The Split-banded Owl-Butterfly – Opsiphanes cassina fabricii is a first-time seen butterfly for me and I found him dead on the floor of my bedroom one evening recently. And like with many new ones, it took awhile to identify the species, but I’m going to give credit to iNaturalist Costa Rica for their AI providing the final clue to nail down this identification with a certain amount of confidence that it is correct and the other photos submitted on both iNaturalistCR and on Butterflies&Moths seem to further confirm it. Though even here there is still always a little doubt with some organizations using sub-species, etc. and as an example with this, Butterflies of America uses Opsiphanes cassina fabricii (fabricii as a sub-species), while Butterflies&Moths uses just Opsiphanes cassina (as the overall species) and iNaturalist has the two separated as 2 different species. So I may never be 100% certain! 🙂 But it is still fun and I feel like I am contributing a little toward saving what is left of this planet. And we need everybody’s help for that to happen!
¡Pura Vida!
SHARE YOUR NATURE PHOTOS on iNaturalist.org!
If you don’t want to just go there and start using it, try their website HELP PAGE with 5 Getting Started basic questions answered, then go to iNaturalist.org and start both using their IDs & sharing your photos! 🙂 I have it on my phone just for help in identifications and on my laptop computer from where I download my observations. Some younger people use their phone for everything, but that screen is too small for this old man! 🙂 And yeah! I still use a computer mouse and mouse pad too! 🙂
Similarly you can also share your bird photos on eBird and your butterfly & moth photos on BAMONA, butterfliesandmoths.org.
All of these are enormous contributions to scientific research and the conservation of our planet’s animals & plants. Your few observations and contributions added to those of thousands of other people WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Plus you will discover the identification of many things you’ve always wanted to know the name of! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!