Our Observation of the Week is this wasp (Subfamily Eumeninae) which made its nest in a cicada exuviae! Seen in Australia by @cinclosoma.

 @cinclosoma is the joint account of Tony and Jenny Dominelli, who hail from different parts of the continent but are currently interested in the Mallee, an area in northwestern Victoria. Jenny “spent her childhood along Australia's east coast visiting many reefs, estuaries, beaches and mangroves from Sydney to Townsville and beyond,” while Tony hails from the Mallee but has also explored “the monsoon forests and vine thickets of Cape York Peninsula…We both have a keen interest in the birdlife of the Mallee, especially blossom nomads and ground dwelling birds.”

And while doing so (and looking for what's likely an undescribed species of Kobonga cicada along the Murray River) they stumbled across the scene you see above - a female wasp who’d constructed her nest inside the exuviae of a cicada. “This made our day,” they told me, “these encounters with the natural world are just priceless!”

Members of the subfamily Eumeninae are often called mason wasps or potter wasps and, as you can see, they generally construct their nests from mud (or sometimes sand or masticated wood). After the nest is constructed, the female wasp lays an egg in it then provisions the nest by finding prey items such as caterpillars or spiders. Prey are paralyzed with a sting, then brought back to the nest. When it hatches, the larva will eat the provisions and metamorphose into an adult. Some, the “potter” wasps, make exposed pot-shaped nests, while others use cavities (or in this case exuviae) as a starting point for construction. 

“These days we have settled down to document, as best we are able through iNaturalist, the flora and fauna of Far North West Victoria,” say Tony and Jenny.

Our participation in iNaturalist has emphasized the immense diversity of nature and how much there is to lose, should we all not care enough, and more importantly, do enough, to allow this wonder to survive and thrive.

We also have a special interest in the accumulating effect of anthropogenic climate change in the Mallee; expressed mainly as declining winter rainfall and accelerating evaporation through ever higher average summer temperatures.

- Desert nomads is a term I wasn’t familiar with, but Tony and Jenny tell me “Down our way it refers to highly nomadic bird species, such as honeyeater or lorikeet, which respond to mass flowering events of species like eucalypt, melaleuca, callistemon or other nectar rich flora. These nomads often range over long distances and broad areas in their quest.”

- The Animal Architecture project has quite a few observations of mason wasp nests, take a look!

- Here’s some excellent footage of a potter wasp building and provisioning her nest. 

- While in a different subfamily, paper wasps also sometimes construct nests in interesting places or from interesting materials.

Our Observation of the Week is this weevil (likely in the genus Cercidocerus), seen in Indonesia by @janusolajuanboediman!

Currently at National Taiwan University where he’s studying for his bachelor’s degree in entomology, Janus Olajuan Boediman was born and raised in Indonesia and credits his mother for cultivating his already burgeoning interest in spiders and insects. “My mom bought me books and although I couldn’t understand them at the time [because I didn’t read English], the images in those books made me love those critters more,” he recalls. 

First it was just spiders, then it spread to arthropods, and eventually reptiles and amphibians along with all sorts of other animals and eventually nature as a whole. I like all animals, but the three I mentioned first (Arthropods, Reptiles, Amphibians) will always be my favourites. I’m always more interested in the ones most people find disgusting or weird.

I’m not sure if “disgusting” or “weird” describes the beetle you see above (I think is beautiful), but Janus tells me it was one of many arthropods he photographed at Cibodas Botanical Garden while on a family vacation just over two years ago. “Of course I couldn’t resist looking around and seeing what arthropods I could find,” he explains.

Like other “true” weevils (Family Curculionidae), members of the genus Cercidocerus have distinctive snouts with antennae protruding from either side. In general, adults weevils use this snout to eat vegetation and/or bore into a stem or seed where their eggs will be laid. 

While he’s known about iNaturalist for a few years now, Janus (above) only joined on January 10th of this year and he’s been uploading quite a few of his older photos such as this one. He was a little hesitant about sharing locations for some observations until he found out about iNat obscuration functionality and says he uses iNaturalist for several reasons.

The big benefit is of course being able to contribute as a citizen scientist, helping with records of species that may lack photographs. iNaturalist participation is very much lacking in Indonesia and I’ve found that some of the organisms I’ve uploaded have very few iNat observations or even none at all. Also of course helps me get ID help on things I’ve found and in the process I learn more myself. My observations could also help other people ID things they’ve seen, especially if there is a lack of online photos of that organism.

