A project to discuss phasmid taxonomy
iNaturalist's taxonomy for phasmids is now up-to-date, following Phasmida Species File (PSF). This project page will serve as a place to discuss phasmid taxonomy on iNaturalist such as explicit deviations from PSF.
I, @bouteloua, have very little knowledge of phasmid taxonomy and would invite anyone interested to step forward to be a "taxon curator" for this group if they so choose. I've tagged some of the top observers and identifiers within this group, as well as some of the most active iNat curators, below.
You can follow this group by heading to its homepage and clicking "Follow" in the top right corner. Here is a link to the other Taxonomic Working Groups on iNaturalist:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/inaturalist-taxonomic-working-groups
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very nice work pulling all this together bouteloua!
Thanks @bouteloua! I have a lot of mostly unidentified photos of phasmids, so I have now followed the group. But I don't know enough about phasmid taxonomy to be a useful curator, I think.
Great stuff @bouteloua! I'm happy to help out but I know next to nothing about non-Australian species so I'm not sure how much use I'd be
I'm not a Phasmid expert, I just play one on TV :D
If I have the time and the internet connection, I can curate. But, not sure when either of those will show up. :X
I'm not sure the extent of existing Phasmid expertise on the iNaturalist (and my apologies if one of you is the world's leading stick insect specialist - if so super excited you're already here!). But either way, it would be awesome if we could get more members of the Phasmid community not currently using iNat involved. For example, like some of the PSF experts listed here http://phasmida.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Phasmida/HomePage.aspx#experts. I'm not sure how to do that, and whether its more of an issue of (a) knowing iNat exists, (b) the learning curve, or (c) incentives to participate. I made this little getting started post in the hopes that if might help with a & b. If anyone knows any Phasmid folks or communities, please pass it along. Similarly if anyone is in a position to give a little workshop or presentation to members of the Phasmid community, I linked to a slide version at the bottom of the post
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/inaturalist-stick-and-leaf-insects-working-group/journal/18007-inaturalist-for-stick-and-leaf-insect-phasmida-citizen-science
I've sent Megaphasma denticrus eggs to Oskar Conle's lab (and to a few hobbyists). I can reach out to those people and see if they're interested in curating. I'm only an expert in that one species!
Fun fact: Those people found me via iNat. That's also how @jcabbott got Diapheromera tamaulipensis for a field guide he's working on.
@bouteloua I am glad to be invited here. i hope I can help you in the taxonomy of this nice insects. PSF is a best page to know the most things about stick insects. The one who created that page is one of the specialist in the Phasmatodea. Now i am working with the stick insects of Mexico. So I hope i can help you.
@bouteloua we are a phasmid research group from Brazil and we are currently focused on curating the Brazilian and South American taxa, with already some articles published about these insects and more on the way. We would gladly help curate stick insect records on iNaturalist, but maybe you would like to reach out us in our individual accounts: @edgar_crispino @phillipengelking @victorghirotto @pedroalvaro
That's great to hear - since this project is now defunct, a good way to get started is to flag taxonomic errors you see on iNaturalist, then you can get a hang of how the curation system works. (There is a much more detailed page here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator%252Bguide)
To flag a taxon for curation, go to the taxon page, (example: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/742429-Isagoras) and click Curation>Flag for curation. Then you can leave a short note about what the issue is and what can be done to fix it.
@bouteloua we recently flagged the Paraphasma genus since a new review came out with taxonomic changes, new species and etc. and we are still waiting for them to be added to iNaturalist.
Dear stick insect enthusiasts,
If what follows is in the wrong venue, please forward it to the right one!
The phylogenetic relationships of stick insects has advanced considerably since about 2019. For instance, diapheromerids are strictly New World species, and phylliid (leaf insects) are Australasian. The African taxa are likely to fall into two or maybe three families, Palophidae (genus Bactrododema), Bacillidae (almost all African genera) and perhaps Anisacathidae (perhaps Xylica and Xylobacillus, work in progress). Some species of Lonchodidae have been introduced to Africa and Madagascar.
Simon S, Letsch H, Bank S, Buckley TR, Donath A, Liu S, Machida R, Meusemann K, Misof B, Podsiadlowski L, Zhou X, Wipfler B, Bradler S (2019) Old World and New World Phasmatodea: phylogenomics resolve the evolutionary history of stick and leaf insects. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7: 345. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00345
Where this departs from current iNaturalist practice is that the Verophasmatodea, Areolatae, Anareolatae and a few other venerable names are purely historical concepts, and not lineages, and are due to fall away. This was recently summarized in print by iNaturalist member Nicholas Cliquennois:
Cliquennois N (2021) Ordre des Phasmatodea (Phasmes). In: Aberlenc H-P (Ed.), Les Insectes du Monde. Biodiversité. Classification. Clés de détermination des familles. Éditions Quae & Museo, Versailles, Montpellier & Plaissan, 403–438.
I can send a copy of Nicholas' summary to anyone who can use it to update the iNaturalist taxonomy. 😺
Best wishes,
Martin
Nicholas Cliquennois = @nicolas_madagascar
As far as I can figure out the new classification is:
O: TIMEMATODEA SF: Timematoidea F Timematidae
O: ASCHIPHASMATODEA SF: Aschiphasmatoidea F Aschiphasmatidae
O: EUPHASMATODEA sO: NEOPHASMATODEA
• iO: OCCIDOPHASMATA SF: Bacterioidea F Bacteriidae (incl. Diapheromeridae)
• iO: OCCIDOPHASMATA SF: Pseudophasmatoidea F Agathemeridae
• iO: OCCIDOPHASMATA SF: Pseudophasmatoidea F Heteronemiidae
• iO: OCCIDOPHASMATA SF: Pseudophasmatoidea F Pseudophasmatidae (incl. Prisopodidae)
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Anisacanthoidea F Achriopteridae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Anisacanthoidea F Anisacanthidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Anisacanthoidea F Damasippoididae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Bacilloidea F Bacillidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Bacilloidea F Gratidiidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Heteropterygoidea F Heteropterygidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Lonchodoidea F Lonchodidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Lonchodoidea F Necrosciidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Phasmatoidea F Clitumnidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Phasmatoidea F Haplopodidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Phasmatoidea F Palophidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Phasmatoidea F Phasmatidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Phasmatoidea F Platycranidae
• iO: ORIOPHASMATA SF: Phyllioidea F Phylliidae
Thanks @tonyrebelo for letting me know about that discussion.
The Linnaean classification of Phasmatodea that I proposed (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349502393_Classification-Phasmatodea-Cliquennois_2020pdf) is an attempt to synthesise knowledge at the time of writing. PSF has endorsed some points, not all. I believe that others will be in the future because they appear to be solidly established. But there are still some areas that are very much unknown.
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