just a little baby child (from @mosquitolab.bsky.social's pitfall samples; I can see how this one got sorted into the beetle pile)

Is there a name for a collective of shield bugs? #bugsky #entomology #macro

One of my biggest fears is, because the way society is being dismantled includes destruction of food supply chains and farms, I worry the coming crash will feature famine unlike anything the United States has seen since the Great Depression.

Tip for those finding Bluesky sparse or empty: Follow more people until your feed feels right. You can fix this. There are a ton of active accounts across a lot of areas. Scientists are waaaaayy more active here than on X, for example. Just hit that follow button.

Ecology is complex. Turns out trees with ant nests in their branches have different, more permeable soils under them.

I would like to dox another Texas Nazi, his name is Ken Paxton.

Given the economy, the brand should probably be sold to a hut company rather than a food company.

Nextdoor and iceout have reported ICE in NW Hills and Round Rock this morning, stay safe Austin.

As scholars now understand, Jesus’s primary contribution was to bring cashless payments to the masses.

This is aimed at transforming Oklahoma universities into large vocational colleges rather than research centers.

Life continues for the majority of the planet that did not invest in Bitcoin, including these Tetramorium lucayanum ants.

Postscript: the police, being cops, issued more citations to the protestors, including the victim, than it did to the shithead who ran them over. www.wowt.com/2026/02/04/s...

So now we all just give our money to Trump? That's the plan?

the Epstein files are really devastating because they remind me of how many girls and women miss out on professional opportunities, mentorship and careers because of how many powerful, rich and influential men only view girls and women — and interactions with them — through the lens of sex

Tree farms are farms, not forests.

You know that trope in tv where everything looks great for the protagonist and then the bottom falls out? I got those vibes for these parasitic beetles! They have food, they have shelter, they have protection. What they do not have is freedom. 🧪 www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Sir Ian McKellen bellows at Trumpies that They Shall Not Pass.

Is the point of the National Prayer Breakfast that people sit around praying that the President shuts up?

gooooood morning! I have rents between $1018 and $2030 available for adoption today. Let's keep on keeping people out of eviction court! You can dm me on signal asiniiwiikwe.72 if you would like to pay someone's rent.

A gallery of ant plants, and plant ants.

Window seat, always and forever.

Crypto Leaders Call For Infusion Of 20 Million Dopes To Stabilize Market

If I owned a bar there’d be free drinks with every DHS mugshot.

A Texas leafcutter ant, Atta texana, hauls spring Prunus buds along a tree branch on her way back to the nest.

quick, someone help, we've got a vegetable situation

Screwworm imported from Argentina, caught at border inspection in Florida. The interception isn't itself cause for alarm and shows the government is still functioning. Still, it's a demonstration of propagule pressure, and the re-establishment of screwworm here is likely a matter of when, not if.

An Ectatomma tuberculatum ant tends to Guayaquila gracilicornis treehoppers in a Colombian cloud forest. Minca, Colombia.

You will not believe what this is about.

A&M is now contending with the inevitable first amendment lawsuits stemming from their recent censorship splurge. I hope McCoul prevails.

"We have no way of reconciling what these cases will do to water supplies." New from Miranda Williamson: The world’s largest artificial intelligence data center complex is being built in Amarillo, and it’s almost seven times the size of Central Park.

45 year old dude with a MAGA hat.

There are train tracks right next to the concentration camp. Read this thread.

I do wonder how a national newspaper would go if it didn't impose unethical dark money propaganda on top of their legitimate news. People weren't willing to support Post reporting if it also helped boost climate denial and human rights violations.

And like clockwork, just days after climate denier Bjorn Lomborg was exposed in the Epstein Files, Jeff Bezos's Washington Post publishes Lomborg op-ed downplaying the climate threat:

Maybe ProPublica should add a sports desk. "Pro" they'd call it. With coverage and commentary of live games, coupled with financial reporting on the tax shelters used by team owners.

Few things make more sense than that fraud Deepak Chopra being creepy in the E files.

Washington Post laid off many of their staff photographers, too. Which seems missing from a lot of coverage I’ve read.

Yeah, but I bet these ants will still tell their kids to stop complaining, when they were young they had to walk uphill the long way to the food source and that's just how it was.

This is one of several archetypes we recruit to volunteer in the UT insect collection.

It’s fucking 2026 and I’m spending my fucking time crowdfunding for people the fucking government has fucking disappeared because fuck all this. This is for a friend of a friend:

The Austin market has a lot more wealth floating around that can be directed to Abbott's private school grift. Which is what this is really about. Any excuse to wreck the public schools and direct the money upwards and away.

An infant in New Mexico has just died from listeria. Public health officials think it is because the mother drank raw milk during pregnancy. I can imagine this family’s pain. Please, please don’t drink raw milk. It is of no benefit whatsoever.

One of my academia-related takeaways from the Epstein business is that a lot of people who are chasing money aren’t doing it to facilitate more and better research, they’re chasing money so they can avoid doing more work and enter powerful circles to be celebrated for what they’ve already done.

The new rule is everything you post about Stancil henceforth is wrong and you lose the argument automatically. Pro-Stancil, or Anti-Stancil, it does not matter. You’re wrong. That’s the rule. I’m doing this as a public service because it’s gone on too long, you all look stupid. It’s embarrassing.

It’s fucking 2026 and I’m spending my fucking time crowdfunding for people the fucking government has fucking disappeared because fuck all this. This is for a friend of a friend:

Reptile Handler At Birthday Party Ruthlessly Heckled By 6-Year-Old For Showing Amphibian https://theonion.com/reptile-handler-at-birthday-party-ruthlessly-heckled-by-6-year-old-for-showing-amphibian/

Greg Abbott wants to arrest children who protest and close schools that tolerate free expression.

One of our local Chagas disease vectors, Triatoma indictiva. Texas. Cool looking bug, not much risk in casual encounters like this, but you won't want to live in rustic or outdoor housing for longer periods of time where these are common.

Eastern Towhee #birds #snow #photography