"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?" Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
Entomologist, sometime arachnologist, natural history enthusiast. I used study caracaras. I still do, but I used to as well. Avatar by the endlessly talented @blackmudpuppy.bluesky.social Also, photographer!
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"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?" Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
How to improve poster sessions at conferences. 🧪 #science colinpurrington.com/tips/poster-...
This one is a little different, but if you want to see how some spider science gets done (and how you can do it, too), you can see what I learned from @cataranea.bsky.social and @ibycter.bsky.social when they put me up for three days in St. John's! youtu.be/6c2XqAsHnuo
Anyone recognize this Euxoa, from Makkovik in Labrador? The larvae were munching some planted vegetables. We reared it out in hopes of an ID.
A Sagebrush Sheep Moth (Hemileuca hera) on Mount Kobau in the Okanagan. What a great place to be for bugs! #Lepidoptera #Moth #iNaturalist
These are some little dudes that I work with, diamondback moth and cabbage maggot. Not good for brassicas!
First detection of mosquito Uranotaenia sapphirina (Diptera: Culicidae) in New Brunswick, Canada doi.org/10.4039/tce.... #NewInCanEnt
Sexy resin bees! They're so cute and stubby. The boy's little feets on her back 🥹 #BugSex
Got visited by a dirty little male Antrodiaetus pacificus last night!
Did it not used to sit by the lake on a plinth?
Look who visited us at the farmer's market: the Banded Longhorn Beetle 🪲
A cluster of Coelioxys on their nighttime sleeping perch
Taste the rainbow. #spiders #bugs
Some Ammophila and Coelioxys hanging out on a dead gumweed
Our guide to bees of Pennsylvania is available for free now, you can order print copy (just have to pay shipping) and/or download PDF from Penn State Extension page: extension.psu.edu/bees-of-penn... For every one of the 47 bee genera we have beautiful photo(s) and natural history facts
Nice!
I almost never see bees holding onto plant stems with their mandibles to sleep because I go looking for them when they’re most active. But here is a Nomada bee holding onto a Grindelia petal when the afternoon turned windier and chillier than expected. [Alameda, CA 7-20-25] #bees #nativebees
Yep, but auto aperture!
A couple Ammophila snuggling up for the night
This Coelioxys shot with the new Laowa 15 mm 1:2 macro. No lie, it is a tough to use lens and I need more practice for sure.
Thanks!
Coelioxys cuckoo leafcutter bees sleeping on a dead gumweed
European wall lizard closeup from Victoria BC
If you can, please donate to help with funeral costs and supporting her family. RIP Sheila Colla. www.gofundme.com/f/support-sh...
a little late for pride month, but we'll forgive that for a gynandromorph spider! 🕷️🌈🥰
Castianeira are usually ground-dwelling creatures but this magnificent C. floridana lass decided to speed around a palmetto for a bit and then chill on a frond for a photoshoot and that made me very happy. 🧡
Great outline of how to do a bug talk/walk with kids. 🪲🪳 The main takeaway: just give them nets and see what they find! There's always more than enough to talk about in any ecosystem. 🌎 www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-lif...
Very excited to say that we are seeking an Assistant Curator to join our entomology team! 😁🪲 For full details on this 2 year fixed-term post, head to our website: ➡️ careers.nms.ac.uk/job/727783 #Entomology #InsectCollection #EntoJobs #MuseumJobs
A nice dung fly on the blossom of Kalmia procumbens
Few bakeapple blooms up and ready as of yet in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut; we are still early in the season. But some of the male flowers are seeing visition by flies :)
A snowshoe hare in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut. This guy was pretty unafraid of me.
✨New Science Illustration: Lab assay to observe the behavior of parasitoid, Ganaspis kimorum, when exposed to blueberries infested with spotted-wing Drosophila. For Rutgers entomologist, Cesar Rodriguez-Saona. 🪳🪲🎨🧪🐡 Seeking human-made visual storytelling for your research? Lindzeamays.com
Plume moths are very special. Here is the Yarrow plume moth, Gillmeria pallidactyla. #röllekfjädermott #Gillmeriapallidactyla #yarrowplumemoth #plumemoth #fjädermott #Pterophoridae #insectphotography #naturephotography #macrophotography #biodiversity #bjärebiodiversity #PL45/2.8
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
This jumper was a new one on me. Sittisax ranieri, Ranier's Patterned Jumping Spider. Thanks to @cataranea.bsky.social and @ibycter.bsky.social for getting me there, and for helping me figure out how to get the most out of my equipment. Cape Spear, Newfoundland #Pentax K-5ii, see alt for more
Leucospis chalcid wasp, a parasitoid of the egg cases of another favorite of mine, resin bees. Weird chonky thing. 🖤
A wonderful video by @tshahan.bsky.social - featuring beautiful native sunfish. Some cool gar make an appearance (that I think @solomonrdavid.bsky.social would like), and Thomas has a link for his awesome T-shirt designs if you want to support a real artist! #sciart 🐟📷🍃🌿 youtu.be/S_zUY60yQyI?...
