James Kindt

Entrou: 31 de mai. de 2019 Última vez ativo: 27 de mar. de 2024 iNaturalist

I am concentrating on documenting the bees in my area, or wherever I happen to visit, but otherwise will try to make observations of anything that's uncommon or new to me. I use an iphone with a Ztylus Revolver macro lens for my observations, which means that I have to get close to the subjects - a fun challenge! - and try to get shots from a number of angles.

I am extremely appreciative towards those experts (professionals, students, and amateurs) who contribute ID's. It actually guides where I direct my observing - knowing that someone is going to be paying attention to observations of a certain taxon makes me much more likely to try to get those observations. For instance, since there are some very active leafhopper and treehopper experts, I was paying enough attention to hoppers to be fortunate enough to stumble upon a recently described species, Hebetica sylviae, and get the first images for iNaturalist.

I try to pay it forward by making ID's of species that I know well enough to evaluate with some confidence - either common species (a number of lady beetles, a few wasps and bees, syrphids, and bugs) or less common ones that I've seen. Hopefully, by sorting through (and sometimes correcting) the piles of observations of common species I can save the experts time that they can use to work on the more gnarly and interesting questions. I use Bugguide and other sources to check that I'm using valid criteria and I try to give an explanation if I'm disagreeing with an ID. In all cases, I welcome questions and corrections.

I've put together a compilation of some of my bee photos, with some commentary (aimed at a general audience) about my hobby and what I've learned about bee behavior and the different taxa I've run into, here on a Google slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TTyMmimrCSsGqAGrhZ0mZPOMwgMfhSt6dlaAUsw6I2Y/edit?usp=sharing

Corrections are welcome.

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