New from my colleagues in the @invertebratelab.bsky.social! Paper out today. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

All the heart eyes for these tiny wonders 😍⁠ ⁠ Many animals that live in the dim waters of the ocean’s twilight zone have evolved powerful eyes to detect prey, mates, and predators in the dark. Hyperiid amphipods have developed remarkably diverse eyes, each with different functional capabilities.

Not all "cave" crickets live in caves - this new species is just as happy in tree hollows and wombat burrows. Living in Outer Melbourne's green wedges, it's threatened by urban sprawl. Paper coming soon. #bugsky 📸: Reiner Richter, David Illiff

happy Trans Day of Visibility 🏳️‍⚧️

Some of my favorite Orthoptera portaits I've taken in recent years. Katydids along with mantids have to be some of the most photogenic of all the insects. #katydid #grasshopper #cricket #insect #macro #nature #wildlife #bugsky #photography

This rather fantastic Black-footed Gondwanan Katydid (Metholce nigritarsis) was a recent visitor to our Perth Hills moth light. These amazing Katydids have been recorded in all states around Australia except the NT. #ausinverts #wildoz #Orthoptera #Katydid #inaturalist #nature #bugsky

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is turning 20! 🎉 We’re starting celebrations with a special anniversary blog series #BHLat20: Treasures from BHL, featuring remarkable works chosen by the people who know them best: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/03/cele... #ILoveBHL

Our lab is growing! We have new lab members joining us to work on micro-wasps, eyeless spiders, and cave crickets. Read on below to hear about their research. #bugsky 🐝🕷️🦗 invertebratelab.com/2026/03/24/welcome-new-lab-members

An ichneumonid #wasp in genus Enicospilus. #fujifilm X-S10, #Laowa 65mm #Macro #MacroPhotography #photography #Nature #NatureIsAmazing #Invertebrates #insects

**TIL about Justin O. Schmitt, an entomologist, who developed a pain scale for the stings of Hymenoptera. Wow, Justin, you were definitely doing gawd’s work. I’m sad that I never met you. Check out the incredible graphic by @atlasobscura.com

On #TaxonomistAppreciationDay I want to highlight some of the recent new species that I've described along with colleagues, many are from the global south where much of this diversity is from (and still awaits discover). First up, two species of herb gall wasps and a parasitoid from Sichuan, China.

computer graphics (1996) www.mobygames.com/game/598/the...

Jackie Chan’s Official Home Page in 1995

things keep changing / we will, too 💫

Yes. Taxonomy is very much in danger of dying out. Simply because other scientists don't understand its importance and there is very little money for doing this work. 1/n www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The caves of the Nullarbor Plain are fragile time capsules of biodiversity, supporting species found nowhere else on Earth. While it sounds good on paper, the proposed "green" energy hub will destroy this ancient ecosystem. Please consider signing. #SaveTheNullarbor change.org/p/save-the-nullarbor

Our postdoc @dr-ewilliamson.bsky.social's recent PhD study on an Australian native solitary bee, Megachile tosticauda, challenged a longheld assumption in insect biology: that all bees rely on a functional gut #microbiome. So what happens if it's missing? #bugsky invertebratelab.com/2026/02/24/a...

Did you know gum blossoms don't just attract bees - Australia's eucalypts rely on a huge range of species for pollination! Stay tuned for more stories about #OurEucalyptHome in the lead up to National Eucalypt Day on March 23rd! Cartoon in collaboration with @eucalyptaus.bsky.social!

How do you intend to clone a live moa if you can’t even be bothered to draw one? Really sums up how seriously we should take these people.

I miss when Alt meant like heavy eye makeup and putting a pile of your zine style campus newspaper on a table in the college student union, and not like people who won't get vaccianted but insist on drinking non-pasteurized poo milk.

The ASPS has come out against trans youth surgical care. The AMA then endorsed the ASPS. Meanwhile, WPATH's president-elect testified on behalf of a detransitioner who won their case. And hospitals capitulate to Trump. I write my indictment of the American medical system on trans youth care.

I know it’s intentional but we should stop calling everything AI, lumping useful machine learning techniques for science with large language models that tech companies are trying to cram into everything.

