1. A day after the Michigan church shooting, Republicans are silent after learning the shooter was a MAGA extremist. No investigations of Trump supporters as terrorists. No national conversations about the rights of cisgender men. The silence is deafening. Subscribe to support our journalism.

A gallery of ant queens from around the world.

Digitizing collections to unlock the full potential of palynology: A case study with the Smithsonian palynology collection Carlos Jaramillo, Surangi W. Punyasena, Daurys de Alba, Roxana Alveo, Angelica Arcila, Jorge Bermudez, Jonatan Bustos et al nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Absolutely loads of Vespa crabro, European Hornets patrolling the Ivy at #RSPBMiddletonLakes, 28/09/25 #wasp

Oblong Woolcarder Bee (Anthidium oblongatum) on New England Aster flower Late September in Chicago, Illinois free city on the prairie 📸 Olympus 90mm ISO200 f11 1/250 #stunDay #imageandverse #eastCoastKin #bees #pollinators #wildFlowers #parks #chicago #humboldtPark #nature #art #flowers #prairie

Tomorrow.....20.30 on BBC4 I loved making this documentary! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Nature book challenge. A book per day in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best nature books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews. #Books #Nature #Naturewriting #naturebooks #conservation #naturebookchallenge #booksky #EntoBookClub @bugmanjones.bsky.social

Went to see @rialina.com She rocked it. Catch the tour if you can!

An #echidna showing off its many excellent features: 🐜Long ant-eating, electro-receptive snout. ♠️Massive digging feet. 🌵Anti-predator spines. 💅 Huge backward-pointing hind-claws, to scratch in between their spines. 🧥Thick fur coat to survive winter in #Tasmania. #MammalWatching #WildOz #echidnas

How billionaires work:

So the answer to the question ‘how many people does it take to hang a python skeleton’ is five.

Ooh, #pollen in 3D. It’s a lovely piece of imaging!

The human body… as designed by the cabling team!

Is Academia.edu using AI now to follow what we read?I had an email: “Dear Steve, Based on the papers you've read, we think you might be interested in these 10 recently published articles” And then it listed 10 random articles that were of no interest, a bit like an AI might! #Academia

Acting NASA head Sean Duffy declares “Sometimes we can let safety be the enemy of making progress” In other news, new space suits will be made with brown trousers! Round the moon in 2026 and landing in 2027. www.bbc.com/news/article...

'tis the season to be leggy.... what a beauty!

Nature book challenge. A book per day in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best nature books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews. #Books #Nature #Naturewriting #naturebooks #conservation #naturebookchallenge #booksky #InvertBookClub

'Tylenol' is known in the civilised world as Paracetamol 2.4 million children born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019. Studied 186,000 children whose mothers were treated with paracetamol during pregnancy. news.ki.se/no-link-betw...

Went to see #AnthonyGomes at the #FiddlersElbow in Kentish Town London last night. Sold out (don’t know if there is anything left tonight). What a performance!

Nature book challenge. A book per day in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best nature books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews. #Books #Nature #Naturewriting #naturebooks #conservation #naturebookchallenge #booksky #bees #bumblebees #NatureBookChallenge

I should point out that it was my wife who decided on the remote controlled option for our new Roman blind! As we continue to rebuild/redecorate every room in our house, our bedroom is finished. For 2 months we have had a student-like piece of cloth on a string that we unclipped each morning. #DIY

In all the Darkness of the moment. There are nice people out there!

Nature book challenge. A book per day in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best nature books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews. #Books #Nature #Naturewriting #naturebooks #conservation #naturebookchallenge #booksky #ants #NatureBookChallenge

“Listen up you #Maggots” #diptera Maggots on the radio: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Ooh an AntLab short about #horseflies. “Green horse fly (Chlorotabanus crepuscularis) & a black horse fly (Tabanus atratus)” Beautiful little animals at rest but magnificent in flight! @flygirlnhm.bsky.social have you seen this? #diptera Incredible footage as always youtube.com/shorts/reAJ-...

This is a really interesting article. #Invasive, #non-native species in the form of #fungi. Damaging native populations and surprise surprise, the vector is humans.

It’s late at night. We finished the cheese biscuits yesterday. I am reduced to drinking Merlot and eating Roquefort with a spoon 🤣 Cheese dreams for me tonight 😵‍💫

Again, for those down the back, on the spurious question of the belief in the alleged "right" of Israel "to exist" ... #GazaGenocide #GazaHolocaust

When it comes to Cynomorium songaricum, #beetles are ok but #ants are perfect for seed dispersal! [Yet another weird and wonderful parasitic plant that I didn’t know existed - _this_ is why I love BlueSky and miss the old T****er days.]

Nature book challenge. A book per day in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best nature books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews. #Books #Nature #Naturewriting #naturebooks #conservation #naturebookchallenge #booksky #CarnivorousPlants #Darwin

There’s an interesting series of 5 free online paleobotany lectures via the Oxford University Botanic Garden this autumn. You can book all 5 lectures here (scroll down webpage to ‘Get your tickets now’ button) www.obga.ox.ac.uk/event/dr-san... #paleobotany

This is a pretty amazing video.

Only very slightly exaggerated, I'd say 😀

#AncientRome Intaglio: Two #cicadas fighting as gladiators Roman Republic, 1st c. BCE Carnelian, 17 x 21 x 3.5 mm “Rare subject referable to the late republican repertoire of #insects that perform human actions.” www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/...

NOISY #BUMBLEBEES ! (Sound on 🔈) My iPhone has just randomly selected a video for me and it was from 2018 when the #bumblebees decided to nest in the chiminea in a mass of moss. I stuck my phone in to film them and they were so loud!

Here… that @robinince.bsky.social bloke is on the radio again! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

A nest of Syneoca cyanea warrior wasps in Paraná, Brazil. Two things I love. Wasps. And Brazil.

With all the s🤬t that is happening in the world, please find attached a report of a coyote that likes carrying cats and cats that like riding a coyote. #TryToHaveAPeacefulSunday

A gallery of Cephalotes turtle ants. I've been photographing ants for over two decades, and I still haven't managed to shoot even 20% of the species in one of my favorite genera.

Still tickets left for Glasgow on Sunday - I’m told Chorlton is sold out on Monday - but then Frodsham on Tuesday thecuriouscatbookshop.co.uk/product/robi...

Locust borer #photography

Silky field ants tending black locust treehoppers for honeydew. Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

I love Ivy and I’m not alone. Check out this glorious European hornet feasting on the nectar and pollen from the flowers of this late flowering plant This particular bush was alive with insects especially hoverflies

The entomologist song youtu.be/6cbrmyg1UTg?... #entomology #Bugs

Mega #DIY continues. I’ve built a whole new, self supporting, roof my wife is cutting away to create a vaulted kitchen ceiling. I will add 6” (150mm) of insulation board before the plaster comes in. The rubber gloves are because she is also taking out some useless, thin fibreglass (v. itchy!)

One of the challenges of #palynology is that you don’t know if there is #pollen in your sample until right at the end of the process.

There is very little good news for #invertebrates at the moment: “Fiji ant study provides new evidence of insects’ decline on remote islands DNA analysis of endemic specimens in museums finds 79% of ant populations in Pacific archipelago are shrinking” #ants www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I somehow missed that @dradriansmith.bsky.social put out a new slow motion insect flight video last week. These are always sublime.

Tonight I had one job. No #invertebrates, it is #palynology night. 1/2 Simply dissect some herbarium specimens (tiny flowers about 3mm across). Filter them if possible and spin down the #pollen in the centrifuge to end up (hopefully) with a small yellow pellet at the bottom of the eppendorf.