Making citizen science count: Best practices and challenges of citizen science projects on plastics in aquatic environments.

There is considerable scientific and societal concern about plastic pollution, which has resulted in citizen science projects to study the scale of the issue. Citizen science is a cost-effective way to gather data over a large geographical range while simultaneously raising public awareness on the problem. Because the experiences of researchers involved in these projects are not yet adequately covered, this paper presents the findings from ten semi-structured qualitative interviews with researchers leading a citizen science project on micro- or macroplastics.

Dispatch from the field II: the mystery of the red and blue male (Araneae, Tetragnathidae, ).

Background: Males of are difficult to associate with conspecific females, and sex-matching errors may persist in the taxonomic literature. Recommended best practices for definitive sex matching in this genus suggest finding a male in the web of a female, or better yet, mating pairs.

New Information: A male was observed hanging on a frame line of the web of a female , a species for which the male was previously undescribed.