K Schneider Curator

Joined: May 5, 2013 Last Active: Mar 27, 2024 iNaturalist Monthly Supporter since October 2019

I am a volunteer and research associate in the Entomology department of the California Academy of Sciences and I've been photographing, collecting and trying to identify California arthropods since 2007. I have slowly developed some expertise in identifying spiders found in western North America, but I am also generally interested in terrestrial and freshwater arthropods in North America. I sometimes use Bug Guide to get help with identifying the invertebrates I find. I am also an experienced birder, although that interest has gotten less attention over the last few years. I've recently become interested in learning some of the lichens and mosses of California as well as exploring the world of freshwater microorganisms... so much to learn and so little time... :)

For those who are reluctant to collect insects or spiders, here is an excellent article by Greg Pohl that gives an entomologist's point of view:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228500262_Why_we_kill_bugs-the_case_for_collecting_insects

For my reference in helping other folks:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-turn-multiple-observations-into-a-single-observation/9838

Spider eye arrangement article from Lynette Elliott:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/84423

Languages spoken: English, a little bit of German.

Note: From September 2023 to January 2024, my compound microscope was mis-calibrated and the L-shaped scale bars show in images for measuring spore lengths, etc. ended up over-estimating size by roughly a factor of 1.6. I have corrected some of these measurements in the text.

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