more pumpkin content

A few of my favorite pumpkin and gourd photos from the MASSIVE auction going on in Mifflinburg, PA More photos from the event here: photos.app.goo.gl/eBDM8GGVTgYc...

Yesterday I visited the "Largest Ornamentals & Pumpkin Auctions in the World" in Mifflinburg PA. 150+ photos of the different variety here: photos.app.goo.gl/eBDM8GGVTgYc...

Male carpenter bee hug

blue jay feathers are blue thanks to a microscopic physical structure the refracts blue light, more about how colors in feathers work: academy.allaboutbirds.org/how-birds-ma...

gigantic imperial moth caterpillar I spotted on a hike in the woods last week 😍

gigantic imperial moth caterpillar I spotted on a hike in the woods last week 😍

Cool lichen-covered rocks

this little book arrived today! would make a fantastic addition to a K-12 classroom library or a gift for bug-loving kiddos (and adults!).... extension.psu.edu/bees-of-penn...

“This book introduces us to the importance, beauty and private lives of Pennsylvania’s mostly unnoticed pollinators." -Muhlenberg College biology professor Marten Edwards A nice story about the guide to bees of Pennsylvania we recently released: www.lehighvalleynews.com/environment-...

Viceroy licking my shoes

Who can guess what im doing?

A morning view from my driveway with wildflower garden in foreground and fog shrouded Appalachian Mountain in background

Indigenous Americans learned to process maize in alkaline solution (called nixtamalization) which made niacin (vitamin B3) bioavailable. But when Europeans started relying on maize they didn't do that resulting in niacin deficiency and disease called pallagra en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtama...

Most adorable goat scene I saw this week 🐐😍

"The frequency illusion (also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon) is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it." en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequen...

Short writeup about our bee guide :) www.psu.edu/news/agricul...

Occasionally doing peer review on scientific papers has a rewarding moment, when you see paper with your suggestions incorporated that made it better. But also sometimes you see a paper show up in a different journal with some or all of your suggestions ignored, very disappointing...

This month's #G3Journal cover features a male Bombus perplexus bee poised on a purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea). 🐝 Females of this species are generalist pollenivores that collect pollen from multiple plant families. 📸: @nashturley.bsky.social 1/2🧵⬇️

sand in the sun made for a neat bright background to this green sweat bee on goldenrod flowers

Globetail syrphid fly (genus Sphaerophoria)

Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara)

I got some quality face time with the monarch today

cute fungus

Too big 😆

Tobacco hornworm AKA Carolina sphinx (Manduca sexta), they are so cool looking. You can eat some of my tomatoes as long as I can take some photos, fair trade :)

Jagged ambush bugs (genus Phymata) are nifty rugged little tank-like bugs that sit on flowers waiting to catch pollinators, they are so cool! I saw this one on a hike near State College, PA, last week. Check out those chunky raptorial front legs!

Eastern elderberry borer (Desmocerus palliatus)

@lars-brudvig.bsky.social @nickhaddad.bsky.social @julianresasco.bsky.social well isn't this a charming headline 😬 My guess: paper wasps that scrapped off wood from dead tree that is radioactive from pulling up water near nuclear waste storage tanks www.cbsnews.com/news/radioac...

butterflyhunter eh? that's a pretty hardcore name www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Air potato leaf beetle (Lilioceris cheni) a beetle introduced in Florida on purpose as a biocontrol for, you guessed it, air potato

OK you're really cute, you can eat my tomatoes

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

I set up a light trap over the weekend, I didn't know it was #nationalmothweek but it was a nice coincidence here are some lovely moths

To this day, one of my favorite sketches that I ever did. And it was a product of boredom! 😆 Ballpoint pen sketch of Great White on [checks notes] blue notepad paper. 🤣 #shark #sharkweek #marinelife #sciart #nature #fish #fishart #animal #animalart #sketch #greatwhite #bskyart #blueskyartists

Two amazing wasp mimics in my pollinator garden yesterday. A mydas fly and a clearwing moth. Grow native plants yall, they attract wonders!

I think it's so dumb that science papers use terms like "adaxial and abaxial surfaces", obscure dyslexia-nightmare words that provide no unique meaning and I think only serve the purpose of making the people that use them feel important, just say top and bottom

tree hopper with a water drop magnifying the intricate dimples www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Exciting!

The bucket garden is growing!

On a relatively cool morning at the Southwestern Research Station we found these handsome bees zooming around horsetail milkweed. I'm pretty sure it's a Plasterer Bee (Colletid). Bees in the family tend to be crepuscular and that fits, they were gone by mid morning. Portal, AZ #BugShot

FREE guide book to the bees of Pennsylvania! I'm excited to announce the release of our guide to all 47 bee genera in PA, with lots of lovely photos and natural history facts. You can download the PDF for free now, physical copies coming soon :) extension.psu.edu/bees-of-penn...

nope, not caterpillars, sawflies! from Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China www.inaturalist.org/observations...

these pleasing fungus beetles are maximum classy and cool www.inaturalist.org/observations...

a weird bug for sure www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Leafcutter bee (Megachile sp.) on the ever-so-spectacular butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Sulphur!

Lovely spiky Agave plant from Ecuador www.inaturalist.org/observations...

citation software for some reason generated 150+ pages of citation in my paper now everything is crashing / not working, reminds me why I gave up using these tools a few years ago and just did them manually