Our Observation of the Week is this Clown Stink Bug, seen in South Korea by @wongun!

Sometimes iNaturalist users ask us, or members of our Google Group, if they should take down observations which no one has identified to a family, or genus, or species level. I always tell them you never know who might come along and be able to identify their observation at a later date, and the reason I say this is because of users like wongun.

The insect order Heteroptera, also known as “true bugs,” contains tens of thousands of species and, for a long time on iNaturalist, it would be tough to get IDs on many observations of Heteropterans. Then one day last year I saw that all of a sudden a new user named wongun had started adding identifications, at least to family and genus level and sometimes to species, to many of my languishing bug observations. Others were experiencing the same thing, and it was a great feeling to see some of your older observations get some attention. It’s kind of magical when a stranger halfway across the world helps you learn just a little bit more about what you had observed. And we almost missed having him as an iNaturalist member.

“I accidentally found iNat [while] searching for something,” recalls WonGun Kim.

I used to upload my photos to a local site, but once or at most a few times for each species. Recently, I needed data on when and where I found the species, and I thought iNat was a suitable place...After beginning iNat, I have been studying Heteroptera from over the world for identifying other observations, and such activity in iNat made my knowledge on the Heteroptera broader and more systematic.

In just over a year, WonGun has become an invaluable member of the iNaturalist community, adding nearly thirty thousand identifications to other users’ observations - an incredible number for a difficult taxonomic group. It’s this kind of dedication and generosity that makes iNaturalist run.

And how does he find time to make all of these IDs? Simple: “My break time is the time for iNat! ;-)”

In what has become a common theme among Observation of the Week users, WonGun says he was interested in nature as a child, but that interest until he procured a camera.

Although I was born and grown in the city, I often went to and stayed with my grandparents in the outlands. I learned the names of the plants from my grandfather, a farmer. But I lost my interest in nature after my family lived together in the city. My interest in nature began again about ten years ago due to the development of the digital camera. I began to take photos of flowers and plants, and then my interest moved to the insects. Now, I am mainly interested in true bugs, particularly in the plant bugs.

He was in the field with a colleague and it was his colleague who caught the stunning Clown Stink Bug at the top of the page. “[This] beautiful species has two color forms and is very common in Korea,” he says.

The Clown Stink Bug belongs to the family Scutelleridae, which are also known as “jewel bugs”. While not true Stink Bugs (family Pentatomidae), they can emit an unpleasant odor when threatened, much like their relatives. And like other true bugs they have tubular mouthparts, which they use for feeding on the saps and juices of plants. The Clown Stink Bug’s remarkable iridescence is caused by structures in its exoskeleton which refract and scatter the light. Awesome.

Not only a photographer, WonGun has also written some papers on Korean Heteroptera and is the second author of an illustrated guide to terrestrial Heteroptera of Korea, containing around 490 species. It will be published in a few days.

- by Tony Iwane

- Check out more Clown Stink Bug observations on iNaturalist, which show off both color forms of this species as well as the quite different-looking nymphs!

- Sweet footage of a Clown Stink Bug walking around and doing its thing.

We're running a test of using the Suggestions from the Identify tool on the observation detail pages on the web instead of the Identotron (click the button at the bottom of any obs detail page). On the plus side, you don't have to leave the page, you can look at options from observations and vision in addition to just checklists, and you get a little more info about each taxon. On the minus side, no more quirky name, can't peruse a lot of maps at once, no color filtering (not that that was really working). Mostly just posting here as a way to solicit bug reports.

Anyway, if nothing really bad turns up in a few days we'll make this the default. Holler if you find any problems.

Our Observation of the Week is this well-camouflaged Eyelash Viper, seen in Costa Rica by @adrims12!

“Ever since I was a child, I became interested in animals, always asking my parents to buy me every National Geographic magazine and spent hours reading the articles, seeing the photos and dreaming of becoming a photographer for the magazine someday,” recalls Adrián Montero Salguero.

But in college Adrián “became very interested in the study bacteria and parasites, so I put aside larger animals observation for a while,” and he is now a member of the Faculty of Microbiology at the University of Costa Rica. However, he bought his first camera three years ago and “started taking pictures of landscapes and wildlife, [and] although I'm still a beginner, it makes me immensely happy to be able to capture and share my country’s beauty to the world.” He’s currently into reptiles and amphibians “and because of my career, I am obsessed with photographing small species of insects and arachnids as well.”

