[Entm-beu] Fwd: Insect ID Practice for Students

[Christiane Weirauch]

Please see below from Crystal Valenzuela, the Community Engagement
Coordinator for Louis Robidoux Parkland & Pecan Grove. They are looking for
help with iNat IDs and  "use these observations to help inform habitat
restoration efforts" -- so a very worthy cause. Thanks!

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Crystal Valenzuela <cvalenzuela at iercd.org>
Date: Mon, Jun 15, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Subject: Insect ID Practice for Students
To: Christiane Weirauch <christiane.weirauch at ucr.edu>, John Heraty <
heraty at ucr.edu>
Cc: Aaron Echols <aechols at iercd.org>


Hello Christiane and John,

I hope you're doing well! I wanted to reach out because I think there may
be an opportunity for a mutually beneficial collaboration. Recently, IERCD
staff, volunteers, and community members have contributed a large number of
observations to our iNaturalist project documenting biodiversity at the
Louis Robidoux Parkland & Pecan Grove. As our observations have grown,
we've accumulated quite a few photos of bees and other pollinator insects
that could benefit from more expert identification.

I was wondering if you, your students, or anyone in the UCR Entomology
community might be interested in taking a look at the project and
suggesting IDs for some of the observations. Even a handful of
identifications would be incredibly helpful! Our Restoration Ecologist,
Aaron (cc'd here), has contributed a huge collection of bee photos. We
suspect his observations alone represent dozens of bee species. Many
observations are currently identified only to family or genus, and we would
love to improve our understanding of the native pollinators using the site.

Other than being a growing species catalog of everything we've documented
on site, we use these observations to help inform habitat restoration
efforts, evaluate the effectiveness of pollinator plantings, support public
education programs, and engage community members in community science.
Better identifications would help us tell a more complete story about the
biodiversity our restoration work is supporting. It could also be a fun
opportunity for students to practice identification skills while
contributing to a local dataset and helping answer real-world conservation
questions!

You can view the project here
<https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=lrppg-species-inventory&subview=table&verifiable=any&iconic_taxa=Arachnida,Insecta>.
I've filtered it down to insects and arachnids.Thank you for considering
it, and please feel free to share the project with any students or
colleagues who might be interested! We would greatly appreciate any help
the UCR Entomology community is willing to provide.

Sincerely,

[image: image] <http://www.iercd.org/>

Crystal Valenzuela

Community Engagement Specialist | IERCD

Mobile: (909) 255-9631

Hours: M-F, 8 AM - 4:30 PM

25864-K Business Center Drive Redlands, CA 92374

www.iercd.org

[image: facebook] <http://facebook.com/InlandEmpireRCD>

[image: instagram] <http://instagram.com/InlandEmpireRCD>

[image: youtube] <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHjrKHFbnUrS6POnb_4IILQ>

[image: tiktok] <https://www.tiktok.com/@inlandempirercd>

[image: image] <https://www.louisrobidouxparkland.org/>


-- 
Christiane Weirauch
Professor & Chair
Department of Entomology
University of California, Riverside

Ph: 951-827-5707 (Office)
Email: christiane.weirauch at ucr.edu
https://profiles.ucr.edu/christiane.weirauch
<christiane.weirauch at ucr.edu>
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