Tootfinder

I'm posting this photograph to confirm my suspicion that the preview card above looks terribly compressed. Is this a known issue with all sites or is iNaturalist doing something unusual? #inaturalist #photography

Here's a close-up of a male Eurytoma. It's the most common chalcid species emerging from my cache of beetle-infested redbud seeds. #inaturalist #eurytoma #wasps https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/354257214

Here's the first bee to visit my mud pan. Possibly a Lasioglossum based on the relatively sparse hairs on abdominal tergites. It's interesting that she took a water break during foraging. #bees #lasioglossum #halictidae #hymenoptera #insects #nature #inaturalist #macro #pollen #pollination https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/363160234

In embarrassing personal news I apparently misidentified a worm as a moray eel. Oops. #nemertea #muraenidae #worms #eels #inaturalist #galapagos #biology https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/322579584

White-dotted mosquito (Culex restuans) that I reared from an egg raft. The scales that form the white dots on the scutum can fall off over time but in a newly-eclosed adult like this an ID is pretty easy. They feed almost exclusively on birds, but sometimes on mammals and thus are one route for transmission of West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis. I think that because of their fondness for birds they are largely up in the tree canopy and thus whole-yard (i.e., ground-level) fogging with pyrethroids is totally ineffective. #virus #wnv #disease #mosquitoes #culex #birds #nature #inaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/359353002

Nature fans: the spring Gall Week starts May 2nd! URL has details on how to participate on iNaturalist, plus links to an excellent podcast featuring Adam Kranz. #nature #biology #inaturalist #cynipidae #galls #insects #mites #wasps https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/257180/journal/129848