🧵🐙🌿 Happy #Arachtober - here's an amazing arachnid (this one was in Montana) often called a camel spider or wind scorpion. It's not a spider or a scorpion - it's in its own order, Solifugae. They don't produce venom or silk. They are super interesting. Want a closer look? Sure you do. First, all--

Why are some apples as sweet as honey while others make your face pucker? 🍎 Dive into the chemistry behind apple sweetness, tartness, and aroma in this graphic! 👉 Read more: www.compoundchem.com/2025/10/16/a... #ChemSky 🧪

I found a mature Membracis dorsata today with the immature ones! Such a cool leafhopper! At @casabentbill.bsky.social #CostaRica #insects #invertebrates #nature

I got the macro lens out this afternoon for a little more detailed work on the immature Membracis dorsata leafhopper. At @casabentbill.bsky.social #CostaRica #nature #insects #invertebrates

Did you know I have a Patreon? I'm so grateful for the folks who support my monthly comics, and they get a special process post for each comic. $5+ supporters get an extra post about an obscure creature; past ones have included Halobates and the Paradoxical Frog(!) www.patreon.com/c/birdandmoon

Check out @garykwolfe’s review of MAKING HISTORY by K.J. Parker: “we’re left enjoying another fine example Parker’s deep sense of irony and chronically untrustworthy characters.”

I found an alien in my garden this morning here at @casabentbill.bsky.social #CostaRica I think this is Membracis dorsata, a species of leafhopper. #invertebrates #insects #nature

Physics Paths xkcd.com/3155/

A better shot of last night’s Vapourer. Only my second, with the first back in 2022. Garden year list now on 488, probably going to fall agonisingly short of 500… #TeamMoth

A cute springtail hangs with its white-footed slime mold friends 📷 Canon R5 Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM M, f/4, 1/2, ISO 640 Stack of 9 images 8/29/25 Northern Oregon Coast #mushroom #fungifriends #mushrooms 🍄📷 📸🎞 🌿🌱 🟢 🍄 🍄‍🟫

Here is an ant-mimicking spider from the Amazon rainforest. I was heading down a trail back to our boat and saw it and got a few shots. It's one of 3 observations of the species on @inaturalist.bsky.social (Myrmecium deladanta) Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022 #Arachtober

Xylethrus superbus is a fabulous species of orb weaving spider from the Amazon rainforest. While she looks a bit like a strawberry, eating her is not recommended. #Arachtober Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022

Arthropod Photo of the Week: October 15, 2025 Tangerine furry-legs moth Acraga moorei Lepidoptera: Dalceridae By Tom Myers, Kentucky, USA #arthropodPOTW

Windows 11 update breaks localhost, prompting mass uninstall workaround

A quick visit to our local library proved exciting today when we found this big guy marching purposefully towards the library door. An Anthela varia moth caterpillar, commonly known as a Hairy Mary. Now relocated to a safer spot #teammoth #ausinverts #wildoz #Lepidoptera #caterpillar #inaturalist

A Green Lacewing, maybe genus Glenochrysa, spotted at Mount Faber Park, Singapore on 2 March 2025. I seldom spot lacewings, so good to be able to find one. On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ]. #iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Singapore #Insects #Lacewings #Neuroptera

This is a good list, despite having my avatar there instead of @astrokatie.com's, who has 3 times as many followers as I do.

✅ I finally got a chance to ask my “fifth committee member”, Jeff Goldblum, to sign my dissertation, which is titled “Life Finds a Way: Carnivore Movement and Conflict in Developing Landscapes”. 😋 My work on human-wildlife interactions continues to embody this iconic Jurassic Park phrase 🐾👣🌱. 🧪🌍

Congratulations to bicyclists: you're one of the most efficient movers in the animal kingdom! 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

Here is your Wednesday Weevil, Watching Warily. Seen at night in a Costa Rican rainforest. Love the giant eyes on this little nugget of a beetle. 🐙🌿 🕶️

Physics Insight xkcd.com/3154/

Thinner than a human hair, dragonfly wings are highly durable, w/ antimicrobial, water-resistant, and anti-reflective properties and more. In a new study, researchers examine a variety of chemical and structural qualities of dragonfly wings to seek inspiration for human technical innovation.

A very nicely marked Dicranopalpus ramosus s.l. harvestman found in the dunes at Holkham yesterday. This is the first time I've found one marked like this. #Arachnids #Opiliones #Harvestmen

How Roomba's Focus Group Changed Everything

One of five Green-brindled Crescent to light in the North Hampshire garden last night, a maximum count for the garden. #TeamMoth

Everybody's seen at least one Jurassic Park movie, but have you read the novel that started it all? Let's take a look at the book that resurrected the dinosaurs, launched a franchise, and gave us Ian Malcolm... reactormag.com/the-book-tha...

