Joe DiMeglio

@dimeglio.bsky.social

Lichenologist

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

A big revision for the Lecanora saligna group -- six new species in Lecanoropsis. This is a common group of crustose lichens in western North America and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.

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"What has made our universities the greatest in the world, however, is not just the quality of our undergraduate education, but our ability to fulfill one of the central quests of modern life: the production of new knowledge thru discoveries that change the world." www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/o...

Opinion | Universities Gave Us the iPhone, the Jet Engine and Gatorade. We’re Tossing That Away.

The postwar compact on research that powered America’s economic and military dominance is under threat.

nytimes.com

Pannaria oregonensis is a rare species endemic to moist lowland habitats of northwest North America, seen here on Hooker’s willow in a costal dune complex on the central Oregon coast.

Foliose gray-purple pannarioid with red marginate apothecia forming a rosette on a willow branch

Orchid Bee, Colombia #BlueMonday Males (like this) collect volatile chemicals, from orchids and other sources, to create complex scents to impress females. They collect chemicals with their front legs, transfer them to the middle legs, then finally into storage pockets in the enlarged rear legs. 🐙🌿📷

A macro photo of a brilliant blue metallic bee clinging to a flake of brown lichen or fungus, with out of focus vegetation in the background.

Gabura insignis is a unique hypercoastal cyanolichen in the Pacific Northwest distinguished by its wrinkled warty isidiate thallus that greatly expands when wet, seen here in a dry state growing on conifer twigs at the mouth of the Salmon River, Lincoln County Oregon.

Black jelly lichen with warty laminal ididia growing on twigs

Letharia columbiana is a common endemic wolf lichen in the inland Northwest. It is distinguished by the chartreuse colored thallus from vulpinic acid and the prominent brown apothecia, seen here near Cottonwood Meadow Lake in Fremont-Winema National Forest, Lake County, Oregon.

Brown apothecia on chartreuse fruticose thallusVulpinic colored lichen on conifer branch

Pseudocyphellaria rainierensis is a specklebelly lichen restricted to ancient stands of old-growth and endemic to the Pacific Northwest temperate rainforest, seen here along the Ohanapecosh River, Lewis County, Washington.

Large foliose lichen with strap-like lobes with mint green upper surface, light orangish white underside with white spots (pseudocyphellae) and prolific marginal lobules Large colony of old-growth specklebelly in ancient forest understory

Parmelina coleae is a epiphytic lichen characteristic of the Mediterranean type climate of the California Floristic Province, seen here growing on an ancient Garry oak at the northern edge of its range at Upper Table Rock in Jackson County, Oregon.

White foliose lichen with adnate lobes and large maroon apothecia

Ricasolia amplissima ssp. amplissima occurs only as a dendriscocauloid cyanomorph in southern Oregon, seen here growing on a horizontal branch of an ancient Garry oak in a lichen rich oak savannah near Antelope Creek in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain of Jackson County.

Fruticose cyanolichen growing among mosses and other lichens Bild

Cetrelia cetrarioides is an uncommon rag lichen living on red alder in low elevation riparian forests in the Pacific Northwest. Distinguished by pseudocyphellae on the upper & lower surfaces & elongate soralia along smooth thallus margins. Seen here along Mill Creek in downtown Turner, Oregon.

White foliose parmelioid lichen with elongate soralia on thallus margins, pseudocyphellae in the form of subtle white dots are found on both the upper and lower surfaces Moist branch dwelling thallus

Nephroma tropicum is a commonly encountered kidney lichen in the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, distinguished among local Nephroma species by the abundant marginal lobules. Seen here along the Nisqually River in the Longmire Springs area of Mount Rainier National Park, Washington.

Foliose cyanolichen with prolific marginal lobules growing on small twigBrownish kidney lichen with marginal lobules growing on small conifer branch

We've returned one of England’s rarest lichens to its historic home🏠 Scrambled Egg Lichen has been reintroduced to Norfolk from Cornwall via a trial translocation🍳 Thanks to Cornwall Wildlife Trust & Norfolk Wildlife Trust, with funding from Natural England Learn more 👉 bit.ly/4hWieOP

he Rare Lichen that Travelled from Cornwall to Norfolk

An incredible story of returning one of England’s rarest lichens to its historic home – more than 350 miles away.

bit.ly