💥🧬 Why sequence ALL insect genomes?
Because insects run the planet. They pollinate our crops, recycle nutrients, build soils, drive food webs, and shape ecosystems on every continent. 🌍
Yet we’ve only scratched the surface of their genomic diversity.
#InsectBiotech #BiodiversityMatters #InsectLovers
Yay to the Field!
Microstylum morosum or the "Giant Prairie Robber Fly" living up to their name - what a HUGE fly! 🫡
NE Oklahoma, iphone video (wish it would've locked the color balance while filming!)
Brother Bostrichid was known far and wide for his expertly crafted wooden furniture. unfortunately he also had a bad habit of eating it.
#A_day_in_the_life of a live oak (day 446): Chrysobothris chrysoela is a species of metallic wood-boring beetle in the family Buprestidae known to feed on the decaying wood of the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) in FL, USA. #biodiversity (📸:Marlin E. Rice)😍
Lino block portrait of aeronautical engineer Elsie MacGill shows her from the shoulders up wearing a suit and glasses with wavy short hair back, with a Hawker Hurricane above her and several tiny ones flying in front of her as well as a Maple Leaf Trainer II airplane by her head. The print is made in an ink gradient of green at the top, followed by gold in the middle and green again at the bottom on cream coloured Japanese washi paper, 9.25” x 12.5”, numbered, titled “Elsie MacGill, Queen of the Hurricanes” and signed Ele Willoughby, 2025.
Day 20 #artAdventCalendar my newest #womenInSTEM #histsci 🧪🐡 #linocut: trailblazing Canadian aeronautical engineer Elsie MacGill (1905 – 1980), born in Vancouver, became the first woman aeronautical engineer & professional aircraft designer in North America, & likely the world. 🧵
Bristly Ladybird, Rhyzobius lophanthae
Bristly Ladybird, Rhyzobius lophanthae, sitting on the point of a pencil.
Bristly Ladybird, Rhyzobius lophanthae.
Pencil for scale.
#Beetles #Coleoptera #VC55 #macrophotography #macro #OMSystem
Figure 1. Examples of female Mesomphaliini beetles showing maternal care. (A) Paraselenis dichroa female taking care of oviposition on Ipomoea sp. leaf (study conducted by Cuozzo Citation2016); (B) Paraselenis flava female taking care of oviposition on Ipomoea batatas leaf; (C) undescribed Acromis sp. female on Ipomoea sp. leaf.
#LiteratureNotice Alvarenga et al. Mother knows best: maternal subsociality in three Brazilian tortoise beetles (Cassidinae s. str.) enhances offspring survival doi.org/10.1080/0022... #Beetle #Beetles #tortoisebeetle
4 small circular paintings of cicadas on a single sheet of paper.
Here’s all the little cicadas together. Put a little varnish on them. Now I just need to cut them out, scan them, and get them in some frames.
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A macro photo of a weevil, in profile, upper left in the frame atop a fuzzy gray-green leaf. The weevil is orange with a coating of sparse yellow hairs, some of which are dense enough to form spots.
Apropos of nothing in particular, here is a very small weevil posing majestically. (Brazil)
#Bugsky 🐙🌿
New and improved! (as of today, now with page numbers and an issue number ;)
"Evidence for ancient selective sweeps followed by differentiation among three species of Sphyrapicus sapsuckers"
Led by Dr. Libby Natola:
doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
preposterously, dazzlingly beautiful metallic lucanid beetles in the genus Lamprima, photographed at the NSW DPI biosecurity collection where I used to work
The black velvet is an optimal backdrop for these use cases, because even black paper or plastic tends to reflect a lot of light. Velvet is especially good for iridescent insects, IIRC it's what we used for these guys at DPI:
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
dorsal photo of a point-mounted beetle. Beetle is elongate oval, rounded in front, kind of pointy in back. The head, thorax, and abdomen are dark reddish-brown, and the wing covers are a brightish red-orange. The head is projecting with two small fuzzy antennae at the sides, and the mandibles, while small, are pointy and slightly open.
Histerid beetles are renowned for their extremely conserved (some would say 'boring', but we don't talk to those people) appearance. Here's a spicy one from French Guiana and Brazil - Phelister sanguinipennis.
A model of the first level from Mario 64.
A model of a snowy level from Mario 64.
The Japanese Mario 64 official strategy guide is an incredible thing. "Can we make little hand-made dioramas of all the levels?" "Sure, why the hell not."
And that's how you integrate digital elements into an exhibition. Part of the temporary "China's Dinosaur World" at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, China. Closing this November.
