kimberlietx's Journal
Does anyone have tips on how to ID the Metallic Green Bees? Females (all green) of Agapostemon spp, Augochloris spp, Augochloropsis spp. in particular.
Eye color? Wing color? Femurs? Hairs? Pitting on the thorax? I've tried to go through BugGuide to get a better understanding, but I find the clues are often buried in the individual observations and not well documented on the Info pages. I'd appreciate any tricks you might be willing to share!
I'm nearing the end of uploading the FIRST day of Costa Rica pics. I haven't even started to try to ID them, but one person is helping A LOT! Out of the 66 identified to genus or species level so far, 32 of those had not been observed on iNat before. That's incredible! I can't imagine what that will be when I get everything loaded and attempt IDs. That's so exciting to me!
I was trying to ID an assassin bug from Costa Rica and came across this REALLY AWESOME photo illustrated key to subfamilies and tribes of Reduviidae. THIS is how all keys should be!!
@phm8871 gave an EXCELLENT description of how to begin to identify bees and wasps. I thought it was worthy of sharing, and I wanted to save it, too!
"Field marks can be confusing, start with size, general body shape then take the critter apart. START AT THE FRONT with the antennae, length, number of segments (often hard to count in field photos) color(s). Then look at the head, its shape oval, blocky, etc, eye placement, where antennae connect color, hair and the mandibles, big, small & shape. On the thorax look at the shape, colors & markings on the shell(plates), hairs, placement and color, the tegula (the things that the wings attach to, placement and color. Abdomen follow the same drill and try to describe it, long short, round flattened, extending beyond the wings (important on wasps), colors and banding; hair, coloration and location. Wings color, length, shape, shiny vs dull. Legs color(s), length, presence of scopa and their location on the hind leg, their color and length of scopa hair. A lot to look for! but learning to discriminate those marks you can see will help you distinguish families sub families and genus. Then you can try to parse species. Use something like the higher level info tabs on BugGuide like http://bugguide.net/node/view/117315 to get started on bees. Or, http://bugguide.net/node/view/59 for bees and wasps. For body partt diagrams go to the bottom of page http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Apoidea for printable of the names and locations of all those fiddlybits taxonomists use. For a quick picture guide to print got https://www.greatsunflower.org/node/1143200. to print the guide you have to join the free project."
The original post is here:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3907751
Feel free to tag others that might be interested in this info!
I have FINALLY finished uploading the pics from the Pat Mayse BioBlitz. 193 species so far, and 78 lifers! Not bad at all for a day and a half! I wish I'd been able to stay for the 2nd night of mothing.
I think I'll switch to uploading the pics from our City Nature Challenge Celebration yesterday, and follow that up with a bunch of random observations that have been piling up since Costa Rica.
Speaking of which, I haven't even finished day ONE yet. SO many more to go, but @sambiology keeps asking me to follow him around to all these events and ID the things he doesn't know. At least his groupies are good company! :P
More iNatting plans for next weekend, so I'm just going to keep pushing through. A BIG THANKS to everyone who has helped me ID, or just laughed at my crazy IDs and politely corrected me. I would spend all day researching and making notes on how to ID all the new things I see, but then my family would cut me off my nature obsession completely.
It's tick season - if that ever ends in Texas - and I've had my share already. I've heard about lots of them being found this weekend as I've been the East Texas woods with other iNatters. There is a site with great pictures of all the major tick species across the US, including juveniles, male and female adults, and engorged adults. Feel free to tag anyone that might need help ID'ing one.
Here's the link:
http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/tickid_nonflash
I just returned from an AMAZING short week in Costa Rica where I did NOTHING but iNat! I've started to upload some observations, but I took over 6,000 pics (O.M.G.) so I have a lot of trash pics to sort through. Expect to see a variety of stuff in the beginning, but a HECK OF A LOT OF MOTHS near the end!
If you are on Facebook and want to see the 200+ pics I posted, feel free to friend me or just visit my page. (They are public pics, so anyone can see them.) www.facebook.com/kimberlietx
Or you can check in on my iNat observations here: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=6924&subview=grid&user_id=kimberlietx
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! I need every second I can get to finish uploading!!!! Aaaaaargh!
I'm enjoying the heck out of mothing and finding night bugs, but the last week or so it's been odd. I turn the lights on, get some great stuff, come back in an hour and it's oddly deserted. (Not even crickets! LOL) So, I'm about to throw down with the Mediterranean House Geckos. They are stealing my observations!! I don't have this problem with the Anoles or the Tx Spiny Lizards, but the geckos will sit right out there waiting for me to turn the lights on. We gotta find a better way to live together.
I've got a few iNat issues going on. Samsung pictures load sideways sometimes, which I've talked to Ken-ichi about. Some of my posts are loading with no pics, or with only the first pic. All when I'm trying to get caught up on observations that have not been uploaded. So I may not have IDs on many of them, too. I'll figure it all out soon....
