We're in Vietnam for the 62nd stop on the iNaturalist World Tour! The top observer, @budak, has many observations from around northern Vietnam. @gernotkunz isn't even on the map yet (which at the time of this writing was crunched using data from August 1st and won't update until September 1st) but is currently the second top observer with many observations coming in from the Red River Delta region in northern Vietnam. The Red River Delta region includes the capital of Hanoi. Not far is Cat Ba Island where top observers @vietanhnguyen, @luanmaisy, and @earthknight are researchers on the Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project. @shawnodonnell, a palaeoecologist at Queen's University Belfast has many observations from near Ninh Binh also in this Red River Delta region. In southern Vietnam there is another cluster of top observers north of Ho Chi Minh City including @epopov, a mycologist at the Komarov Botanical Institute in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and @ytt with many observations from the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng. @ivanovdg19, a researcher of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow, also has observations clustered in this region. @grisha59599 and @tegipo's observations result from a Moscow University students excursion to Vietnam in June of this year organized by @grisha59599. Other top observers such as @bangtran and @nicovr have observations from all around Vietnam. Don't miss this great writeup in Mongabay about an observation by @naturestills on Hon Cau island off the southeast coast of Vietnam that @jkfoon was able to identify as an important snail rediscovery.

The number of observations per month jumped up from under 1,000 a month to around 2,000 a month this summer. This is likely due to use by researchers at Cat Ba Island and the Moscow University students excursion mentioned above.

@sethmiller, based in Bangladesh is the top identifier. @hkmoths (based in Hong Kong) leads insect IDs, @kokhuitan (based in Singapore) leads birds, top observer @shawnodonnell leads in plants and @charliev (based in Australia) leads in herps. @rajibmaulick, based in India, is the second top identifier and top observer @epopov leads in fungi IDs. Thanks to all the other top identifiers such as @earthknight, @juhakinnunen, @anilamanalil, @johnascher and @nickpoyarkov

What can we do to get more people in Vietnam involved in iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@budak @gernotkunz @vietanhnguyen @shawnodonnell @epopov @ytt @sethmiller @rajibmaulick @kokhuitan @charliev

We’ll be back tomorrow in Serbia!

We're in Croatia for the 61st stop on the iNaturalist World Tour! The top observer, @ribabo, has observations clustered around the city of Karlovac south-west of the capital of Zagreb. The second top observer, @morton1905, has observations clustered around the port city of Rijeka, the third-largest city in Croatia. A fair number of other observers activity is clustered here such as @botanico, @danieleseglie, and @paolapalazzolo. The third top observer, @antonjo has observations clustered around the second-largest city of Split along the coast to the south along with others such as @paul\_luap and @missnarjess. Several visitors such as @jakob and @drbh2o have observations up and down the coast of Croatia. @nina_12's observations are clustered around the city of Stinjan in the northwest. @spela focuses on Mediterranean fish and has many observations along the coast. @juke-saps' observations are clustered around the city of Ogulin and @ivanhumljani's observations are clustered in the eastern part of the country.

The pattern I described yesterday for Ireland seems to apply here as well: observations ramped up in the summer of 2018 to around 1,000 observations per month and has since doubled to around 2,000 observations per month this summer. Its interesting that most of the top observers seem to be Croatian residents, as opposed to visitors. @ribabo, with the NGO Amateur scientists (Znanstvenici amateri), began organizing participation in the City Nature Project this year with events in Zagreb and Karlovac.

In addition to being the top observer in Croatia, @ribabo is also the top identifier and leads in plant, insect, and fungi identifications. @danieleseglie, based in Italy, leads in amphibian and reptile identifications. It's interesting that there are more amphibian and reptile observations in Croatia than bird observations. @ldacosta and @khaledayyach are neck-and-neck for most bird identifications. Thank you to all the other top identifiers of Croatian observations such as @jakob and @simontonge!

What can we do to help the Croatian community on iNaturalist thrive? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@ribabo @morton1905 @antonjo @jakob @botanico @drbh2o @nina_12 @danieleseglie @ldacosta @simontonge

We’ll be back tomorrow in Vietnam!