Why look: a box of some sort of newish, bookish things arrived this morning. Seems to be about spinosaurid #dinosaurs... coauthored with @davehone.bsky.social... and published by Bloomsbury. Available 6th of November In the UK; then worldwide in early 2026.

It must have been so fun to first discover 'cathode rays' - now called electrons - and then 'anode rays' - positive ions, including protons - like this. Crank up the voltage on an evacuated tube and get weird glows!

Marbled orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus). Plump (gravid), orange females are sometimes called pumpkin or Halloween spiders. Rose Valley, PA. #spiders #arachnids #halloween

Coryphistes ruricola - the Bark-mimicking Grasshopper A master of camouflage, even his eye colour and pattern blend with his disguise. These #grasshoppers are endemic to Australia #ausinverts #wildoz #orthopteta #insects #inaturalist

In darkness she abides. Red-spotted #Orbweaver, ( #Araneus cingulatus ) fluorescing under 265 NM UV light. #macrophotography #Spiders #UltraViolet #Arachtober #BlessedNightweaver

In today's instalment of "Why AGI is not just around the corner". Those structures, man - to a chemist they are like fingernails on a blackboard.

"By simply pointing their dish at different satellites and spending months interpreting the obscure—but unprotected—signals they received from them, the researchers assembled an alarming collection of private data" #Satellites #Signals #Encryption #Privacy

"Japan’s health authorities have declared an influenza epidemic, with thousands of people infected with the respiratory virus." #Japan #Flu #Epidemics #Health #Diseases

An article that looks at how this might have happened. Any thoughts on this, @whysharksmatter.bsky.social #Sharks #Biology #Behaviour

"What makes these insubstantial-looking appendages [dragonfly wings] so durable? A group of scientists sought answers by looking at an array of characteristics from the wings of the African dragonfly Aethriamanta rezia" #Dragonflies #Biology #Materials #Wings #Nature

Just popped into the Royal Institution for a coffee, to discover they have a lovely display on benzene to mark the bicentenary of Faraday's discovery of it. Here are his notes, his paper, and one of his first samples. Glorious.

Great numbers last night for October, 91/23 sp. with 28 Green brindled crescent 😮 newbies included November moth ag, Feathered thorn, Red and Yellow lined Quakers, Mottled Umber ( I’m not ready to see you yet!) and best was Figure of 8 #TeamMoth North Herefordshire

Hello #PortfolioDay I’m Andy and I do stuff like this. Get in touch if you’d like me to do stuff like this for you! #SciArt

Velvet Ants are not ants, but solitary wasps. Only males fly; females like this one are wingless. They run almost nonstop, looking for burrows of other ground-nesting wasps and bees, which they parasitize. They can sting but are not aggressive. She was small, under 1 cm. Pryor Mountains, Montana 🐙🌿

Spooky bird stories. Last year's Halloween comic.

A White-crested Laughingthrush (Garrulax leucolophus) spotted at Mount Faber Park, Singapore on 2 March 2025. Gregarious birds and can be approached as they are used to humans. On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ] #iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Singapore #Birds #Aves

Our first Southern Moon moth (Dasypodia selenophora) visited tonight. Last year we were recording these moths in early September, so they are somewhat later this year #teammoth #ausinverts #wildoz #Leptember #inaturalist

More news about an incredible a Middle Jurassic (~170 mya) dinosaur tracksite near Oxford (U.K.), which includes one of the longest continuous dinosaur trackways in the world, made by a big sauropod. 🧪🦕🐾🪨 #ichnology

Fossils found preserved in a different kind of rock. "This level of preservation rivals other well-preserved fossil sites, such as those consisting of shale or sandstone. Except here, they are entombed in iron." #Fossils #Minerals

For #Arachtober, here is a spider that's not a spider. It's Petrophila jaliscalis, a jumping-spider-mimicking moth - see the face-on spider pattern, with orange legs and sparkly dark eyes? I love finding these - I think they breed in my small goldfish pond, because the caterpillars are aquatic. 🌿🐙

An ultra-high-energy neutrino spotted by a detector in the Mediterranean Sea could be the result of an exploding black hole. This is a highly speculative interpretation--but exactly the kind of far-out exploration made possible by new neutrino experiments. 🧪🔭 news.mit.edu/2025/could-p...

Two of the Geometrid moths that visited our garden light last night now the evenings are starting to get a little warmer in the Perth Hills: 📍Rhinodia rostraria 📍Scopula sp. (not sure of the species) #teammoth #ausinverts #wildoz #moth #Lepidoptera #inaturalist

Large citizen science datasets are powerful tools for biodiversity science, but they may have biases. Nice new paper from @louisbackstrom.bsky.social et al. showing that for eBird and Birdtrack lists there is a tendency for rare species to be over-represented onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....