a female red centipede clutches her invaluable egg mass conifer woodlands of the CA western Sierra Nevada
@caeculus.bsky.social
Ken Schneider; pathologist and California-based naturalist and microscopist on a mission to document the diversity of tiny and/or obscure invertebrates and cryptogams (lichens, mosses) living in western North America.
Most U.S. insects and arachnids remain unassessed for conservation risk, and even many known at-risk species lack legal protection. A study quantifying this lag in arthropod conservation reveals a major blind spot in efforts to save vulnerable wildlife.
Arthropods Lag Far Behind Other Animals in Conservation Assessment and Protection, Study Shows
Most U.S. insects and arachnids remain unassessed for conservation risk, and even many known at-risk species lack legal protection—a major blind spot in efforts to save vulnerable wildlife.
entomologytoday.org
Please repost! Drexel announced that it will close the Academy of Natural Sciences public museum- the oldest nat history museum in the US. There are 2 petitions to support the academy. Please sign both & come to our rally Tues. actionnetwork.org/petitions/pe... www.change.org/p/the-academ...
Night eyes 😎 Finally got proper pictures of this amazing phenomenon! Mantises change their eye color (and light sensitivity) at night by transporting pigments from the surface of each compound eye unit toward the deeper eye region. Same female Tenodera sinensis, two different times. #bugsky
Under One Canopy, an exploration of the ethics of biological kinship, is at long last slated for publication. I am told it will hit the virtual shelves August 18th! I will be sharing more details when it's official.
Stop everything! Ray Gagne has just finished the second edition of "The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America" and it's freely available here: zenodo.org/records/2137...
The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America
This revision of The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America, originally published in 1989, began as soon as the earlier book was in press. Since then, more than half again as many records of plant...
zenodo.org
www.npr.org/player/embed... Short NPR segment on the Bryophyte Conservation Alliance!
Moss is an underdog in the world of plants when it comes to federal protection
Hundreds of plants are protected by the Endangered Species Act, but moss is an underdog. There's only one type that has federal protection, but a group of scientists wants to change that.
npr.org
Important statement from the IUCN on the crucial role that natural history museums and their biological collections play in biodiversity research: iucn.org/sites/defaul...
iucn.org
Just published! A new discovery in biological pest control: Synopeas ruficoxum, a natural enemy of the soybean gall midge in North America. 🧪🧵 doi.org/10.3897/jhr....
This is a deep-sea isopod. Dr. Johanna Weston, a deep-ocean biologist and guest investigator at @whoi.edu, is confident this is Bathyopsurus nybelini, one of her favorite animals. Learn why via the YouTube caption: youtube.com/shorts/DenUj...
There is a LOT of attention for soil health, especially in agricultural systems, but there is very little awareness of the value of intact, undisturbed, native soils. Here, I argue that applying the old-growth concept to soils will help their protection. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@ilichenmoss2.bsky.social George Greiff in the BBC News headlines on Sunday morning. A fantastic discovery, and hopefully a way to moderate invasive (INNS) Campylopus introflexus (Heath Star Moss). Well deserved recognition for some very interesting bryological work. 🎉🙌 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Killer fungus discovered that destroys UK invasive plant
A newly discovered species raises hope that some native British habitats could be restored.
bbc.co.uk
"The last full-time museum taxidermist in the US" - Can this really be true? Nice article, regardless! www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/s...
At a Los Angeles Museum, Giving New Life to Dead Animals
nytimes.com
New paper! Bird nests (Wood Warblers) are hubs of invertebrate biodiversity on forest floor, hosting more species/individuals than leaf litter. Probably due to heat & food detritus. Losing Wood Warblers = ecological networks lost. #ornithology resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Bird nests support a diverse, dynamic and distinctive macroarthropod community on the forest floor
Nests built by vertebrates, such as birds and mammals, constitute diverse microhabitats that are inhabited by many arthropod taxa and represent important hubs of local biodiversity. Compared to leaf...
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘I love midges because I know what their hearts look like’: is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out?
Insect taxonomist Art Borkent has described and named more than 300 species of midges but fears his field of science is dying out, despite millions of insects, fungi and other organisms waiting to be ...
theguardian.com
Interested in the ecosystem services provided by leaf-litter arthropod communities? Read all about it in the latest 'Value in nature' post: 'Hidden treasures'. #biodiversity #nature 🌐 mscaterino.pika.page/posts/hidden...