Back in March, Adrián and a few of his friends were hiking to a waterfall in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. He recounts,

I was crossing the La Vieja river with two of my friends and I was like 25 meters ahead of them, when I heard: Snaaaaake!!! I immediately returned to the place they were and my friend pointed nervously to a rock. He told me that he was jumping barefoot on the rocks by the river, he jumped to one of them, he detected a small movement near his foot and it was the snake, just a little less than a foot away, so he quickly moved away. This beautiful Bothriechis schlegelii, incredibly camouflaged in the mossy rock, was totally relaxed sunbathing in the morning, so I took my camera and got at least 5 good pictures before it decided to leave. That was my first encounter with a poisonous snake in the wild!

Bothriechis schlegelii, commonly known as the Eyelash Viper, are more commonly encountered on tree branches and shrubs, although almost always near a water source, much like the individual Adrián and his friends came across. They are ambush predators and will take nearly any type of vertebrate as prey, as long as they can subdue and eat it without much labor. The pit viper above is mostly colored green, but there are other natural color morphs, such as yellow.

This species gets its common name for the large “eyelash” scales over its eyes (keep in mind that snakes lack even eyelids, so these are definitely not lashes!), which scientists believe help to break up the outline of the snake’s body. Like other pit vipers, Eyelash Vipers have two large heat-sensing pits below their nostrils and retractable fangs for envenomation. They are not considered to be an aggressive snake.

Adrián (above) learned about iNaturalist from a friend about one month ago and says:

I’m impressed by the amount of species I’ve never seen in my country before and [it] motivates me to explore it much more now. My motivation to share my photographs in iNaturalist is that other people in my country can see the beauty of its biodiversity and that many people in the world come to visit Costa Rica and fall in love with my small country as I am.

- by Tony Iwane

- You can see more of Adrián’s photography on Instagram!

- Sir David Attenborough narrates footage of an Eyelash Viper hunting a hummingbird. Wow. 

We are excited to officially announce that iNaturalist is now jointly supported by both the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society!

National Geographic has been collaborating with iNaturalist since 2013, especially on BioBlitzes with the United States National Park Service (NPS). The first big National Geographic-NPS BioBlitz to use iNaturalist was in 2014 at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just down the road from the California Academy of Sciences. Our biggest collaboration with National Geographic was the NPS Centennial BioBlitzes in 2016 to celebrate the 100th birthday of the National Park Service. We coordinated to support over 100 BioBlitzes in National Parks all across the United States (you can see the NPS Servicewide project and 100+ NPS BioBlitz projects). From 2014-2015, National Geographic managed a portal to contribute observations to iNaturalist for the Great Nature Project.

You may notice we just added National Geographic to the site and apps. We will be updating the terms of service and privacy policy soon to reflect this change and other relevant developments. We are working with folks at National Geographic to boost iNaturalist participation on their travel expeditions and with their intrepid explorers and grantees. In time, we look forward to growing the community through National Geographic’s wide reach. If you want to read more, check out the press release from the California Academy of Sciences.

Our Observation of the Week is this female Red-tailed Spider Wasp dragging a paralyzed huntsman spider, seen in India by @rajibmaulick!

In the animal world, motherhood manifests itself in many ways, and as humans we tend to think of direct, nurturing care, such as bathing, holding, and feeding (in the case of humans, with food produced within the mother’s body). It all takes sacrifice, however; the mother has to give something of herself to ensure her offspring’s success. The same goes for insects, and in the case of spider wasps this can involve herculean tasks. Rajib Maulick witnessed and documented this, which you can see in the photo above.

“Nature and its activities always attracted and amused me since my childhood,” says Rajib. “[But] I only started recording my observations since 2014, when I had bought a digital camera.” He has added nearly 2,000 observations and over 11,700 identifications to iNaturalist since he joined in 2016, making him one of the top observers and identifiers in India.

A resident of Durgapur in West Bengal, Rajib says the area is “very rich in biodiversity as some parts of it are a part of Chotanagpur Plateau. There are a mixture of alluvial soil and laterite soil rich in iron.” He was “loitering in the Deul Forest” when he saw and photographed the Red-tailed Spider Wasp with her paralyzed spider (she paralyzed it with her stinger) and watched her “[drag] the spider for about 100 metres to its nest. It took rest for four times during the process.” Considering female Red-tailed Spider wasps are about 2 cm long, this means she dragged the spider about 5,000 times her body length - incredible!