Tucked in little claws 🦀 A crab sitting like a cat loaf. So cute𓈒𓏸︎︎︎︎

What's that you say! It was all just fear pushing by bad faith groups and that trans women pose no threat to cisgender women. www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

Highlights from #Edinburgh cemeteries last week: Male Pale Brindled Beauty, Ocys quinquestriatus (nationally scarce), cluster of 2-spot, Harlequin, 10-spot & Cream-spot Ladybirds & Buchananiella continua with Anthocoris nemorum. #insects #CemeteryWildlifeWatch recording activity on #iRecord.

The infamous human bot fly (Dermatobia hominis). This specimen is from a rainforest in Honduras, deposited at the Biological Museum, Lund University. [MZLU 00131504] #Diptera #Oestridae 🪰

Recently got a copy of the out-of-print #Dune Encyclopedia (1984) and am obsessed with the design of these tarot cards. These are the only ones there are illustrations for, but the entire major arcana is described in-text. The book even provides sample spreads for divination!

Taxonomists, which names are you workshopping right now? For this cave cricket I'm thinking aedituens (temple-keeper). Found in the same caves as the oldest known fossils of coral reef fish, so I like the idea of it "guarding" them and their memory. #bugsky #taxonomy 📷: Hannah Zurcher

These three stories were all published this week. Abolishing ICE is a reproductive justice issue

It can get lower!

First, the Board decided not to implement motions passed by members to make trans rights a key focus of this year's festival - intended as a response to rising persecution in the US. Now, the only openly trans director has not only been censured by the Board but also misgendered in the process.

The last thing we need right now is a reason for MAHA/MAGA to discredit science further. Please, for the love of microscopes, don’t cite shit you haven’t read.

That peanut worm is a little too exciting for me you got anything else?

Common Eucalyptus longhorn beetle (Phoracantha semipunctata) relaxing near my regular cafe on campus. This species is invasive pretty much anywhere Eucalyptus has been introduced - that is, anywhere except Australia. #entomology #bugsky

New paper out! 🦀🦐💧

A new study shows that over 90% of insect biomass declines are driven by shrinking species numbers, posing a risk to ecosystem function. www.idiv.de/majority-of-... #biodiversity

This is a perfect example as to why we need AI regulation yesterday. AI cannot be the arbiter of whether human beings can live or die. This is an excuse for insurance companies to fire human workers and make our healthcare system even more nightmarish for a quick buck.

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TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

now that I'm back from this conference I can finally get back to my real passion: checking inaturalist multiple times a day for new orthopteran observations in need of an ID

My first article in The Conversation! I was a co-author on this paper led by the fantastic @dr-brock-hedges.bsky.social. We used environmental DNA to detect invertebrates reliant on rock-holes as freshwater sources in Australia's arid lands. #bugsky theconversation.com/meet-the-wei...

Rhipidioides sp. This very small male Rhipidioides sp. beetle was a new visitor to our moth light this week. This is the only recorded observation in Western Australia. The larvae of this species parasitises cockroaches🪳 #ausinverts #wildoz #beetle #coleoptera #inaturalist

I will never tidepool at night without a uv light again 🌊🌿🦀🐙🦑

CEO of KillCorp: “If you’re not willing to work for slave wages, you should be ground up for meat and served to subhumans who are” Normal_Guy: “Oh man, it’s not good for society to have people in charge who think like this. I hope something happens to him” [Normal_Guy’s account has been suspended]

I’ve seen so many of these weirdly shaped flyers on trees advertising this band and finally met the frontman 🔊 clicking ambertail cicada, Yoyetta robertsonae #bugsky

And for #ArtAdventCalendar day 2, some fishing lures 😅 Variations on this design have trended on social media for a while. I used creme polishes for the bases, some with gradients, and topped them all with a sheer holographic magnetic polish. Then I added details using more creme polishes.

Having to identify oneself as disabled to access accommodations is, on its own, a huge barrier to getting many disabled people the accommodations they need.

photo from September of me sticking my hand into the water underneath a concrete tunnel while looking for shrimps and the swimmy beetles literally eating me alive (very slowly)