We are pleased to officially announce the launch of iNaturalist Ecuador! Ecuador’s Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INABIO) is the newest partner in the international iNaturalist Network. INABIO played a key role in organizing the Amazonian city of Tena’s participation in the City Nature Challenge earlier this year (Reto Naturalista Urbano Tena 2019). The overall participation in Ecuador has increased substantially already with INABIO’s encouragement of the community, which is evident in the iNaturalist World Tour post for Ecuador.

Ecuador is home to astounding biodiversity that ranks it easily in the top 10 most biodiverse countries. This is especially impressive considering that there are 72 countries in the world with greater land area. Many species remain undescribed or poorly known, so there is great potential and need to broadly cultivate the skills of biodiversity observation and identification. Thanks to INABIO’s leadership, iNaturalist Ecuador is well positioned to foster the next generation of talented Ecuadorian biologists.

The iNaturalist Network has seven nationally-focused sites that are fully connected and interoperable with the global iNaturalist site. Roughly in the order that they joined, the other sites are: NaturaLista Mexico, iNaturalist NZ — Mātaki Taiao (formerly NatureWatch NZ), iNaturalist Canada, Naturalista Colombia, Biodiversity4All (Portugal), and iNaturalist Panamá. Any iNaturalist user can log in on any of the sites using their same credentials and will see the same notifications.

The iNaturalist Network model allows for localizing the iNaturalist experience to better support communities on a national scale and local leadership in the movement, without splitting the community into isolated, national sites. The iNaturalist team is grateful to the outreach, training, translations, and user support carried out through the efforts of the iNaturalist Network member institutions. You can read more about Network here.

We're in Ireland to celebrate the big 60 on the iNaturalist World Tour! The top observer is @alflinn329 who has made multiple trips all around Ireland. The second top observer, @formicacid, has activity centered around Carlow. Just to the northwest @koos1 has many observations in the Kilamuck Bog. @deirdrecape is based at the very southwestern tip of Ireland including quite a few from Dursey Island. @rmcmind, currently based in France, is one of the top observers in Ireland. @ahospers, @tiwane, @qgroom, @deboas, & @greglasley are other visitors high up in the observations leaderboard. @shawnodonnell, a Palaeoecologist at Queen's University in Belfast, has many observations in Northern Ireland and elsewhere around the world from around the world but also has quite a few observations from Ireland, particularly County Claire. The same can be said for @bernardpicton, a curator at the National Museum of Northern Ireland in Cultra who focuses on marine invertebrates. Quite a few top observers such as @munstermad are clustered around the capital of Dublin. Just to the north, @adventuresinwoowoo is based near Dundalk. @danielor is a marine biologist at the Marine Institute in Oranmore. While @emilytoner not among the top 50 observers, her research as a National Geographic Explorer is on the cultural and biological significance of Irish peat bogs.

Observations ramped up in the summer of 2018 to around 1,000 observations per month. This summer of 2019 this has since doubled to around 2,000 observations per month.

The top identifier is @alanhorstmann, who in addition to being an expert in South African Succulents and a huge presence on iNaturalist in southern africa, spends several months a year in County Cork, Ireland. Most of the top identifiers are based elsewhere in Europe, such as @ldacosta (leading in birds), @tiggrx (leading in plants), and @amzamz (leading in insects). I should note that there are more mollusk observations than usual in Ireland, probably since Ireland is an Island with lots of nearby coastline. @pierrenoel, a marine biologist from France, is the top mollusk identifier. Many thanks to other top identifiers such as @alexis\_orion, @jhbratton and (top observer) @shawnodonnell.

What can we do to get more people in Ireland using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@alflinn329, @formicacid, @deirdrecape, @rmcminds, @koos1, @alanhorstmann, @ldacosta, @tiggrx, @alexis_orion, @jhbratton

We’ll be back tomorrow in Croatia!

