Diario del proyecto The iNat Blog Wayback Machine

Our Observation of the Week is this Gasteracantha diardi spider, seen in Malaysia by amila_sumanapala!

Amila Sumanapala first delved into bird watching when he was thirteen years of age and was growing up in Sri Lanka. “By late teens my interest had broadened to include a wide range of faunal taxa,” he says, “[and] I joined several volunteer nature organizations in the country such as the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka, Young Biologists' Association of Sri Lanka and Butterfly Conservation Society of Sri Lanka and developed my capacity to become a researcher and a conservationist.” He is now a postgraduate researcher at the University of Colombo.

It was his original interest in birds that brought Amila and some friends to Malaysia, where they attended the Fraser's Hill International Bird Race. “My friend Kasun first observed the spider and showed it to me,” he recalls. “We recognized it to be a Gasteracantha species but it was different from what we have observed previously. So we photographed it hoping that we would be able to identify it later and we could do that thanks to INaturalist.”

Also known as spiny orbweavers, memebers of the genus Gasteracantha are found around the world as far north as the Korean Peninsula all the way to the southern tip of Africa. Gasteracantha diardi range through much of the islands of southeast Asia, and like other members of their genus, only the females are large and have spiked abdomens. Despite their diminutive size, Gasteracantha spiders spin quite large orb webs, and they decorate them with tufts of silk. It is presumed these tufts make the web easier for birds and other large animals to see and thus avoid, saving the spider from the onerous task of fixing a damaged web.

While Amila photographed a spider while on a trip where he looked for birds, his main area of interest is actually Odonata, or the dragonflies and damselflies. In about 2009 he developed an interest in them, and tells me 

Most of my colleagues at that time did not know much about odonates, thus I started observing them by myself and studying them in detail using the available literature. This has now become the main interest in my life as a biologist and I am conducting various research on their taxonomy, ecology and biogeography. I also authored a field guide to the dragonflies and damselflies of Sri Lanka in 2017. My postgraduate work is also on the damselflies of Sri Lanka.

While he joined iNat in 2014, after hearing about it at the Student Conference in Conservation Science, Bangaluru, Amila (above, doing field work in Sri Lanka) says he’s only been using it regularly for about the last four months, “currently trying to document the insects I observe around the country using photographs and understanding their distribution patterns. 

I started using INat to get identification support on the insects and other invertebrates I observe and photograph during my field work and it has been a great support in my work thanks to all the identifiers in the community. This has motivated me to record more and more biodiversity every time I'm out in the field and share it on iNat. I also contribute as an identifier, especially for Odonata and other major insect groups observed in Sri Lanka and India.

- by Tony Iwane. Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and flow.

- Check out this array of Gasteracantha species!

- Here’s a photo of a male Gasteracantha cancriformis. Note the lack of spikes.

- You can watch a Gasteracantha finish here web here. Note the little tufts of silk on the spokes.

Our Observation of the Week is this Navanax inermis sea slug, seen in the United States by lmkitayama! 

“At work they call me the Slug Queen,” says Lauren Kitayama, an Assistant Manager at Kayak Connection in California. “Daylight permitting, I paddle once a week before work on the Elkhorn Slough. A couple of years ago, if you'd asked any of the local guides they might have said there were 5 species of sea slug on the slough. Last year I documented 27!”

The slug seen above was one of twenty Navanax inermis she spotted that morning, and said they were mating on the sea lettuce near the dock at work. “They are one of my favorite slugs,” she says,

They are large enough for people to appreciate, and so absolutely beautiful! I love using them to get people excited about the unloved slimy things that live in the ocean. One of my goals is always to show people something they never even imagined existed on the planet, and Navanax are a great opportunity to do that. As a kayak guide I work with a lot of school children, and love having the chance to inspire them to protect and appreciate the natural world around them.

While nudibranchs are the most commonly known order of sea slug, the Navanax inermis belongs to an entirely different order: Cephalaspidea, or the headshield slugs. Most members of this order, including the California Aglaja, do have a shell, but it is usually either tiny or internal. Navanax inermis are large slugs, growing anywhere from 2.5 to 10 inches (6.35 - 25.4 cm) in length, and they prey upon other gastropods and even small fish!

Lauren (above) earned a Masters in Marine Conservation from the University of Miami (FL), where she focused on the impacts of marine debris. “I am zealous about protecting the oceans from plastic...[and] someday I hope to work for the UN attacking the plastic pollution problem in Southeast Asia.” For now, however, she says she loves her current job, and tells me 

My favorite thing is to see something I've never seen before. "I don't know" is my favorite answer to the question, "what is it?" I think that's how this whole slug thing started. They are beautiful, and most people would never look for them/see them without a guide. For whatever reason my slug observation skills are great. Can't find my keys half the time (or the sunglasses that are on my head), but a 9 mm sea slug hiding in a patch of kelp... no problem.

