I'm a biologist in the Department of Biological Sciences at Tarleton State University. I have a life-long interest in natural history and broad experience including paleontology, wildlife biology, and population and evolutionary genetics. I don't consider myself to be an expert in anything, but I'm interested in almost everything.

I'm @rspfau@ecoevo.social on Mastodon.

I manage the iNaturalist project for the Timberlake Biological Field Station in Mills County, TX. Our goal is to develop a comprehensive inventory of species at the field station to inform and guide future research projects

Taxa I've been focusing on

I enjoy learning how to distinguish groups of related species and helping to curate them here on iNaturalist. Taxa that I've been curating include:
Insects

• Bombus (only the "easy" species) in southern half of U.S. [ID guide | ID modal]
• Apiomerus assassin bugs in the U.S. [species | ID modal]
• Stenopodinae assassin bugs in U.S and Canada [ID modal]
• Zelus assassin bugs in the U.S. and Canada [ID guide | species | ID modal (U.S. and Canada)]
• Perillus stink bugs in the U.S. [species | ID modal]
• Alydidae (broad-headed bugs) [Notes on Alydus ID | ID modal (U.S. and Canada)]
• Cactus bugs (Chelinidea) [ID notes]
• Mantidflies in the U.S. [species | ID modal (U.S. and Canada)]
• Moths of the genus Microtheoris [ID guide | species | distinguishing characters | ID modal]

Plants

• Arabidea species in TX [ID guide | species | ID modal]
• Agalinis (false foxglove) species in TX [ID guide | species | ID modal]
• Anemones (the wildflowers) in TX, OK [ID guide | Pollination ecology | ID modal]
• White rain lilies in TX [ID guide | ID modal]

Mammals

• Geomys (gophers) in North America [ID information | species]

Misc.

• ID modal for things identified only as Arachnids (can edit filter to display observations identified to a different range of taxonomic ranks--first rank box is the highest rank, second rank box is lowest rank). I have it sorted to show oldest posts first.
• And, of course, one can change the focal taxa and location (e.g. things only identified as beetles in TX). I have it sorted to show oldest posts first.

My projects and stuff

• My Tiny Beetle Club (<= 3 mm)
• Anemone "pilosus"
• Carolina anemones of DFW
• Potential pollinators of Anemone
• Water beetles of the U.S. (change location to whatever you wish). These include the following groups: Hydrophilidae, Dytiscoidea, Haliplidae, Gyrinidae, Scirtidae, Noteridae, Amphizoidae, Hydroscaphidae, Lutrochidae, Dryopidae, Elmidae, Heteroceridae, Limnichidae, Psephenidae, Sphaeriusidae.
• Multiple observations of same individuals: life cycles
• Observation set of undescribed Epiblema BG 1886487 [completed looking through 2020 observations]

Really interesting things

• Display gall species in your area (via North American Galls project)
• ARThropod project - Unintentional art made by arthropods and photographed by humans

Timberlake bioblitz events

• April 8-10, 2022
• Oct 16-17, 2021
• June 11-13, 2021
• Oct 4-6, 2019
• May 17-20, 2019

ID guides created by other folks

• Excellent collection of identification guides by @lisa281
• Notes on Texas Petrophila [Moth] Identification
• Artificial Key to Cisthene Moths of Texas
• Common North American Noctuid Moth Identification
• How to photograph mushrooms for ID
• Texas Woolly Oak Galls
• Key to Rubus spp of Texas (Dewberries, blackberries, and brambles)
• Key to the Mallophora of the United States
• Fly Guide
• kimberlietx's collection of skunk-like moths
• Broomweeds - @rymcdaniel's guide to differentiation of Gutierrezia texana and Amphiachyris in North Central Texas

iNat Tips & Tricks

I recommend not agreeing to an ID just because someone else gave that ID--only ID things based on your OWN knowledge and research.

View specific life stages of a taxon or observations with sounds

• Larvae: Go to the observations of the species of interest and paste this code at the end of the URL: &term_id=1&term_value_id=6. Monarchs for example: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=48662&term_id=1&term_value_id=6
• Nymph: &term_id=1&term_value_id=5
• Pupae: &term_id=1&term_value_id=4
• Eggs: &term_id=1&term_value_id=7
• Sounds: &sounds

Adding annotations

• Filter observations (in the Identify modal) which don't have annotations (change taxa and place as desired). Click the Annotations tab and use drop downs or keyboard shortcuts (keyboard icon in lower left) for adding annotations .
• For flowers, chose "no evidence of flowering" if not flowering in order to remove it from future filtering as an observation needing annotation.

Misc.

• A neat way to view observation updates by @pisum
• How to work with Places of Interest
• Accurate geotagging when on an observing trek
• Link multiple observations of same individual over time
• Adding photos to a journal entry
• View comments.
• Search comments (enter search term in URL).
• Search comments that tag me (@pfau\_tarleton). Enter your own username in the URL. Note, this does not find tags in identifications, just those in stand-alone comments (bummer).
• View your ID stats (separate parameters with &)
• View your own observations in "Identify mode". Enter your own user ID number or go to Identify mode directly and filter by Your Observations. The main trick here is that you also have to select the "Reviewed" check box, because most of your own observations will have been "reviewed" by you already.

• Limit "Identify" to a bounding box or circle. First, go to Observations map view and use the tools to draw a rectangular or circular boundary. Then, modify the URL by adding "/identify" between "observations" and the question mark, like such:
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?lat=37.02724743953357...
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?lat=37.02724743953357...

• In "Identify" mode, you can sort by "random" or "date added/ascending" (filter) and it will mix up new and old observations or show older posts first (good for snagging some older ones that tend to slip by otherwise).
• Display observations of taxa for which you've added an ID (you can change taxa using the species box). This is useful when you know you've identified something before but forgot the name.
• Are you a maverick? Insert your own user ID in the URL.
• Check your observations marked as casual. Insert your own user ID in the URL.
• How to use iNaturalist's search URL's
• URL filter to see what species you haven't documented yourself (replace your user_id in the URL, and change taxa and place to suit your needs)
• Find your longest iNaturalist observation streak
• Something that few people will ever need to do, but here's the URL to download a species' taxon range map. However, it's a slightly simplified version of the KML file iNat has stored. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/0000/range.kml [change 0000 to the species ID number]
• List species counts for a taxa within a region (modify URL to fit needs)