Nice surprise!

Thanks for the id

@amr_mn
I wonder if Sinanodonta woodiana is the only freshwater clam like this observed in Europe. I'm also curious about what distinguishes it morphologically from other species of the genus Sinanodonta.

@pintail As we've discussed before, the Sinanodonta invading Europe appears not to be S. woodiana sensu stricto, but a cryptic species originating in the Yangtze that currently has no correct name:
Bolotov et al (2016) called this "Temperate Invasive Lineage"
Kondakov et al (2018) called this "cf. gibba"
Lopes-Lima et al (2020) called it "cf. woodiana 1".

Further, genetic studies have shown that all the European Sinanodonta are this same species.

With that background, Yes, Sinanodonta cf. woodiana is the only Unionid like this in Europe. The native European species most similar are all in the genus Anodonta. They have very fine umbonal rugae.

They rarely have rays, or reddish tones in the periostracum.
They rarely have pink tones in their nacre.
They are rarely as inflated as S. woodiana often is.
Their umbos barely rise above the hinge.
Their shapes aren't as round as S. woodiana.

There may be some overlap in shape between the roundest Anodonta and the longest S. woodiana.

I don't really know how to tell the difference morphologically between different species within Sinanodonta. In Europe, one doesn't have to: they're all S. woodiana... At least until someone publishes a peer-reviewed paper that says otherwise and assigns it a name.

I should also note that the above discussion of Europe excludes the Volga River system of Russia, where S. lauta has also been introduced in addition to the "S. woodiana" that has been introduced to the rest of Europe.

@pintail The difficulty in separating species within Cristariini is why I have rarely added any identifications to your observations in Korea.

@amr_mn
Thanks for the detailed explanation.^^

and

I always forgot about freshwater clams because I didn't think about them.

The species I call Sinanodonta lauta in Korea is Sinanodonta woodiana cf. 1 bunch.

And the Sinanodonta woodiana I mentioned is a group that was recorded as "Sinanodonta woodiana cf. 2" in a previous paper.

Then, the species recorded as Sinanodonta woodiana in Europe seems to be the same group as the species I talked about as Sinanodonta lauta in Korea.

@pintail Yes, S. lauta and "S. cf. woodiana 1" were each others' closest relatives in Lopes-Lima et al (2020).

If S. woodiana is split (as it appears will happen), the name will apply to "cf. 2" as it was first described from Canton, China. So all of the Sinanodonta in Europe will get a new name.

@amr_mn
https://162.250.75.89/journals/bir/2022/1/BIR_2022_Karaouzas_etal.pdf

In the above paper, freshwater clams in Greece were studied. The Sinanodonta woodiana recorded above had the same gene sequence as "Sinanodonta cf. wooodiana 2".

And the appearance is also similar to the object with the same sequence as "Sinanodonta cf. wooodiana 2" in Korea.

@arm_mn
If you give me an email address where I can receive the picture file, I will send you the phylogenetic tree and fas file I drew last year.

@pintail I'll have to re-read the sources... I may have written "cf. 1" when I meant "cf. 2".

@amr_mn
https://cafe.naver.com/yangpakor/45878
See the phylogenetic tree on the page above.

MZ512215 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790321001949) and HQ283346 (https://www.researchgate.net › profile › publication › data) are both “Sinanodonta cf. woodiana 2” as Sinanodonta It is recorded as woodiana.

So I suspect this plant is about 15 years old!

Haha

Specimen examined and identification confirmed by Gerald Hilchie.

Hi Andrew, One or two have been visiting the far south coast in summer for quite a few years now. I'm not sure if anyone has seen them breeding yet, but a friend found them down at the Towamba River mouth one year and thought from their behaviour that they probably were. First record from the area in FSC birdos newsletter was in 1998, and most often seen around Merimbula, maybe just because that's where most of the birdos hang out. Because it is listed as threatened the location is being obscured. Can I ask what the general area was?

Hi Jackie, without giving too much away, due to the Beach Stone-Curlew being listed as Near Threatened, it was observed at Mogareeka. I returned to the area it was found today and could not find the bird. Whether the very strong NE wind had something to do with it I am not sure. I note that most of the other sightings for this species on iNaturalist in the NSW South Coast area were in 2017 and 2018, the most recent being 2020.

Thanks Andrew. The most recent in the FSC birdos newsletter is 2019, unless there is something in the latest, which I haven't read yet. They've recorded it at Mogareeka a couple of times, and various other beaches between Wallaga Lake and Mallacoota.

Thanks again!

Specimen examined and identification confirmed by Gerald Hilchie.

Gracias!!!!

😎👍

I think this is Corymbia Aidan. Note the hairs.

I suspect you meant to enter Eleutherodactylus coqui

Hi Chris I wasn’t sure with this one, if you wouldn’t mind, could you help me with the best way to identify to difference.

Hi Dean, it's a juvenile bird and it's between Fan-tailed and Brush from the general shape. The juv Brush would be very mottled with buff on the upperparts producing a lot of contrast. Also it would be more blotchy on the underparts without that obvious contrast the neck/throat has with the belly. It's well illustrated in The Australian Bird Guide.

@augustjackson I noticed your helpful comment on my friend's recent post regarding an identifying feature for this species:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146495805
I think I may be seeing holes in the branch axils on my observation, but I'm just getting started with understanding lichens and hoping perhaps you could take a look?

Yes, evident in a few instances in your photo!

Maybe?

