I'm mostly here for the leaf mines, which are patterns made by tiny insect larvae feeding inside of leaves. These insects belong to over 50 different families of moths, flies, beetles, and sawflies, so I created the Leafminers of North America iNaturalist project where all are welcome to add photos of leaf mines (if you have a leaf mine observation and have no idea what insect is responsible, Pterygota is the lowest common denominator!). I also have an umbrella project here where I can keep track of this along with several leafminer projects covering smaller regions. I check this project constantly, but during the growing season I fall behind due to the high volume of observations and it takes me much of the winter to catch up. I get dozens of notifications a day, so it helps me a lot if people reserve tagging for urgent questions—for instance, if you think you've found larvae of some previously unknown leafminer and you need help rearing it to an adult, or want to verify that it's something new and exciting before bothering to collect it. Note that much of the advice I have to offer is here, but by all means tag or message me if this is your situation.

How do you know if you've found something new and exciting? I've spent over a decade compiling the Leafminers of North America e-book, and I've made the 1800+ page first edition available on a sliding scale basis; you can have the whole thing for five bucks if you want. You can click that link for details, including options for getting the updated second edition. It is tremendously helpful when people take a crack at IDing mines themselves and I get to just click "agree" and move on.

Mines in stems and fruits are also welcome in the leafminer projects. What distinguishes miners from borers is that miners leave externally visible trails as they feed. Gall inducers are the other category of insects that feed inside of plant tissues. Some leaf spot/blister galls can be mistaken for mines, but in galls the externally visible symptom is created by the plant's response to the insect instead of by the insect actively excavating tissue. I've created a Galls of North America project with a corresponding umbrella project here, but I hardly ever look at these; fortunately a bunch of other knowledgeable folks do.

My first book, Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, was published in 2010. It covers all sorts of other bug-related patterns and objects besides galls and leaf mines, and I'm happy to help with any of these types of mysteries. As with leaf mines, I greatly appreciate it when people take the time to check my book before tagging me for help.

I also write a natural history blog, BugTracks, in which I share further observations on these topics (among others). And I'm slowly working on a guide to North American sawfly larvae.

I make my living as a freelance naturalist, conducting natural resource inventories with a focus on natural communities, vascular plants, and vertebrate wildlife.