‘Count one, count them all’ – anyone with a Rutgers connection can photograph wild species in citizen science project

Rutgers Personal Bioblitz Connects People with Nature

his is the first documentation in 100 years (and first known photo) of the rare harvestman spider species, Eucynorta conigera. It was spotted in Costa Rica during the 2015 Personal Bioblitz.
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When Lena Struwe was hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve in Costa Rica three years ago, she spotted a yellowish harvestman, a spider-type animal, on a hiking trail rail and took a photo with her camera. It turned out her photo of the long-legged arachnid, Eucynorta conigera, was the first ever of that species and only the third sighting of it ever reported.

The identification was made by zoologist Stuart Longhorn in the United Kingdom, based on her photo during the 2015 Spring Personal Bioblitz at Rutgers University.

“That was kind of amazing,” said Struwe, a professor in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, who will help lead the fifth Spring Personal Bioblitz at Rutgers. “I had no idea that this was something special when I photographed it in the rain.”

The Bioblitz is aimed at getting people to learn more about life around them, to collect species data for scientists and to promote conservation in an era of rampant habitat destruction. It is open to anyone with a connection to Rutgers, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and their family members and friends. After signing up and downloading an iNaturalist smartphone app, participants take photos and record the sounds of species on Rutgers campuses and anywhere in the world from March 1 through May 15, 2018. All observations, which are easy to report, must be uploaded onto the iNaturalist website by day’s end on May 25.