My Kentucky Yard at 400
I've been aiming for a diverse virtual yard, and now have observations of 400 taxa. What's changed from My Kentucky Yard at 200? My yard organisms still fall into just three kingdoms: Animalia (was 168 species, now 329), Plantae (was 27 species, now 58), and Fungi (was 5 species, now 13).
According to Kentucky's Natural Heritage: An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity (Abernathy et al., 2010) approximate species counts for Kentucky arthropods are: 15,200 insects, 500 arachnids, 100 crustaceans. For vertebrate species: 370 birds, 250 fish, 70 mammals, 50 reptiles, 50 amphibians. Kentucky also has 380 species of molluscs.
See the KET PBS site for a nice module with graphics: https://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/knh.ssgroup/selectspeciesgroup/
ANIMALS in my yard so far: Arthropods 273 taxa including arachnids (24 species), a crustacean, insects (245 species), 2 myriapods (both centipedes), and an entognathan (they looked like insects). Vertebrates 54 taxa including birds (37 species), mammals (8 species), amphibians (5 species), and reptiles (4 species). I've also documented two molluscs (a slug and a snail).
A QUICK EDUCATIONAL TANGENT: iNaturalist makes it easy to search and browse based on the ranks of biological classification. This is a great way to learn to recognize the main types of organisms you're likely encounter when you're out and about.
A brief refresher on how rank-based classification works: We start large, then subdivide the big, broad groups into smaller, more specific groups. Our goal is to follow how the organisms are related, so that members of smaller groups are more closely related to each other than members of larger groups. The main ranks of classification from largest to smallest are: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
(A quick way to remember this: Dearest Karl poured catsup on father's good shirt.)
Applying this to the big groups of animals, in my yard, you'd get this:
Domain Eukarya (Organisms whose cells have nuclei. If you can see it without a microscope, it's probably in this group. Plants, animals, fungi, and protists are all included here.)
Kingdom Animalia: Multicellular eukaryotes that are heterotrophic -- they have to eat stuff for nutrients -- and lack cell walls.
Phylum Arthropoda: Invertebrates with exoskeletons, like insects, spiders, and crustaceans.
Phylum Chordata: Animals with backbones and their close relatives. In my yard: birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians.
Phylum Mollusca: Soft-bodied invertebrates, (usually) with shells, which on land in Kentucky is snails and slugs.
Each of the phyla could then be divided into classes (like class Aves -- the birds -- from the vertebrates), but I've run out of energy...
FUNGI in my yard so far: 13 taxa, including plant pathogens, saprophytes, commensalists (lichens), and parasites of insects. Or, from a more taxonomic perspective, five ascomycetes and seven basidiomycetes.
PLANTS in my yard so far: Kentucky has about 2030 species of vascular plants (flowering plants, gymnosperms, and ferns & relatives). Observations from my yard document 57 species of angiosperms (some cultivated): 44 dicots and 13 monocots. I have also now documented my one gymnosperm (Eastern Redcedar).
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