Do you from time to time feel bombarded with requests for you to join an iNat project? If yes, please keep reading!
If the invite doesn’t seem interesting or relevant to you then simply ignore. However if curious then browse their description and if you wish to be alerted when they post more info then consider joining.
Often projects will contain observations from non-project members. In other words it is not necessary to join a project for your observations to be added. Many iNat projects are collection type meaning that they will include any observations that meet certain criteria. Your observations may seamlessly be added to these projects without you noticing. This is good, correct? Observations are posted to iNat so that they can be shared with the public and made accessible to researchers, resource managers, educators, etc. Projects simply group observations together for a given purpose.
I recently read a comment from a local iNatter – they wrote ‘I love it when I look at my observations and see that they have been added to so many different projects’.
Part of iNatting is about learning. Get curious. Browse these projects – how are others connecting with Nature? How are they using your observations? Read their journal articles – perhaps they will entice you to look for additional species and/or note additional info.
Before last year I knew little about galls. My expertise does not lie in plants nor in insects. As those who know me are aware I can at times become competitive. I noticed that others were posting more observations and more species than I was…it started with leaf miners and then quickly expanded to galls. I then became interested in learning how to filter observations and group gall observations. This led to browsing existing iNat gall projects to see how they did it. Many of these were old legacy type iNat projects where one has to manually add observations to a project (yuk!). and then I found a collection project! I then learned that a new term ‘gall’ has been added to the iNat annotation ‘evidence’. If this is selected, then it is simple to filter observations! I then…I then… It is so easy to go down rabbit holes!
Evidence=gall
It is important to populate the evidence field as the name assigned to the observation is for the species. The presence of a gall however does not mean that that species was present at the time that the observation was recorded. Obviously, the species was at that location just no idea when…
If the gall was removed from the plant and dissected perhaps eggs or larvae might be found in which case the life stage of the insect could be added as well. But not all iNatters should be encouraged to pick every gall that they find! A few iNatters however might pick the galls and take them home to see what hatches…once insects emerge then additional observations should be uploaded to inat. And fields populated to tie the time series of observations together.
Many of the original gall projects recommended that iNatters populate a couple of observation fields to reference the host plant. If possible include the name of the host plant in the notes field.
Looking for a new activity or a new iNat challenge? Look no further!
In preparation for the 2023 Gall Week and the 2023CNC we set up a new activity – we are calling this a ‘Galling Data Quest’.
If you are new to posting observations of galls on iNaturalist then you have a bit of homework to do. First you need to know what a gall is! Of course, there is a lot of info online…Here is the definition according to the gallformers.org: Plant galls are abnormal growths of plant tissues, similar to tumors or warts in animals, that have an external cause--such as an insect, mite, nematode, virus, fungus, bacterium, or even another plant species. Growths caused by genetic mutations are not galls. Nor are lerps and other constructions on a plant that do not contain plant tissue. Plant galls are often complex structures that in most cases allow the insect or mite that caused the gall to be identified even if that insect or mite is not visible. (https://gallformers.org/glossary)
To facilitate identification of gall observations on iNaturalist the iNatter needs to provide photos of not just the gall but also of the host plant and position of the gall on the host plant.
Galling Activity #1
- Step 1. When you come across a gall when out exploring make sure that you take a number of photos. Basic guidelines suggest that you take a closeup (or two) of the gall and include a photo showing the position of the gall on the host plant and another photo that can help ID the host plant.
- Step 2a. Upload photos to iNaturalist. Combine the multiple views into one observation. The iNat species recognition software is very good for identifying galls – if you don’t recognize the suggested name(s) browse content on inat and/or dig out a field guide. If you feel uncomfortable choosing one of these names there is always the option to add the generic name ‘Insect’.
- Step 2b. (optional) Consider adding a second observation for the host plant. Add a note to reference the gall observation. And on the gall observation add a note to indicate if a separate observation was uploaded for the host plant.
- Step 3a. Don't forget to add information about the host plant (example ‘gall observed on a rose bush’) as a note.
- Step 3b. (optional). Provide information about the host plant in the observation fields: Host and Host plant ID field. You can also link (add the URL)to the host plant observation if you're not sure what it was.
- Step 3c. (optional). Under annotations click evidence of presence and select gall. (This step can be done by iNat identifiers)
Before heading out do a little exploring online. What type of galls have other iNatters observed in the past? Check out this umbrella project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/north-american-galls
Add a few filters for your area and time of year. Here is a link to observations from the ‘All your galls are belong to us’ project that were observed in the Canadian Atlantic Provinces in April.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?month=4&place_id=6853,7289,9116,7587&project_id=all-your-galls-are-belong-to-us&subview=map&view=species
