Gunter Maywald

Joined: Jul 4, 2022 Last Active: Mar 27, 2024 iNaturalist Australia Monthly Supporter since November 2023

My background is in software development, but I have had an interest in hiking, nature photography and most things to be found in the outdoors for many years. Now in retirement, I have been able to indulge my natural history interests more fully, with particular emphasis on the leaf beetles feeding on eucalypts. I am finding iNaturalist a really useful tool and have learnt an immense amount since starting to use it, as well as enjoying the friendly interactions with other users.

I have expended considerable effort to understand the Australian leaf beetle genera Paropsis and Trachymela, less so Paropsisterna and related genera. That means I can usually identify Paropsis species, but still have an embarrassingly poor knowledge of other groups, even other leaf beetles. Unfortunately, Trachymela is very difficult and has a really large number of species (lots more than are described). Except for a few species with unique external morphological characters, identification to species is usually not possible from photos alone. It is always helpful, however, to have an indication of body length and the host species it was found on.

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