So why would she expend so much energy and make herself so vulnerable to predators? Well, assuming no other females were laying in wait to steal it from her, she will deposit her eggs on it - in wasps, the ovipositor is the same organ as the stinger, so only female wasps sting -  then cover it over. When her larvae hatch from their eggs, they will consume the nutritious (and, one assumes, delicious) still-living spider, saving its vital organs for last so they can keep it alive. When they have eaten enough, the larvae will then pupate in the nest and eventually emerge as adult wasps. Their mother’s hard work will have paid off with a beautiful, healthy brood.

Raijb (above, with his family in Buxa Fort, Alipurduar, West Bengal) says “I am thankful for iNaturalist and its involvement with learned individuals on almost all areas of flora and fauna. It is a wonderful platform for recording and refining one's observations. Man is mortal but our observations remain immortal in iNaturalist.”

- by Tony Iwane (Note that Rajib’s primary language is not English so his quotes have been lightly edited and condensed.)

- Check out Rajib’s short video of this wasp dragging her spider. It was not just doing this over flat ground!

- Red-tailed Spider Wasps often go after Huntsman spiders, also known as Giant Crab spiders. One species of Huntsman spider actually uses a unique “cartwheeling motion” to escape from predators! 

- Spider wasps, or pompilids, are often quite beautiful. Here are the most-faved pompilids on iNat!

I know it’s the end of June, but I’d like to bring you back to the early days of April, 2018 if I may. A group of iNat users met up in Del Rio, Texas to hang out and “iNat” together in some spectacular country. I was lucky enough to represent the iNaturalist staff and finally get to meet, in person, some real luminaries of the site.

I’ll write a longer post about the meet-up at a later date, hopefully not too far in the future. Today I just wanted to share a short video interview I conducted with Chuck Sexton (@gcwarbler), a naturalist who is deeply generous with his time and his vast knowledge of Texas flora and fauna, and was a real treat to have as a guide in this new-to-me place.

Although he’s retired, Chuck’s curiosity and work ethic are still strong, and he has recently directed his energy to the study of Cisthene moths, in part using images from iNaturalist. Last year he posted on iNaturalist a rough identification guide as several journal posts, then took this work and collaborated with lepidopterist @hughmcguinness on a more scholarly version, which was published in Southern Lepidopterists News this past December.

I spoke with Chuck about his work and his thoughts on iNaturalist, which you can watch below. iNaturalist is truly lucky to have such an incredible, inspiring community.

An Interview with Chuck Sexton from iNaturalist on Vimeo.

The older Cisthene work Chuck cites is: Knowlton, Carroll B. 1967. A revision of the species of Cisthene known to occur north of the Mexican Border (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae: Lithosiinae). Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 93(1):41-100. Link to pdf copy available on BugGuide: bugguide.net/node/view/790908

Our Bonus Observation of the Week is this “mating frenzy” of Ringed Goniobranch nudibranchs, seen off of Israel by @barchana!

Sometimes we want to highlight several observations that have been posted to iNaturalist, so in addition to the Brown Bullhead with a rattlesnake meal, we’re writing a blog post about stunning “mating frenzy” of nudibranchs you see above, posted by Dani Barchana.

Dani is a veterinarian and lecturer with the the Hebrew University Of Jerusalem and The School Of Marine Sciences in The Ruppin Academic Center, where he specializes in marine mammals. He has always loved nature, and explains “so my profession and hobbies (mountain biking, diving and photography) are just [about] being there and observing.”

“We are fortunate in Israel to have beaches to the Mediterranean and to the Red sea.” says Dani. And because of this, he was able to witness the Lessepsian migration, which is the movement of flora and fauna between those two seas via the Suez Canal. “We used to see them only at the Red Sea but they were observed, for the first time,  in the Israeli Mediterranean cost on 2006 and now they are [the] most common nudibranch in our beaches,” says Dani. “They almost disappear at winter but when spring comes, they are everywhere and for the last few weeks they [have been] mating and laying eggs all over. The sight of a few specimens together is not rare, though so many together is not so common.”

