tiagojrc's Journal

I'm on 76 observations already:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=true&d1=2021-01-01&d2=2021-01-10&iconic_taxa=Mollusca&place_id=any&subview=grid&user_id=tiagojrc&verifiable=any

If someone is available to help me identify these observations I would be grateful!

Here are the details:
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/tiagojrc/45185-sea-shells

I've decided to use iNaturalist to do an inventory of the sea shells I've collected over the years (marine gastropods only).
These shells have been collected between 5 to 15 years ago, in the Algarve region. Since I don't know the exact place or date in which every shell was caught, I'll be placing these observations as casual.

I took these pictures at night, on my desk, with my lamp and the flash of the camera as light sources - I can already see the pictures are too bright and lack detail, and I will re-do these observations if needed.
For the next couple of pictures I'll try to take them with natural light and without flash.
The purpose of this post is to, first of all, explain my goal, but also to ask for help. I'm not a expert in photography, and I don't have the best gear to take these photos but I'd appreciate some simple tips regarding the lighting part, should I used natural light? Direct sunlight? Is the white background better than the black (I do have a black mat on my desk that I could use)? If i need to take pictures after dark, what lights should I use?
And also, since all of these observations are going to be casual, I believe they will not get as much attention, so I wanted to ask anybody who is interested in these kinds of animals if they want to check them out after I post them.

I think that's all I had to say, thank you for reading, more updates should come some time soon.
Happy New Year!

UPDATE:
I have taken more pictures, this time using natural light and I think they came out better than the first ones, although the day was a bit cloudy.

All the observations are here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=true&d1=2021-01-01&d2=2021-01-10&iconic_taxa=Mollusca&place_id=any&subview=grid&user_id=tiagojrc&verifiable=any

On the 28th of november I found this beetle larva in my bathroom:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65890231
I searched a bit and found out it was part of the Dermestidae family. I believe it is an Anthrenus sp. larva, but so far no one has identified my observation.
Either way, knowing what it could be I couldn't leave it in my bathroom, as it would probably end up dead, and I couldn't release it either, because it would probably not make it outside. So, on the 29th, I caught it, photographed it and placed it in a glass Tupperware.
Wikipedia said these larvae like keratin and chitin, so I provided, but I also found information stating it could ruin furniture and thought that maybe they would like other things to eat.

This part may be somewhat upsetting so I'm going to place a TRIGGER WARNING here for nasty stuff.

Inside the Tupperware I placed some shredded toilet paper, to act as "substract" and also in case it liked to eat paper. I also placed part of an egg carton, for habitat structure and climbing.
Then I added a little bit of dirt from one of my potted plants, in case the larva liked it. This ended up adding other arthropods to the habitat, as you can see here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66026985
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66026983
The food came next and I went for a broad menu, so I placed a lot of stuff (again, NASTY): Human hair, both head and body; boogers; finger nails; skin crusts; dandruff and cookie crumbs.

The larva has been eating, as I've seen droppings pile up behind it sometimes, looking like a fine powder. I believe it likes the finger nails best, but also the cookie crumbs(?).
It has been growing slowly, looks fatter now than when I first got it, but it's a bit hard to measure - it is about 5 mm long.

This post was first and foremost to explain the situation and document the process, but also to ask for help identifying the species. I would like to know what instar the larva's at right now, when it will pupate and for how long, as I inted to keep it until it reaches adult stage and then release it (I do not have the means to sustain an adult beetle, or to keep it as a collected specimen).

If you read all the way down, thank you very much and Happy Holidays!

I took some pictures today, but the lense was dirty...and I didn´t realise it until I got home...
Live and learn, I know; still, I can´t help but be mad.
I'll still upload some of them.

I'm slowing down with the new observation and I'm working on trying to get research grade on whatever observations I can, because it bothers me that some of my observations are just left forgotten, from months ago, and I feel like I should try to know what they are. I understand of course that not all cases have an answer, but I will do what I can.

Well, I haven´t got out of the house lately because of the virus, so I keep seeing the same species over and over, mostly birds and bugs. Therefore I'll only be uploading the pictures I like the most, the ones that turned out better, since they're all repeated sightings anyway, so to speak. Hopefully something new shows up soon.

I finally finished clearing the old pictures from my hard drive and made it to 300 observations! i´m very glad about this. From now on I'll only upload new, recent sightings(probably, unless I find some old gem)

I'm having some troubles with the last two folders, from 2015-2016, because they´re mostly pictures of birds in mixed locations and I´m trying to figure out what was taken where.
Its annoying because some of those pictures are great and they're of species I haven´t posted about yet...

I've been going on a journey down memory lane, grabbing every photo I could find on my computer, from all the family trips, with my friends or just in everyday life, anything of biological interest.
It's been quite a ride, but I'm almost done!
Just three folders to go, and then I´ll probably only upload fresh material