With my ecologist brain, I am excited to continue documenting slugs on the slough to see if a temporal pattern emerges (when are particular species showing up? Are they predictably in the same locations year after year?) I try very hard to get a photo of every species I see every week so that I can continue to document their presence/absence on the slough.

- by Tony Iwane.

- Check out Lauren’s Litter Mermaid projects and blog!

- And her sea slug observations.

- Watch a Navanax inermis eating a California Seahare.

- And watch a pair mating!

Our Observation of the Week is this Osmylops Split-footed Lacewing larva, seen in Australia by dhobern!

As a primary student in the UK, Donald Hobern remembers that his two school projects were “Animals” and “Wildlife,” explaining to me “my teacher forced me to expand the topic a little by including some plants.” Although interested in insects, he found contemporary guides lacking and thus got into birdwatching. “I also got involved in local naturalists' societies working on reserve work parties or watching over nests of Little Terns,” he recalls. “Here's a picture of me (on the left) from the local newspaper sometime in the mid seventies.”

By the 1990s, Donald - equipped with the internet and improved field guides - got into mothing and graduated from sketching (below) to digital photography. He eventually started working for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in 2007, and says “since then, I've had the privilege of working on international efforts to improve access to biodiversity data (GBIF, Atlas of Living Australia, now International Barcode of Life and Species 2000). Personally, I've continued to study and photograph moths and pretty much any other species I encounter.”

One of those species, of course, is the remarkable insect at the top of this page. Looking for caterpillars in the Eucalyptus leaf litter by his home in Canberra, Donald placed some leaves in this emergence trap. “One of the first insects to appear, sitting on the inside of the upper plastic container was this larva,” he explains.

I would never have spotted it sitting on the surface of a leaf. Even on the clear plastic, at first glance, it could have been a dirty spot or some mould. The projections from the abdomen softened the shape considerably…

It mostly sat very still with the jaws completely drawn back and hidden behind the front fringe of the abdomen...At one point, it was sitting facing very close to the edge of the tin and an ant ran past in front of it. The jaws clearly snapped shut and hit the edge of the tin because there was a ringing noise and it was propelled backwards several centimeters.

Lacewings are members of the order Neuroptera, an order which includes other insects such as antlions and owlflies, and the bizarre (and totally cool) mantidflies. Split-footed lacewings, like this one, are actually taxonomically distinct from the more familiar green and brown lacewings, but like other neuroptera larvae, they have large mandibles and are predatory. After undergoing metamorphosis, they will look like this.

Donald (above, in Madagascar) has been an iNat user since 2012, and uses it to manage his own observations. He adds IDs to observations of plume moths, where he is far and away the top identifier, as well as Australian lepidoptera. “I greatly appreciate the expertise of others who amaze me with their wide international knowledge of groups I consider much more difficult than moths (beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, etc.), 

I also value the way that iNaturalist enables my observations and those of the whole community to contribute via GBIF to research questions, conservation and improving the knowledge base we need to understand biodiversity patterns and trends.

I continually recommend iNaturalist as far and away the best and most comprehensive platform to amateur naturalists and others to share their observations and learn from one another.

- by Tony Iwane. Photo of Donald Hobern in Madagascar by Kyle Copas.

- You can check out more of Donald’s photos on Flickr.

- Green lacewing larvae will cover themselves with debris - including the remains of their prey!

- This isn’t the first larval neuropteran that was chosen as Observation of the Week!

Our Observation of the Week is this Cynomorium coccineum plant, seen in Jordan by fragmansapir!

Currently the scientific director of the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir works “on endangered plants, flower bulbs, doing ecological and taxonomic research.” He also leads tours in Israel, the Mediterranean, and the Caucasus. While on an excursion to the southern part of Jordan (for his birthday!) this past April when Dr. Fragman-Sapir came across the small plant seen above. “It was amazing to see this parasite coming out of the dry sands, as if it was a miracle,” he recalls.

Those red stalks are pretty much the only parts of the plant one can see above ground, and they’re source of this species’ myriad common names, such as red thumb, desert thumb, and the bizarre (and misleading) Maltese fungus. A completely parasitic plant, Cynomorium coccineum contains no chlorophyll and spends most of its existence as a rhizome (an underground stem - think ginger or lotus “roots”), leaching nutrients and water its host plant, or plants. In spring the plant will send up its inflorescence, which is covered in tiny flowers. Flies are attracted to the cabbage-like smell of these flowers, and serve as the plant’s main pollinators.

