Our Observation of the Week is this Long-horned Beetle in the genus Dichostatoides, seen in Nigeria by @bibitee!

Currently Head of the Department of Wildlife and Ecotourism Management at Osun State University, Osogbo in Nigeria, Owolabi Bibitayo Ayobami tells me 

I’ve been in touch with nature right from my childhood days. My parents showed me the way of conserving natural resources in my early days, they are my motivating factors. Presently, I’m into ornithological research. Alongside ornithology, I study lepidoptera and odonata as well.

When returning to his office after some field work with an apiary group, Bibitayo noticed the large beetle shown above on the door to his office. 

I said to my graduate assistant that we must have come with this guy from the forest and I decided to take the picture and post. It is in my usual character to take pictures of any biodiversity around me. And that’s how the whole drama played out.

iNat user @fubr, who specializes in African beetles, identified Bibitayo’s beetle as being in the genus Dichostatoides, making it the first observation of that genus on iNat! It may also be the first known photo of a living Dichostatoides specimen. It’s a member of the long-horned beetle family (Cerambycidae), the larvae of which feed on plant material and often bore into wood. There are around 35,000 described species in the family.

Bibitayo (above) joined iNat back in 2019 and says 

iNat has helped my students to get closer to nature. They are so conscious of the tiniest of all biodiversity around them and I see loads and loads of pictures from butterflies to ants and birds. It is a great platform to learn about nature.

(Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.)

- long-horned beetles are among the most visually stunning of the beetle families, check out the most-faved observations of them on iNat!

- Bibitayo’s featured in this video about Hooded Vulture conservation. Note that it does contain some tough imagery and subject matter.

- @abubakaringim's Yellow-winged Bat, seen in Nigeria, was a previous Observation of the Week!

When we first introduced the Geomodel, we mentioned its potential to help surface unusual observations. Today, we’re thrilled to share the first step in realizing that vision. Internally, we've been calling this the "Anomaly Detector"

For the more than 90,000 species included in the Geomodel, like the Joro Spider shown below, we’ve now ranked observations by their “unusualness” using relative Geo scores. The Joro Spider, native to Asia, is rapidly spreading across the southeastern US.

On the unthresholded Geomodel map below, observations (orange points) in lighter blue areas, where Geo scores are lower, are considered more unusual. For instance, the most unusual Joro Spider sighting is in Oklahoma, followed by two observations in Boston—where they’ve recently made headlines.

You can now use new filters in the Identify tool to search for these unusual observations. Here’s how:

1. Enable Research Grade: The Identify tool defaults to showing Needs ID observations only, so toggle on Research Grade observations first.
2. Sort by Geo Score: Set the Sort By option to the new Geo score (Ascending) filter.
3. Exclude Private Locations: Use the Hide observations with private locations option to exclude those records.
4. Not Expected Nearby: To focus on truly unusual sightings, select the Not expected nearby option, which displays observations falling outside the blue “Expected Nearby” area on the thresholded Geomodel map.
5. Refine Accuracy: To exclude observations with imprecise locations, enter a number in meters in the Maximum positional accuracy filter.

Understanding Unusual Observations

Unusual observations tend to fall into two categories: errors (e.g., Misidentifications or Inaccurate locations) and interesting discoveries (e.g., Joro Spiders arriving in Boston). Right now, most of the surfaced observations fall into the error category.

Please use this tool to correct these mistakes!

• For Inaccurate Locations: Kindly ask the observer to double-check the location by leaving a polite comment and voting "No" on "Location is Accurate."

• For Misidentifications: Submit a correcting identification or a disagreeing ancestor ID.

However, not all unusual observations are mistakes. As with the Joro Spider in Boston, some may represent important findings, so it’s crucial to carefully evaluate each case. When in doubt, politely engage the observer and the community for clarification.