The small but megadiverse country of Belize is the 59th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour! Activity from Belize seems to be a nice mix of residents, visitors, and academic projects. The top observer, @jmeerman, is resident near the capital of Belmopan and runs the biological-diversity.info website on Belize's biodiversity. The third top observer, the mysterious @obevan149 posted many interesting Belize moth observations last year but hasn't been recently active on iNaturalist. @annikaml is a world traveler (posting observations most recently from Uganda) with Belize observations clustered to the northeast of Belmopan. @kha is another visitor with Belize observations clustered near the beautiful Macal River south of San Ignacio. The activity near the Smithsonian Carrie Bow Cay Field Station is from a 2014 Biocube effort led by wildlife photographer extraordinaire @liittschwager with most observations in the @carriebowbiodiversity group account. @callieoldfield, a plant ecology PhD candidate at University of Georgia, recorded observations from a 2011-2013 University of the South: Sewanee Field Study in Belize class in this project. @davidsarkozi, based in Texas, las led over 30 birding trips to Belize and has observations throughout the country. Both @jsatler, a Postdoctoral Researcher at Iowa State University studying fig and fig wasp coevolution. and @dilljone, who focuses on reptiles and amphibians and whose most recent posts are from Belize, have observations clustered near the T.R.E.E.S Research Center along Hummingbird Highway. Don't miss this trip report on a Belize vacation by @lfelliott

The number of observations per month is still quite jagged which indicates that its still influenced by the randomness associated by a relatively few observers - for example, the peak in March of 2018 seems to be mostly driven by visits by @annikaml and @kha. But there has been a clear overall increase in the number of observations per month since about mid 2017 with numbers currently at around 1,000 per month.

@d\_kluza is the top identifier and leads in birds, @maractwin is the second top identifier and leads in fish, top observer @jmeerman leads in insect identifications and top observer @dilljone leads in herp identifications. @adorantes, based in the Yucatan, leads in plant identifications. Many thanks to other top identifiers such as @norman-espinoza, @jbroadhead, and @joshuagsmith

What can we do to help connect this mix of residents, visitors, and academic projects in Belize to create a more robust community of Belize iNaturalists? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@jmeerman @annikaml @obevan149 @carriebowbiodiversity @callieoldfield @d_kluza @maractwin @norman-espinoza @jbroadhead @joshuagsmith

We’ll be back tomorrow in Ireland!

Our Observation of the Week is this group of Hypseldoris iba nudibranchs, seen in The Philippines by @notdunroamin!

“In 2013, my husband and I decided to sell everything and travel,” explains Danila Mansfield, who goes by notdunroamin on iNaturalist. “We joined a number of citizen science projects, in Belize, South Africa and Timor-Leste, and very much enjoyed observing and assisting in conservation efforts.”

While she was always interested in nature, Danila says “my husband Chris, with his much deeper interest, really sparked more in me. We've taken several holidays focussed on nature and wildlife in a variety of places, and since we started scuba diving in 1996, our nature interests have become very marine focussed.” She recently took part in an underwater photography class in The Philippines, which is where she came across the nudibranchs you see above. But it didn’t start out that way.

“On one of my early dives during the course, I was observing and photographing a single Hypseldoris...adjusting my position and my strobe, and then I became aware that a second Hypseldoris was trundling along towards number 1,” recalls Danila.

When number 2 joined number 1, I took a few shots, then spotted number 3 beginning to gain ground. 1 and 2 were on a rock a few inches higher, and 3 had to climb up the rock face to join them. Then I literally fell about laughing, as I spotted number 4 gathering speed behind 3, and 4 actually barged past 3 and climbed up the rock to join 1 and 2, before 3 had made it! Finally 3 joined in, and there's the nudi party! By this point 2 or 3 other divers had joined me to see what I was so closely watching, so we shameless voyeurs continued to watch and enjoy the party! [See video slideshow here]

As I started looking into the natural history of this slug, I found out that it was described just last year by the California Academy of Science’s (CAS) own @tgosliner and @rebeccafay (among others). I reached out to Dr. Gosliner about the observation and this genus and, after adding his ID to the observation ("[H. iba] have a higher body profile and a more rounded hind end of the body than in H. variobranchia.”), he told me

The Hypselodoris group has a remarkable diversity of species and we have found that closely related species have similar but distinct color patterns. These are often cases of Mullerian mimicry where distasteful species often adopt a similar color pattern…

Often times mating individuals exude chemicals (pheromones) that attract other individuals and you will often see a mating aggregation like this. It is thought that if conditions are favorable for two individuals to decide to mate that it will be good for others in the area to also begin mating.