Summer Tanager
I'm thrilled to announce that the Entomology department at the NHMLAC is hiring a full-time collections manager! 🪰🐜🕸️🦋 I'm biased, but the museum is a great place to work, and our department is full of fun, thoughtful people. Job description and information for applying are here: shorturl.at/iRqOB
Influence of a local bioclimatic gradient on wild bees in boreal forest clearcuts doi.org/10.4039/tce.... #NewInCanEnt
Another photographer who deserves more followers.
Fête de la Nature : à la découverte des insectes - St Paul en Pareds | SAINT-PAUL-EN-PAREDS |
Found this guy on my shed today, with his lunch still in his mouth, and he was kind enough to stay in one place long enough for me to run inside and grab the big camera after snapping a bit of video with the phone. Dolomedes tenebrosus #Pentax K-5ii, 100mm WR #macro, flash #photography
let's go back to publishing every weird little thing we see an organism do as a natural history note. i love a good kitchen sink paper that gets into the nitty gritty of a whole-ass system, but when you're trying to research something less well-known, you really need people writing "so one time..."
getting salty with my review
Paracantha fruit fly, just cranking the style slider to 100 and seeing what happens. I love it, is what happens. 💛
OF ALL THE PHOTOS TO GET MOTION BLUR! 😭 Cleaned it up best I could - because this is a Genus Pamphilius Sawfly bitches! (Zero Oregon sightings on BugGuide & iNat - "whopping" 66 US sightings on iNat) LOOK AT THIS TRANSFORMER! Right up there with Conura Chalcids! #inverts #becurious
Caracaras have been waiting patiently for pumas to finish off a carcass here in southern Chile. Yesterday, the cats finally left, and the scavengers swooped in. Here we have a Southern Crested Caracara chasing a Chimango Caracara (barely in the frame!). #birds
The Royal Ontario Museum is hiring a new collections manager! Please spread the word. Collections Specialist 2: Fossils (Vertebrate Paleontology) - Royal Ontario Museum - Careers t.co/CTtfs3MBMB
Lovely Beetle Surprise at my black light last night: Calosoma scrutator, the fiery searcher*. Large and very pleasing colors.
Cerapterocerus, a tiny silly wiggly noodle of a wasp and an old friend I haven't seen in a couple years. She appeared in some scrub leaf litter I turned, and made my day. 🖤 (yep, she's an Encyrtid)
Recently completed leafhopper sweater (designed by @leafhopper.bsky.social) modeled by @ibycter.bsky.social with help from Diego and Zora in scenic Quidi Vidi Village! #EntoFashion #Knitting
that first one is a pirate spider!
Torymus sp. parasitoid wasp emerged from gall of Diastrophus turgidus on raspberry.
Bruchomorpha piglet bugs (abrupta and jocosa). Little nuggets 🖤 #InverteFest
this pretty spider has me thinking about pretty spiders male Habronattus americanus, from the Deep Creek Mountains of far western UT
Cette photo d'araignées-crabes en train de se faire la cour, prise par le photographe Sandip Guha à Shiliguri, en Inde, met en évidence le dimorphisme sexuel entre le mâle et sa partenaire (chez certaines araignées-crabes, la femelle est jusqu'à 60 fois plus grande que le mâle). shorturl.at/IAIAf
About 4 mm
A little Torymus male out of a raspberry gall.
An article about a recent community science project on the fireweed flower gall midge in Alaska! These galls caught my attention while doing field work for a pollinator research project but turned into a project all of their own! www.akentsoc.org/doc/AKES_new... #entomology #Alaska #cecidomyiidae 🧪🪰
Our global phylogeny of Eurytomidae is now published in Systematic Entomology @respublications.bsky.social resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Silly little guy attempting to eat an entire flower (Mononychus vulpeculus, the iris weevil) 💜
I misspelled the name: it is Eurytoma solenozopheriae. But that ain't right google AI
In the hole (looking up) 🍄🟫✨ #MushroomMonday
I've been informed my powerpoint is art so I'm tagging it for the #SciArt feed 😂
Green-patched looper (Diachrysia balluca), one of our prettiest local moths! Check out the metallic green color, and the long scales decorating its thorax! Also, a bonus snap of yours truly photographing this moth. I'm always amazed how I find myself in the most awkward positions when photographing.
