glossy beauty

hey there Nomada sp.

the aptly named Pale Beauty

i was tricked for a few seconds amazing syrphid fly mimic of a vespid wasp

American giant millipede www.inaturalist.org/observations...

I found this little sweat bee (Lasioglossum sp.) inside a giant rhododendron flower (Rhododendron maximum)

charming little false flower beetles going bonkers for solomon's plume flowers

beetles from yesterday's walk in the woods

Want to know how wild bee communities in the Colombian Andes change between all the habitats in these photos? Check out our new open access paper :) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Habitats go from tropical rainforest to cloud forests to high Andean forest to high elevation páramo

Tropical Bee Assemblage Diversity Decreases With Elevation While Body Size Increases - Turley - 2026 - Biotropica - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New paper published today based on data collected during a field course in Colombia, we studied bee communities across 3000m elevational gradient in the Andes, very strong results, it has been such a delight to work with great students on this project! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Today I learned there is a hexagonal storm at Saturn's north pole, the sides are bigger than the width of Earth, and in between 2012 and 2016 it changed colors from blue to gold 🪐

what a charming lil' moth

look at this lovely syrphid fly (Melangyna fisherii), there are only 45 iNaturalist records for this species, and only 2 other digitized museum records for PA, one being the holotype from 1902. I contend that this may be the best ever photo of this fly :) www.inaturalist.org/observations...

excellent mossy tree trunk camo!

Scorpionfly

Ocotillo at Joshua Tree National Park

look at this glorious little moth!

jagged ambush bug

Truly the death of science as we know it, as well as any societies and journals dependent on funding from U.S. scientists. **Public comments accepted through July 13.** 🧪 🌍 Email and call your representative every day, on top of leaving public comments here: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

tiny fly in a wild geranium flower

fuzz ball www.inaturalist.org/observations...

stink bugs have lovely dimples

goth crane fly www.inaturalist.org/observations...

I was delighted to see one of these fuzzy hovering moths visiting flowers - they mimic bumble bees in appearance but behave more like hummingbirds snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) www.inaturalist.org/observations...

dimorphic jumping spider (Maevia inclemens), check out those zebra-stripped legs! 🦓 this a male grey morph, there is also a black morph that looks totally different

a glorious click beetle with a metallic rosy red pronotum

Packera flowers with wild geranium in the background

these canada geese are serious posers

american red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)

don't cry baby mallard 🥲

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

male a female mallard

i think this goldfinch knows he's a total badass :)

For #WorldBeeDay a reminder to check out the free quide we created about bee natural history and the bee genera of Pennsylvania, free PDF download here: scholarsphere.psu.edu/resources/7f...

Here are some bees for #WorldBeeDay representing some important facts about wild bees: most bee species are tiny and often kinda "waspy" looking, most species are solitary and nest in the ground, and about 1/4 of species are parasitic meaning they lay eggs in the nests of other bees

i was out birding as a thunderstorm approached ⛈️

red-winged blackbird and northern mockingbird mobbing a crow

mallard side eye

lovely wildflowers I saw yesterday rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) Rhododendron sp. mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium sp.)

eastern cottontail

got a lifer over the weekend, bay-breasted warbler!

spot the bug

hard-working dung beetle

crab spider

Coffee-loving Pyrausta Moth (Pyrausta tyralis)

cliff swallows gathering mud at a parking lot puddle, they use mud to build their nest on verticle surfaces like cliffs or bridges here's a link to a great photo of them sitting in their nests made of stuck-together mud pellets: paulzaretsky.com/photos/nesti...

Sweat bee (Lasioglossum sp.) on spring beauty flower (Claytonia sp.)

Epuraea, a sap-feeding beetle in the family Nitidulidae www.inaturalist.org/observations...

american robin frantically trying to shake the hairs off a woolly bear caterpillar