Ecology Technician at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden: A lot of my work involves documenting the floral visitors of rare plants which aligns with my personal interest in insects, specifically pollinators.

**If I upload pictures of a pinned specimen that exclude some key details to get it to species, please let me know and I'll update the observation with pictures.

Most of what I have learned about insects and IDing them has been on my own with the aid of the wonderful resources out there (books, keys, BugGuide, etc) and correct IDs made by others on iNaturalist. I try to not post things lower than I am confident, but I make mistakes, so I am always appreciative of identification and corrections! There is a lot to still learn, and I'm open to continuing to learn from human and non-human beings.

Bees are my main interest, but I also have been learning more about the other hymenopterans, mainly wasps and ants (sorry sawflies!).

My profile picture is of myself in an Augochlorella sp. costume I made. I really wanted to make sure the wing venation was right, and overall it was a lot of fun to make.

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