silaseckhardt
Silas Eckhardt
Joined: Mar 14, 2021 Last Active: May 28, 2024 iNaturalist Canada
I'm a senior in high school, based in central Virginia. I am a member of the Coleopterists Society and a recipient of one of its 2022 Youth Incentive Awards, supervised by Dr. Arthur V. Evans. My main interest is in insects, mostly beetles (definitely including Meloidae and Cerambycidae) but also wasps. I am also interested in plants and fungi. The latter two I mostly just observe, but I’d like to learn how to identify them.
I have a collection of insects -- pinned and labeled specimens -- that numbers in the several hundreds of beetle specimens. I have smaller collections of wasps, flies, and "true bugs." I have been collecting for 3 years now.
If you’d like to join the iNaturalist Discord server, you’re welcome to! The link is here. If this link breaks, let me know and I’ll make a new one. https://discord.gg/Q37E3cKV
--- Equipment ---
- Apexel Macro 100mm clip-on lens
- iPhone 13 mini
-- Identifications --
I am trying to get better at identifying things, please let me know or point out when I’ve made a mistake and I’ll correct it as soon as I can.
-- CV Use on My Obs --
I upload a lot on my phone's mobile iNat app, and I typically use the CV on the site because it's easier to have the app pull up the taxon than for me to type the whole thing on a phone keyboard.
In the rare case that I use the CV to get an ID for something where I don't know what it is, I look up the species it suggests, look at images, web pages, and other resources before accepting it as an ID and moving on.
--- Non-iNat Stuff ---
I play the guitar (I dabble in other instruments, such as bass and piano). I mostly do covers of songs by Wilco, Jeff Tweedy, and some Duff Thompson.
I’m a Christian, which means I believe that organisms were created purposefully and thoughtfully by God. I enjoy going outside and looking at the things He’s put on earth and observing them. There’s a cool iNat project here for Christian Naturalist observations. All are welcome to join!
This is my year in review for 2021.
