Annotations

After watching @thebeachcomber 's Advanced Tips for iNaturalist talk, I wanted to share some of my favourite moth demographics charts achieved by annotating observations. @possumpete @stephen169 @dragonette you may also be interested :)

Pasture Day Moth - Apina callisto

Pasture day moth life stage distribution

The Pasture Day Moth has a really nice distinct split between the larval stage and adult stage. The adults (orange) have a strong peak in April, mating and laying eggs (no observations of eggs yet though!). The caterpillars (blue) start being observed in June and are pretty much all burrowed into the soil to pupate by October (eggs maybe, but I'm not sure we'll ever see any observations of pupae - buried too deep). This is such an interesting species in that the caterpillars are active over winter. I think it also helps that there are plenty of observations of the larvae, likely because they are seasonally abundant, conspicuous and distinctive.

Beautiful Leaf Moth - Gastrophora henricaria

Beautiful leaf moth sex distribution

I started annotating this species after seeing several comments by @vicfazio3 on observations that the male (blue) was more frequently observed than the female (orange) - however this may be an artefact of the male's attraction to light, so they are frequently documented at light sheets. If I can figure it out, I'd love to filter the data by day-night and see whether there is still any difference in abundance between the sexes.

Bizarre Looper Moth - Eucyclodes pieroides

Bizarre looper moth sex distribution

To compare with the Beautiful Leaf Moth, I wanted to annotate another geometrid moth with distinct sexual dimorphism, and chose the Bizarre Looper Moth. The males (blue) and females (orange) have relatively similar abundances based on iNaturalist observations, but appear to have shifted peaks in times. The females appear to be slightly more abundant than males early in the year, peak in April and then are less abundant than males in July-August. The males appear to be less abundant than females early in the year, peak in May and are still relatively abundant in August. HOWEVER, I am probably over extrapolating as the sample sizes here are smaller. Also note each of the charts shows total counts rather than relative proportions. Interested to hear other's thoughts and share other interesting charts!

All the above chart screenshots were snipped on 11 September 2021.

Publicado el 10 de septiembre de 2021 a las 03:02 PM por claudiarose claudiarose

Comentarios

These look great, some very interesting patterns! Your second screenshot hasn't worked (for me at least)

Anotado por thebeachcomber hace mas de 2 años

Yeah really interesting stuff thanks Claudia. The value of the annotations is apparent!

Anotado por possumpete hace mas de 2 años

Thanks @thebeachcomber and @possumpete ! I have tried replacing the second graph, please let me know if it's still not loading :)

Anotado por claudiarose hace mas de 2 años

looks good now

Anotado por thebeachcomber hace mas de 2 años

You've convinced me to settle in for a night of annotating. My own observations first then some of the species that might show up some kind of interesting analysis like these.

Anotado por possumpete hace mas de 2 años

Well done. I've done a similar thing several times (I think I did quite a few of the Biz Looper moth ages ago and maybe Apple Looper..?)
It's nice to see the seasonality and M v F graphs on the taxon pages.

:D

Anotado por nicklambert hace mas de 2 años

Glad to hear it @possumpete ! As I am not very experienced at IDing, I like annotating, and if you have any suggestions for which taxa I could tackle next I'd love to help out :) I should also keep an eye on the iNat fora and see if anyone is doing research that would benefit from annotating.

Anotado por claudiarose hace mas de 2 años

Great, but where is the talk about advanced Tips? Can it be seen on YouTube?

Anotado por optilete hace mas de 2 años

Hi @optilete - here it is: https://youtu.be/Hcv_TVhaUVw

I found it very useful!

Cheers

Anotado por possumpete hace mas de 2 años

This looks great! I too am not very experienced at ID-ing but I could see myself doing something like this...

Anotado por dragonette hace cerca de 2 años

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