All caught up!

Hi everyone,

Nearly a year after creating it, there are now 5583 observations in the North American Leafminers umbrella project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/north-american-leafminers), and I've just finished reviewing all of them. A couple of notes:

• iNat currently has 167 observations for the oak shothole leafminer (Japanagromyza viridula), most of which are in the project--but the vast majority just show the "shot holes" rather than leaf mines. There are supposedly other things that can cause similar holes in oak leaves, so I am only attributing these to J. viridula if there are associated leaf mines. I would prefer not to have photos added to the leafminer project if all they show is the holes. I just quickly scanned through all the J. viridula observations and found just seven that show actual leaf mines:
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5236321
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14453364
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14453365
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14453367
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14453370
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/25991431
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27329971

• The "boxwood leafminer" (Monarthropalpus flavus) is actually a gallmaker rather than a leafminer, despite its common name. It therefore does not belong in the leafminer project, but feel free to put photos of it in the gall project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/galls-of-north-america).

• I've now created a few "species complex" nodes for mines made by two or more closely related species that can't be distinguished without rearing adults:
  Ectoedemia populella group for the "green island" mines on aspen
  Phytomyza ilicis group works for all fly mines on Ilex spp. (I only just created this one tonight, and there are a number of observations currently just identified as "Phytomyza" that belong here)
  Phytomyza minuscula group includes the two species that form linear mines on columbine
  
  I'll create other species complex nodes as needed, now that I've figured out how to do it. Unfortunately the Liriomyza species that form linear mines on white snakeroot aren't necessarily closely related, so I haven't made a special place for all those observations.

I think that's it for now. Keep up the good work!

Charley

Posted on January 11, 2020 03:43 AM by ceiseman