When you write a book that promises to recalibrate a person's relationship w/wildlife, they're okay w/that idea for bears, deer, & maybe even spiders. But NO ONE wants to talk about yellowjackets. cc @humanbyweight.bsky.social @corriemoreau.bsky.social 🧪 www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

What yellowjacket stings reveal about how scientists measure pain

By documenting the unique pain caused by dozens of insect stings, entomologist Justin O. Schmidt created a one-of-a-kind guide to the world's most painful stings.

nationalgeographic.com

cockroaches contain multitudes www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

I Am Officially in Love With Cockroaches

And after you read this, you will be too

smithsonianmag.com

invertebrate@crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 3d ago

❔ a friend and I swapped bugs recently and now I’ve got a small colony of Therea olegrandjeani, the question mark cockroach! truly a charming blattodean

Hey Philadelphia!! Do you want this mural on your building?? Here’s what we’re looking for: You must own the building. Must be in Philly The flatter the surface the better! The more people that will see it the better. We want to install in September Email me if that's you SkypeAScientist@gmail.com

Hey 🧪 -- Is anyone out there aware of someone that's picked up Justin O. Schmidt's torch? With regard to insect stings, the sting index, etc? Bonus points if they're using it for something new or have a new twist?

Check out this really excellent weevil, cosplaying not being a weevil at all!

Matt Bertone@bertonemyia.bsky.social · 7d ago

Be a dipterist. Be in Costa Rica for #FlySchool2026. See a muscoid #fly perching on a leaf. Tell student so they can collect it. Success!! Wait a minute 🤔 That's not a fly, but weevil mimicking one! This was so convincing, even rapidly moving & poking its wings out 🥰 #Curculionidae: cf. #Mnemynurus

A fish survey is when you collect all the fish and survey their boopability.

NE Ohio Regional Sewer District@neorsd.org · 6d ago

*boop*

will always repost sparkle weevils and long bois

Ainsley S@americanbeetles.bsky.social · 7d ago

It never isn’t Weevil Wednesday

A very nice piece from @inkfish.bsky.social about jealousy, commiseration, bees, and ultimately, togetherness! open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

How to Shimmer Until You're Scary

Enlist your friends; repel your enemies

open.substack.com

One thing editors have consistently told me, and which I've worn as a badge of honor, is that I submit clean copy... so this feels weird.

Manisha Krishnan@manishakrishnan.bsky.social · last wk.

Authors and journalists are doing more first-person (hello 2010s blogging) and embracing "mistakes" in writing to prove they're not chatbots. There's even an “anti-Grammarly" app that leaves in typos and signs off "sent from my iPhone" to create more authenticity: www.wired.com/story/more-t...

Syrinx aruanus, the Australian trumpet, is the largest snail alive, a shell up to about 75 cm and 18 kg. Why so big? It hunts giant polychaete worms over a meter long, reaching into their tubes with a proboscis up to 25 cm. Big prey, big predator. 🦑 🧪 #MolluscMonday #HowToBuildAGiant #marinelife

Life in every nook and cranny

Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️@apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm not the only one who loves ant mimic salticids 👀 That weird little thing hugging the back of the spider's head is a mantidfly baby - it will remain attached to this female Peckhamia until she lays her eggs, and then it'll borrow some eggs permanently. #PHORESY!

Gursky's spectral tarsiers (Tarsius spectrumgurskyae). Native to Sulawesi. Nocturnal. Just before dawn, they sing territorial duets, then return to their sleep sites in dense vegetation or tree cavities. Threatened by habitat loss, agricultural pesticides, and predation by cats and dogs. Vulnerable.

Wonderful review of Lost in Curiosity in Science: "Young scientists’ passion and commitment take center stage in a moving portrait of research in action... Kwok brings readers to the wings of a play whose ending has not yet been written" www.science.org/doi/full/10.... by @vijee.bsky.social

Josh had two young children, and my other friends and I are trying to raise some money for them. Please give and/or share, if you can! gofund.me/2cb37ee81

Donate to Support Josh Sobota’s Family, organized by Jason Bittel

From the backroads of Acme to the halls of Seton Hill, Josh Sobota made friends wherever he … Jason Bittel needs your support for Support Josh Sobota’s Family

gofund.me

My best friend from kindergarten passed away last weekend. We were best men in each other’s weddings, there on the day each other’s dads died, and a million memories in between. www.instagram.com/p/Da8gPBslTx...

Jason Thrash Bittel on Instagram: "@dustin.t.83 and I have started a GoFundMe for @joshuaksobota’s family. The link is in my bio. Please consider donating or sharing in his memory. 💔"

6 likes, 0 comments - bittelmethis on July 18, 2026: "@dustin.t.83 and I have started a GoFundMe for @joshuaksobota’s family. The link is in my bio. Please consider donating or sharing in his memory. ...

instagram.com

Um, can moths... turn their heads?! Love these little floofs!

