https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/39726440#activity_identification_89768639
This was found “in the wild” and is not captive. Not sure how this was marked as a casual observation. The Research grade qualification criterions do not mark this as captive.
Someone ticked the “No, it’s as good as it can be” box at the bottom. I’ve ticked yes to restore it to needs ID
Regrettably, ticking that box at around the subfamily level and up results in a casual grade observation (around tribe and below, it goes to research grade). The casual status, I believe, was initially as a countermeasure to blatantly wrong observer IDs where community ID has been opted out. There are definitely a few points, though, where there may be a legitimate reason why an observation can’t be identified below a higher taxon (green lacewing eggs as an example at the family level) and why research grade status may still be warranted as opposed to casual grade.
Research Grade is not an indicator that it is suitable for research, it is just an indicator that certain criteria have been met. There are many casual grade observations that are of high interest to research, and there a lot of RG observations that are likely (IMHO) useless to research. Of course, it depends on what the research is investigating!
There is a forum topic discussing other options for names that might make more sense… but regardless, it is just a name!
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/rename-research-grade-discussion-and-polls/590