Hi, all, just a quick note to mention three major milestones that the Martha's Vineyard Atlas of Life Project passed in the last few weeks: 4,500 species, 2,000 contributing observers, and 50,000 total observations! These are all impressive figures, highlighting the biodiversity of Martha's Vineyard and the large number of people who are interested in learning about it, and helping others learn. That's a lot of data! Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this project.
-Matt
Hi, all, just a quick comment to note the achievement of another milestone: on the evening of June 6, the MV Atlas of Life project received its 40,000th observation! It looks like Nancy Weaver's Lepidium virginicum was the one that hit the round number.
With 4,158 species currently documented, this project has grown into a tremendous resource for celebrating and studying the unique biodiversity of Martha's Vineyard. Thanks to all of the 1,751 observers who have submitted iNat data from the Vineyard, and to the 3,160 iNat users who have helped identify those observations. Every contribution helps clarify what we have and where it occurs.
Now, on to 50,000!
--Matt
Hi, everyone, thanks for your ongoing efforts to help document the unique biodiversity of Martha's Vineyard! I'd like to let you know about a pending improvement on our MV Atlas of Life (MVAL) website (mval.biodiversityworksmv.org) and to offer a suggestion for how you can make sure your iNaturalist observations are as useful as possible.
With the help of our partners at the Vermont Atlas of Life, we'll soon be installing a "data explorer" add-on to the MVAL website. This will basically be a user-friendly, geographically specific portal for exploring Vineyard data on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). GBIF compiles records from a wide range of sources, including "Research Grade" iNaturalist observations, making those records available for free to researchers anywhere in the world. The data explorer, once installed, will make it easy to search GBIF for Vineyard records from any source (iNat, eBird, uploaded data sets from researchers, etc.). As such, it will complement and extend the checklists we have posted on the MVAL website, and your "Research Grade" iNat observations will automatically be included IF YOUR PHOTOS AND SOUND RECORDINGS HAVE A TYPE OF "CREATIVE COMMONS" LICENSE THAT GBIF IS CONFIGURED TO ACCEPT.
How you license your material in iNat is of course entirely up to you. But if you would like to be sure that your observations get swept into GBIF, it is easy to verify the license type currently applied to your material and to change the license type, if necessary, to one that GBIF will accept. The link below will take you to a document explaining the process and giving more information; I'd urge you to look at the document, follow its instructions for checking your "creative commons" license types, and hopefully make certain that your observations are available to everyone through GBIF:
More information on the data explorer will be shared here, on the MVAL site, and through BiodiversityWorks eNews as we get closer to implementing this change, which will represent a huge increase in the functionality of the MVAL site. Verifying your default license types now will ensure that your observations are already in GBIF when the data explorer goes live.
Many thanks!
-- Matt
Hi, folks, I've added a new checklist of Vineyard Syrphidae (hover flies or flowers flies) to the Martha's Vineyard Atlas of Life website: https://mval.biodiversityworksmv.org/species-lists/hover-flies-syrphidae The checklist is based on iNaturalist "Research Grade" records and includes 31 species plus one species complex and one genus.
Checklists are created in order to be made obsolete, and this one is no exception: I'm confident it includes only a fairly small fraction of the Syrphid species that actually occur on Martha's Vineyard. I look forward to adding many additional species documented through your effort and iNaturalist observations!
-Matt
Just a quick note to remark that the MV Atlas of Life project just hit the 3,000 species mark! We're closing in on 20,000 observations, as well. As data accumulate in iNat, they become more useful, giving an increasingly detailed picture what species occur here, how common they are, and how they are distributed.
Thanks to the 1,268 observers who have contributed observations to the MVAL project, and to the 2,145 identifiers who have contributed their knowledge to maintain the quality of the data in the project.
-Matt
Comrades - I'm happy to announce that the Martha's Vineyard Atlas of Life (MVAL) website has just been launched at mval.biodiversityworksmv.org. A collaboration between BiodiversityWorks and the Betsy and Jesse Fink Family Foundation, the MVAL is a community-driven catalog of Vineyard biodiversity that seeks to inspire and support a community to study, appreciate, and protect the Island's natural heritage. The new website pulls together current and historical wildlife records, natural history and conservation news, and resources for nature study on the Vineyard. The site will grow over time, and if you have suggestions for improvements or materials to add, please let me know either via an iNat message or by email at mpelikan@biodiversityworksmv.org.
The MVAL committed early on to using iNaturalist as a main source of information, and the observations that all of you have submitted to iNat are readily accessible from the MVAL website through links to the MVAL iNat project and saved searches accessed from many groups in our "Species Lists" section. The site strongly encourages iNat usage, and future group treatments in our "Species Lists" section will rely extensively on iNat data. (I hope to get a Hemiptera section and treatments of the fly taxa Syrphidae and Asiloidea up on the website over the next few months.)
