Heyo, fly folk!
This week we will continue with New England Diptera and focus on identifying the common families of Brachycera that we see regularly in the region.
Date & Time: 8 PM EDT on Sunday, December 3rd.
Join here: Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 874 5687 3015
Passcode: diptera
Identify Link we will use: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?order_by=random&place_id=52339&taxon_id=48091&lrank=zoosubsection
Heyo, fly folk!
Last week was rather successful, so we are continuing with common families of Brachycera in New England! Keep an eye out, because next week we'll be taking a break from the region... :o
Date & Time: 8 PM EDT on Sunday, December 10th.
Join here: Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 874 5687 3015
Passcode: diptera
Identify Link we will use: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?order_by=random&place_id=52339&taxon_id=48091&lrank=zoosubsection
(photo by @zdanko)
Would you like to help ensure our observations on iNaturalist are identified? Are you willing to start becoming an leader for species with many 'needs ID' observations and few qualified identifiers? Below, I offer suggestions for you to learn skills and strategies used by expert insect identifiers on iNaturalist. North American Bibionidae are a good starting point.
Bibionidae, often called 'March Flies', are a common group of insects that can be found at different times of year. I built this free field guide to the 57 species in the USA and Canada: https://sites.google.com/view/flyguide/species-guides/bibionidae/guide-to-nearctic-species-of-bibionidae (you can download a pdf by clicking on the options menu)
The first page of my field guide includes an 'Identify' link for iNaturalist that you can modify further (see 'Identifying Observations,' https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started). My guide includes all of the USA and Canada, but I suggest you choose a smaller area, such as a single state or province, to focus on at the beginning. I recommend you make your own copy of my field guide in google docs and remove the slides for species that don't occur in your area. If you add notes to your own 'personal field guide,' you'll learn a lot faster.
If you're interested in ongoing training and support, we can start at your convenience. To begin with, I'd encourage you to do your best to ID one to five 'needs ID' observations. For each observation, please tag me with a comment like "I'm thinking it's species X because of it's bright purple legs, does that seem right?" or "I wasn't sure how to ID this beyond family, because the wings are so backlit. Do you have any tips?"
I'll do my best to respond quickly to your comments, and then you should continue to leave IDs at your convenience. You should keep tagging me whenever you are unsure and want feedback. I don't mind being tagged on dozens of observations at a time, as long as they represent a real desire to learn. If you can, I'd suggest you aim to make at least 15 identifications a day over multiple weeks. Aim for a few hundred a day if you're feeling particularly ambitious :)
Learning from failure is important. If you want to succeed, I urge you to leave IDs based on your understanding, even when you're not confident in yourself -- at the very least, suggest your ID in a comment. If you're overly cautious, that can be the worst obstacle to your success. When I visit museum entomological collections and look at identifications left by world experts a hundred years ago or just recently, I often find many mistakes. That's okay, that's how things work, and you should be prepared to learn the same way.
I also recommend you use the 'Identify' tool or some other method to review observations that have already been sent to Research Grade. This is an effective way to build confidence on observations that tend to be easier. There may be a lot of misidentifications that have reached research grade for some species (like those with computer vision suggestions). As you go, please challenge any past identifications that don't make sense to you, because everyone makes mistakes -- I am 100% certain there are some mistakes in my past identifications, for example.
If you have any questions about morphological terms, I recommend starting with Volume 1, chapter 3 of the Afrotropical Manual of Diptera which you can download for free here: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/research/projects/manual-afrotropical-diptera.html
Please feel free to message @edanko with any questions!
Heyo, fly folk!
So sorry about the late notice! This week's workshop will introduce the identification of and within the family Ephydridae, or shore flies. Since we don't yet have a guide for this group, I will work on notes as we identify. We'll begin by examining some common species and genera and how to recognize them.
Date & Time: 8 PM EDT on Sunday, December 17th.
Join here: Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 874 5687 3015
Passcode: diptera
Identify Link we will use: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?order_by=random&taxon_id=84670&lrank=family
Heyo, fly folk!
Happy holidays! As I'm not expecting many people to join us this Sunday, we will simply review last week's meeting.
Date & Time: 8 PM EST on Sunday, December 24th.
Join here: Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 874 5687 3015
Passcode: diptera
Identify Link we will use: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?order_by=random&taxon_id=84670&lrank=family
Heyo, fly folk!
Taking a step back in time today! This week we'll be shifting focus temporarily (for maybe a few weeks) to Bibionidae, led by @mabuva2021. He'll start with a review of the genera, which we learned about in February, and then discuss some common species in the US and Canada.
Date & Time: 8 PM EST on Sunday, December 31st.
Join here: Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 846 7028 0918
Passcode: 255336
Identify Link we will use: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?order_by=random&taxon_id=56097&lrank=family&place_id=1,6712
