leader board… an error in the system I feel.

[graysquirrel]

I’ve recently been a bit confused to find myself constantly tagged for identifying photos of thrips, a notoriously difficult group which I know next to nothing about. Then I realized I’ve identified thrip galls on toyon and ngaio, which are easy because they’re host-specific - apparently I did a few too many and now people think I’m a thrip expert.

I wish there was a way to remove onesself from certain leaderboards, that’s for sure!

[jasonhernandez74]

@lj_l

a unique population near where I live

What’s unique about it? I have been examining shells of the Asian clam wherever I find them, and have a considerable dataset now.

[lj_l]

Many of the shells have finer striae and a broader shape, suggesting a different form of Corbicula fluminea than typical.

^^ Top two are “typical” while the bottom two are a different form

There is also a natural midden (pile) of these shells that was formed because of the stormwater drainage pipes in the area, making it very easy to observe:

If you’re interested in other unique Corbicula forms you can see some under this observation field: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=any&place_id=any&field:Corbicula%20Form