the butterfly effect is when you see one and go ‘ooh butterfly!’ and then your day is better

20 straight days with 30 °C in Finland! Truly unprecedented heatwave still in full swing with maximum today about 32-33 degrees. Even the Arctic regions (e.g. Sodankylä Tähtelä) have seen three weeks above 25 °C, and may rival tomorrow their August heat records.

Nocturnal Neighbors 🦋🔦 Celebrating National Moth Week Our lepidopterist @vmshirey.bsky.social is hosting two FREE evening events (July 25 & 26) that invite you to join scientists on night collecting fieldwork on @ufl.edu campus. Pre-registration required: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/event/noctur...

On this #BugBanter Podcast, we’ve got a plan to save butterflies.🦋🆘 This episode is all about diving into why butterflies are struggling & the steps everyone can take to help them recover! Audio & transcript 📻 xerces.org/bug-banter/s... Video w/ captions 📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNzR...

Bluesky isn’t dying, it’s just buggy.

Too late/languished to add “baking” to my alliterative interests? Blueberry cardamom rolls brought to you by current events.

Gorgeous shot of one of my absolute favorite genera.

Had a few evening thunderstorms here in FL that took out my power for a bit. What a wake-up call to get my butt in gear WRT hurricane season!

In case you couldn't bear to read all the way to the end (understandable), here is the proposed picture for the BIO Directorate.

While we are all reeling from the budget and its major cuts to NASA, NIH, USGS, etc. I want to also draw attention to this little nugget about State Wildlife Grants, which is the mechanism for funding State Wildlife Action Plans. Eliminating SWG will destroy state natural resource agencies.

Successful Shirey Lab field work outing to San Felasco to conduct some giant skipper surveys!

I've been really enamored over the last two months with making cameras out of all of my spare diet coke cans and tape. Anyway, here is a shot that I'm really proud of from UF's campus. #pinhole #pinholeCamera

Monitor foliage arthropods anywhere in the world with woody vegetation! Learn about -how to set up a site -mobile app -training resources -data viz tools -and more! Webinar TODAY @ 12p ET #insects #birdfood #phenology #CitizenScience caterpillarscount.unc.edu/getStarted

A press release is out about the Biodiversity Heritage Library. From 1 January 2026 the Smithsonian will no longer host the administrative functions of BHL. BHL is looking for a new home. For further information see blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-... #ILoveBHL #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary

There's still a few days to apply for this #PhD position @utu.fi to work on #biodiversity changes of #butterflies and #moths in my project - deadline is April 25 👇https://ats.talentadore.com/apply/vaitoskirjatutkija-projektitutkija-biodiversiteettimuutos/81PyEX?lang=en&UTUID=20826

Change is in the air for BHL! In 2026, BHL hosting will transition away from the Smithsonian, opening doors to reimagine our future. Rest assured, our 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge remain secure and accessible. Learn what's next for BHL ➡️

🦎 Are you a master's or PhD student ? 🎓 The 2025 Graduate Researchers Award will provide 💰 2x€5,000 prizes highlighting research and discovery in biodiversity informatics by graduate students whose studies rely on GBIF-mediated data. 🧬 Learn more 🔗 gbif.link/gra-2025

Taught my first analog workshop on campus today using the ever stunning and versatile cyanotype process! Was a good break from class ahead of finals and a great way to soak up some sunshine between meetings ☀️ 💙

Awesome new paper by @lucalivraghi.bsky.social et al. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... in @currentbiology.bsky.social on the evo-devo of a butterfly color variation enjoy the show!

Spent some time this weekend experimenting with portraiture. Next up some digital negatives and experimenting with photochemistry.

Our article is now available open access! Come learn what we learned about the last 50 years of invertebrate conservation under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. doi.org/10.3389/fcos...

Another great day looking for and learning about giant skippers with my students!

