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Kevin Keegan

@mothpotato.bsky.social

I study moths so YOU don't have to. Lepidopterist at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A. All opinions are my own.

677 Posts1033 Follower734 Folgt
Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund@gdfcf.bsky.social · 3h ago

What an extraordinary story. 💚🌳 @mongabay.com’s Rhett Ayers Butler beautifully captures Dan Janzen, Winnie Hallwachs, and the decades of people, science, and persistence behind the restoration and protection of Área de Conservación Guanacaste. A must-read: news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dani...

Daniel Janzen and the long work of bringing back a forest

In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence li...

news.mongabay.com

Judith A.H. Smit@judithsmit.bsky.social · 4h ago

Caterpillars eat plants, right? 🌿 Not always, some are carnivorous! 🥩🐛 Our new paper documents the life history, behavior, and vibrations of Juditha odites. It feeds on treehoppers, then moves into ant nests to consume ant brood! 🐜🐛🦋 link.springer.com/article/10.1... @insectessociaux.bsky.social

An insect-eating caterpillar associated with arboreal ants: life cycle, diet, social integration and substrate-borne vibrations - Insectes Sociaux

Herbivory is the predominant feeding strategy in Lepidoptera, whereas carnivory has evolved rarely. The life cycles of carnivorous species, however, remain poorly documented. Here, we confirm that Jud...

link.springer.com

Mike Masnick@masnick.com · 2w ago

The history books will not look kindly on this. And we know that. There is no reason to do this at all other than blatant racism and the desire by those in power to exercise their power for the sake of cruelty.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 2w ago

This cruelty has no need but cruelty. Haiti remains deeply dangerous; a country in the throes of anarchy. Hundreds of thousands of people are SAFE. They are safe. They are safe here and the nation has decided to make them unsafe. We are embarking on a tragedy and we cannot look away. We cannot.

Matt Bertone@bertonemyia.bsky.social · 2w ago

OK I thought Scutops was cute, but OMG #NEOscutops is amazing! 😍 I'm now convinced #Periscelididae is, per species, the weirdest family of flies (more evidence from another genus to drop later). #FlySchool2026 Costa Rica [And yes, @americanbeetles.bsky.social, it's cool partly because of beetle]

A small round beetle-like fly with a shiny black body and bright red head walks on a leaf. Dorsal view. A small round beetle-like fly with a shiny black body and bright red head walks on a leaf. Lateral view facing left. A small round beetle-like fly with a shiny black body and bright red head walks on a leaf. Lateral view facing right. A small round beetle-like fly with a shiny black body and bright red head sits on a white background. Lateral view facing left.
Matt Bertone@bertonemyia.bsky.social · 3w ago

Officially the cutest fly I've ever seen 🥰 😍 It was a target genus of mine & Ezra Bailey was kind enough to save her live specimen for me to photograph [we've been lucky to see more since]. They mostly run around rather than fly. SQUEEEEEEE!!!! #Periscelididae: #Scutops #FlySchool2026 Costa Rica

A small dwarf fly sits on a leaf facing right. It has a yellow stripe down its back and dark wings folded over the abdomen like a little beetle. Its face is pointed into a small whit blunt nose. It's eyes are red with a couple light stripes.
Karl Magnacca@kmagnacca.bsky.social · last mo.

Very important new paper out! The coffee berry borer beetle is the worst pest of ☕️ worldwide, and in Mexico is attacked by the wasp Cephalonomia hyalinipennis. That wasp is supposed to be in Hawaii, so why doesn’t it attack CBB here? Turns out neither are actually C. hyalinipennis!

Unraveling a complex of cryptic species near Cephalonomia hyalinipennis (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) and their association with the coffee berry borer and other hosts

Abstract Despite the recorded presence in Hawai'i of Cephalonomia hyalinipennis, a presumed parasitoid of the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), it has never been recovered from infeste...

doi.org