Current tally for the 2016 See All the Wild Species Project

[luzula]

Species seen in 2016 as of the last of July, with the tally from last month in parenthesis:

vascular plants: 685 (485)
mosses: 207 (195)
insects: 191 (104)
lichens: 138 (103)
birds: 97 (87)
fungi: 83 (63)
other invertebrates: 48 (42)
other vertebrates: 19 (14)
other plants: 6 (4)

total: 1474 (1097)

It is the season of vascular plants and insects. Sooo many moths this week; I've been luring them into the porchlight at night and taking photographs. Actually I've hardly looked at moths at all before, and it's a lot of fun and not that hard. They're beautiful! Also I've been digging in cow shit to find various species of dung beetles. Cow shit: not actually that disgusting; you can tell it's mostly grass.

I am more than 200 species ahead of my main competitor, but then he is better at insects than I am and might pull ahead in the fall/winter when he can sit down and look at what he's collected in the summer.

Comments

[espresso_addict]

We've been seeing burying beetles dealing with the vole carcasses that our male cat deposits everywhere. Astonishing to see two beetles move a big fat vole corpse several feet over the course of a few hours.

[luzula]

Oh, very cool; I've never seen that.

[jesse_the_k]

Thrilling, truly.

When you see something new, can you recognize the species immediately? or do you sometimes have to do research?

(Do Swedes carry a particular pride in classification thanks to CAROLUS LINNAEUS?)

Do you include your devotion and success in this competition in your CV?

[luzula]

When you see something new, can you recognize the species immediately? or do you sometimes have to do research?

It depends. Mostly on how well I know the organism group--a vascular plant species I will often recognize immediately, or if not, I'll recognize the genus and then look up the species from there. For insects, which I don't know well, I might just recognize the higher-level group (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, etc) and then go from there. And maybe I will fail to figure out the species (sometimes due to lack of literature and sometimes due to lack of experience with that group).

(Do Swedes carry a particular pride in classification thanks to CAROLUS LINNAEUS?)

Maybe? Or at least there's a large subculture of amateur naturalists, larger than in most other countries, I think. I don't know if that's due to Linneaus, or if he himself is a product of that (long-lived) subculture.

Do you include your devotion and success in this competition in your CV?

Ha ha, I probably would if I were to apply for a job where this kind of knowledge was relevant.

[seascribble]

I feel like I'm watching a reality tv show. WILL THE BUG GUY CATCH UP TO THE LICHEN GIRL? WHO WILL TRIUMPH?

[luzula]

Ahaha, I'd watch that TV show. Also, it would be educational!