I’m not doing any sort of research but I always try and photograph anything when out in nature. I’m still deciding on where I want to focus in the future, since entomology is so diverse and there are many exciting options.

- Coleopterist @anncabras24 (who specializes in weevils) was featured in an Observation of the Week last year!

- Take a gander at the remarkably diverse weevil observations on iNat.

- Here’s some pretty cool footage of acorn weevil. 

As you might have noticed, some parts of iNaturalist have struggled to keep up with growth. We haven’t grown our small team at iNaturalist for more than three years now, and in that time the site has grown more than 400%.

We’re pleased to announce that we are now searching for a skilled systems architect to help us keep iNaturalist scaling. While we’d like to start as soon as possible with the contract and some specific needs, our intent is to hire a full-time systems architect once the contract is completed.

You can find the job posting here.

Our Observation of the Day is this Tree Climacium Moss (Climacium dendroides, Palminė junetė in Lithuanian), seen in Lithuania by @stelute!

[@stelute is an account shared by a young naturalist, seven year-old Stela Beatrice Nauburyte (Stelute is a nickname), and her mother Brigita. Brigita answered my questions via email, so the quotes all come from her. - Tony]

“On the first day of 2022, while walking in the forest,” recalls Brigita,

Stela Beatrice noticed the tree climacium moss and exclaimed “Mom, look what a beautiful moss!” Mother still doubted if it was worth photographing, because this type of moss had both been found before, but Stela persevered.  “So green in winter, so gentle, so soft - just amazing, let's take a picture!” And it was definitely worth it! This discovery by Stelute not only delighted the girl, but also received pleasant attention from the iNaturalist community :)...

Walking along the forest paths, discovering various mosses, watching the life of beetles is like hearing a new fairy tale of Nature, unheard of and more and more interesting.

A species that’s found in many moist places across Eurasia, North America, and parts of New Zealand, tree climacium moss gets its common name from the palm tree-like stems which can grow up to 10 cm tall.

Stela learned about iNaturalist last year when two Lithuanian iNatters, @almantas and @tomasp, appeared on TV to promote their “Surask juos visus 2” (“Find them all 2”) project, encouraging young Lithuanians to find 100 interesting species in the country. She found a very cool Lesser Stag Beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus, Platusis elniavabalis in Lithuanian) soon after that an “she brought it in the palm of her hand and asked - ‘What is it, maybe one of the hundred we are looking for?’ It was fantastic to see those joyful eyes when she heard the positive answer!” says Brigita.

So in the spring of 2021, Stelute, her brother, and her mother began exploring nature nature - meadows, forests, near water bodies, around home. Stelute’s parents, relatives and some friends got involved as well. It is a wonderful incentive to take a fresh look at the environment around us, to fall in love with nature's creations once again and more sincerely. And where there are new friendship with Nature enthusiast, photographer, and poet Ramunė Vakarė (@ramune\_vakare), entomologist of Kaunas Tadas Ivanauskas Zoology Museum and researcher at the Botanical Garden of Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Tamutis (@vytautas\_tamutis), and of course countless other information and photos from iNaturalist observers from all over the world, which Stelute and her family view and discuss - this is an inexhaustible source of knowledge!

Her camera and a phone with the iNaturalist app has become an indispensable helper in answering Stelute's (above) constant questions: “What is the name of this wonderful flower? And how long does this bird live? Why is it so hard to photograph this  northern dune tiger beetle? What do butterflies feed on?” And hundreds more :) Mom can no longer answer “I don't know...” to the questions of a young nature lover. Stelute immediately reminds her - “Let's take a look at the iNaturalist app!” It is gratifying that we find the answers immediately, and they are gladly supplemented by other iNaturalist observers. Thanks to iNaturalist.org that she felt like a young scientist!

(Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.)

- Almantas Kulbis’s Bird’s Nest orchid was featured as an Observation of the Week over four years ago!

- Brigita tells me that Stelute hopes to eventually have a career in science, but is not sure what field that might be. She has a small microscope but would love to eventually get one that allows her to see bacteria and other micscrosopic organisms.

Our Observation of the Week is this Leafy Skinlichen (Leptogium phyllocarpum), seen in Ecuador by @angelmario!

