The bee parasites are out en force. Blood bees, nomad bees, and worst of all, the bee body snatchers: conopid flies. It’s tough to be a busy bee minding your own business…
Cataglyphis lutea (UAE and parts of India) is a desert dwelling ant, the photos of this ant on iNaturalist caught my eye, since, like Leptomyrmex erythrocephalus (the Spider Ant of Australia), this these little ants fold their gasters over their mesonoma.
Very little is known about Cataglyphis lutea, shockingly little. I can't even find a mention of gaster folding in any of the brief descriptions of this ant.
Agree completely, for most animals, their biology and behaviour is largely undescribed.
Here is an ant acting as a pollinator; its limbs and bristles covered in pollen just like those of bees, wasps, butterflies, beetles and flies. For ants, their role in pollination is a well-described ecosystem service and behaviour in the academic literature, and yet, most people don't know about it.
While walking on the Santa Cruz board walk, I noticed this inquisitive Harbor Seal checking out what the kid was doing on the beach collecting water in their plastic beach bucket. Santa Cruz, California, April 2024
The larvae of these flies are all internal parasites, "most of aculeate (stinging) Hymenoptera. Adult females aggressively intercept their hosts in flight to deposit eggs." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conopidae
A moth rises like a phoenix from the dead. An #iNaturalist observation of a species thought possibly to be extinct. That is until a tourist on Stewart Island got his uv light out for an evening & observed it. #nz#moth enthusiasts are beside themselves with joy. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/202565126
How bias shows up in maps made with citizen science data
Citizen science platforms offer valuable insights into local biodiversity, but biases in data reporting can skew perceptions. Biologist's study reveals how social and ecological factors lead to these biases, influencing species distribution maps. Addressing these issues requires inclusive outreach and community collaboration to ensure accurate, representative data.
“We present a conceptual framework illustrating how social and ecological variables create bias in contributory science data. In this framework, we present four filters—participation, detectability, sampling and preference—that ultimately shape the type and location of contributory biodiversity data. We leverage this framework to examine data from the largest contributory science platforms—eBird and iNaturalist—in St. Louis, Missouri, the United States, and discuss the potential consequences of biased data.”
Found a tiny Christmas tree on my walk today! #iNaturalist tells me it's Tetraphis pellucida. I have no idea how good iNaturalist is at identifying mosses, but it's better than me, so let's go with that.
Every reference photo of the leaf-cutter bee Megachile roeweri at #iNaturalist was unwittingly contributed by me. Thanks to the identifiers for picking up the species; makes my memories of last year's Crete Drosophila neuroscience meeting even sweeter – all are observations from the grounds around the Crete Orthodox Academy at Kolymvari, Crete Island, Greece.
The leaf-cutter bee Megachile roeweri is declared as "Data Deficient (IUCN)" and therefore it's threat status is undefined. Let's see if further contributions to #iNaturalist can help clear this.