The Limitations of the Geomodel

It’s important to note that the Geomodel isn’t perfect. For example, even though there’s a well-documented introduced population of Italian Cave Salamanders in Germany (with over 60 observations), the Geomodel hasn’t yet learned about this range and flags these observations as “Not Expected Nearby” with low Geo scores. We’re actively working to improve the Geomodel’s predictive accuracy, but keep in mind that its current limitations can affect how observations are surfaced.

Looking Ahead

We hope this tool will shine a spotlight on unusual observations in iNaturalist. In the short term, it may mostly help flag inaccurate locations and fix misidentifications—critical work that enhances the quality of the iNaturalist dataset. But in the long run, we believe this feature could evolve into an exciting and powerful Early Detection System for iNaturalist, allowing us to more rapidly surface important discoveries, like invasive Joro Spiders in new areas, which could ultimately help conservationists and invasive species managers respond more effectively.

Thank you to everyone who helps improve the data quality and surface exciting discoveries!

We've released v2.16 today with 1,389 new species (94,758 taxa up from 93,369). This new model was trained on data exported on September 1st, 2024.

Here's a graph of the model's release schedule since early 2022 (segments extend from data export date to model release date) and how the number of species included in each model has increased over time.

The graph below shows model accuracy estimates using 1,000 random Research Grade observations in each group not seen during training time. The paired bars below compare average accuracy of model 2.15 with the new model 2.16. Each bar shows the accuracy from Computer Vision alone (dark green) and Computer Vision + Geo (green). Overall the average accuracy of 2.16 is 90.7% (statistically the same as 2.15 at 90.6% - as described here we probably expect ~2% variance all other things being equal among experiments).

Here is a sample of new species added to v2.16:

• Arachnida
• Aves
• Fungi
• Actinopterygii
• Amphibia
• Other Animalia
• Mollusca
• Chromista
• Mammalia
• Reptilia
• Insecta
• Plantae

We are excited to announce the newest addition to our team, Kirk van Gorkom. In this new role as Head of Engineering, Kirk will be part of the Leadership Team. Kirk brings extensive experience in leading the development of user-facing products.

Kirk is passionate about building products that directly improve lives and is thrilled to continue that work for iNaturalist. Driven by that passion, Kirk joined a startup that delivered personalized fitness experiences through machine learning on community data. Following the company’s acquisition by Fitbit, he spent several years in management roles leading teams building scalable coaching platforms to help people better understand their health and reach their fitness potential. After Fitbit was acquired by Google, Kirk played a key leadership role in the transition to help their software reach millions more people. His experiences have shaped him into a versatile engineering leader with deep technical expertise across various domains.

His ability to lead teams in sustainably building robust, high-performance systems, while keeping user experience at the forefront, aligns perfectly with iNaturalist’s needs. As the Head of Engineering, Kirk will oversee all engineering efforts, ensuring that our technical strategies align with our mission to connect people to nature and advance science and conservation.

Please join us in giving Kirk a warm welcome to the team!

Our Observation of the Week is this Limnospira cyanobacteria, seen in Thailand by @algaholic!

No, that’s not an old telephone handset cord, it’s the tiny tiny filament of a  Limnospira cyanobacteria! iNatter algaholic has been posting their amazing microscopy images to Instagram and other social media platforms for quite some time and people suggested that they join iNat as well - and we’re glad they did!

Joining last November, this is the second of their observations to be chosen as Observation of the Day (see the previous one), and they tell me 

Whenever I pass through a park or lake or other sources, I like to collect samples for observations (if it's not dangerous for sampling.). This August I found algal blooming at a park in Bangkok Thailand and it was a kind of blooming Limnospira sp.

Cyanobacteria are commonly known as “blue-green algae” but they are not algae all. Rather, they are photosynthetic bacteria and are thought to be the first organisms to have produced oxygen. They often aggregate into quite a few different forms. 

I reached out to identifier extraordinaire @roman_romanov about this find, and tells me that what’s pictured here is a “filament consisting of numerous cells,” part of the trichome of the cyanobacteria. 