Angel Mario Hulapa Erazo (below, in 1990) lives in the southern Ecuadorian town of Loja and says he’s always been interested in nature, but two seminal trips in his teen years, to the Cordillera del Condor and Podocarpus National Park, inspired him to take up a career in conservation - the field in which he’s spent the last 32 years of his life.

[In the] Cordillera del Condor…I met the Shuar (an amazonian indigenous group) and became impressed with their knowledge about the forest and everything connected to it. I was excited to see monkeys, jaguars, sahinos (wild pigs), snakes (boas, yamungas, equis, corals), toucans, cocks of the rock, yamalas, agoutis, poisonous frogs, alligators and others…

[and in the] Lagunas del Compadre protected area [of Podocarpus National Park], which included a strenuous hike for 14 km with limited mountain equipment, I managed to reach to this place for which I have a lot of respect due to the harshness of its conditions and its beauty where I was able to observe deer, spectacled bears, wolves, mountain tapir and jambato frog (Atelopus Podocarpus now extinct). Every time I was in nature, my interest and curiosity grew. It also allowed me to learn about the threats faced by ecosystems which motivated me to work on the conservation of natural resources and biodiversity.

At age 17, Angel and some of his friends founded a conservation NGO where he worked for 24 years, then he founded Grupo Green Jewel with Paola Rengel, for which he is the General Coordinator. The group focuses on environmental education in southern Ecuador and northern Peru and also works with iNat’s partner in Ecuador, INABIO, to promote iNaturalistEc, the City Nature Challenge, the Great Southern Bioblitz, and Bioblitz LatAm, among other initiatives. 

As for the amazing lichen you see pictured above, Angel came across it while in the cloud forests of Yacuri National Park, supporting students working on a thesis project about frogs. “We had been enduring a very harsh climate for two days,” he recalls,

[and] the rain and the cold caused my camera to have problems - that is why I had to use my phone’s camera to take pictures. The third day the weather improved and in the trunks of the trees I could see this lichen (Leptogium phyllocarpum). Its pattern captivated me, since I had never seen it before. I think that if the weather had not changed and if I had not accepted the invitation of the students to accompany them to their field trip, now I would not be telling this story, for that reason, I firmly believe that nature has magic and connects us with the world.

Found in many parts of the world, leafy skinlichen is often found growing on bark (sometimes rocks) in drier areas. However, it’s known to swell quite a bit when wet, which you can see in Angel’s photo. The reddish areas of the lichen are its apothecia, or spore-bearing structures. 

Angel (above, in 2020) has, for years, taken nature photos but tells me

I always thought that having them on a hard drive or computer was useless. And although some of these photographs I used for guides, manuals, presentations, posters, folders and videos, I was still frustrated about not being able to share them with more people. With social networks I found a window to share my photos and that made me feel a little better, but something was missing, the science was missing on platforms Facebook and Twitter.

At the urging of an English friend and conservationist he joined iNat in 2019 but didn’t use it much until he was invited to the launch of iNaturalistEc. At that presentation, “I saw many of the uses and I said to myself, ‘this is the tool I have been looking for.’” He and others with Grupo Green Jewel have been teaching park rangers, students, technicians, and others how to use iNat, and this year “we are going to launch the ‘Bichos Loxa’ initiative to encourage walking and recording biodiversity in the iNaturalistEc of parks, trails and natural areas, aimed at children, youth and adults who love biodiversity and adventure...

iNaturalist changed the way I interact with biodiversity and the environment. I am more observant of details,I’ve been able to discover introduced species, threatened and endangered species, and species potentially new to science or the region. This knowledge has allowed us to generate more knowledge to share with our colleagues, with our talks and conversations with various local groups. In addition, we believe that the information will help local governments in their territorial planning, especially in the creation of new protected areas. This year, we are going to take small photographic guides of local biodiversity derived from information on iNaturalist in order to share with the public in our environmental education program Biodiversity of Southern Ecuador to raise awareness and strengthen the environmental consciousness of the local community.

iNaturalist has become part of our daily lives…[and] I believe that the time we spend entering observations and helping with identifications is a great contribution to the knowledge of biodiversity. Personally I consider myself an iNaturalist that’s why I use the hashtag #SomosInaturalistEc and for this year we will also use #SoyInaturalistEc.

(Quotes translated from Spanish by Scott Loarie, and have been edited for clarity.)

- Check out Grupo Green Jewel on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

- Lichens are awesome! Check out the most-faved lichen observations on iNat here.

- This is a pretty good lichen video explainer.