Dr. Fragman-Sapir (above) has recently started posting his photos to iNaturalist, and hope it becomes a place where can have all of his “observations in one convenient place where others could enjoy and learn as well.”

- by Tony Iwane

- Dr. Fragman-Sapir has authored or coauthored several books, some in Hebrew and some in English, including Flowers of the Eastern Mediterranean.

- Many cultures have believed Cynomorium coccineum can cure multiple ailments, such as ulcers, anemia, hypertension, and impotence. It’s flesh is also edible as a food source.

- Check out this video about dodder, another type of parasitic plant, and watch it “choose” a host.

Our Observation of the Week is this unlikely pair - a Chilean Flamingo on the right and an American Flamingo on the left - seen in Mexico by luisave!

About three years ago, an American Flamingo arrived in the Mexican city of León, Guanajuato, establishing itself in Metropolitan Park. It was around this time that Luis Mauricio Mena Páramo (luisave) began his bird inventory of the city. Since then, Luis has documented 188 species in the city (Mexico’s fourth largest), and on May 29th of this year he photographed a second flamingo in Metropolitan Park.

After discussions on both iNaturalist and in local birding fora, the second flamingo was confirmed as a Chilean Flamingo, a species that naturally ranges in the western and southern parts of South America and has been introduced in some parts of Europe and the United States. Luis’s photo is the first photo on iNaturalist of a wild Chilean Flamingo in Central America and well out of its normal range!

“So far,” explains Luis, “we have no knowledge or information about the possible origin and permanence of this bird

What we can know is that the American Flamingo that also inexplicably arrived at the Park more than three years ago has given it an excellent welcome. Perhaps it is a historical record, in which two wild Flamingos of different species coexist together and are very well adapted to each other.

Like other flamingos, the Chilean Flamingo uses the filters in this beak to feed on algae and invertebrates, and the carotenoids in their food cause the pink coloration of the birds’ plumage. Just one egg is laid per mating pair, and it rests on a raised mud nest. Both parents are able to produce crop milk to feed the young bird after it hatches.

Luis (above, at Metropolitan Park with both flamingos in the background) is turning his bird inventory into a book titled PRIMERA GUÍA DE AVES DE LEÓN, and he tells me “I use iNaturalist virtually every day in order to learn more about the world around me and also to share my observations with a community of naturalists...It is clear that without the support of the iNaturalist platform I would not have gotten this far...in my fifties I think it's been the best way to invest my free time, doing what I really like. It's a good way to transcend.

To this day, both flamingos continue to reside in the Metropolitan Park of León, and I have practically watched and photographed them every day. It has been amazing this story of adaptation to the urban environment and I feel very fortunate to share it with all of you.

- by Tony Iwane. Some quotes have been edited for clarity.

- A group of Chilean Flamingos “dance” in this video.

- Scientists have found that flamingos are more stable on one leg than two. 

Our Observation of the Week is this confrontation between a Black Rhinoceros and a group of African Elephants, seen in Namibia by jerrythornton!

Jerry Thornton, who grew up next to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge but now resides in southern California, describes himself as “an amateur naturalist with a lifelong love of both nature and photography.” His wife, who is a freelance wildlife writer, will often research a topic and Jerry comes along to photograph her trip. They’ve been to Africa and South America, and also go scuba diving, “which we like to view as underwater safaris,” he says.

The dramatic series of photos you’ll see in this post were taken by Jerry during a tour of Nambia he and his wife went on back in 2014. They had stopped at the Moringa waterhole in Etosha National Park to and at first saw pretty standard waterhole behavior. However, after about half an hour a Black Rhinoceros approached. I’ll let Jerry take it from here.

The elephants began to get agitated as soon as the rhino arrived, even before it stepped into the water, with the elephants rapidly backing out of the water, ears fully extended, and bellowing much more than they had been just five minutes before. And they became even more agitated as soon as the rhino stepped into the water, forming the wall of elephants seen in the first of the photos.

As the rhino stayed longer and longer other elephant family groups would approach and then back off after seeing the rhino, sometimes their young males trying their luck at intimidating the rhino through bellows, ear waving, and as in the photo, even trying to blow water at them. Eventually one of the young males got too close and the rhino decided it had taken enough harassment, chased the offending elephant off in a cloud of dust, and then returned to the waterhole.

Unfortunately we could only watch this for about another hour, but the rhino was still soaking in the waterhole when we left and we had to assume it left on its own terms.

