I'm a pathologist and an amateur naturalist. Because I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm particularly interested in the identification and natural history of arthropods in California and the West. I have a microscope at home and I'm drawn to the smaller and less colorful bugs that are often overlooked, in part because I think that most arthropods are beautiful and interesting, given enough curiousity and magnification! I'm particularly interested in spiders and small beetles and wasps. I recently completed an amateur project to document the arthropod diversity at a local county park over the course of a year.
I should emphasize that, despite a strong general background in biology, I have absolutely no formal training in entomology and have largely taught myself through this web site and numerous books. Although I try to be conservative in any ID comments, please remember to take them with a grain of salt anyway! :) I've been an "editor" on this site since the summer of 2008, although my role has been mainly to move images already identified by the real experts who take the time to visit this site.
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