Calling all stream monitors! Do you want to help improve aquatic invertebrate documentation across Wisconsin?
Now you can! Submit your findings to two new iNaturalist projects aimed at collecting better aquatic invertebrate observations from across Wisconsin. Created by Dr. Jessica Orlofske and her graduate students, these projects will help volunteers identify the aquatic invertebrates they find in their region.
Create an iNaturalist account today to upload your findings. Happy searching!
Set up your account
- Download the iNaturalist app
- Create your account and profile
Submit your observation
- Take a clear, close-up photo.
- Upload the photo to iNaturalist as a new observation.
- Use the “What did you see?” field to select your best-guess identification. A trusted iNaturalist community member will verify your ID.
- Select the green checkmark to submit your observation.
Edit the insect life stage
Note: If you are unable to adjust the life stage on your phone, try updating the app or using the desktop version of iNaturalist.
- IMPORTANT: Click again on your submitted observation. Edit the insect’s “Life Stage” and select “nymph”, “larvae”, or “adult”. iNaturalist will only show you the options that are appropriate for the insect you observed. This is an important step so your observation is included in one of our statewide aquatic macroinvertebrate iNaturalist projects.
- You’re done! Your observation will automatically be added to the Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Larvae or Nymphs of Wisconsin projects in iNaturalist for researchers and biologists to use.