Like other nudibranchs, Ringed Goniobranchs are known as “sea slugs,” and are marine gastropods that move around on a slimy foot. “Nudibranch” is derived from Greek and means “naked gills”. These feathery gills protrude from the dorsal side of the slug and are, in this species, encircled by one of the purple “rings” on the dorsal side. The rhinophores, or sensory organs, are found inside of the other ring. As Dani noted, Ringed Goniobranchs form groups when they are mating, and they are also hermaphroditic.

With photography being one of his hobbies, Dani (above, photo by Ilan Ben Tov) has a large backlog of fantastic photos, and says

I was asked several times by biologists to provide pictures of different species of animals to their articles, books and lectures, since my web albums are biologically oriented (arranged by species). When I discovered iNaturalist, I thought I can help in a more organized way to the scientific community.

- by Tony Iwane (As English is not Dani’s primary language I also did some light editing with his quotes.)

- Some great nudibranch footage here, including a group of Ringed Goniobranchs and another laying its eggs in a spiral pattern. 

- Some nudibranchs practice...interesting...mating techniques. 

Our Observation of the Week is this rattlesnake-eating Brown Bullhead fish, seen in California by @phaneritic.

“I lost a 20" plus trout at the boat within the first hour and that was the last trout we'd see for the day!”

So says Ryan Hollister (@phaneritic), who was on a fishing trip with his father at California’s New Melones Reservoir. While they may have missed out on a trout, Ryan and his father later made what he calls the “Catch that Rattled the World” when they brought a Brown Bullhead, which is a type of catfish.

After laughing that I caught a ~14” Bullhead in open water I opened its mouth to remove the hook. I spied a scaly “tongue.” Upon further inspection, I realized there was a snake, oriented headfirst, in the bullhead's belly! As I turned the hook to free the catfish, the hook shot out under tension and snagged the snake. I had to remove the obviously dead and limp snake to retrieve my hook. The fish was released unharmed. We laid the snake on the boat seat only to realize that “OMG, I think it’s a rattlesnake!!”

When he got home, Ryan uploaded his photos to iNaturalist “after learning how rare of an occurrence my catch was!  I wanted the world to see that the food web isn't always as linear as many think.”

Dr. David A. Steen, a herpetologist who does a ton of great outreach (check out his Twitter feed), came across Ryan’s photos on Twitter and told me that when fish prey on snakes, they often go for aquatic snakes like Nerodia and not rattlesnakes “largely because this kind of rattlesnake generally sticks to terrestrial habitats and fish…well, don’t.” He of course doesn’t know exactly how this specific predation event happened, but told me he suspects “the rattlesnake was crawling along the shoreline or perhaps took a brief dip near land when it was consumed. This type of catfish...had never been documented eating a Western Rattlesnake before.” He worked with Ryan on making a short note about the encounter and hope to have it published.

Likely the major reason Brown Bullheads haven’t been seen eating a Western Rattlesnake before is because the fish themselves are native to the eastern parts of North America, although they have been introduced as stock for recreation and food in many other parts of the continent, including California. An opportunistic feeder, this species is considered to have a detrimental impact on native fish in areas where it has been introduced.

Western Rattlesnakes, of course, are native to the area and actually range throughout much of western North America, from Canada through Mexico. As Dr. Steen noted, they tend to prefer dry habitats, but will come to the water at times. Like other rattlesnakes they are not aggressive but their bites are considered to be medically significant to humans. Contrary to Ryan’s observation, the usual predators are raptors, mammals, and other snakes such as the California King Snake.

While Ryan (above, with his family) was outdoors with his father on that day, he more often spends times in nature with his students. A geoscience and AP Environmental Science teacher at Turlock High School, he runs a nature club with the school and the group has “gone on day hikes into the Stanislaus National Forest, Yosemite, and Coast Range,

and they perform lots of amazing stewardship tasks for our local San Luis National Wildlife Refuge. In October, twelve students get to participate on a 6-day backpacking trip in Yosemite's wilderness thanks to NatureBridge and the WildLink Program (for which our club is named). The best part is, the majority of our students come from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. They are going to be change agents in their community and stewards for their environment.

Ryan has only five observations on iNaturalist, but says that it’s become invaluable for him now that he has a five year-old son.

Now I can post and get help identifying less common critters and plants that stump my wife and I when our son asks "What's that?" while on our hikes and adventures.  The community has been really great in coming to our aid.  

