Crashed a party at #San_Felasco past Sunday night. Fermented beverages were served. Required attire was: formal for beetles; more frivolous for butterflies.

City Nature Challenge 🌎 April 24–27, 2026 Are you participating this year? The worldwide collaboration to share nature observations to the iNaturalist app helps researchers understand species populations, habitat biodiversity or seasonal variations. Details: www.citynaturechallenge.org

Same location, a few minutes apart, yesterday. A model (bumblebee) and its mimic - the robber fly.

Apparently, today is Taxonomist Appreciation Day, which has been celebrated (albeit quietly) annually on March 19th. Here are some recent taxonomic works published by the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity @floridamuseum.bsky.social recently: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news...

Online Exhibit 🪱 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating Feature: Giant Seep Worms (Lamellibrachia luymesi) Giant Seep Worms can have very long life spans, growing to 2 meters long over 170 to 250 years. 🎧 Story and more with Jenna Moore: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

Test yourself: there are 13 families of butterflies and moths featured here. Can you recognize them?

A new study offers the first known correlation between latitude and rate of mimicry evolution in butterflies, consistent with a longstanding theory of biodiversity that can trace its origin to Alfred Russel Wallace. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/butt... Study: doi.org/10.1111/syen...

From the field ✈️ Ana Lopez recently presented at the Metabolomics Association of North America (MANA) Conference at Banff, Canada, and networked with peers: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/from-... 🔬 Travel funding supports professional development of student researchers at the Florida Museum.

New post: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news...

Chilling outside of @floridamuseum.bsky.social

Our scientists and students had a busy year! Catch up on our 2025 research news on our website: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/

Research 2025 #YearInReview 💧 Biologists found an amphibian called a caecilian hiding away in a Florida canal in 2019. The species is native to South America, but a recent study by Coleman Sheehy and team show that they're now firmly established in Florida. Paper: journals.ku.edu/reptilesanda...

Alia Donly, a Utah State University student, traveled here to the McGuire Center to image and DNA sample all of our specimens of the Sand Mountain Blue butterfly (Euphilotes pallescens arenamontana) that lives on a single dune system in Nevada. Read more: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news...

Tom and John Emmel and Sterling Mattoon officially began their work on “The Butterflies of California” book in 1974. Now, more than 50 years after they began, the book draft has officially been published online and is freely available to the public: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/the-... 🦋📕

Spinybacked Orbweaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis, from today's dog walk.

This morning, front yard. Pineapple Sage | Salvia elegans purchased @floridamuseum.bsky.social plant sale

And look at this graphic abstract….. 😱🤯

Asclepias must have evolved a 'heartfelt desire to be eaten' by the monarchs. Otherwise, why would they make flowers that are as attractive to these butterflies as their leaves?

Day 6 of the National Moth Week: The giant leopard moth (Hypercompe scribonia). If parasitized, the caterpillars may alter their feeding behavior to increase their consumption of plants containing alkaloids in an effort to self-medicate. I find them sometimes on passion vines.

Day 5 of the National Moth Week: Chalcoela pegasalis; its wing margin scales resemble eyeshine from jumping spiders' eyes to (presumably) deflect their attacks. This crambid's larvae are predators of immature paper wasps; hence it's commonly known as the Wasp Parasitizer Moth.

Day 4 of the National Moth Week: the Imprerial Moth from Alachua, FL. Not all butterflies and moths are symmetrical, and Eacles imperialis is one of the exceptions. Small black dots sprinkled on the wings are in different places on the right and on the left. How's this achieved?

Day 3 of the National Moth Week: Idia litter moths inside a hollow tree. Yesterday, Alachua, FL.

Day 2 of the National Moth Week. Moth of the day: the fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea), family Erebidae, known for creating webbed nests. Closeup of male's head (taken 3 June 2025, Gainesville, FL) gives a different perspective on this species.

Moth week begins with this sighting of the underwing moth in Blues Creek park in Gainesville, FL this morning.

For the National Moth Week (July 19–27 this year): our book is still available here in hardcover or kindle www.amazon.com/Lives-Moths-... or as a PDF from @princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

So very excited for the magnum opus of my #PhD to finally be out in @pnas.org. 🎉🎉 We demosntrate that mutualistic co-mimicking tropical butterflies not only converge in light microhabitat but, as a consequence, have also converged in visual system morphology! 1/n😀 www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Wandering Hammerhead Worm on my window next to hammerhead shark. Convergence? It's been said that the wider head provides more surface area for sensory organs, which detect other animals, helping them locate prey.

Lepidopteran scales in 250 million year old poop: www.science.org/content/arti...

Yes, on Raindrops on roses and kittens, Bright copper kettles or warm woolen mittens. But wing of cicada light up by the Spring That is by far my most favorite thing.

My first tweet 10 years ago was a robber fly photo on #worldrobberflyday. Saw this robber fly today, thought it'll be a good post to start with on my new BlueSky account. Eye-to-eye, a Fly is eating a Fly....