Ingolf Askevold Curator

Joined: Jul 10, 2020 Last Active: Oct 15, 2024 iNaturalist Monthly Supporter since December 2023

Retired, former entomologist (systematics of donaciine leaf beetles), long ago naturalist with the Canadian Wildlife Service.
Carried out an exhaustive survey of plants of my 1.25 acre back yard in Tallahassee, FL, documented over 300 species, which is what drew me to INaturalist in the first place. Now I iNat whereever I travel, near home to anywhere in the world, from scuba to mountain tops.

Organized the 2023 and 2024 City Nature Challenge in the area, including much of northwest Florida and southwest Georgia.

In Spring 2024 I taught a 6-hour (over 3 weeks) on INaturalist in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, “students” being retired folks. I learned from them about folks’ challenges in learning iNat. I’ll change style course completely if they want me to teach again. A virtually separate course on using INaturalist.org is merited, as we barely got the mobile app covered. I think a university course is merited too, or at least some sections in biology courses should have it taught.

Working on identifications of the donaciine leaf beetles, starting with North America, as these guys were my PhD 1990. It turns out it’s actually possible to put species names on some, mostly just genus or subgenus at best. Some photos are excellent, and am using them for the chapter on Donaciinae for the next edition of The Beetles of Canada and the United States, due out in 2024.

Have taken an interest in recording sounds. I use the Voice Memo App to record and edit, then upload in the desktop version. I think this is a valuable contribution to INaturalist that we can all make, but it is trickier to do. Using the app to record, while easier, isn’t better.

iNaturalist has changed my life by rekindling my naturalist zeal from the 1970s as an undergrad biology student, when learning so much in a short time was exciting and every day was novel and full of discovery. INaturalist causes me to look more closely at things I see, as I want to be able get them identified, from animal dung to plants, fungi, mosses, and animals of all sorts from insects to corals, fish, sponges, mollusks, reptiles to birds and mammals. Alive or dead, it’s fair game.

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