Spiral trichomes without difference in cells and without mucilage around trichomes indicate Limnospira. This trichome consists of short cells. The transverse cell walls are recognizable. Species of Limnospira are delineated with size of cells, proportions between cell length and width, traits of coiling, shape of trichomes (narrowing to the ends or cylindrical), shape of end cells, presence or absence of aerotopes in cells. Some of them are not well described and their identification is tricky.

algaholic will continue to find and photograph the amazing tiny mico algae and posting them to iNat and elsewhere. They enjoy looking at algae posted here from other parts of the world, as well as adding identifications to those observations where they can.

- check out algaholic’s YouTube page!

- we profiled @roman_romanov a while ago, take a look!

- there are nearly 30k cyanobacteria observations on iNat, you can find them here!

Our Observation of the Day is this Tree of the Sorcerers plant (Latua pubiflora, latué in Spanish), seen in Chile by @josefina_ibanezb!

Currently an engineer in the field of renewable natural resources who specializes in flora and vegetation, Josefina Ibáñez says she’s had a deep interest in learning about nature and outdoor activities from a young age.

Her job has taken her to different ecosystems around the country, helping her to “to learn more and more about Chilean biodiversity and also understanding its great relevance worldwide due to its high degree of endemism.” 

Recently she visited an evergreen forest (bosque siempreverde), she and her colleagues spotted some of the plants you see photographed above, 

which stood out among the density of the forest and its species. In the middle of a heavy rain, we stopped to photograph this plant, which immediately captivated our attention with its striking color and particular beauty!

Like many other members of the nightshade family, tree of the sorcerors is quite toxic to humans and can be deadly if the dose is large enough. At lower concentration levels, though, it is a deliriant and has long been used as an entheogen by indigenous peoples of the area. Its flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds.

Josefina (above) joined iNat back in 2019, and tells me “iNaturalist has allowed me to share not only flora records, but also to continue learning from it and also to learn about other types of species that inhabit the different ecosystems of Chile.”

- while many nightshades are toxic to humans, quite a few are consumed widely around the world, including tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes.

- the Wikipedia sections on tree of the sorcerors’ toxicity and use by humans are pretty fascinating.

iNaturalist has been awarded the prestigious 29th Heinz Award for the Environment! This award celebrates innovative solutions to environmental challenges, and iNaturalist’s community science platform has provided just that—mobilizing millions of people to engage with nature and contribute over 200 million records for science. These contributions have helped document species, inform conservation strategies, and enhance our collective understanding of the natural world.

The award formally recognizes iNaturalist co-founder Ken-ichi Ueda and Executive Director Dr. Scott Loarie, but they want to emphasize that this award honors iNaturalist and was made possible by the efforts of the incredible iNaturalist community and staff.

“Ken-ichi and I are humbled to accept this award on behalf of iNaturalist,” said Scott Loarie. “All credit goes to the millions of nature explorers and expert naturalists who’ve shared their expertise, will, and passion on iNaturalist and to our incredible team. We’re so grateful to see iNaturalist honored as an example of the great things we can accomplish when we work together.”

Since its inception in 2008, iNaturalist has played a critical role in driving conservation efforts worldwide. Observations from its global community have been used in more than 5,000 scientific publications, contributing to the discovery of new species, tracking the impact of climate change, and shaping biodiversity policies globally. Since becoming an independent nonprofit in July 2023, the number of verifiable observations has grown by over 50%.

“There are over a million species at risk of extinction this century, and the solution hinges upon two critical factors: an engaged public that cares and a robust data set to drive smart conservation decisions. That’s why our team is passionate about this work,” Loarie states.

Dr. Carrie Seltzer, Head of Engagement, remarks, “The iNaturalist team set out to create a tool that would make exploring nature more accessible for everyone, and today we’re proud to see how this community has become essential to understanding the current state of biodiversity. I like to call us a ‘force for nature’ and this recognition from the Heinz Family Foundation fuels our ambition to continue growing this movement.”

