With much regret, I didn't do anything professionally with my Biology/Art double major from St. Olaf College, but I've definitely built my hobbies around those things, including decades of gardening and plant/insect photography. It seems that I was born to be an iNaturalist!

After noticing in 2022 that I and my fellow gardener neighbors had a great population of endangered Rusty-patched Bumble Bees (Bombus affinis) visiting our flowers, I started documenting all of the bumble bees and other insects in my garden and on my block in the Merriam Park (Union Park) neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. I also post the occasional bird, mammal, plant, fungus, or other cool organism that catches my eye.

I own an old DSLR camera that takes far better photos, but I found that using my phone camera makes me far more agile when out there trying to capture insects in action. I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in 2023 just to support my iNat habit.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Beetles!

After dark during a party in my back yard in July 2023, I noticed a pair (#nsfw) of small brown beetles on a house plant on my patio table under some solar lights. They looked just like some beetles I hadn't photographed when I had first observed them in May/June 2023 along a storm door ledge and emerging from my lawn, so my iNat brain kicked in and I snapped a quick photo of them to post. An iNatter identified them as Asiatic Garden Beetles (Maladera formosae), which had not yet been documented in Minnesota.

This set me off on a frenzied mission of online research, a couple of weeks of midnight safaris in my garden, higher-quality photo shoots, filing a Report a Pest sighting, mailing beetle specimens to the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture, and eagerly awaiting an official ID. This apparently involved "dissecting out the male genitalia," which I was happy to leave to the pros.

In mid-September 2023, the MN Dept. of Ag. announced this discovery, along with another new-to-MN invasive, the Elm Seed Bug (Arocatus melanocephalus). Several media outlets picked up the press release, and I was interviewed by Minnesota Public Radio, FOX 9 News, and WCCO News. iNaturalist included the MPR piece in their 2023 September News Highlights.

Two Invasive Insects Found for First Time in Minnesota
Press Release by Minnesota Department of Agriculture
September 13, 2023
https://www.mda.state.mn.us/two-invasive-insects-found-first-time-minnesota

Two invasive insects found for first time in Minnesota
by Tommy Wiita, Bring Me the News
September 13, 2023
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/two-invasive-insects-found-for-first-time-in-minnesota

State officials confirm sightings of two new invasive insects in Minnesota
by Andrew Krueger, Minnesota Public Radio
September 13, 2023
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/09/13/state-officials-confirm-sightings-of-two-new-invasive-insects-in-minnesota

Meet the woman who discovered an invasive insect in Minnesota [AUDIO INTERVIEW]
by Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton, Minnesota Public Radio
September 18, 2023
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/09/18/meet-the-woman-who-discovered-an-invasive-insect-in-minnesota

St. Paul homeowner identifies new invasive species in Minnesota [VIDEO INTERVIEW]
by Maury Glover, FOX 9 News
September 18, 2023
https://www.fox9.com/news/st-paul-woman-spots-invasive-beetle

iNaturalist September News Highlights
by Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
September 30, 2023
https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/85160-inaturalist-september-news-highlight

These are the newly arriving invasive species Minnesota's agriculture dept. is worried about [VIDEO INTERVIEW]
by Erin Hassanzadeh, WCCO News
October 2, 2023
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/these-are-the-newly-arriving-invasive-species-minnesotas-agriculture-dept-is-worried-about/

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