I hope you'll have time to check out the new site, and that you find it useful and interesting. Thanks for the contributions you've made to iNat and the MVAL project, and keep on observing!
-Matt Pelikan
We've prepared an identification guide for another challenging group of Vineyard butterflies: the duskywings of the genus Erynnis. Our five species are superficially similar but can be distinguished by details of their appearance, their flight periods, and their habitat and larval host plant associations.
Spring is the peak season for duskywings, with the first members of this genus on the wing in mid-April. Three of our species have just one flight period per year, in spring; the other two also fly in spring but add a second flight period later in the summer. Three of our species are quite common; two are quite rare. Barrens habitat and oak woodland are the best habitats for looking for duskywings. All in all, this is a group of butterflies that's worth your attention! If you start studying duskywings, expect a measure of frustration to start with. But you can safely assume that virtually all the duskywings you see will be one of our three more common species. If you take that as your starting point, consider date and host plant associations, and use the tips provided in the guide, you will quickly grow comfortable with this genus.
You can find the new ID guide at this URL: https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/15057 Or you can navigate to this or our other ID guides by using the search window in the "Guides" section, found under the "More" menu option in the menu bar at the top of your iNaturalist. We look forward to seeing your duskywing observations a bit later in the season!
--Matt Pelikan
The hairstreaks -- an informal group of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae -- rank among the most interesting and challenging butterflies to observe. They are small (about the size of a penny with their wings folded over their backs) and fly rapidly. But once seen, they are gorgeous, gem-like insects, with intricate patterns on their wings. July is peak season for hairstreaks on Martha's Vineyard. In addition to several species that are present through most of the season, several of our hairstreaks have single, summertime flights. So now is the time to seek out these beautiful butterflies. Look for them along fire lanes in Correllus State Forest, on patches of flowering milkweed, or along woodland edges.
To help you learn our hairstreaks, we've produced a simple guide to the nine species that occur during July. We hope it helps you appreciate these insects! You can access the guide here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/14081
--Matt Pelikan
Eleven species of tiger beetles are known from Martha's Vineyard, some of them common and widespread, some of them rare or perhaps even extirpated. Several of our species are of conservation concern, listed under the Massachusetts or Federal Endangered Species Acts. To help facilitate the study of these attractive and interesting beetles on Martha's Vineyard, we've prepared a simple identification guide to the Vineyard's species, accessible here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/13576
Tiger beetles average about a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch in length. As a group, they've generally strongly marked, which makes them fairly easy to identify, and often show iridescent body parts, which makes them attractive. Look for them in open habitat with sparse vegetation or even bare sand. Larval tiger beetles are ambush hunters that live in burrows; adults chase their prey (nearly any sort of small arthropod) down with bursts of incredibly fast running. Tiger beetles can be hard to spot when standing still, and you'll probably find that you notice them most regularly when they flush in response to your movement. But follow them carefully while they're in flight; they typically fly less than 30 feet or so when flushed, and with careful observation you can often spot where they land. Then a more careful approach -- "low and slow" -- will get you into binocular range, or even photography range, allowing identification based on the beetle's color and pattern of markings.
Keep an eye out for these fascinating predator beetles, and be sure to submit any photos you manage to get to iNaturalist. We appreciate your help in studying these important insects!
I've assembled a simple identification guide for the four elfin species that occur on Martha's Vineyard. It can be viewed here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/13462
or accessed through the Guides menu, in the dropdown under "More" on the bar at the top of your iNaturalist screen.
Technically hairstreaks, elfins are small, brownish butterflies generally active early in the season. The first ones may emerge as early as the first week of April, so the time for looking for them is upon us! Their habitat and larval host plants give our elfins a strong affinity for barrens habitat: lean, sandy soils with a mix of oak, pitch pine, bluestem grasses, and blueberry. The edges of the fire lanes in Correllus State Forest are the best place to search for elfins on Martha's Vineyard, but they also occur on bare hilltops and in expanses of open habitat such as are found at Wasque and Long Point. Elfins are generally found basking on the ground, usually near their larval host plant, and while they're capable of rapid flight, they tend to circle back to land at their original perch when they are flushed. Their small size and dark color makes them hard to spot, though this gets easier with practice. Elfins look superficially alike but are easy to identify if you know what to look for. I hope this guide is helpful, and please be sure to post to iNaturalist any elfins you're lucky enough to find.
--Matt Pelikan