A pivotal new study led by NatureServe reveals that >22% of native pollinators in North America are at an elevated risk of extinction. Key findings and Q&A w/ Jaret Daniels, curator of Lepidoptera at the Florida Museum: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/over... Study: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Stoked about this new article on 50 years of the Endangered Species act by @vmshirey.bsky.social and an amazing team of conservation scientists! 🧪 #academicsky www.frontiersin.org/journals/con...

Our new article on the U.S. Endangered Species Act and invertebrate conservation is up! In it, we profile what the last 50 years of invert conservation have amounted to under the ESA (and we made some cool maps!). www.frontiersin.org/journals/con...

What an amazing week at the @floridamuseum.bsky.social We digitised >800 Euphydryas editha, sampled hundreds of legs for genomics, and was given access to Mattoon’s incredible California butterfly collection. Thanks @vmshirey.bsky.social Anisha Sapkota and Andrei Sourakov for all your help

Gator Nation Giving Day 🔶🔷 Stand Up & Holler! #AllForTheGators Support Florida Museum scientists and @ufl.edu students 🐊 ongoing research and education with seminars, networking, workshops and community building events. 👉 Full info & all fund options: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/support/insp...

Diligent curation of giant skippers happening @floridamuseum.bsky.social this morning!

There is much trouble in the world, but interlibrary loan is amazing and just keeps getting better. Appreciate the librarians

Oh hey, that’s me! Stoked about years and collaborations that lie ahead! 🦋✨

"Trendlines in the northern latitudes are beginning to turn, and a warmer, greener Arctic does not reliably translate to more #carbon storage there—in part because warmer has meant emissions from #permafrost thaw and greener, more carbon to combust" 🌐

Lo-fi photography with the gameboy. (video link in comments)

Tiny assistant curator, big office. Excited to kick off this new adventure with @floridamuseum.bsky.social 🦋✨

My supervisor is opening a call for potential collaborators to explore global trends in phytochemical diversity (via metabolomics) in Salicaceae! If interested, for further details, please see in the link below~ Please spread the word - we would appreciate it! ☺️ www.volflab.com/news/explori...

With my soon-to-be-happening move to Florida, I made sure to stock up on birch beer and soft pretzels today while I'm still in PA.

The stamp collection of my inlaw contains awesome insect stamps! 😍🦋 A thread 🧵, starting this Ornithoptera stamp from Oman 🇴🇲

In the Miami airport. Oohh… Aahhh.

Fly pollinators are even more vulnerable to rising global temperatures than bees. 🌍🐝🐞 Protecting all pollinators is essential for our ecosystems and food security." www.psu.edu/news/researc...

Happy to share this new preprint looking at the genetic basis for a butterfly wing polymorphism. A fun story of genetic parallelism. Thoughts/comments welcome :)

New preprint by butterfly wizard @lucalivraghi.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We mapped optix (again?!) as the switch gene of a natural polymorphism, this time controlling silver patches of a mountain butterfly. Gorgeous RNAi validation, evidence of selective sweeps, introgression

Is it possible for a chrysalis to be considered 'beautiful'? The pinks and greens of this Cryptic Wood White pupa would suggest that the answer is a definite 'yes'! This is also the only butterfly species found in Ireland but not in mainland Britain, so is quite special for that reason too!

Big prize if you can guess exactly where I'm going to go from this temporary figure (the big prize is the dopamine from guessing correctly).

Ulla Riihimäki shows the non-target effects of fungicides on butterflies. Fungicides were increasing the larval mortality, decreasing growth rate. @marjosaastamoinen.bsky.social #BES2024

How do ecologists estimate occupancy in practice? https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.07402 #SDM

Job alert!! Two PhD positions on freeze-tolerance in insects. You will have to move to New Zealand, but it gives the opportunity to study (a.o.) wetas!!! They are so cool.....

On days like this (🥶) I could really use a nice warm mug of Glögi 🍷. Anyone think that mulled grape juice will suffice? 😅

King's Hairstreak (Satyrium kingi) from Gainesville, #Florida #USA A relatively rare sighting #Butterflies #Lepidoptera

The Creature ™️ watching me hop from Zoom to Zoom today

Minor revisions on some exciting AI and Endangered Species Act work! ✨