One of a trio of Hirudinella ventricosa specimens acquired in a very timely donation. While it looks a bit like a leech, this is a trematode that parasitizes wahoo. • found in the stomachs of two wahoo caught off the coast of North Carolina a week ago. Happy Halloween 🎃

Oh, and perhaps my proudest moment? Saying “butt sucker” on camera and having it make the cut. (Small goals) *It’s a butt. It’s a sucker. Therefore it’s a butt sucker! Note: “floofies” w/ respect to dorsal appendages on branchiobdellidans is next.

Bronwyn W. Williams@bwwilliams.bsky.social · 3y ago

Earlier this year we spent an amazing and fun 2 days filming various invert things in my lab with the PBS Sci NC science team. A YouTube short just dropped from this endeavor. Learn about crayfish worms, clawed ostracods & witness me making crazy facial expressions: https://youtu.be/mX6IKpaAeqw

Earlier this year we spent an amazing and fun 2 days filming various invert things in my lab with the PBS Sci NC science team. A YouTube short just dropped from this endeavor. Learn about crayfish worms, clawed ostracods & witness me making crazy facial expressions: https://youtu.be/mX6IKpaAeqw

Crayfish live in NASTY water. Here's how.

Scientists think that crayfish survive polluted waters with help from the tiny worms that spend their whole lifecycle attached to the exoskeleton of crayfish...

youtu.be

Hello! My nature photos are wonderful to me, and one of my many pithy mottos is “If I love it, I want you to love it, too.”

For some inexplicable reason I feel like posting images of a few crayfishes - all of which occur in North Carolina - that are various shades of red, white, and/or blue. Photos by my amazing talented colleague Michael A. Perkins, NC Wildlife Resources Commission.

As my initial offering, please have this collection of photos that didn't crop well for a header image

I knew pill millipedes were adorable, but this pushes it over the edge. Zephroniid from Cambodia, Kampot Province | collected May 2000

Behold this 102-year-old adorably furry Orange Jumper (I think 😬) InverteButt from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences Collection. Collected in Raleigh, North Carolina, September 1921, by C.S. Brimley.

franz@franzanth.bsky.social · 3y ago

Today is @maureenbug.bsky.social's birthday, alternatively known as International InverteButt Day. Post your best invertebrate butt content.

That time you collect a turtle leech with a brood of eggs, forget about it - leaving it in a tackle box for three weeks - finally remember and think to move it to find dozens of leechlets. Score!

Q- How many undescribed crayfish species can we find in 1 day in an area in western North Carolina 22 miles long x 4 miles wide? A- At least five, plus one with a name. 😑 We have our work cut out for us! One small miracle: the branchiobdellidans shown here ARE known (Xironodrilus bashaviae) 😮‍💨

here's our larger giant isopod, which just got its ethanol changed after taking this photo 😅 (new pfp of me holding it like a baby for scale)

Andrew D Thaler@drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 3y ago

I haven't seen a single giant isopod on the skyline for weeks. Let's fix that. Lego fishy for scale. 🧪

THIS is custom-fit protective wear! A Granulate Shellback Crab (Hypochonca arcuata) collected 28 July 2004 off Usina Beach, Jacksonville, FL by SEAMAP biologists. The functional form-fit shell even comes with its own bling: bryozoans, a tiny anemone, worm tubes, and traces of barnacle.