Discussion
I identified an undescribed species on iNaturalist. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself as a self-taught myrmecologist.
But let me be clear about what I did: I noticed a group of ants "stuck at the genus level of ID" this means that no one knows what species they are. I did the research to try to pin down the exact species and hit a wall.
Then I found out from more accomplished myrmecologists that, yes, these ants need to be described. They don't have a name yet.
1/
If you do properly describe them do you get naming rights?
@futurebird@sauropods.win That is a great accomplishment! You have inspired me to start contributing to iNaturalist (again).
@futurebird This is so cool!
The ant species is in Australia and to write a species description you'd need to collect the ants, or identify them in an existing public collection and write a paper making a case that would pass peer review that these ants don't fit in any existing species bin. I don't have the skills to do that yet, and I couldn't have done this without the field photos on iNaturalist and the help of other users there.
So I'll leave it to an Aussie to do the rest.
2/
@futurebird Ummmmm you deserve co-author credit!!!
Okay, but if they asked you to name it, what would you suggest?
I don't know. A good scientific name should match the organism. Maybe an aspect of behavior or morphology.
This ant has two round bumps on the mesosoma. Maybe "Prolasius bisphaera" or "Prolasius gemiboba"
"Prolasius bobatuple"
I also have zero respect for doing the Latin correctly. bobatuple is fun to say.
As long as it's not called "stevensoni" or something. Latinized male names are horrible for ants. They are mostly girls!
@futurebird @jztusk bobatuple is amazing
Two humps?
Two bumps?
Two lovely lady lumps?
Okay, I'm not the biggest fan of the Black Eyed Peas, but when you describe them I can't avoid thinking of this:
https://genius.com/Black-eyed-peas-my-humps-single-version-lyrics
@futurebird I'm in Aus, what do I gotta do?
"The rest" isn't glamorous or easy either. And I think other people have noticed that this ant needed to be described. But I'm still excited and happy to have done some of the puzzle for myself.
Really there are a lot of species that need to be described and not enough people to do this work. It's not like it pays well... or at all.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/388470685
3/3
@futurebird here's another Australian Ant 😀
@futurebird That is such a cool thing to do. Good for you!
@futurebird hurray! Congrats!
this is a great story to inspire children to do citizen science - gateway drug to hard science!
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