Joined: Oct 6, 2017 Last Active: Oct 11, 2024 iNaturalist Australia
Currently fumbling my way through sorting all of the Australian Phaneropterinae, and then trying to work out which of them actually have names! See this post for a general outline of the process and what exactly is happening.
Entomologist and taxonomist specialising in Australian orthopteroids, particularly mantises (Mantodea) and katydids (Tettigoniidae), but with a keen interest in all orthopteroid insects and of course all organisms! I used to post my own sightings on Bowerbird but now that the site has been shut down I've transferred them all over to iNat. I'm also woefully behind on sorting through all my photos, so most of my sightings will be a number of years old by the time I get to them! Follow me on Facebook for nature photography and entomological musings.
Currently working in Cairns as the Chief Ant Identifier™ at JCU's Insect Ecology Lab, working with the yellow crazy ant eradication program. My own personal research projects at the moment are many and varied, and involve the Fulciniinae, Phaneropterinae, and Argiope (among other things). I also get dragged into other people's various projects on tetrigids, matchstick grasshoppers, huntsmen, ants, and who knows what else. Check out some of my publications here.
I used to do a lot more IDs back in the days when I had more time, and although progress has definitely slowed, I'm still gradually making my way through the archives. My ultimate aim is to provide identifications for every Australian Orthopteroid observation (which will undoubtedly take me a very long time!). For now the short-term goals are to catch up on the Australian Mantodea sightings that I missed, to re-review all of the Australian Tettigoniidae sightings, and to sort all of the Australian Orthoptera sightings at least to family.
For now, I'm happy to help out where I can but lack of time restrains what I can help with. I get a lot of tags, so if you tag me in a sighting I probably won't have time to give an in-depth ID, but I'll try to offer some thoughts and hopefully some sort of ID that I'm comfortable with. If you've tagged me and I haven't replied, I may have missed it so please feel free to reach out again.
I really enjoy trying to identify my own observations, but these days it unfortunately just takes too much time. There's a more detailed explanation of my current plan here, but the short of it is that for now I am mostly going to stick to detailed identifications of orthopteroids. Previous detailed ID comments are all gathered here, some of which are much more in-depth than others (I'm looking at you, barnacles).
As much as I am behind on uploading my sightings, I am aiming for the impossible task of being the top observer for the following taxa in terms of number of species (species with names|Australia only|total including undescribed/undetermined species):
Mantises (66|53|84)
Phasmids (53|47|65)
Katydids (121|96|140)
Polyrhachis (62|61|65)
Some additional things:
How do I identify the South African Mantis (Miomantis caffra)??
Where are the best places for biodiversity and new species?
What if I want to use your photographs?
How can I help out on iNaturalist?
Instructions for staff here