Observation of the Week, 09/21/2015

iNaturalist is pleased to announced the launch of our Observation of the Week program! Our first Observation of the Week comes from Pavel Kirilov (@pavelkirilov), a biology and chemistry teacher from St. Petersburg, Russia.

Kirilov, who is also a macrophotographer, made this picture of a Ladybird Beetle in Mexico City near the National Autonomous University of Mexico campus, where he found it in the grooved bark of an oak tree.
The Ladybird family, Coccinellidae, is a beetle family with over 5,000 described species found worldwide.
“Since childhood I've been fascinated with nature, especially with bugs, and always dreamed of tropical places,” said Kirilov. “Back when I was growing up, places like Borneo or Mexico seemed like different worlds. Not only were they far away, but travel outside the Soviet Union was restricted back then. Fortunately, that went away in the 1990s.”
Kirilov’s observation was made while out walking a pair of Tibetan Mastiffs that were straining against their leashes, which made stopping to photograph the <10 mm Ladybird specimen with his Nikon D90 and SB 900 flash all the more challenging.

Citizen Scientists: Keep exploring. Keep sharing.

Maybe your discovery will become an iNaturalist Observation of the Week!

By Matthew Monte

Posted on October 31, 2015 01:05 AM by loarie loarie

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