While it’s difficult to know exactly what motivated these behaviors, Jerry tells me he’s learned “elephants hate and fear rhinos, since they are one of the very few animals that can by themselves cripple or kill an adult elephant rather easily, and having a rhino so close to their young brought out their worst/most interesting behavior.”

Jerry (above) discovered iNaturalist recently, when trying to identify butterflies and flowers brought around by southern California’s rainy winter. “As I realized its potential for more accurately identifying all types of plants and animals,” he explains, “I began to post my past observations, with the goal of learning, and providing observations and photos for others.”

- by Tony Iwane

- Here’s an annotated video showing a Rhino and an Elephant with a bit of a misunderstanding.

- The New York Times has a nice article and video about an elephant’s amazing nose.

Our Observation of the Week is this feather star, seen in Indonesia by maridom!

“When I began diving some 25 years ago, I marveled at the beauty of sea life and was astonished to discover so many colors and forms, so many animals never seen on land,” says Maridom. “Then I became interested to learn more about the ecosystem and biology.”

And while she says most new divers think mainly about seeing fish, she likes to emphasize the beauty and diversity of marine invertebrates in when teaches marine biology courses. “I mostly am interested in phyla which seem weird to us terrestrial beings, such as Cnidaria and Echinodermata,” she says. “And during my last trip to The Philippines, I jokingly became known as ‘Queen of Ascidiacea’!

As soon as I see something beautiful under the sea, I point my camera to it and sometimes I come away with a successful photo! The photo of this Comatula this one of those: the colors are nicely contrasted and the shape of its arms are so delicately drawn.”

While sea stars and sea urchins are more familiar members of the Phylum Echinodermata, feather stars like the one Maridom photographed belong to a totally different subphylum called Crinozoa, which are also called sea lilies. They often have ten or more arms surrounding the mouth, and capture planktonic organisms with tube feet on the arms, moving the food down the arm in a blob of mucus.

Maridom (above, in Egypt) has been taking photographs on her dives for the last decade, and she tells me “it changed my way of diving and looking at living beings, even the small and weird ones, and I could not do without it now. Then, at home, trying to identify the species in my photographs brings back happy memories of the trip. I like to call things by their name while diving, as if I was part of their world.”

She discovered iNaturalist about three months ago, and has been uploading photos from her archive. “Each morning when I open my computer, the first thing I do is see if my unidentified strange things have now received an ID. Many thanks to all identifiers!

I love the way iNaturalist works, where all over the world, people keep connected and give from their personal time to help identify observations from others. I think, probably, when I was in The Philippines  last month, it changed my way of taking pictures and looking at unknown things.”

- by Tony Iwane. Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and flow.

- Feather stars can swim and crawl, both of which look really cool and strange.

Our Observation of the Day is this sawfly orchid, seen in Algeria by karimhaddad!

Karim Haddad was born in the Algerian city of Constantine but pursued his graduate studies in Odessa, Ukraine, where he earned a PhD in Agribusiness. After being “very touched and inspired by the museums” at Ukraine educational institutions, Karim began to collect “some skins, horns, wood, sperm whale teeth, mollusk shells, old nests, unfertilized eggs, bird feathers, [and] butterflies,” and also got into bird photography.

He now splits his time between the two countries, and has been leading excursions for birders and other naturalists in Algeria since 2016, becoming Algeria’s representative for the African Bird Club in 2018.  

And while birds and bird excursions are a specialty of his, Karim is interested in many other taxa, including orchids like the sawfly orchid he photographed above, which he says are “very exciting, their shapes, colors and sizes attract every naturalist. And that's why I never miss them...the world is so vast and interesting that it can be appreciated all together.”

Sawfly orchids are members of the genus Ophrys, which are also known as “bee orchids.” Members of this genus mimic the pheromones and appearance of female insects, attracting males of those species to the flower. While the male tries to mate with the flower (an act called pseudocopulation), its body picks up pollen which it then brings the next flower, pollinating it. Supposedly the sawfly orchid resembles a female sawfly, which are members of the hymenopteran suborder Symphyta. This orchid is found throughout much of the Mediterranean.

Karim (above, in Constantine c. 2015) is also part of the AquaCirta NGO in Algeria, which chose iNaturalist as a recording platform last year on the recommendation of Dr. Mehdi Chetibi. Since joining last July, Karim has contributed over 4,000 observations and 60,000 IDs to iNaturalist (with archives from his computer still waiting to be uploaded), and he says the direct contact with amateur and professional naturalists from all over the world has “changed my way of interacting and seeing the natural world...

With iNaturalist, you share, you learn, you get to know people and you can rejoice with discoveries. So, I propose this site for all amateurs and specialists without exception in the world of nature.

- The Natural History Museum has a nice video describing pseudocopulation in Ophrys orchids here.

