chyroptera's Journal

Hey, hey gallfriends!
Mark your calendars for spring gall week 2024!
Join the project here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-april-2024-event
(Remember this is a “manual” project, so each gall observation will need to be specifically added to the project.)
Galls can be caused by fungi and bacteria as well as arthropods!
Gall resources on “what is a gall?” and where to find galls in your area can be found on last year’s gall project journal page at: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-spring-2023/journal/77854-gall-resources

This year the project overlaps with the City Nature Challenge, which runs April 26 – April 29, 2024 (check it out at https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/faq)

(I’m so used to where to find California spring galls I’ll have to get creative on where to find ones in western Oregon….There are loads of galls in eastern Oregon on sagebrush and rabbit brush though!)

Have a gall! :D
-Andrea

Gall I ever wanted...was it to be Gall Week again! Manually add your gall observations photographed September 2nd-10th to Gall Week September 2023 Project! Photograph galls anywhere in the world!
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-september-2023
Challenge yourself to find the most species of galls in a day! Or the most species of galls on one tree! Or to see a new gall you've never seen before!
Catch you gall later,
Andrea

Join me in this bioblitz project focusing on Odes, aka dragonflies and damselflies! (Order Odonata)
Created and curated by Odonata Central: https://www.odonatacentral.org/odolympics/#/
Read the description and join the iNaturalist project here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/odolympics-august-2023
To find odes, check your local lakes, rivers, and ponds, especially those with a lot of emergent vegetation like rushes and cattails, but also local meadows, fields, ditches, and gardens!
-Andrea

It's National Moth Week in one day! Join the iNaturalist project here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/national-moth-week-2023
Attend an event or just do your own thing!
I'm going to be moth-lighting most nights wherever I happen to be staying.
To moth-light: at dusk I turn on regular porchlights and/or a 395nm UV light (aka a blacklight or "purple party light") on the side of a building and leave it on until I go to bed around 11pm. I check every 30min-1hour to see what has showed up and take photos! Lots of moths (and non-moths) to be seen!

For moth photography:
The blacklight adds a purplish cast to photos and is not very bright, so I recommend using a flashlight to add extra light if you are taking photos with your phone.
I usually take photos of moths with my Olympus Tough TG6 Macro camera with the ringlight feature set to "on" and the white balance set to AWB-additionally, I turn on the flashlight on my phone and shine it on the moths to add extra light. Regular camera flash is usually too bright. The important thing is to find a moth that stays still and then experimenting with different techniques until you find the one you like!

If you check my recent King County, WA observations you can see all the creatures that visit the blacklight!
Pro tip: even if you turn off your porchlight/blacklight off at midnight to let the moths and other creatures disperse, be sure to check the same wall in the morning, as you may find "leftovers" hiding underneath objects and in the crevices, corners, and edges near your light!
Cheers,
Andrea

List of favorite and/or interesting iNaturalist projects. I’m continually updating and adding new projects regularly.
One reason to put observations in projects is that sometimes experts are following certain projects and the observations get identified faster.
(need to add the list from opening paragraph)

Animal signs:
Scat
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/scatology
Tracks
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/north-american-animal-tracks-database
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bird-tracks-and-signs
Feathers
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/found-feathers
Mines in leaves
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/leafminers-of-north-america

Animal behavior:
Mating behaviour
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mating-behaviour
Arthropod Ecology in Action
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/arthropod-ecology-in-action
Global Pollinator Watch
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/global-pollinator-watch
“Sleepy bee slumber parties” (added Jan 2024)
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sleepy-bee-slumber-parties

Other arthropod:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/arthropods-on-snow
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/arthropod-faces
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bugs-in-flight

Wildlife disease:
(list from https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-tag-an-observation-of-a-diseased-bird/40324/7 )
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/wildlife-diseases-morbidity-and-mortality
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/injured-ill-or-dying
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/birds-with-deformed-beaks (not for feet, but as an example of a very specific project)

See "Favorite projects" post from the iNaturalist Forum (need to investigate some of these):
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-are-your-favorite-projects/31885

“Dead” Projects:
(These projects are interesting in terms of tracking predation, roadkill, windowkill, disease, unknown mass death events)
Dead Arthropods
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dead-arthropods
Dead Fishes
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dead-fishes
Dead Herps (reptiles and amphibians)
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dead-herps
Dead Birds
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dead-birds
Dead Mammals
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dead-mammals
Global Roadkill Observations (Roadkill Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Arthropods (although it says insects in project description)):
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/global-roadkill-observations
Skulls and Bones
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/skulls-and-bones

Interesting and unusual:
UV fluorescent organisms
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/uv-fluorescent-organisms
Leucistic, albino, etc organisms
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/amazing-aberrants
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/albino-leucistic-birds
Fasciated plants
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fascinating-fasciation
Mimicry:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mimicry-gallery
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/masters-of-mimicry-pseudo-salticidae

(The current plan is that this is going to be an ever-evolving post where I dump new identification resources.
Maybe I'll break up posts by Kingdom--let's see how unwieldy this gets!)

