If a tree falls in the forest...

We're back at the Boots on the Ground problem for science. I've been on this before that species are not being observed and that our distribution and prevalence maps for stuff kind of suck. (No harm no foul to scientists out there doing the good work -- they can't be everywhere doing everything and there simply are not enough of them to cover the world in an odonate-centric sort of way.) And places like iNaturalist and odonatacentral.org try pretty hard to improve the record and produce up-to-date distribution maps. iNaturalist is citizen-verified, OC is verified by selected experts but both sites require a voucher specimen (typically a photograph) to prove that you saw what you say you saw.

I guess it's possible that some yahoo might submit photographs that aren't really stuff they actually saw but it takes a special kind of stupid to want to pretend to find odonates. I don't think people are actually doing that.

( Here's a cut before I go on endlessly about odes )