Pollen Wasp (Celonites tauricus) female

This might be one of my most exclusive finds ever and certainly one of my faves. These wasps are really poised. This one is a female. I was fortunate enough to also see the male which I will upload sometime later.

comments (7)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Nice! From a location we hardly have any photos from. Posted 7 years ago
1. bugeyed
  
  Katipo Spider
  
  Thanks! :) Yes, well... there will soon be more if I can find the time for it. Sometimes it is a bit of work to get it all arranged to load a photo up. And spare time is in short supply for me at the moment.
  
  But it is a lovely site.
  
  Question though, if you have to manually put in the ID to the system, does it not count then for my (as yet attained) IDing Scientist Medal on Jungledragon even though I provided the ID for you to enter? Posted 7 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Correct, if somebody else identifies it, even if you suggested the ID, it will not count for your Scientist medal. However, a species intro, which will add to your Pioneer medal (which I personally deem more valuable) will always be granted to you, the photo owner, no matter who identified it. A little know fact is that you can also lose a species intro when somebody uploads a photo after you where the date taken on the photo is before yours. This hardly ever happens, but it's possible.
    
    You can debate whether it is fair who gets the Scientist credit. I personally see it for what it is: who carried out the action. For example, if my guide identified a species of bird, it wouldn't be accurate for me to say I identified it, yet it will be shown as such. Since moderators do most of the data work to get it identified technically in the system, you could argue it's fair to say they get some credit too.
    
    So it can be reasoned either way. Again, I believe the Pioneer medal is much more valuable as a representation of contribution. Posted 7 years ago
  2. 1. bugeyed
      
      Katipo Spider
      
      Okay, as to the debate, I guess I wish to respectfully disagree. I found the wasp, took the photo, and I made the ID and provided it for input here. I spent months trying to figure out what she was, and then hours upon hours pouring over papers to narrow her down to species before submitting here (in part based on imaginary internet awards). While I do think moderators deserve some sort of recognition I am not sure it best done by taking it from those who do the work only because it is not listed on Wikipedia first. Maybe we need to just concentrate our efforts at Wikipedia instead. :( For sure it is a disincentive here.
      
      Plus, it is rather difficult anymore it seems to get a Species Introduction (which you say can be whisked away – something I could probably do with several species here I guess just because I took a photo before I even knew this site existed, regardless of quality), because a great deal of the species that are on Wikipedia are already here, and those that are not cannot be identified to put on here. So, that medal has a great deal of difficulty to attain as well.
      
      Further, some people like to make IDs. Why say that their input has less value (but yet, good enough for a moderator)? Especially if not on Wikipedia. Why bother at all?
      
      Anyway, it is a reason for me to reconsider contributing to an otherwise great site. Posted 7 years ago
    2. 1. Ferdy Christant
        
        Lion
        
        Thanks for your feedback. I think you're assigning way too much value to rewards and medals, and even more so the least valuable ones. Scientist medal means who pushed the button. It doesn't mean the person that did the research, as the site has no way of knowing who did the actual research.
        
        Speaking for myself, half my identifications are based on help from others. Those others are not always in the system, so it will be my name on the identification, which is equally incorrect as your example where you studied it yourself. The Scientist modal is to motivate users to identify at all. Where it comes natural to you to identify species, moderators have to constantly chase other users to identify species.
        
        True value in contributions comes from your actual photos, their descriptions, the context (species, location). These will grow over time on your profile where you see your species photographed, identified and introduced. That's your collection so to speak. The true value.
        
        Medals are the icing on the cake, not the primary motivator, at least not designed to be. All the big contributors here are big contributors because of their photo and species collection, they never speak of medals.
        
        I think it is unreasonable to consider just stopping over such an arbitrary digital reward. I don't respond to threats well, so I won't beg you to stay. But I'd like to end positively nevertheless. If you are true to your word that you like to research and identify species, I can elevate your rights so that like moderators, you can create species records. You clearly have the zoological skills for it, and it would solve the problem where you insist on seeing your name on an identification.
        
        Think about it. Posted 7 years ago
      2. Ferdy Christant
        
        Lion
        
        Also wanted to comment on your statement regarding species intros being difficult to obtain and most from Wikipedia being already taken. This is quite simply false. Years ago already english Wikipedia had 800,000 species pages. Surely the number is higher now. JungleDragon has currently described less than 14,000. Far less than 2% of Wikipedia, and if you consider that Wikipedia doesn't even cover 10% of species known to science, we're probably at 0.1% of total species described, and that would be optimistic even.
        
        It's not difficult at all to add species intros, and most are not taken. There's simple evidence for that when you check the activity feed, new species keep being added and this has been going on for years without a slowdown.
        
        What is true is that the "easiest" targets, typically common mammals, widespread birds, and such are "taken". But that's just common sense, they are often and easily photographed.
        
        So there's an almost unlimited room to add species intros. Compared to all other reward systems on the platform, I find species intros the most meaningful. Not because of fake internet points, instead because it is a fun sport that changes people in the field, they become species-aware. It's also a reasonable indication of a person's efforts, attention to detail, and diversity in photography.
        
        Yet even species intros has to be seen in the proper perspective. The overarching goal of this platform is to share nature, not to win a match. If you'd add a beautiful photo of a deer, and we'd already have 30 photos of the same species, it's still a wonderful contribution.
        
        In other words, enjoy the nature around you no matter the species, learn about it, and share it so that others can enjoy it too. That is what we do. Posted 7 years ago