Ceiling explorer, the delectable Woolly Jumper, Pseudeuophrys lanigera. #Arachnids #Spiders #VC55 #UKWildlife #macrophotography #macro #OMSystem
pretty japygid dipluran from our recent collecting expedition, this one from near Kaweah in the CA southern Sierran foothills I love the beadlike antennae, and the splayed posture one common name is "forcepstails", but these are unrelated to "earwigs"
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Now filling the 10th #Entomology #StarterPack! 🧪🪲🪰🕷️🐜🦋🕸️🐝🐛🪳🦗🐞🦟🧪 Not in one yet? Please nominate widely! 👇 go.bsky.app/JBdBKXJ Starter packs not your thing? Pin this list for a feed of > 1350 ento-focussed @bsky.app folks 👇 bsky.app/profile/did:... 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Come join ESBC at the Beaver Lake BioBlitz: City Nature Challenge on Saturday Apr 26, from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm. We'll be exploring the forest surrounding Beaver Lake in Stanley Park while logging sightings on the iNaturalist app. Full details below:
Dusky pygmy rattler living its best life (on a burnt log in the morning sun, soaking in the warmth, not caring about the weird biped at all) 🖤
I will retain them and send when they have finished emerging
I should get a bunch more.
Yeah, they are just emerging now. I can put them aside for you if you wish. This male I put in 95% etOH and he is in the freezer.
A little Eurytoma solenozospheriae drinking from the edge of a blueberry leaf. This was reared from a gall of Hemadas nubilipennis.
Here are some colorful leafhoppers that I found during my wanders in the mountains of Costa Rica.
I don’t usually photograph vertebrates, aside from the occasional wedding or some such, but this Panamanian Agouti was irresistible.
A pupa of Wyeomyia smithii, the pitcher plant mosquito
in the crowd ... an ant cricket (possibly a desert ant cricket, Myrmecophilus manni) cruises amongst 100s of ants beneath a flipped stone oak woodland near Warner Springs CA
Here is what cabbage maggot eggs look like at 10X and 20X
Defending the nest. Momma Caracara pops her head out to see who is lurking. (I didn’t see her initially- I quickly retreated, apologizing the whole way) 🪶☀️🌵
Poking in wiregrass this afternoon in one of the lesser visited sites in my bug hunt rotation, and suddenly noticed the tiny silly figure of my favorite eupelmid wasp just chilling on a leaf. Made me very happy. Just a gorgeous creature and her booty feather. 💚 Uropelma formosum
Ripiphorus, probablemente del complejo fasciatus, es un escarabajo parásito fascinante. Sus larvas viajan en abejas halíctidas y luego las consumen desde el interior. Un caso raro de parasitismo interno en escarabajos. Más aquí: edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/... 🧪🌿 #coleoptera #bugsky #insects
It'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
Pretty pair of small carpenter bees (Ceratina) enjoying a Chicory flower for #TwosDay #inverts #becurious
Hibiscus from a few seasons ago ..
You probably have to view full-screen to see what is happening here-- baby great horned owl is watching his upstairs neighbor, the starling, who is watching the baby owl. Just incredible to witness! 🪶
When I painted this picture I thought the dragonfly would be the hard part. It was actually the Forget-me-nots and the Bluebells. The colours are so unique and specific. I was tearing my hair out trying to get them right. After that, my next few pictures I just stuck with the Stitchwort.
Blooming lupines and sunset over Florida savannah. Happiest place 💜
Kinda bland from a distance - just blending into muddy edge of a pond... ...but upon a closer look - brilliant metallic green punctures! Larger depressions of blue?! So beautiful, so weird 🫡 Elaphrus sp marsh ground beetle, March 22, 2023, Oklahoma
Shed antlers as a larval environment: antler quality and adult performance of wild Protopiophila litigata (Diptera: Piophilidae) doi.org/10.4039/tce.... #NewInCanEnt
Aw jeez. I can't keep up!
And here is the galler herself, Hemadas nubilipennis, also a member of the family Pteromalidae
Sleeping Coelioxys bees. I was first introduced to these bees and their sleeping behaviour by @ibycter.bsky.social at a local beach here on Vancouver Island #bee #Hymenoptera #macrophotography
Always a highlight of early spring finding the first grizzly Tachina ursina each year. This one at Allerthorpe Common in East Yorkshire this morning. 🐻 #tachinidae #diptera #ento @dipteristsforum.bsky.social
✨ A beautiful Tomrymid to finished the week 💚 just emerged from galls of Andricus quercuscalicis agamous generation #gall #parasitoid
A lovely Pteromalus wasp I reared out of a blueberry gall. This is a parasitoid of the galler Hemadas nubilipennis