Video source: Shanghai Let's Meet
It is impossible not to love tiger beetles.
little shrew monk guy with a bigass pumpkin
Brother Herbert's prize pepo
Dorsal view of a rain beetle, dark and glossy dorsally
Ventral view of a rain beetle, unimaginably fluffy
Just pleocomid things
I've written a post about Cynomorium songaricum, a holoparasitic plant found in the deserts of Inner Mongolia. So how does this plant disperse its seeds across the desert and reach the roots of its hosts?
Well, with the help of some little friends. 🧪
dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2025/09/cyno...
“The two insects fight vigorously using gladiators weapons. The cicada on the left protects itself with a shield and raises the sword to hit its opponent, who fights with a spear and a shield. Both insects are finely engraved in detail, with the use of the typical mirror-polished globular elements. Groundline. Traces of letters in the field, partly erased due to the ancient wear marks of the stone surface. Attractive size and color of the stone. Slight crack in the lower left corner of the stone. Rare subject referable to the late republican repertoire of insects that perform human actions.”
#AncientRome Intaglio: Two #cicadas fighting as gladiators
Roman Republic, 1st c. BCE
Carnelian, 17 x 21 x 3.5 mm
“Rare subject referable to the late republican repertoire of #insects that perform human actions.”
www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/...
Quote from the Figure 1 heading in the paper: "Figure 1. Range map for Uranotaenia sapphirina. Shaded range is approximate and is drawn from the literature: Mexico, after Ortega-Morales et al. (Reference Ortega-Morales, Rodríguez-Martínez, Méndez-Alvarado, Garza-Hernández, López-Hernández and Medrano-Santillana2022); United States of America and Canada, after Darsie and Ward (Reference Darsie and Ward2005). The dot is 2022 New Maryland, New Brunswick collection; the Xes are our 2023–2024 collections near Woodstock, Fredericton, St. Martin’s, and Sussex, New Brunswick. The square is Stuart’s (Reference Stuart2007) record from Winnipeg, Manitoba; stars are selected research-grade observations from iNaturalist. The province of New Brunswick is enlarged, showing collection localities."
Here is a pretty substantial northward range expansion for a mosquito (detected by several authors, including @mannamacdonald.bsky.social & @stephenbheard.bsky.social). 🪲🪳🧪
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
But don't worry, this one won't bite you. It only seems to feed on... wait for it... (1/2)
Sucks to be an annelid 🪱
I don't like rules about the use of common names in biology. The entire point of common names is that they ebb and flow and change and adapt to local needs. You can make them up. You can let different cultures have their own names.
Save the rules for the scientific names.
Figure 1. Example of dorsal pattern and color variation between the tribes (Tritomini (A–D), Erotylini (E–H), Megalodacnini (I–L), Encaustini (M–O), Dacnini (P)) of Erotylinae: (A) Ischyrus sp. 1, (B) Mycotretus tigrinus, (C) Pselaphacus nigropunctatus, (D) Tritomini gen 3, (E) Iphiclus sedecimpunctatus, (F) Iphiclus sp. 3, (G) Aegithus hemisphaericus, (H) Iphiclus odyneuroides, (I) Episcapha sp. 2, (J) Episcapha sp. 1, (K) Scaphodacne sp., (L) Episcapha sp. 4, (M) Encaustes sp., (N) Aulacocheilus sp., (O) Aulacocheilus sp., (P) Microsternus sp.
#LiteratureNotice Sutherland et al. Diversity of Color in #PleasingFungusBeetles ( #Coleoptera: #Erotylidae: Erotylinae) doi.org/10.3390/d170... #Beetle #Beetles #Biodiversity
Over a dozen 9 year old & younger kids around a sandbox with a large papier-mâché volcano in center.
A Geo-Paleo-BINGO card with boxes for Fossil Dinosaur Bone Gypsum Rosettes Apatite Rose Quartz Pyrite Brachiopod Fossil Jasper/Agate Arrowhead (yes one archaeology find, & I did explain differences btwn geology, paleontology, & archaeology to kids) Ammonite Fossil Pumice
Dig Into Rocks & Fossils pocket booklets for kids to ID their finds (they got to keep the booklets & finds)
Remembering the time I threw a geology-paleontology themed Bday party for the kids. Filled a kiddie pool with sand, real fossils & rocks, then had the kids dig & ID their finds for Geo-Paleo Bingo. Ended by exploding a giant Coke & Mentos volcano at the dig site. 😅 #AcademicParents
a stylized 3d render of a kid drawing at a table, surrounded by ancient fish and sea creatures of the devonian and silurian.
ancient friends
Cephalosphaera furcata...one of the big-headed pipunculids, and a very smart one at that. From oak at Allerthorpe Common in East Yorkshire this morning. @dipteristsforum.bsky.social #pipunculidae #bigheaded
