#Tag
A Tropical Fritillary (Argynnis hyperbius) spotted at Pujiang Countryside Park, Shanghai, China on 2 Nov 2025. Wisespread throughout Asia, but absent in Singapore.
On iNaturalist [ https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/325029034 ].
#iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Shanghai #China #Insects #Butterflies #Lepidoptera
A Tropical Fritillary (Argynnis hyperbius) spotted at Pujiang Countryside Park, Shanghai, China on 2 Nov 2025. Wisespread throughout Asia, but absent in Singapore.
On iNaturalist [ https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/325029034 ].
#iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Shanghai #China #Insects #Butterflies #Lepidoptera
"DBCLS BioHackathon 2025 report on the WikiBlitz" https://doi.org/10.37044/osf.io/7s6da_v1
"As part of the DBCLS BioHackathon 2025, we organized a WikiBlitz to improve biodiversity knowledge by integrating iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikidata, and Wikipedia. Participants identified local flora and fauna, filling gaps in multilingual Wikipedia articles. This report summarizes the methodology, results, and insights, illustrating the usefulness of combining citizen science with digital platforms to enrich ecological data and promote biodiversity awareness." https://index.biohackrxiv.org/2025/10/24/7s6da.html
By @Andrawaag et al.
"DBCLS BioHackathon 2025 report on the WikiBlitz" https://doi.org/10.37044/osf.io/7s6da_v1
"As part of the DBCLS BioHackathon 2025, we organized a WikiBlitz to improve biodiversity knowledge by integrating iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikidata, and Wikipedia. Participants identified local flora and fauna, filling gaps in multilingual Wikipedia articles. This report summarizes the methodology, results, and insights, illustrating the usefulness of combining citizen science with digital platforms to enrich ecological data and promote biodiversity awareness." https://index.biohackrxiv.org/2025/10/24/7s6da.html
By @Andrawaag et al.
Moths? You want moths? I've got moths!
This week I finished uploading to #iNaturalist my four nights of moth lighting at our house, which I do once a season. I got 65 moth species this Spring, including four new species for our garden.
Here are some of the highlights. I like how much diversity of forms and colours and textures are amongst moths. It's a shame that they're so underappreciated compared to their showy daytime relatives. NZ has some great moths.
(The moth names are in the alt-text.)
I found this handsome longhorn beetle on the outside of our house last night. My daughter likened it to a 1970s station wagon from the movies, complete with wooden trim.
It's an endemic NZ species commonly called a lemon tree borer, although its larvae bore into many native trees as well. Here in Ōtautahi-Christchurch they've mostly been seen on #iNaturalist in October–December, so it's right on time.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324028205
#Oemona_hirta #nz #beetles #cerambycidae #entomology #insects
In the midst of the unfortunate decision of #iNaturalist going all big tech, partnering with google genAI, and ignoring criticisms from the (volunteer) community, i would like to point out that if all you are looking for is an identification tool, you will learn far more from books than you ever will from an app.
In the midst of the unfortunate decision of #iNaturalist going all big tech, partnering with google genAI, and ignoring criticisms from the (volunteer) community, i would like to point out that if all you are looking for is an identification tool, you will learn far more from books than you ever will from an app.
Hey Ya'all: iNaturalist update on their #enshittification with #GenAI
They seem to still not understand how LLM works, that hallucinations are inherent to the machine, and they *cannot* deliver on the "promises" they are making.
*I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DELETE YOUR iNATURALIST ACCOUNT*
I say this as a scientist. Who has used iNaturalist for research. Who has done almost 30,000 ID's on it, mostly for others. The danger is immense, and they are ignoring facts about the very way these machines work to make.
#inaturalist #nature #science #sciencecom #naturalist #communityScience #AI
Hey Ya'all: iNaturalist update on their #enshittification with #GenAI
They seem to still not understand how LLM works, that hallucinations are inherent to the machine, and they *cannot* deliver on the "promises" they are making.
*I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DELETE YOUR iNATURALIST ACCOUNT*
I say this as a scientist. Who has used iNaturalist for research. Who has done almost 30,000 ID's on it, mostly for others. The danger is immense, and they are ignoring facts about the very way these machines work to make.
#inaturalist #nature #science #sciencecom #naturalist #communityScience #AI
I found this reflection of one community member in the forum interesting: «Every time I read that AI is better, faster etc. it lowers my motivation to identify. It makes me feel that what I do when identifying (mostly unknowns) is not going to be useful any longer.»
My take is that this development is par for the course once organizations "professionalize" — and thus start to focus more on keeping their staff salaries than on their mission & working with their volunteer community…
Looks like #inaturalist has released an update on their misguided "AI" efforts: Beyond their preliminary results being underwhelming they don't seem to really have learned from the criticism they got.