- Here are Eucera nigrilabris bees pseudocopulating with a sawfly orchid.

- Finally, a more poetic and philosophical take on pseudocopulation from the film Adaptation.

- This chart of observations per week in Algeria shows the large impact Aquacirta’s promotion of iNat has had. Thank you so much!

Our Observation of the Week is this helmeted iguana, seen in Colombia by khristimantis!

“I was in a field trip accompanying a herpetology course in a natural reserve called Hacienda San Pedro,” recalls Khristian Venegas Valencia, a biology student at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. The reserve is located in the Magdalena Medio, which Khristian says “is today one of the regions most affected by livestock in Colombia [and] a large part of the forests and ecosystems of the region have been reduced or almost completely disappeared. However, thanks to the initiative of some people it is possible to find some relicts of forests that function as sanctuaries and natural reserves that allow the conservation and care of nature.”

During their time in the reserve, Khristian, who is interested in the ecology, conservation, systematics and taxonomy of neotropical amphibians, and his colleagues made some great finds, such as glass frogs and a terciopelo viper. Then,

coincidentally, following the advertising call of a frog of the genus Pristimantis, I came across the [helmted iguana] perched on a branch. It was a fascinating encounter since these organisms are quite difficult to observe and I had not had the opportunity to register one before.

Usually found in trees (when they are found), helmeted iguanas - also called casque headed lizards - rely on the sit-and-wait method of predation, often staying in one place for extended periods of time until suitable prey such as insects, spiders, or other lizards approach. Their lack of motion, in addition to their camouflage, allows these lizards to go unnoticed by both their prey and their predators. Both males and females have a “helmet”, but the male’s is slightly larger.  

“I have always been interested in scientific divulgation and the transmission of information to the community in general,” says Khristian (above, with a helmeted iguana). “I use iNaturalist as a documentation tool and as a source of learning about biodiversity in my country.”

- Helmeted iguanas have been found with plants and fungi growing on them, likely due to their proclivity for remaining motionless for extended periods.

- Slime mold sporangia have also been found on a heleted iguana! [PDF]

- If you have always dreamed of seeing a helmeted iguana remain motionless while ants crawled on it and epic choral music swelled in the background, you’re in luck. 

Our Observation of the Week is this Common Hoopoe, seen in the Czech Republic by lioneska!

“A few years ago, I became seriously interested in birds thanks to one of my friends,” says Gabi Lioneska Uhrova. It took me a long time though to get to know them…[but] I can say that I’ve become a loony (crazy) in observing them and I started to take pictures of them too. I’ve also become a member of the Czech Society for Ornithology.”

After hearing about a Common Hoopoe sighting in Prague, Gabi decided to check out the area after work the next day and started scanning for the bird with her binoculars. After some time she stumbled across it on the path in front of her, no more than twenty meters away, and watched it pick up an insect.

My heart jumped with joy. “Ohh, you are so beautiful, little bird,” I thought to myself. The advantage was that it was quite tame, and its escape distance was short. When disturbed it would fly on a tree and then continue to forage for food again.

Later on a friend of mine, Tereza, joined me to take picture of it. My goal was to lie down and take a picture of it in its natural habitat, grass, which I managed to do thanks to its tame behaviour. After that we just sat there and watched this amazing bird using its long thin beak as tweezers. We were simply so lucky. This is one of my most precious bird observations because I had not seen one in a long time and it is a rare species for me. I was really grateful for this opportunity.

The Common Hoopoe ranges through much of Europe, Asia, and the northern part of Sub-Saharan Africa, and as Gabi described, it likes to forage for insects in flat grassy areas. Much of the foraging is done with its long thin beak, with which it probes the ground for insects, and it will raise the crest on its head when excited. Hoopoes nest in tree cavities, or really any cavity on a vertical surface.

In addition to birds, Gabi (above, on the right) loves to photograph and observe butterflies. “During spring and summer season I often make trips to different types of habitats to watch them,” she says. “It isn’t easy to take a good picture of them; it’s always a challenge but I love it, I take my time and enjoy it.”

Gabi first discovered iNaturalist during the 2018 City Nature Challenge, and tells me “Now I upload most of my observations of nature [to iNaturalist]. Sometimes there is no time to do it all at once. I love the application because it is so simple to use, and I have overview of all my observations at one place...If I see a beetle or other interesting insect or a flower, I take picture of them too and post it to iNaturalist or Facebook groups that we have in my country for determination.”

- by Tony Iwane. Some quotes were lightly edited for flow.

- An adult hoopoe feeds its young - in slow motion!

- Some nice footage of foraging hoopoes.