Parasite Projects

I observe a lot of parasites, usually plant parasites. I upload them all to projects, but I don't have a centralized location for all of those projects. An umbrella project wouldn't quite work, because it can't contain other umbrella projects. So, I've made this list of all the parasite-related projects I submit to:

Plant parasites

North American Leafminers for leafminers, barkminers, and stemminers
Galls of North America for arthropodal or fungal galls. I usually don't include the galls that look like leafspots in here
Animal-caused Plant Diseases of North America. I use this one mostly when I can see the parasite, which will usually be an aphid or scale. I try to only add host-specific parasites to this project
Non-metazoan Plant Diseases of North America is a counterpart to the Animal-caused project. I use it for leaf spots, mildews, viruses, and so on.
Root Nodule Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria is for bacteria that form "nodes" on the roots of legumes. These are host-specific. I need to find more of these.

Animal parasites

Animal parasites are usually a lot harder to find than plant parasites, what with animals moving and all. Here's the two I use:
Parasitic and Phoretic Mites for mites that live on other animals, for parasitism or phoresy
Passengers: Parasites Taking Rides. I use this one only for animal parasitoids where I can view the interaction in-action. I wouldn't count an ichneumonid wasp for this project unless I saw it ovipositing in a caterpillar.

Bonus

Unidentifiable Plant Damage is for observations of what I uploaded as a plant parasite only to find that it was some other sort of damage
Host-specific Plant-parasitic Taxa is a collection project for all of the plant parasite groups covered by the projects above. I use it mostly to see what parasites are being observed in my area that I haven't seen. This project works via taxon, so it's not perfect. An aphid observed without its host plant isn't engaging in any visible plant parasitism, but it'll still get added to this project. A leafminer in a taxon that I didn't know had leafminers in it won't be added. It's an endless work in progress.

Posted on 21 de novembro de 2020, 01:16 AM by mws mws

Comentários

Plant parasites are fascinating! Ever since I've started using iNaturalist, I've been seing galls and leafminers everywhere. I'll have to take a look at some of these projects!

Publicado por viandemoisie 3 meses antes

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