Mothbox 4.0

Are there any "citizen science" initiatives where I can buy a device like this and upload my insect counts to some database that's useful for researchers?

I have been interested in setting up some things like home weather monitoring, ADS-B, streaming webcams for wildlife, etc. anyway so this would be a fun item to add to that.

On a related note, I wish there was some sort of software system where I could ID weeds and insects with photos and locations at various levels of confidence (“possibly”, “probably”, keyed out, genetic testing) at different taxonomic levels and both self host my results while also automatically contributing to a larger project.

There are various projects out there (like plantnet) but I don’t want to burn massive personal effort curating in a system that isn’t my own first and foremost, due to inevitable enshittification. At the same time, I want others to benefit from what I do, in particular local growers and naturalists. Things like PlantNet also tend to be “majority vote” on ID, meaning a whole lot is often close, but wrong. For example there is a regional plant specific to my area called Willamette Navarretia. Those that don’t realize this will easily confuse it with very similar looking species found most elsewhere in the western US, and last I checked it wasn’t in PlantNet.

https://www.oregon.gov/oda/programs/PlantConservation/SiteAs...

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/165663-Navarretia-willamett...

Have you tried iNaturalist? [0]

Insects, animals, plants, etc get posted from all over the world for ID.

[0] https://www.inaturalist.org/

I post lots of photos of things I find locally and experts step in and help ID the subjects when I don't know what I'm seeing.

I also have a couple of AudioMoths for recording local sounds including birds, insects, etc. Very high quality units at a reasonable price.

I have seen this Mothbox posted a couple of times and almost bought one since I know I have tons of moths attracted to my native plants out here, but the price is a sticking point right now. I think something like this combined with an AudioMoth and some trail cams would be a good local wildlife monitor setup.