Carl Bovis@carlbovisnature.bsky.social · 2w ago

If you think photographing birds in flight is difficult, you want to try moths!😅 This is a wonderful Hummingbird Hawkmoth, photographed yesterday from my bedroom window, just as it banked around to change direction!😀😍 Just look at that proboscis 🦋 (The moth looks a bit like a fish doesn't it!)😁

Roses are red, Amphibians are frogs and toads,

Watch an orca ram a sunfish so hard that the fish explodes | CNN

How hard do you have to ram a fish to make it explode? Ask an orca.

cnn.com

Poof, yer gone.

Mindy Weisberger@laminda.bsky.social · 2w ago

Exactly how hard do you have to ram a sunfish to make it explode into a thousand pieces, like a watermelon hit by a freight train? Orcas are known for ramming prey (and sometimes yachts) but this is the first evidence of them doing it with so much force that the target disintegrates on impact 🧪

Camberville!! I’m so excited to be at @portersqbooks.bsky.social tomorrow night, teaming up with my pal Perrin Ireland to talk about animal families and the hanky-panky that makes them. See you there? 🧪

#pittsburgh love

Anthony (Tony) J. Martin@ichnologist.bsky.social · 2w ago

Enjoyed visiting both the Carnegie Museum of Art & Natural History Museums in Pittsburgh PA yesterday, both world-class institutions. An ichnological highlight for me? Seeing what I think is still the largest known eurypterid trackway, made by a 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) long eurypterid: oh my. 🧪🪨🌊🦂🐾

It's true, what could be better than being a fly, though? I mean, look at them

jordan@jordantyranny.bsky.social · 2w ago

“I have discovered I am a fly, that we are all flies, that nothing matters. It's a great load off my life, for I don't mind being such a micro-organism-to me the honour is sufficient of belonging to the universe-such a great universe, so grand a scheme of things.”

All of my other social feeds have adjusted their algorithms to provide an endless supply of Jimothy content. Videos. GIFs. Fan art. Lego builds! Crochet critters! Except BlueSky. Not sure what to make of that. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/s...

Meet Jimothy, the Seattle Raccoon Who Is Taking Over the Internet

The stout raccoon, which has a spinal condition, is “an example to all of us that you don’t have to be perfect to be loved,” a Seattle City Council member said.

nytimes.com

When it comes to geometric intuition, it'd been thought that there was a line in the sand between monkeys & humans. But baboons can do some amazing stuff when nutritious fruit snacks are on the line! By @krcallaway.bsky.social, feat. @cantlonlab.bsky.social 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/s...

Monkeys Understand Shapes in Almost the Same Way as Humans

Our geometric intuition, long considered something that sets us apart, seems to be shared with other primates.

nytimes.com

I CAN'T WAIT TO READ @robertakwok.bsky.social'S NEW BOOK!!!! 🧪

Roberta Kwok@robertakwok.bsky.social · 2w ago

It's pub day for Lost in Curiosity -- please re-post widely! "Lively and revelatory" (Elizabeth Kolbert), "beautifully written" (Alan Lightman), "an utter delight" (Sabrina Imbler), "the kind of trip you won't want to miss" (Deborah Blum) www.robertakwok.com/book

My best friend from kindergarten passed away last weekend. We were best men in each other’s weddings, there on the day each other’s dads died, and a million memories in between. www.instagram.com/p/Da8gPBslTx...

Jason Thrash Bittel on Instagram: "@dustin.t.83 and I have started a GoFundMe for @joshuaksobota’s family. The link is in my bio. Please consider donating or sharing in his memory. 💔"

6 likes, 0 comments - bittelmethis on July 18, 2026: "@dustin.t.83 and I have started a GoFundMe for @joshuaksobota’s family. The link is in my bio. Please consider donating or sharing in his memory. ...

instagram.com

I remain endlessly in love with the fact that life has squirmed its way in between paper-thin leaves, layers of rock hundreds of feet below us, and single acorns. There are parasites that parasitize parasites and probably parasites that parasitize *those* parasites.

Alex Wild@alexwild.bsky.social · 3w ago

Acorn ants, Temnothorax curvispinosus, in an old acorn in Illinois. They need an acorn in a particular stage of decay, usually a year old and already hollowed out. If you're looking for acorn ants, you won't find them in the fresh ones.

You had me at "opossum shrimp"

Elizabeth Beston@elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 3w ago

Check out this handsome beast! A mysid (opossum shrimp) from Happisburgh beach in Norfolk. Thanks to @adameykolab.bsky.social for the ID help! #marineplankton 🦑

Good work, buddies

Dr. Solomon David@solomonrdavid.bsky.social · 3w ago

A native fish species is eating some of the most damaging invasive species in the Great Lakes…AND making a significant impact! Freshwater Drum: The overlooked native fish that has been crushing trillions of Zebra & Quagga Mussels in Lake Erie www.canr.msu.edu/news/freshwa...

Where I grew up, daddy longlegs were everywhere! And yet, no one seemed to know a damned thing about them. In fact, the one thing everyone "knew" -- that they're the most venomous spider on earth but can't bite people -- turns out to be not just wrong, but wrong in like 3 separate ways! 😂🧪