The power of iNaturalist lies in its diverse and generous community. With members ranging from high school students and retirees to scientists and land managers, the platform thrives on participation from people of all walks of life.

“Through iNaturalist, Scott and Ken-ichi are advancing citizen science at a remarkable scale, enabling people from all walks of life, communities and backgrounds to connect with the wonder of nature,” says Teresa Heinz, Chairman of the Heinz Family Foundation. “Through their work, they inspire us to embrace curiosity, to be active participants in discovery and to pay attention to the remarkable diversity of life that is all around us, regardless of where we live. We honor Scott and Ken-ichi for creating a platform that not only welcomes everyone to contribute to our collective knowledge of biodiversity, but one that is also a model for public discourse, camaraderie and respectful engagement. These are qualities my late husband, John Heinz, exemplified in his life and work, and that we celebrate through the Heinz Awards each year.”

Past recipients of the Heinz Award include the founder of environmental journalism site Mongabay, the founder of Outdoor Afro, as well as environmental scientists such as Gretchen Daily and Jane Lubchenco, and innovators such as Steve Wozniak.

Becoming an Even Greater Force for Nature

Looking ahead, iNaturalist will use the $250,000 award to invest in making the platform more engaging and improving data quality. “We're just getting started,” said Loarie. “By 2030, we hope to build a global movement for nature, capable of advocating for, monitoring, and protecting species worldwide. The Heinz Award for the Environment is a huge milestone on this journey that we hope will energize and inspire the iNaturalist community.”

Our Observation of the Week is this remarkable scene captured in India by @santosh-vithura: an Assassin Bug (potentially Euagoras plagiatus) feeding on a mating Footman Moth (Nepita conferta)!

Santosh wrote a very nice piece this week and I’m posting it in full with only some minor copy edits and added links. The paragraph with info about the two organisms was written by me and is in italics. - Tony

I have always been fascinated by nature and its living and non-living elements. I am often in awe of the invisible connections that link living creatures to one another. My work focuses on observing and recording the fine and intricate details of the natural world around me. Currently, I've chosen to photograph arthropods, which I find complex, beautiful, and a source of daily inspiration.

By profession I am a physicist but I now dedicate a significant portion of my time to taking macro photographs of insects. I strive to interfere as little as possible with my subjects, never collecting or disturbing them in their natural habitats. I feel privileged to simply observe them in the wild.

I live near the foothills of the Agasthyamala mountains in Kerala, India, where lush greenery surrounds me for most of the year. The region receives ample rainfall and is dotted with natural springs and waterfalls. The environment is pristine, and rich in flora and fauna.

In my daily routine, I spend six to seven hours scanning the short grasses and shrubs for tiny arthropods, all while keeping an eye out for snakes and scorpions. During this particular macro photoshoot, I noticed a mating pair of Nepita conferta. Nearby, I also spotted an assassin bug, Euagoras sp., which swiftly attacked the female. Typically, the female would take flight and carry both herself and the male to safety, but this time, the assassin bug claimed its meal.

Footman moths are the only member of the genus Nepita and they occur in India and Sri Lanka, living in moist habitats where the larvae can devour moss and lichens. Assassin bugs, like all bugs (order Hemiptera), have a proboscis for piercing and sucking. After piercing their prey with it, assassin bugs inject digestive juices that kill the prey and liquefy its insides, making it suitable for ingestion. 

I've been photographing insects regularly for the past year and have been able to record my findings systematically using the iNaturalist app. The database and its identification tools have been incredibly helpful in my work, and I've even identified several rarely sighted arthropods with the help of the experts on iNaturalist. I'm now considering a career in professional macro photography and am planning to publish a book based on my fieldwork.

For those interested in following my daily updates from Vithura, Kerala, you may visit my Facebook profile.

(Photo of Santosh by Shabnam Iyyani, IISER TVM)

Our Observation of the Week is this Carea moth caterpillar, seen in Malaysia by @rhinolin!