"People at the Center", "Openness with Care" etc. are all empty words if the results are preordained with zero control by their "community". Their "environmental impact assessment" is also disingenuous, counting their prompt-fondling but not the training…
Malcolm Storey created and maintains https://www.bioimages.org.uk , a huge catalogue of high-resolution images of most animals that can be found in the British Isles, except for birds and other vertebrates.
Offers one of the most comprehensive catalogue of #Ichneumonidae images with special emphasis on macro photography to illustrate species-diagnostic features.
Malcolm has been identifying thousands of parasitoid wasps at #iNaturalist – that's how I found out. Thanks so much for all your work.
https://www.inaturalist.org/people/3839145
Malcolm Storey created and maintains https://www.bioimages.org.uk , a huge catalogue of high-resolution images of most animals that can be found in the British Isles, except for birds and other vertebrates.
Offers one of the most comprehensive catalogue of #Ichneumonidae images with special emphasis on macro photography to illustrate species-diagnostic features.
Malcolm has been identifying thousands of parasitoid wasps at #iNaturalist – that's how I found out. Thanks so much for all your work.
https://www.inaturalist.org/people/3839145
#Arachtober 5: the last order of arachnids I have found, pseudoscorpions! They look kind of like scorpions without tails; they are found basically everywhere on earth but Antarctica, but they are absolutely tiny and live in places like under tree bark, under rocks and logs, in leaf litter, etc., so you will rarely see them unless you're looking for them. Sometimes they can be found clinging to the legs of larger flying insects with their little claws, or indoors eating booklice and other tiny household insects.
The ones in my garden are so small you might take them for mesostigmatid mites at first glance. This one has captured a soil-dwelling mite of some kind.
#iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/99203146 
#ArthroBeauty #arachnids #pseudoscorpions #Pseudoscorpiones #Cthoniidae
#Arachtober 4: March mating mesostig madness!
These are an ubiquitous sort of soil-dwelling predatory mites, likely in the family Parasitidae (ironically, primarily predators) in the order Mesostigmata in the superorder Parasitiformes. They are only very distantly related to the whirligig mite I posted the other day, which is in superorder Acariformes. While the two superorders are traditionally grouped together under Acari, it is likely they don't share a common ancestor and should be treated separately. So I'm counting them as a different group!
#iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/275521159
Some pro-level photos and info about mesostigs: https://www.chaosofdelight.org/all-about-mites-mesostigmata
#ArthroBeauty #arachnids #mites #MiteSex #taxonomy #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Parasitidae
NEWS FLASH: We have CLAMS living on campus!
As part of last week's Sustainability Week at #LincolnUniversityNZ, our freshwater ecology tutor Elysia Harcombe did some kick sampling along a farm ditch. Yes, she found clams!
It's the first record on #iNaturalist of clams on campus, or anywhere in Lincoln (and we've been kick sampling in the Liffey Stream through Lincoln for several years in my biodiversity class).
There are records of some clams living in the Yarrs Lagoon wetland reserve to the south of campus, but that's about 3 km to the south (which is downstream and is not connected to campus).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/316195607
[Edit: “Sustainability Week”, not “Sustainability Weed”, which would be a bad thing. ]
NEWS FLASH: We have CLAMS living on campus!
As part of last week's Sustainability Week at #LincolnUniversityNZ, our freshwater ecology tutor Elysia Harcombe did some kick sampling along a farm ditch. Yes, she found clams!
It's the first record on #iNaturalist of clams on campus, or anywhere in Lincoln (and we've been kick sampling in the Liffey Stream through Lincoln for several years in my biodiversity class).
There are records of some clams living in the Yarrs Lagoon wetland reserve to the south of campus, but that's about 3 km to the south (which is downstream and is not connected to campus).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/316195607
[Edit: “Sustainability Week”, not “Sustainability Weed”, which would be a bad thing. ]
Here are a couple of vine weeds to watch out for at the moment that are still uncommon but actively spreading around Ōtautahi-Christchurch, New Zealand.
What's commonly known as German Ivy (Delairea odorata) is a fast growing vine from, well, not anywhere close to Germany. It's a native to southern Africa. It's been establishing in parts of the Port Hills and I saw the first one in Halswell last week. Its leaves are thinner than English ivy and it has yellow flowers.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306208256
Chilean glory creeper (Eccremocarpus scaber) is an orange-flowered vine that's been popping up in and around the city. Every year I see a few more plants.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306208250
Weedbusters has fact sheets on these, including recommendations on how to get rid of them.
https://www.weedbusters.org.nz/what-are-weeds/weed-list/german-ivy/
https://www.weedbusters.org.nz/what-are-weeds/weed-list/chilean-glory-creeper/
Please report sightings on #iNaturalist if you find them.
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