- Angel’s leafy skinlichen was originally identified by @kai\_schablewski - check out our Identifier Profile about him!

This is the seventh in an ongoing monthly series profiling the amazing identifiers of iNaturalist!

On December 9th, Amila Sumanapala tweeted:

Identifying @inaturalist obervations is one of my #Hobbies. For the past 2.5 years I have been IDing both recent and past #India #dragonfly and #damselfly obs the best I can. Today I completed IDing 25000 verifiable Indian odonate obs being the first to reach the milestone.

So I thought this would be a great month to feature his work on iNaturalist! In addition to the 25,000+ Indian odonate - dragonflies and damselflies - observations to which he’s added IDs, Amila’s also identified over 2,400 odonate observations in his native Sri Lanka and over 63,000 total observations (of many fauna) worldwide.

Currently a researcher who lives in Boralesgamuwa, Sri Lanka, Amila traces his love of  nature back to his childhood and especially to birdwatching.

When I was 13 my father bought me a book on birds and birdwatching and at the same time I came across an exhibition stall conducted by the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka, at an exhibition held at the University of Colombo. I was fascinated by the idea that people actually dedicated a lot of time and resources to observe and study birds. This got me interested in bird watching as a hobby and it was supported by my mother, who found me a local language field guide to the Sri Lankan birds. Later in my final years at school I learned more about biodiversity in general and the fact that the majority of the world’s biodiversity is still undescribed due to the lack of trained taxonomists, which encouraged me to study more about Sri Lanka’s biodiversity and become a taxonomist myself.

As a budding naturalist, Amila was interested in all faunal groups. But there were few resources for Sri Lankan odonates and  

this made me teach myself odonate identification through literature and field observations and I came to realize that there is a lot more to explore and discover about Sri Lankan odonates and not many people are working on the group. Eventually an interest sparked and I started studying them in detail in order to fill that niche. In 2012, during an exploration in the Peak Wilderness Mountain Range with some friends, I rediscovered the long lost species Sinhalestes orientalis (Sri Lanka Emerald Spreadwing). I published this discovery in 2013 [PDF] and it further encouraged me to focus even more on the odonates. Years later I authored a field guide on Sri Lankan Odonates and also started conducting workshops, lectures and other events to raise awareness and popularize odonates among the naturalists as well as the public.

In 2015 I joined the “Dragonfly South Asia” community and started attending DragonflySouthAsia Meets (DragonflyIndia Meets at the time), which is an annual gathering of dragonfly researchers, enthusiasts and citizen scientists in South Asia (primarily in India), and explored the odonates in several states in India. As an odonate researcher, the understanding of the taxa at a regional level was very important to me.

Amila spends a lot of time in the field, but thankfully he also devotes some time to iNat, which he first heard about at a citizen science workshop during the Student Conference on Conservation Science - Bengaluru in 2014. He signed up for an account then but didn’t really use it until 2018 when his friend Nuwan Chathuranga (@nuwan) “mentioned that iNat is a great platform to get identification support on the lesser known taxa. Thus I started using iNaturalist primarily to learn more on the insects I was documenting.”

When he has the opportunity to get on iNat with his laptop, Amila tells me “Identify tabs with filters set for all Sri Lankan observations and observations on Indian odonates are always open in my browser,” and that he also goes through and identifies older observations when he has the time. He mostly uses field guides, papers, and his own photo reference library, as well as platforms like Odonata of India when necessary. Identifying photos and documenting his own finds have long been hobbies of his, 

[and] it is also an amazing learning experience…Most of the observations I identify are generally of species already familiar to me and have observed during my explorations. However, some species, especially odonates from Northeast India and some insects from Sri Lanka are sometimes challenging to identify but a positive identification always rewards me with the knowledge and the self-satisfaction I gain through it.

I always find the discussions we have with fellow identifiers and experts very enriching. I always try to identify and verify observations by myself through self-studies, which helps me in strengthening my skills in identifying the species I work with and am interested in. By studying observations in iNaturalist contributed by a diverse community of users from all over the world, we can always learn new things.

It also gives us a unique satisfaction from contributing back to the community and science in general with your experience and expertise. Curation of data also improves the data quality in iNaturalist and helps us to get a better understanding on biodiversity as researchers…

iNaturalist and its dedicated community of identifiers became an invaluable resource in my explorations into the world of Sri Lankan insects. It helped lay the foundation of my current work.