This July, Lin Yu Fan, a naturalist from Hangzhou, China, found himself hiking in the Damai Rainforest Resort in Sarawak, Malaysia. A family traveling with him spotted an interesting snail, which he photographed and posted to iNaturalist and initially identified it as a snail when he got home.

On August 18th, iNatter @larry216 sent me a message and suggested it as an observation of the day, writing

I came across it while reviewing identifications for Pythia, a genus of rare land snails from southern Asia, through the Indo-Pacific, to the South Pacific. I noticed a few things that were odd about this one, which led me on some late night research in the category of “What the heck is that???” The results can be summarized by the questions, “When is a land snail really a caterpillar? When is its ‘head’ really its ‘tail’?”

Larry identified it as the caterpillar of a Carea moth (check out those small legs, above), and that ID was confirmed by moth expert Dr. Roger C. Kendrick (@hkmoths). Yup, it’s a caterpillar that mimics a snail! I reached out to Dr. Kendrick about this taxon, and he recommend I check out Jeremy Holloway's write up of the tribe Careini in the Moths of Borneo, which states “The larvae are characterised by a ‘berry-like’ swelling of the thoracic segments.” 

For his part, Lin Yu Fan says 

[The family and I] were completely deceived by its camouflage, thinking it was a special type of snail, and I didn’t notice it when I uploaded the records later. Big thanks to @larry216 and @hkmoths for help with identification.

Back at home, Lin Yu Fan (above) serves as a nature educator. 

My main job is to lead others to go outdoors, observe nature, think about the relationship between man and nature, and establish a connection between myself and nature. On weekends we will do activities in parks and mountains around Hangzhou, and during long holidays we will go to different provinces in China or other countries. In these camps, campers are always enthusiastic and very observant. Although I am the one who brings them to these places, it is often they who help me discover more creatures that I have not noticed, and this observation is an example. It’s a process of helping each other and learning, which I enjoy very much.

He joined iNaturalist about four years ago, on the recommendation of his friend @smalltown_huang, who he says “has uploaded many amazing records himself and is very enthusiastic about identifying the records of others.”

This system and the people in the community help me understand more different organisms and form my own database, which allows me to better prepare for my nature courses. Many thanks to all staff and community partners….I hope that in the future I can continue to upload records on the platform, assist in identification, and make more friends.

- take a gander at photos of adult Carea moths, or check out more photos of the caterpillars!

- learn more about caterpillars and caterpillar research in this interview with @gaudettelaura!

- if you want to help out with annotations, like annotating lepidoptera observations as adults, larvae, pupae, etc., check out this tutorial!

We hope everyone had a great August! Here are monthly news highlights. If you’d like to catch up on highlights from the previous month you can do so here.

Invasive Species Management

A. In Minnesota, @gonodactylus's observation of the first invasive Elm Zigzag Sawfly caught the attention of the state’s Department of Agriculture. In the following weeks, @wildcarrot and others found more records bringing the tally to 5.

B. In New York, this Smithsonian Magazine article recounts @samanthakennett, @robrdunn, and @clintpenick’s discovery of the mysterious “ManhattAnt” invading the city and the role of their iNaturalist Project ManhattAnt collecting observations like this one by @janewaters.

C. In Missouri, Italian Wall Lizards rapidly spreading around the city of Joplin were just added to the state’s prohibited species list. To manage the invasion, Missouri Department of Conservation and Texas A&M researchers including @brichey set up the Italian Wall Lizards in America project on iNaturalist to compile observations like this one by @madelineshowers.

D. In New Zealand, @kate_mcalpine and @chowell’s new List of environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 is an excellent example of how iNaturalist can help researchers assess and update country level exotic plant inventories.

Species Discoveries

E. In Mexico, this Science Friday story recounts how @patrick60 and @xanergo’s investigation into an observation by @pinedaperez may represent the rediscovery of an enigmatic Mexican beebalm and the future work they've planned to resolve the mystery.