And according to CAS’s press release, two different looking individuals of this particular species were observed mating, and were originally thought to have been different species before genetic work was used to determine they were in fact, of the same species.

<img src="https://static.inaturalist.org/wiki_page_attachments/1323-original.jpg"/ style="width: 100%"

“I've only just become aware of iNaturalist, through a friend in a Marine Creatures group on Facebook,” says Danila (above). “I'm looking forward to checking out the observations, and trying to ID my own underwater photos.”

• by Tony Iwane
  

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  - Danila and her husband blog about their travels, check it out!
• Here’s a video of @tgosliner talking to an audience of visitors at CAS, and a short video about his passion for sea slugs.
• @rebeccafay also talked with Academy visitors about the Farallone Islands, and she doles out sage tidepooling advice here with @kestrel.

Finland is the 58th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour! The top three observers @juhakinnunen, @pihlaviita and @juhatuomola are all based near the capital of Helsinki - although @juhakinnunen's centroid is pulled north from many observations along the coast off the Gulf of Bothnia. Other top observers such as @kaiuosma are based out of Turku to the west. But most other top observers (e.g. @rorippa, @marsusram, @dominik\_melisa, @tuomovirtanen, @mikkohei13, @jomku) have observations clustered near Helsinki. @mikkohei13 works out of the Finnish Museum of Natural History which is in Helsinki. Check out @tuomovirtanen's other nature photographs here.

The number of observations per month has been growing rapidly in Finland this year. This growth mirrors whats happening in Russia. @dschigel has done recent outreach in both Finland and Russia which is likely contributing to this growth.

@juhatuomola is the top identifier and also leads in plants. @juhakinnunen and @pihlaviita are also simultaneous top observers and top identifiers in Finland. Its worth noting that @juhakinnunen and @pihlaviita are also in the top 100 identifiers across all of iNaturalist. @almantas, @ldacosta, and @borisb are top identifiers from elsewhere in Europe and lead in bird (@ldacosta) and insect (@borisb) identifications. Thanks to all the other Finland top identifiers!

What can we do to get more people using iNaturalist in Finland? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@juhakinnunen @pihlaviita @juhatuomola @kaiuosma @rorippa @marsusram @dominik_melisa @tuomovirtanen @almantas @ldacosta

We’ll be back tomorrow in Belize!

Today, we start Week 9 of the iNaturalist World Tour. This week will take us to Algeria in North Africa, Finland, Ireland, Croatia, and Serbia in Europe, Belize in Central America, and Vietnam in Asia.

The top observer, @karimhaddad is a naturalist and birder based in the Constantine area in the north eastern part of the country. You can read more about @karimhaddad in this Observation of the Week post featuring a sawfly orchid he spotted near Djimla. Nearly all of the top observers such as @salahtelailia, @walidsoukkou, @aissadjamelfilali, @bbaimene, @saraatailia, @bileltayar, @khaledayyach, @habib2, and @larbiafoutni have observations clustered along the Mediterranean coast from Algiers to the Tunisian border which is where the population density is highest in Algeria. The map is a bit misleading because many of these top observers have observations throughout the country, its just that the centroid of their observations is pulled towards this coastal area. There are a few observers with observations centroids in other regions, however, such as @kesami, @alidz31, and @the\_pharmacist based near Oran. @djillali_tahri's observations are centered further from the coast relative to most observers. Some observers have only made observations in the interior Saharan part of the country including @kwara-n-ba near Tabelbala, @spocki and @bobswann near Tamanrasset, @awaf near Ghardaïa, @moses73 near Touggourtv and @andrasz near Tassili N'Ajjer National Park.