Identification resources:
Arthropods:

Butterfly eggs
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/eggs-egg-coverings-of-terrestrial-invertebrates/journal/82288
Moth eggs
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/eggs-egg-coverings-of-terrestrial-invertebrates/journal/83021
Hemiptera eggs
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/eggs-egg-coverings-of-terrestrial-invertebrates/journal/82290
Things mistaken for insect eggs:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/eggs-egg-coverings-of-terrestrial-invertebrates/journal/82165
ScaleNet-ID insect scales
https://scalenet.info/
Particularly useful is the "Ecological Associates" tab at the top where you can look up lists of scale species by host plants https://scalenet.info/associates/
Currently I look up host plant, then plug the scale genus into iNat for photos. Many species do not have photos on iNaturalist or even when searching the internet.

Tree cricket ID:
Nancy Collins’s iNaturalist bio has ID tips and sources:
https://www.inaturalist.org/people/760944

Moths and butterflies in North America:

https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/publications/3739
Miller, Jeffrey C.; Hammond, Paul C. 2003. Lepidoptera of the Pacific Northwest: caterpillars and adults. FHTET-2003-03. Morgantown, VW: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team. 324 p. (Online only)

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species_list.php?state=#7135
Can look up photos by state. Useful to have a genus to start with.

https://www.butterfliesoforegon.com/

Horticultural plant arthropods-some photos
(see long list on side of individual entry)
https://pnwhandbooks.org/insect/hort/landscape/hosts-pests-landscape-plants/douglas-fir-pseudotsuga-douglas-fir-needle-midge

Kingdom Plants:

Seed resources (seeds often look like insect eggs or insects!)(Thanks @harsiparker !)
http://www.hazmac.biz/seedphotoslistgenus.html
https://www.plantatlas.eu/repository

Mosses:
Common Mosses of Western Oregon and Washington by Bruce McCune and Martin Hutten (Book):
https://www.wildblueberrymedia.net/store/common-mosses-of-western-oregon-and-washington

Mosses, liverworts, hornworts, lichens, lichenicolous fungi:
Rambryum's journal posts with excellent resources for identifying Mosses, Liverworts, Hornworts, Lichens, and Lichenicolous Fungi:
https://www.inaturalist.org/people/rambryum

Lichens:
Book: Macrolichens of the Pacific Northwest by Bruce McCune and Linda Geiser
Overview of lichen forms Wikipedia (online): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen_growth_forms#Leprose
The Lichens of British Columbia: Illustrated Keys by Goward, McCune, Meidinger (online):
https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp59329
Or at https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/srs/srs08.htm

Everybody! Just found out this gall existed! Be on the lookout for stem gall Diplolepis ashmeadi on Rosa nutkana! And maybe on other roses too! Only two observations in iNat! One in CA and one in OR!
See photos:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138790374
and @norikonbu 's observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/140213438
@harsiparker @merav @naturesarchive @nancyasquith @chilipossum @anudibranchmom @megachile
Feel free to "at" people in the comments.
-Andrea

Starts today! Be sure to join the project and add your gall observations https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-2022
I'm going to challenge myself to get as many different gall species in the Bay Area as I can! (While working 4 days this week (ha ha!). And get some new gall species! Today I started in Contra Costa County at Mt Diablo SP to pick up Urchin Gall and Coral Gall (both uncommon on blue oak):
Urchin gall (attaches to the leaf)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133560671
Coral gall (attaches to the stem)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133560733
Tomorrow it's the Livermore Valley area of Alameda County to get various additional oak and willow galls and some on sage.
What are your gall adventures looking like?

Gall aficionados! It's that time again! Fall galls are upon us! To celebrate this lovely diversity, September 3-11 join me and a swarm of other people in photographing galls anywhere in North America and the world and adding them to the project Gall Week 2022! Let's see how many species we can find!
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gall-week-2022

This all started with @naturesarchive posting this observation from Stanislaus County CA this month!: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/126475444
I am in the east bay and I regularly see tons of Grindelia sp. but had not noticed any leafy galls on them before. I assume since the plants are so common they get passed over often by iNatters in favor of rarer wildflowers and flowers with more pollinators. Interestingly enough I was at a project site in Alameda County this week surrounded by Grindelia sp. and once I actually looked I saw leafy galls for the first time! So excited and wanted to post, but they were on private property, so I figured I would try to find them at a public location such as EBRPD Brushy Peak Regional Preserve which is somewhat nearby in the same habitat.
In iNat, I looked up which trails people had seen Grindelia, and set off this morning to find more leafy galls. I looked at 20+ Grindelia plants before finding my first one!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/127795268
Looked at 20 more Grindelia plants and found a second!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/127795308
The third plant with a gall I decided I would split it open to see if it was indeed an insect creating the gall as suspected, and if the gall actually had a chamber--I was in luck:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/127795471
Chamber and larva confirmed!
One more gall from the day:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/127795675
I bet there are many more leafy galls on Grindelia throughout the Bay Area and Central Valley! Keep your eyes peeled! (See a dried up version from Jan 2020):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37360074
-Andrea