- by Tony Iwane

- Ryan uses to take his students on virtual field trips when they don’t have to funds for an actual excursion. Check out Earth magazine’s article about it - very cool!

- Western Rattlesnakes may not be big swimmers, but I did manage to find one at the edge of creek, wanting to get a drink. One of my favorite nature encounters.

Photo: Joelle Belmonte

Alas, Joelle, our designer, has decided to move on to greener pastures, making her our first ever staff departure. We'll miss you, Joelle! I remember several conversations with Scott around the time we joined CalAcademy that ended with the agreement, "We need a designer." We interviewed a few, but Joelle was the only one who showed up with an iNat account and a bunch of suggestions on how to improve the look and the experience of iNaturalist. Joelle jumped feet-first into the job, but also into being a naturalist, cultivating a passion for dragonflies that I hope will continue. She has always given us great-looking designs, and, perhaps even more valuable, the perspective of a new or not-quite-as-obsessed member of the naturalist tribe. She and I didn't always agree on matters of taste, but looking back on screenshots from before she started it's clear what an enormous improvement her work represents. I'd post those pre-Joelle screenshots, but, uh, they're embarrassing.

Anyway, good luck, Joelle. We'll certainly miss your contributions to iNat, but we'll also miss your commitment to costumes and unexpected dart obsession. I'll personally miss having someone to commiserate with about Game of Thrones and Star Wars (and I seriously need to vent about Solo!).

P.S. Oh fine, here's a comparison of obs search before Joelle and after:

Before

After

Our Observation of the Week is this Ethiopian Wolf, seen in Ethiopia by @veronika\_johansson!

Veronika Johansson wrote to me from the Swedish island of Öland, where she is currently on vacation and where she spent her childhood. “I was brought up very close to nature so the interest has always been there. My father has also always been interested in birds, plants, insects and nature in general so perhaps I was inspired by him,” she says. “I figured out that I might be able to make a career of my interests and so far it has been going quite well.”

Veronika finished her PhD at the Department of Ecology, Environment, and Plant Sciences at Stockholm University in 2015, where she “studied recruitment limitations and recruitment mechanisms of plants with dust seeds.” Her focus was on the Ericaceae family, which includes blueberries, heathers, and azaleas. These plants “are mycoheterotrophic and parasitize on mycorrhizal fungi during parts of or during their complete lifecycle,” says Veronika, meaning that they draw most of their nutrients from mychorrhizal fungi rather than from photosynthesis.

Six years ago, she and other PhD students in her program organized a trip to Ethiopia, and “were awarded funds from SIDA to finance both us going there and as many Ethiopian PhD students to join us during our trip and course events. We were around 25 persons in total traveling together.”

One of the places they visited were the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia:

It was mainly to study the afro-alpine flora but of course we also hoped to see one of the rarest canines in the world! We were lucky and saw it quite immediately when we got up on the mountain plateau. It posed for us a while but got afraid and ran off. It’s really cool to have seen it and it is a beautiful animal. I decided to upload these six year old observations both because someone might find them useful or interesting but also for myself to get help in determining some of the species we observed six years ago.

Veronika is all too correct in that the Ethiopian Wolf is one of, if not the, rarest canines on Earth. According to the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme, there are only about 500 adult Ethiopian Wolves left in the wild, their already small numbers having been diminished by rabies, habitat loss, and shooting by humans. These wolves live only in the high mountains of Ethiopia above 3000m and live in social family packs. While packs may hunt larger prey, the wolves’ diet consists mostly of smaller mammals, including the Big-headed Mole Rat.

Currently, Veronika is working for GBIF’s Swedish node, “which is now from this year part of a larger new Swedish research infrastructure for biodiversity informatics, called Biodiversity Atlas Sweden (BAS).” She says, “I enjoy helping others determining their observations [on iNaturalist] and to connect with like minded [people]. I also like that you have to add a photo with your observations even though it might limit you sometimes and that there is a validation process. The observation is then of higher quality which is necessary for research use.”

- by Tony Iwane

- You can check out Veronika’s research here.

- Veronika has started an iNaturalist project for the island of Öland.

- Enjoy some amazing footage of an Ethiopian Wolf on the hunt.

- Sure, more footage. Why not.

- Orchids are probably the most well-known plants that have “dust seeds.” Here’s a cool article from Kew about them.