The number of observations per month jumped up mid-2018 to around 1,000 to 1,500 observations per month when Association AquaCirta (@larbiafoutni is the preseident and @karimhaddad the secretary general) began using iNaturalist to collect observations among their members. @karimhaddad tells us that they had started using eBird to record observations of birds the previous year (2017) but expanded to iNaturalist to accomodate observations beyond birds. It is also noteworthy that nearly all the top observers appear to be Algerians which isn't the case for a lot of other countries we've examined where most top observers are visitors from elsewhere.

Similar to top observers, most of the top identifiers are Algerians (e.g. @khaledayyach, @karimhaddad , @salahtelailia). @khaledayyach is the top identifier and also leads in plants. @karimhaddad leads in seven categories including plants and insects. Many thanks to other top identifiers such as @ldacosta, @rajibmaulick, and @ghassen.

What can we do to improve iNaturalist in Algeria? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@karimhaddad @salahtelailia @walidsoukkou @aissadjamelfilali @bbaimene @saraatailia @khaledayyach @salahtelailia @ldacosta @rajibmaulick

We’ll be back tomorrow with Finland!

It feels like Week 8 of the iNaturalist World Tour flew by. We end it in Sri Lanka! The top observer, @nuwan is a research associate and wildlife guard in Sri Lanka with observations across much of the country. Many of the top observers, such as @ahospers, @denis\_m, @nickbelliveau, and @kinmatsu are visitors from elsewhere. Other top observers like are from Sri Lanka such as @shanelle97 who is currently studying at the University of Washington in the US. @amila\_sumanapala, a PhD student at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, is researching Odonata. You can read more about @amila\_sumanapala in this Observation of the Week post about a spider he observed in Malaysia. @chathuri\_jayatissa is a zoololgy student and @sanjaya\_kanishka runs the Snakes of Sri Lanka database. Don't miss this Observation of the Week post about a jungle cat seen by @markuslilje in Sri Lanka’s Uda Walawe National Park located towards the southern end of the country (where @kinmatsu, @chartuso and others' observations are clustered).

The observations per month graph from Sri Lanka is bit distorted by the short term impact of students from University of Peradeniya's participation in an April 2019 event through the QuestaGame platform (which used to repost observations here for identification by the iNaturalist community). This temporarily increased the number of observations per month by about an order of magnitude, but doesn't reflect any actual growth in the iNaturalist community from Sri Lanka.

The top identifier overall and for birds is @sethmiller who is based in Bangladesh. @rajibmaulick and @aniruddha\_singhamahapatra are two top identifiers based in India. @elaphrornis, who is based in New York but originally from Sri Lanka, leads insect identifications. @nuwan is a top identifier in addition to being a top observer and leads plant identifications. @amila\_sumanapala is another top identifier and top observer. Thanks to everyone else identifying observations from Sri Lanka!

What can we do to get more people using iNaturalist in Sri Lanka? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@nuwan @ahospers @denis_m @nickbelliveau @kinmatsu @sethmiller @rajibmaulick @elaphrornis @aniruddha_singhamahapatra @amila_sumanapala

We’ll be back tomorrow in Algeria!

We're in Turkey for the 55th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. Here, the top two observers, @trcarlisle and @a\_emmerson have observations centered along the southwest coast of Turkey. A cluster of top observers such as @sabi and @mark027 have observations centered near the coastal Lake Köyceğiz in the province of Muğla. There is a cluster of top observers such as @selini and @theturkologist with observations centered near the most populous city of Istanbul. Another cluster of observers is clustered near the capital of Ankara (e.g. @bsener and @nermin). @ieakinci's observations are centered near the city of Kahramanmaraş and @merav's to the west of Istanbul.

The number of observations per month in Turkey ramped up in 2018 and again in 2019.

@sammyboy2059 is the top identifier overall and for birds and mammals. @kastani, the second top identifier, leads in plants and arachnids. @ozgebalkiz leads in insects. Thanks to all the other top identifiers such as @sabi, @odtudedoga, and @tubacan.

What can we do to get more people using iNaturalist in Turkey? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@trcarlisle @a_emmerson @sabi @selini @merav @ieakinci @sammyboy2059 @kastani @odtudedoga @tubacan

We’ll be back tomorrow in Sri Lanka!