I'm an ecologist who mainly studies insects and plants. I'm especially interested in caterpillars and the shelters that many of them build. I'm currently a professor at Binghamton University in New York. I've also done field work in Missouri and Costa Rica. In 2023, I started adding some of my pre-iNaturalist observations with general locations and will be refining the locations by going back to my field notebooks when I get a chance. Since I like documenting various kinds of interactions (herbivory, pollination, predation/parasitism), I use the "Associated observation" field for linking interaction partners. Feel free to add more specific interaction observation fields if they're of interest to you.

When I'm not doing high-level sorting IDs, I mainly try to identify caterpillars and other plant-associated insects. I've started learning the adult skippers for North America, but it's a process. My species list of IDs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?ident_user_id=bugbaer&not_user_id=bugbaer&place_id=any&verifiable=any&view=species

A student (@tess-caterpillar) and I started the Global Caterpillar Construct Project in 2022: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/global-caterpillar-construct-project

July 2023: I finally added a profile photo! This is an "Aristotelia corallina" caterpillar living in an acacia (Vachellia) domatium and drinking extrafloral nectar in Costa Rica. Based on natural history and genetics, the current species is pretty clearly a species complex. For more information, see my 2018 article.