Getting Started
I am slowly adding observations to this project, but it's a slow process, as there is no consistent way to distinguish between observations of caterpillars & their adult counterparts other than visual review of observation photos. If you would like to help, you can use this search page to browse potential observations (Lepidoptera observed in the project area & not already added to the project). If you prefer identifying, check out this search page to browse observations we have added to the project that need some ID help or otherwise have not yet reahed "research grade." Thanks!
Comments
I think this is a great idea for a project because your absolutely right about it not being so easy to separate adults from caterpillars. I have an idea that may make it a little easier on you as far as adding observations. I currently manage a few projects one of them being the Native Land Slugs of North America and it is a painful job initially adding observations. So bad that I often feel like giving up on the project because not only do I have to look for slugs I have to go through all Gastropods to find slugs. One idea I have that might help is to add a journal post looking for volunteers to pick a state to go through all the Lepidoptera observations. Volunteers can then add their screen name and the state they'd be willing to go through. it will be a good way to keep track of what has been gone through and may help avoid others willing to volunteer from having to go into already been added observations. This still is no easy task by any means. I just did a search for just the state of Maine and there are over 2000 Lep observations but still manageable by a volunteer. Just a thought. If you should decide this would be a feasible idea to try, I'll pick a state and get to work.
Good idea! The 120,000+ that come up in my basic search for the whole project area are a little daunting, but might be more manageable one state at a time (although my home state of NC still has more than 16,000, likely due to some heavy iNaturalist use by moth folks). I will try to get a few more members on the project, and then see about recruiting people to choose specific states. And thanks for adding a bunch of your observations - it was fun to come back & see the number of observations in the project at several hundred more than where I left it earlier today (and the number of potential observations to comb through drop by a bit).
I'll give Maine a try.
Great, thanks! I'm going to start working on NC.
To avoid wading through the same observations repeatedly, I have switched to using the Identify tool rather than the normal search. This way, once I have scanned a page for caterpillars, I can mark them as reviewed, so that I won't see them again in the Identify tool (as long as I have the "Reviewed" box unchecked). It also shows smaller thumbnails, so I can browse more observations at a time. If anyone else wants to do this, keep in mind that you need to un-check "Needs ID" in the search dropdown, as it is checked by default in the Identify tool. You can also skip observations that have already been added to our project by sticking the URL slug "¬_in_project=caterpillars-of-the-eastern-us" onto the end of the URL. As an example, here's the URL I am using for NC: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=any&order=asc&place_id=30&taxon_id=47157¬_in_project=caterpillars-of-the-eastern-us. (I have put observations in ascending order by date observed, so that I am working up towards the present, but that's just my personal preference.)
The Butterfly & Moth Host Plants project has caterpillars and if you set the location to eastern US it will filter and give you about 240 caterpillar observations, but I still can't find a fast way to include them into your project (many already are in there). State-by-state might still be the best bet, but that won't add any found later. I guess there are reasons why this hasn't already been done.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=81418&project_id=butterfly-moth-host-plants&subview=table&verifiable=any
Good idea, thanks. To quickly filter down to the ones we haven't added yet, I updated your search URL with the same URL slug used above (now http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=81418&project_id=butterfly-moth-host-plants&subview=table&verifiable=any¬_in_project=caterpillars-of-the-eastern-us). Looks like there are about 90, which I'll go through & add. Need to figure out a better way to do this in batch, although there aren't many opportunities to batch-add caterpillars, which is sort of the point of collecting them into a project.
@kylejones, I have added all the observations from the Butterfly & Moth Host Plants project that seemed appropriate for our project - thanks for the tip.
@berkshirenaturalist, I am working on NC, and just knocked out the Dakotas (parts of which do, surprisingly or not, meet our definition of "eastern"), because I needed to work toward some more attainable goals for a little bit. Eventually I will post to recruit people for other states.
@k8thegr8, looks like your identifications are a huge trove of caterpillars (among other things), but it doesn't look like there's a way currently to filter them (e.g., by whether or not they have already been added yo the project). I have asked about this functionality on the message board.
Maine is done. I'll do New Hampshire next. Once the foundation of older posts are added to the project all you'll really need to do is maintain which usually isn't as bad except for the months of heavy observations. I've thought about what Eastern North America meant a ways back and came to my own interpretation that East of the great continental divide was Eastern North America however that covers more like 3/4 of the country and may not be what you're looking for. It almost seems as though there may be a need in the future to a pop up requirement to add a life stage for certain taxa which I'm sure adds a lot of problems as to which taxa to add such a thing but because Lepidoptera are probably one of the most commonly encountered larval forms it would seem to make sense. Maybe even sawfly and beetle.