@mecopteron_bouillon This specimen clearly has bristles on the pronotum (see last picture), which reductus is supposed to lack.

see Penny 1977- https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924017874912&view=1up&seq=1

There are 20 stout setae on the ventral margin of the rostrum, although if you look at the figure on page 16 (152) of Penny those setae seem much shorter in the members of the nivoriundus complex than what we see here. I'm fairly certain it is not elegans, given the coloration and size (this is about 4.5 mm) differences. Probably just something that is not covered by the female key in Penny 1977

I collected a few males from the same area, so perhaps this will shed some light

I would love to see the males and any other specimens you can find. I suggest that to the best of your degree with the next few observations you light the subject a bit better and get a lateral, ventral, and dorsal view of the terminalia (and if possible rostrum and nota)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146577288

see above

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146576063

Good shot of that long pilosity characteristic of this spp. and pilosus

@billhubick
This one has been verified by bugguide
https://bugguide.net/node/view/2155370

if you have photos of the same plant, they can both included in a single observation

Fixed. Thanks

Specimen examined and identification confirmed by Gerald Hilchie.

Specimen examined and identification confirmed by Gerald Hilchie.

Leaves seem kinda wide for Common Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)

ionno. looks a lot like prunella vulgaris to me.

Love to get your thoughts on this one @a-tristis Mike. Such an interesting bird.

Very cool bird! I've seen a few like this, was able to catch one of them. I haven't read up on it, but someone told me they often get more white feathers the older they get.

The one I caught was near someone's house, and he said he'd been seeing the same bird for 12 years, so I guess having that much white didn't affect it much.

@birdwhisperer Have you read up a lot on birds like this?

Well I'll be! Somebody posted about an all white hawk in Farmington on a falconry facebook page...I dismissed it as quackery! Nice find yo!

Yeah! I first saw this bird as I was getting on the 89 at Kaysville maybe three to four weeks ago, or perhaps a month. But I didn't have my camera with me. I've been searching for her since. She was there again today, so I returned with my camera and it was still quite a chase all around the area. But fortunately got some photos.

Thanks for the insight, coleonyxconnoisseur!

@keey excelente observación y que envidia de evento jeje, haber si nos toca observar :D

@rfoster this is part of a population I've been monitoring over time in this reserve, and has previously been ID'ed as R. grabowskii for me by a botanist (from much better photos); this was just a rough shot for the location
(although of course there's a possibility of two or more species growing here sympatrically)

@thebeachcomber Cheers, Thomas. Yes, there's frequently more than one species present, in my experience. However, if you've been monitoring this population that probably rules out R. ulmifolius, as Australian populations have distinctly pink flowers, that wouldn't pass unnoticed. Nonetheless, I'd be interested to see a series of good images of salient features of a single plant that would allow it to be keyed out. Tag me if you have observations that I've missed.
Interestingly, there are many AVH records of R. ulmifolius in NSW and yet no iNat observations that are definite. There's something odd going on there.
https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=taxa%3A%22Rubus+ulmifolius%22#tab_mapView

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?locale=en&place_id=6825&preferred_place_id=6899&subview=map&taxon_id=78895

thanks Ralph, I'll definitely have to go back and take a much better/closer look and get much better photos

I can't find my original observation where I first got this IDed (I must have somehow deleted it??), but here was another one with slightly better photos that was ID'ed as grabowskii too: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60803679

but I haven't independently verified that myself

Yes, saw that one but can't ID it reliably from that and I can't see a definite primocane. Is this pop being controlled continuously? Left to its own devices, R. grabowskii sends up very large arching primocanes (see obs below) and their presence rules out many other spp.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145424830
Of course there's also the possibility that your botanist's concept of grabowskii isn't the same as mine (syn. R. anglocandicans), a problem that is widespread in blackberry taxonomy.

not much (not any??) control of it here to my knowledge; I haven't noticed any of those primocanes, so I'm guessing this will probably end up being something else, with the different concepts an issue as you note. In my list I also have it down as =anglocandicans

appreciate it Ralph, this will force me to get to the bottom of this at this site and get the photos needed to key these properly

interestingly, after 2 years visiting this site, I've never seen a single flower on any of these plants

Now that IS weird! (Makes ID a good deal more difficult, too)

@rfoster went back today and managed to relocate two patches. Still no sign of fruit or flowers, but got what I hope are some better pics

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146581244
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146581218

is the previous photo of the same plant? Easier to id if the flower id kept with the photo that shows the leaves. Just open the observation, hit the edit button in the top right, add the 2nd photo to the observation and delete the 2nd observation

Sorry I don’t know why but if I post observations with 2 or more photos from my phone there’s no problem, but if I post them from my computer it separates each photo into its own ID. I’ll fix this one, thanks for noticing

Maybe D revoluta but I'm not sure without seeing more leaves or the whole plant.

@lgerstein78 , possibly. Is this the actual inside of the tube itself (ceiling and floor) or the medulla (which also can be white)? … sorry, but ID’ing via pictures can be challenging (for a non-expert like me).

@metsa, I cut off a tiny section near a tube tip. The white is the inside of the green top side of the tube. I’m guessing that’s the medullary ceiling that Sharnoff references in A Field Guide to California Lichens.

Here’s (pictures #2) the type of picture I look for when I (as a non-expert) take to H. imshaugii . It’s clear that all of the inside of the tube is snowy white. Happy lichenizing!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/23033851
Here too
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1407520

@jonathan1748 Is the date of the observation correct?

'Intersex' female, a natural occurrence. Nice find!

Cool!!

I collected a series of six specimens in Lethbridge eleven days earlier, which were also identified as this species by Gerald Hilchie.

Hi zhelicarol, The Invader Detectives: National Capital Region project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/invader-detectives-national-capital-region) is documenting wild occurrences of this species. Your contribution is very helpful. Thanks!