I’d love to be able to help scientists by collecting specimens of whatever for them, and occasionally someone asks me for a specimen I’ve seen… after I’ve already left that area. If I had instructions on what to look out for before seeing something, it’d be much easier to make sure that I actually c…

As a ranger I would generally encourage people to make sure they know the rules around specimen collection relative to the species they are collecting and where from. Like here in NZ it is illegal to collect Powelliphanta (large land snails) shells regardless of if the specimen is living or deceased…

[image] sebastiandoak: As a ranger I would generally encourage people to make sure they know the rules around specimen collection relative to the species they are collecting and where from A very big concern to me too, especially in current chronic drought conditions which are stressing and t…

Whilst I work for the dept, I am not 100% on all the rules, which is why permit stuff I would always direct to the appropriate person. " * The Conservation Act 1987 protects plants and animals on public conservation land. The Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 protects all marine mammals. The Wil…

Thanks Sebastian. Well, fortunately I have generally managed to refrain from quoting to Reserve users what I believed to be the law. Maybe there is a Council bylaw. Parts of the local forest Reserve I work in, including the hectare I currently restrict myself to, are Department of Conservation ( DO…

If you’re thinking about specific taxa, I would add ichneumonid wasps to the list of particularly useful taxa to collect. The diversity is mindboggling and there are a ton of undescribed species in North America. I specifically study the subfamily Ichneumoninae. Most species of ichneumonines have be…

Pretty much all fungi anywhere in North America are worth collecting!

There is an active community science project asking for red maple (Acer rubrum) leaves to be submitted from across the US. More information in this thread: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/community-science-project-help-collect-red-maple-leaves-for-ecological-research/15160 And this website: http:/…

In the US specimen collecting is a bit complicated depending on what agency oversees the land (eg. BLM, National Park, State Park, Private Land, etc) and what the specimen is of, but broadly speaking you need a collection permit in most non-private land areas. Here’s a very rough overview , but you …

@herebespiders11 was asking for fungi infecting hover flies (Entomophthora sp.) and @derhennen has an open request for millipedes on his profile.

I’ve attempted to compile a list of all the specific research projects brought up on this thread. Maybe I should make a wiki post out of these later? Animals Coniontini (Tenebrionidae / Darkling Beetles) Vibrations - Videos / gifs Ichneumonid (Ichneumonidae) wasps. No specific project - Speci…

What Research Can I / We Help With?

General

mws September 23, 2020, 1:31am 18

Would folks be interested in a wiki thread like the computer vision clean up wiki for research opportunities?

Topic		Replies	Views
Opportunities to Assist Researchers - wiki General	20	1758	April 7, 2022
Asking to buy animals on iNat Curators question	20	1755	February 22, 2023
iNat "Collection Guidelines"? (as in, taking things) General	44	1659	September 30, 2022
Question about the ethics/etiquette of using observations to track plantlife for collection General question , ethics	26	881	October 5, 2025
Non-invasive naturalism: thank you! General	38	2142	November 21, 2021

What Research Can I / We Help With?

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