I've added hundreds over the last few days, just by slogging through using your original link. I'm going to give it a try using the Identify tool -- seems like that will be better!
Would be nice if there were a way to "Add to Project" from the Identify tool...
Thanks for all your work adding observations, @berkshirenaturalist & @jtuttle! I agree that it would be helpful to have the ability to add to a project directly from the Identify page rather than having to open each observation - I'll put a post/feature request on the message board.
A projects batch edit type option.
Yes, that feature would be great, hope it's something they can add some time soon...
Also, glad I'm not the only one geeking out on adding observations to this project. :-) I'm learning a lot as I go, too, and occasionally able to add an ID.
I've also come across a few sawflies and beetle larvae misidentified.
I went across the grain a little - species instead of state, since VT has 670 PAGES of Leps--I'm not ready to take that on. Hence the Tussock bias. I could wait for that batch option, but just can't stop....
Recruiting more members would be helpful, as members have the option of adding their own in batch. And I've come across a few contributors who have their settings closed to being added to projects by a second party.
Nebraska done; back to plugging away on the 16,000+ in NC. More development-type stuff coming after the holiday, hopefully. Thanks for all your work adding observations, everyone! Over 3,000 so far, and over 300 species. I except we'll soon have the largest repository of caterpillar images on the internet, if we don't already.
I'd been going from oldest to newest for the eastern US (there are two different "places" for that...and they seem to be slightly different). I've gotten as far as observations added through end of May 2014. But the thousands of pages staring me down are getting to me. ;-) Plus, I suspect this is ruining the plan of going state-by-state or by taxon. So...next time I work on this, I'll try to pick a state and let you know.
Is there a way to add multiple slugs. For instance if I wanted to filter out the already added to caterpillars and lets say moths of North America. That could filter out a lot of observations, ebutterfly as well
Actually, ebutterfly includes larval forms so it won't help here but I would be interested to know if it is possible for future reference.
Seems like you could just add another ?not_in_project= command to the url string...good idea, but you're right that some caterpillars get added to both of those projects. Not automatic for moths, though.
Completed:
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont (may have missed a small few)
Massachusetts
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota
Underway:
North Carolina
Completed:
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont (may have missed a small few)
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota
Underway:
North Carolina
I'm about halfway through Georgia.
Completed:
Georgia
Alabama
South Carolina
Mississippi
Louisiana
Awesome! Here's a recap:
Completed:
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont (may have missed a small few)
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota
Georgia
Alabama
South Carolina
Mississippi
Louisiana
Underway:
North Carolina (I'm still only about a quarter of the way through - some dedicated mothers in NC)
Tennessee
Kentucky
What other states are people actively working on?
Kentucky complete.
I'll take Kansas & Iowa as well. Looking pretty dense up there in the northeast!
Iowa complete. I'm going to create a new post to track our progress.
Please switch to tracking your progress with comments on this new post, which I have created specifically for that purpose, and thank you all for your help!
Putting this comment here rather than clogging the thread for state-by-state updates...so it does look like @eraskin , you and the observer might be the only ones who can remove observations from the project, even though the rest of us can add observations...? I was just doing a little identifying and found a few observations that you may or may not want to remove, based on the criteria for inclusion laid out in the other thread. Not sure how you want to handle those, but here are the 3 examples I came across:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4494692 -- defoliation but no evidence of caterpillar in photos
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4496368 -- bagworm pupa with no evidence that I can see of the caterpillar
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4664125 -- same as above (bagworm)
Hope this helps!
I don't think I see anyone working on New York So I'll give that a go.
New York done. Working on PA
@jtuttle, thanks for finding those - I have removed them. I also made you a curator, which means you should now be able to remove observations from the project if you need to. @kylejones & @berkshirenaturalist, would either of you like to be a project curator?
I'm happy in my role as "helper". I think it is a good idea to have more than one curator though. Congratulations @jtuttle !
Anyone know this one http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3980421 ? It looks very distinctive, but I don't recognize it. More of an "Angry Bird" pattern than "Dancing Penguin".
Glad to help, @eraskin . @kylejones , that's a cool one! I don't know it...
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