F. In Arizona, meet Aphonopelma jacobii a new species of tarantula discovered by and named after @michael_jacobi with the help of observations like this one by @sunny1az

G. Browsing iNaturalist observations from Central America, @fauna_mirifica found 7 observations of a wasp known only from a single specimen collected in the 1850s in West Africa. The study concludes that the specimen was likely mislabeled as being from Africa and is in fact a lost native Central American species.

H. In Arizona, @mantodeology described the Sonoran Tiger Mantis as a new species with the help of iNaturalist observations like this one by @biologandoconmiguel.

Range Extensions

I. In the UK, @cdjshepherd’s observation of an Ichneumonid Wasp was noticed by @malcolmstorey as a species new to Britain. @lennartbendixen and cdjshepherd published the discovery here.

J. In California, the island endemic San Clemente Digger Bee had first shown up on the mainland in 2020 but was absent the last 3 seasons. This article tells how thanks to observations like this one by @patsimpson2000, the San Clemente Digger Bee's reappearance in 2024 was documented.

K. In Mexico, @pedro_nahuat and colleagues used iNaturalist observations to help document Mourning Gecko’s arrival in southern Mexico.

Species Conservation

L. In Australia, @jpacker and coauthor’s article on how citizen scientists can help save threatened species highlights the Fungimap Australia project which helped assess the conservation status of at least 13 species of fungus.

M. In Oklahoma, this article by @heather_del_moral from the state Department of Wildlife Conservation highlights her colleague’s @shelligray’s adventures with iNaturalist including finding this dragonfly county record.

N. In Wisconsin, @jnross4 from the Department of Natural Resources explained in a Wisconsin National Public Radio interview how iNaturalist is helping citizens document rare plants like this threatened Pitcher’s Thistle observed by @ehjalmarson.

Speaking of rare species, the lost bird paper leveraging iNaturalist that we previously highlighted (B in the June Highlights) was featured this month in both the New York Times and the Smithsonian Magazine.

Climate Change

O. In California, this Smithsonian Magazine article describes a unique fluorescent color morph of Sunburst sea anemone that is more resilient to climate change. The recent PNAS paper by researchers including @pearse that made this discovery used iNaturalist observations like this one by @allisonjgong to understand how this morph is spreading along the coast.

iEcology

P. In Southeast Asia, @rodyt and colleagues used photos of hunting Golden Treesnakes from iNaturalist such as this one by @natalie to understand the diversity of lizard prey.

Q. In Alaska, photos of whale behavior like this one by @guillaumecalcagni are helping advance research on whales and dolphins according to @shemunger in this study.

AI Naturalist

R. In the Red Sea, researchers used observations of coral reef fishes like this one by @anita363 to train models to autonomously track fish interactions and behavior as described in this article.

Meanwhile, @macaodha’s lab at the University of Edinburgh published new techniques that may help improve the iNaturalist Geomodel.

Bioblitzes and Events

S. In Australia, the Sunshine Coast Marine Bioblitz logged 500 species including this Dusky Butterflyfish by @melinakeane.

T. In Belize, the University of Belize Environmental Research Institute hosted a bioblitz that logged over 1,000 observations including this horse lubber seen by @kamillemendez.

U. In Japan, the ongoing Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections Biodiversity Information Standards Conference is hosting an accompanying bioblitz - thank you @vijaybarve for organizing!

V. In Tennessee, we love how @murfreesborotn-nr is incorporating restoration into their Mufree Spring Wetland project.

iNatters in the News

W. In Texas, iNaturalist superhero @sambiology makes an appearance in this great story about nocturnal urban wildlife.

X. In Acadia, the National Park Service published an article by @ninafoster on how iNaturalist is informing park managers on ecological threats.

Y. In California, we enjoyed @matthew_bettelheim’s article in Bay Nature on how to identify California local turtles.

Z. Also in California. @dutchbill’s encounter with an invading barred owl is recounted here.

Thank you to everyone who participated on iNaturalist this August! You can become an iNaturalist supporter by clicking the link below:

Donate to iNaturalist