C. Mallory Curador

Unido: 23.jul.2016 Última actividad: 21.mar.2024 iNaturalist

Arizona-based naturalist dedicated to understanding North American Psylloidea and African Fulgoromorpha

African Auchenorrhyncha Series

  1. Meenoplidae of continental Africa: an overview

CURRENT PROJECTS 2024

  • African Fulgoridae and Dictyopharidae
  • Psylloidea projects currently on hold, but please tag me if you find a particularly interesting or challenging psyllid from the United States or Mexico

Psyllid Objectives
1. Build a photo library for all North American psyllid species. In 2006, Donald Chandler wrote in a comment on BugGuide that "no one knows the North American [psyllid] fauna right now," and at the time that was mostly true. Psyllids were poorly understood, rarely photographed, and almost nobody was identifying them. Eight years later and BugGuide was still only recognizing about 30 of the 300+ nearctic species, but as of 2022, thanks to the help of dedicated naturalists, nearly 50% of the fauna has been documented in photographs. I aim to provide host plant data and locality information with the goal of providing naturalists the information needed to help document and identify both common and rare psyllids throughout the continental US & Canada, and to encourage everyone to consider these and other small overlooked creatures.

On iNaturalist
I am broadly interested in all animals and plants and intend to use iNat to document everything I encounter in the wild. Other than psyllids, I am most knowledgeable about phytophagous Hemiptera, especially Fulgoridae, and I try to regularly provide identifications or corrections to observations where I'm able. If you are ever interested in how I made an ID, just ask and I would be happy to clarify or share resources and references.

I am interested in learning - especially the so-called "boring" technical details! I love explanations detailing how to distinguish one species from another, and which particular characters may be important to focus on in order to accurately identify a taxon. I am also interested in phytophagy and the relationships between insects and their host plants.

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