Hidden treasures - Leaf litter arthropods and the good that they do - Value in nature
I spend the majority of my research time looking at minute arthropods that live in soil and leaf litter. These species represent a large proportion of biodiversity, hundreds of thousands...
mscaterino.pika.page
Through an extensive investigation using over 20 complementary analytical techniques, researchers identify Spongiophyton as one of the earliest undisputed lichens in the fossil record. Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4oHMxeU
Seven new species of the leaf insect genus Phyllium are described from across the Indonesian archipelago. Find out more about them here: doi.org/10.3897/zook... #endemicspecies #insects #newspecies @tbuescher.bsky.social @uni-goettingen.de
Very excited to see this preliminary catalog of the mites (Parasitiformes and Acariformes) found in Brazil - several thousand species are documented and many tens of thousands eventually expected. Putting together a catalog like this is a tremendous amount of work! www.scielo.br/j/zool/a/nRq...
Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna: The Brazilian acarofauna (Arachnida: Holothyrida, Ixodida, Mesostigmata, Opilioacarida, Sarcoptiformes, and Trombidiformes)
ABSTRACT The diversity of organisms is one of the most fundamental questions in sciences. Here,...
scielo.br
New biology: stink bugs inoculate their eggs with a fungus that protects them from parasitoids www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
Science Magazine - Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs
Tympanal organs have repeatedly evolved in diverse insects and were thought to be required for auditory perception (1).
sciencemagazinedigital.org
Welcome Miridae (and Reduviidae) to TaxonWorks! Comprehensive plant (and assassin) bug nomenclature with >44k names, distribution and host records are now imported. Christiane Weirauch, R. Toby Schuh and Michael Schwartz lead the evolution of this decades long effort on these important #insects.
Very excited to see this important research on an endangered California lichen species be published! #lichen #conservation www.int-res.com/abstracts/es...
Population assessment and conservation strategies for the Critically Endangered lichen Sulcaria isidiifera
The epiphytic lichen Sulcaria isidiifera is a critically imperiled species endemic to the coast of central California, USA, where it occupies just a few patches of old-growth maritime...
int-res.com
Calling all those interested in bees, wasps, sawflies, and ants!!! The International Society of Hymenopterists (@hymenopterists.bsky.social) is putting out a survey to both non-members and members to find out what you would like to see from the society: forms.office.com/e/ekULRH4Tdt Please share! 🫶
Microsoft Forms
forms.office.com
OK, I love this song, but there is some sketchy geography in the lyrics that always catches my ear - maybe Kim Wilde hadn't spent much time in the US, because "East California" really isn't a thing... :) "New York to East California There's a new wave coming, I warn ya" youtu.be/80TfG7C9azA?...
Kim Wilde - Kids in America (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Kim Wilde
youtu.be
🔬🧬🍄 @science.org Distribution of haploid chromosomes into separate nuclei in two pathogenic fungi | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @ubcbotany.bsky.social #fungi #fungisky #mycology #genetics #chromosome #nucleus #DNA #evolution #genome #biodiversity
One more beauty for #flyweek : a bee fly I photographed in the Mojave Desert a couple of years ago which was kindly identified as Poecilanthrax californicus by York Niu.
Very excited about a new paper from Natalia von Ellenrieder on a new species of whitefly in CA! Especially because "A key to all species of whiteflies with black puparia known to occur on oaks in North America is provided". :) www.researchgate.net/publication/... #hemiptera #whiteflies #taxonomy
(PDF) Tetraleurodes gilli (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aleyrodidae), a new whitefly species on Quercus L. from California
PDF | A new species of Tetraleurodes Cockerell (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aleyrodidae), T. gilli, occurring on Quercus L. (Fagaceae) in California is... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...
researchgate.net
Posting this rather colorful and snazzy-looking gall midge (Cecidomyiidae) I found in the Mojave Desert recently for #flyweek !
A surprising amount of flies migrate! Fascinating stuff for fly lovers everywhere. 🪰💕
Dr Will Leo Hawkes@willleohawkes.bsky.social · 2y agoIt's published! The largest research work I've ever undertaken: Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz 1/x
A "long-horned" bee, possibly in the genus Eucera, found at Carrizo Plain NM in California today. #bees #pollinators