(Photos of Amila by Dilani Sumanapala (top) and Nuwan Chathuranga (middle). Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and flow.)

- Amila’s website has a lot of cool stuff, like photos, publications, and some talks he’s given (in Sinhalese). 

- several of Amila’s favorite South Asian odonate observations are this Orthetrum andamanicum by @prosenjit (undescribed at the time), this Pseudagrion pilidorsum, and @mazedul\_islam’s Gynacantha chaplini, which is the first known documentation of the species in India.

- when identifying beetles and other insects, Amila sometimes uses online museum collections as resources, like NHM’s Data Portal and the Smithsonian’s Entomology Collection.

- Amila’s Gasteracantha diardi spider was an Observation of the Week back in 2019!

Our Observation of the Week is this Thorlaksonius platypus amphipod, seen in the United States by @imlichentoday!

[Siena McKim (@imlichentoday) wrote a wonderful piece this week that flowed really well so here it is in full. I’ve added some links to the text and made some minor copy edits, but otherwise everything between here and the line break is what Siena wrote. Enjoy! - Tony]

My earliest memory of nature was when I sucked on a dried slug from the sidewalk, but I am not positive that is what started my naturalist journey! I can’t seem to pick one group of organisms I’m interested in: in high school it was mold, college it was fungi, insects, woody plants, and finally freshwater algae and ciliates. In my final semester at University of Michigan I did my independent research on green jelly blobs you could find in many of the freshwater bodies around northern Michigan. In these blobs, colonies of Ophrydium (ciliates), there was an abundance of one species of diatom that had never been discovered before. This research led me to my first publication and showed me how many organisms haven’t been discovered, and how much I could illuminate about the natural world.

I’ve used iNaturalist to embrace my love for all different taxa and connect with other researchers and general nature enthusiasts to learn more about the organisms around me. Almost everything I have learned about southern California marine invertebrates has been from following other iNaturalist users and getting feedback on my posts. The platform has given me an outlet for sharing discoveries that I would have not even known were discoveries if it wasn’t for users on iNaturalist. If I’m out SCUBA diving or near the ocean observing organisms, I’ll always find a way to tell people about iNaturalist and how they can teach themselves about our amazing biodiversity.

During low tides you can find me tide pooling, usually looking for a sea slug species I haven’t found yet, but often I am distracted by crustaceans and snails. On this particular evening, we were graced with the usual sea slugs and snails but it started with a small moray eel biting my boyfriend’s finger! He quickly recovered from the attack and we went back to exploring. I was stunned to see a big funky amphipod grasping the red comb algae on the pools’ edge. It was so relaxed. I had my lights and camera on it for 10 minutes, with smaller energetic amphipods hopping on its back and whizzing around. I didn’t know its name at the time but I knew it was a species I had never seen before, especially in this color variation.

The name of the amphipods is Thorlaksonia platypus, an appropriate name for its big bill-like snoot (proper term for rostrum, anterior end of the head). It is a classic example of Batesian mimicry as its appearance attempts to replicate another animal, a Carinate Dove snail, Alia carinata. Thorlaksonia Platypus...“adopts a stance sitting on an algal surface which strongly resembles the size, outline, and orientation of the columbellid snail Alia carinata. The coloration of the amphipod is also banded to closely resemble that of the mollusk shell” (Crane 1969). Amongst these pools there are plenty of Alia carinata so that makes perfect sense. I ended up finding at least two T. platypus and some other Pleustidae species that haven't been identified yet. All of them were beautiful! People don’t generally pay too much attention to amphipods, but they can look really weird and act in funny ways like we are the audience to their late night talk show skit.

My interest in nature has led me to my position as a first year PhD student at UCSB studying sponge ecology, biodiversity, and endosymbionts. One direction I'm leaning towards is looking at the biodiversity that rely on sponges as habitat in the kelp forest, which would include amphipods. Although I’m a researcher, I see myself as a naturalist interested in all life, especially marine invertebrates, so iNaturalist feels like a home to me where I can nerd out about everything! I hope to bring more attention to community science while at UCSB and find more ways to engage the public with the ocean. A way that I have attempted to engage more with nature is through my art practice. This includes drawings of many underappreciated invertebrates that I am drawn to in the tide pools or while diving.

