Some crane flies in the genus #Geranomyia produce a little gel nursery to develop on leaves in the tropics. There they graze on algae & other organic matter. The mass provides moisture (other spp. live in water/soil) & likely protects from predators. #Tipulidae #Limoniidae #FlySchool2026 Costa Rica
So, know it or not, today is your lucky day! You are one of the first humans to see the fully-grown caterpillar of the undescribed Hypsocompe species! They have been happy feeding on a lot of plants, but at the moment seem to prefer the organic romaine from Whole Foods… 🐛😁
Alma Solis busted out some chrysaugine pyralids and I was ready to stand up and applaud
tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.
Science Magazine@science.org · 2mo agoThe White House today announced it plans to make major changes in how the U.S. government manages research funding. https://scim.ag/43HgW4s
Did yall know Moths were around 200 MILLION YEARS AGO! This is apparently before FLOWERS even existed and the scientists think their long slurpy tongues were for drinking juice in dinosaur poop. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #teammoth #yearofthemoth #moth
A Triassic-Jurassic window into the evolution of Lepidoptera
The oldest ancestors of moths and butterflies evolved in a gymnosperm world.
science.org
Introducing the newest species of moth from the US, and likely one of the rarest. Cicinnus albarenicolus is known from just 19 specimens, all in white sand scrub in peninsular Florida. Only one verified extant population! zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1817...
A new species of sack-bearer moth (Lepidoptera, Mimallonidae) from Florida
A rarely reported new species of Mimallonidae from Florida, USA, is described. Remarkably, the distinctive new species has not been seen across much of its historical range since the 1960s, and all re...
zookeys.pensoft.net
Predators got you down? Want to hide from the world? Just slough off your skin and flop it on your back! 👍 #lifehack tortoise #beetle #larva #Chrysomelidae: #Cassidinae Vieques, PR 🇵🇷
I thought our new “visible lab” space felt like a petting zoo but @mothpotato.bsky.social had a much better idea
Just a friendly reminder everyone, it is now “community science”, not “citizen science”, no matter what country you’re in. #communityscience
INSECT TAXONOMY IN THE 21ST CENTURY @entsocamerica.bsky.social Online, April 27-29! Featuring keynotes from Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social, Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, and Dominic Evangelista. Now accepting contributed talks! Grant deadline Feb 4, abstracts due Mar 6. entsoc.org/membership/b...
The FSCA is opening an OPS position sorting Lepidoptera in the McGuire Center! Please apply here: jobs.myflorida.com/job/GAINESVI...
OPS BIOLOGICAL SCIENTIST I - 42900373
OPS BIOLOGICAL SCIENTIST I - 42900373
jobs.myflorida.com
This greenbriar leafminer, Marmara smilacisella, adorned its cocoon with clusters of pearlescent bubbles. I wish my holiday decorations were so neat!
Jess Awad from Naturalis (massive Dutch biodiversity institute, formerly known as RMNH)— massive collection in a gorgeous new building (2019)
On this night, let's not forget that the reason for the season is souls coming out of holes in the ground.
Spookiest decoration at the "Zoo Goes Boo" event at the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids? Giant model of parasitoid wasps hatching from cocoons affixed to their caterpillar host.
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....
through the magic of AI, MS word suggested the following alt-text for this image: "a closeup of human skin". It's moth butts (credit: Arnaud Martin lab)
Say hello to Florida's newest established species, Typhlonectes natans - the Rio Cauca Caecilian! You can read about their relative abundance, distribution, & natural history, in our brand new paper: journals.ku.edu/reptilesanda... Here is one individual I CT scanned that had 7 babies inside!
Oh to be a moth that cannot fly... Meet the newly described genus/species Coloradactria frigida, a moth with females that don't fly- they scurry around on the ground like a spider or silverfish... lepscience.com/wp-content/u... @inaturalist.bsky.social observations helped us locate populations!
Micromoths & company from a UV trap in scrub west of Gainesville. Every time, I get a range from common species to things I've never seen before.
Charles Darwin famously laboured for years to write a 4-volume monograph on barnacles. It won him accolades and helped establish his reputation as a zoologist - well before 'The Origin of Species'. And these are some of his own specimens (at the Danish Natural History Museum, Copenhagen). 1/2
This is Iconella melitaraevora, a new wasp species parasitoid of Melitara subumbrella caterpillars. Find out more about it here: doi.org/10.3897/jhr.... #wasps #newspecies #entomology @texasscience.bsky.social #biodiversity
I propose we start calling parasitoid wasps "friend wasps" and launch a massive PR campaign to make people love them
Gary W Hartley@garybugsyou.bsky.social · last yr.Research from @smnstuttgart.bsky.social shows #LLM #AI chatbots reflect typical human biases about insects: - Bees/butterflies good, wasps bad - 'Bees' restricted to honeybees, 'wasps' to yellowjackets, underplaying masses of vital species onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1... #bugsky #scicomm
On the La Chua Trail at Paynes Prairie today, we stopped counting at 160 alligators.
How small can moths get? 🔎 Very. shield bearer #moth at UV light #Heliozelidae: #Coptodisca Raleigh, NC, USA @dradriansmith.bsky.social finger for scale
Gall midges and their parasitoids are abundant, megadiverse, and very hard to identify! Such "double dark taxa" systems present special challenges for ecology and agriculture. 🧵🧪🐙 @smnstuttgart.bsky.social @marinamoser.bsky.social @krogmann.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/aesa...
Untangling host specialization in a “double dark taxa” system
Abstract. Platygastrine wasps (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) are parasitoids of gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae). They and their hosts are exceptionally
doi.org