(Photo of Siena by Zach Berghorst - @amidzooids)

@clauden wrote this to me, regarding Siena's Observation: "when Leslie Harris identified it, [it] became the first confirmed record of the species on iNat. Then she went and commented on my earlier id of this species in Oregon, leading me to correct my error (it's restricted to SoCal) and then review others, having checked references and keys (and included in ID). So in a short period (days), iNat went from some general amphipod records, some flawed, to several certified and high quality observations of a bizarre and colorful crustacean that has...had few observations and no good photos for decades, and now available on GBIF for all...This is the power of the community (members) coupled with the tool (iNat platform) and the data (observations)."

- here's Siena's illustration of Thorlaksonia Platypus!

- cool video showing some of the amazing amphipods of Antarctica!

- check out some of the most faved Amphipods on iNat!

Today we officially welcome NaturalistaUY (iNaturalist Uruguay) as the newest member of the iNaturalist Network! NaturalistaUY is a collaboration with two Uruguayan organizations, the environmental education NGO JULANA and the scientific initiative Biodiversidata with support from the National Geographic Society.

¡Hoy damos la bienvenida oficialmente a NaturalistaUY (iNaturalist Uruguay) como nuevo miembro de la Red iNaturalist! NaturalistaUY es una colaboración con organizaciones uruguayas, la ONG de educación ambiental JULANA y la iniciativa científica Biodiversidata con apoyo de la National Geographic Society.

NaturalistaUY’s logo is the capybara, which is locally called the carpincho (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). It is an animal that people relate to and immediately recognise as typically Uruguayan, and that is distributed in every department of the country. Of course, it helps that they are very cute! Although the species is distributed throughout most of Latin America, the capybara is very characteristic of Uruguay. It is also the largest living rodent in the world (distant cousin of the largest that has ever walked the Earth, the Uruguayan and already extinct Josephoartigasia monesi).

Elegimos al carpincho como nuestro logo de NaturalistaUY (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). Queríamos que fuera un animal que nos representara a todas y todos, que la gente reconociera inmediatamente como típicamente uruguayo y que estuviera distribuido en todos los departamentos de nuestro país. Por supuesto, ¡ayuda el hecho de que son muy lindos! Si bien la especie se distribuye por casi toda Latinoamérica, el carpincho es muy característico de nuestro país y actualmente es el roedor más grande del mundo (primo lejano del más grande que haya pisado la Tierra, el uruguayo y ya extinto Josephoartigasia monesi).

The iNaturalist community in Uruguay has grown quickly since 2019, today, reaching more than 33,000 verifiable observations on the platform and exceeding the 3,900 species reported for the Uruguayan territory. With more than 1,400 people uploading records all over the country, iNaturalist has grown to be the largest citizen science platform in Uruguay. @flo_grattarola is the main point of contact for NaturalistaUY through her role as coordinator of Biodiversidata and member of JULANA.

La comunidad de iNaturalist en Uruguay ha crecido masivamente desde 2019, llegando hoy a más de 33.000 observaciones verificables en la plataforma y superando las 3.900 especies reportadas para el territorio uruguayo. Con más de 1400 personas subiendo registros en todo el país, iNaturalista ha crecido hasta convertirse en la mayor plataforma de ciencia ciudadana de Uruguay. @flo_grattarola es el principal punto de contacto de NaturalistaUY a través de su rol como coordinadora de Biodiversidata e integrante de JULANA.

About the iNaturalist Network

The iNaturalist Network now has 19 localized sites that are fully connected and interoperable with the global iNaturalist site. The sites are: Naturalista Mexico, iNaturalist Canada, iNaturalist New Zealand (formerly NatureWatchNZ), Naturalista Colombia, BioDiversity4All (Portugal), iNaturalist Panama, iNaturalist Ecuador, iNaturalist Australia, ArgentiNat (Argentina), iNaturalist Israel, iNaturalist Finland, iNaturalist Chile, iNaturalist Greece, iNaturalist Luxembourg, iNaturalist United Kingdom, iNaturalist Guatemala, iNaturalist Sweden, Naturalista Costa Rica, and now Naturalista Uruguay. Any iNaturalist user can log in on any of the sites using their same username and password and will see the same notifications.

La Red iNaturalist ahora tiene 19 sitios locales a nivel nacional que están completamente conectados y son interoperables con el sitio global iNaturalist. Los sitios son: Naturalista México, iNaturalist Canadá, iNaturalist Nueva Zelanda (antes NatureWatchNZ), Naturalista Colombia, BioDiversity4All (Portugal), iNaturalist Panamá, iNaturalist Ecuador, iNaturalist Australia, ArgentiNat (iNaturalist Argentina), iNaturalist Israel, iNaturalist Finlandia, iNaturalist Chile,iNaturalist Grecia, iNaturalist Luxemburgo, iNaturalist Reino Unido, iNaturalist Guatemala, iNaturalist Suecia,NaturalistaCR, y ahora NaturalistaUY. Cualquier usuario de iNaturalist puede iniciar sesión en cualquiera de los sitios usando su mismo nombre de usuario y contraseña y verá las mismas notificaciones.

The iNaturalist Network model allows for localizing the iNaturalist experience to better support regional communities and local leadership in the movement, without splitting the community into isolated sites. The iNaturalist team is grateful to the outreach, training, translations, and community support carried out through the efforts of the iNaturalist Network member institutions.

El modelo de la Red iNaturalist permite personalizar la experiencia iNaturalist para apoyar mejor a las comunidades regionales y al liderazgo local del movimiento, sin dividir la comunidad en sitios aislados. El equipo de iNaturalist agradece la divulgación, la formación, las traducciones y el apoyo a los usuarios realizados gracias a los esfuerzos de las instituciones integrantes de la Red iNaturalist.

We encourage all Uruguayans to join NaturalistaUY platform and explore biodiversity!

¡Invitamos a todas y todos los uruguayos a unirse a la plataforma NaturalistaUY y a explorar la biodiversidad!

Our Observation of the Week is this Golden-rumped Sengi (Rhynchocyon chrysopygus), seen in Kenya by @mwas!

Mwangi Gitau grew up in Nakuru, Kenya, about ninety miles west of Nairobi, and says he first became interested in nature when he saw tourists “admire and take photos of the huge flocks of the Lesser Flamingos and other water birds” in Lake Elementeita - a saline lake in Africa’s Great Rift Valley. 

Now he leads birdwatching tours for ConQuest Adventures in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, which is where he photographed the observation of the week. 

The Golden Rumped Sengi was seen in Arabuko Sokoke Forest in Coastal Kenya, during an 8 days birding tour…We were on a trail looking at a Red-capped Robin-Chat, [and] deep in the thickets we could hear noises in the leaf litter. We stayed still for a while, and suddenly the sengi showed up on the trail - that’s how we managed to get the photo. The  Red-capped Robin-Chat follows the sengi when it's feeding because it disturbs insects on the litterfall, which the robin benefits from.  

Most of the clients who visit the forest always include it on their wish list, and luckily we saw close to 10 pairs in a transect of 12 miles for a duration of 3 days.

As its common name suggests, this species of sengi (also known as “elephant shrews”) has gold-colored fur on its hindquarters. This is thought to attract a predator’s attention to that part of its body, which has tougher skin and might deflect teeth or fangs - if they can even get close to this quick animal. Most of their diet consists of various invertebrates, which, as Mwangi explained, they find by digging in the leaf litter. The IUCN lists them as Endangered due to habitat loss and trapping.

Mwangi (above) tells me he’s been on iNaturalist for about three years after being persuaded to join by Mike Plagens (@mjplagens) and says “so far it’s a very good learning platform because you network with experts in all fields.”

- You can check out Mwangi’s bio here!

- Disovery/BBC shot some nice footage of a Rufous Sengi (Galegeeska rufescens).

Our Observation of the Week is this Hazel Grouse (Tetrastes bonasia, Рябчик in Russian), seen in Russia by @zveroboy57!

Alexander tells me he’s been interested in nature since he was a child but has only been photographing wildlife seriously since 2013. If you check out the 500+ observations he’s posted to iNaturalist, you’ll see he’s captured many fantastic images of the animals around his home in central Russia.

And in that area, he says, Hazel Grouse are “not uncommon” and he’s often able to find them at watering holes and feeders. This species ranges throughout much of Eurasia and usually eats plants, although it also consumes insects when breeding. Measuring about 35–39 cm (14–15 in) in length, it’s one of the smaller members of the Family Phasianidae, which also contains chickens, peafowl, and pheasants.

Alexander (above, ready to photograph) joined iNaturalist just over three years ago and says “I upload to iNaturalist so that the world knows who lives in my area.”

(Google Translate was used to translate Alexander’s responses into English, and I lightly edited them for clarity.)

- Hazel grouse have a pretty high-pitched song, you can listen to it and watch some nice footage here.