There’s scientifically accurate illustration and then there’s charming. These images are from "A Voyage to New Holland" by William Dampier, published in 1703. We’re glad that he took some time to ensure that these creatures 🐙 were captured for posterity! ➡️ www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/50441252

It's Friday night baby

Say hi to Micropathus ditto and M. zubat, two #NewSpecies of cave cricket from forests in southern Tasmania! These crickets are threatened by climate change, land clearing, and logging. Giving them names is an important step towards their conservation. But why did we choose these ones? #bugsky 🧵 1/6

"A public call to the researchers and stakeholders [...] with an ambition of widening novel groundwater-based research beyond well-known global biodiversity hotspots." Advancing subterranean conservation through Global Research on eDNA in Groundwaters (GReG) subtbiol.pensoft.net/articles.php...

How a small number of authors can cause chaos in biology’s system for naming species and what can be done about it. #taxonomy #bugsky thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-fe...

Amazing news from a member of our lab!

In what may be one of Earth’s craziest forms of mimicry, researchers in 2023 reported a species of rove beetle that grows a termite puppet on its back to fool real termites into feeding it. Learn more during #InsectWeek: scim.ag/40mj1S8

Holy smokes! I've got the male too! I'm tearing up. Just heard from the scientist that described the new species and this handsome lad is the male. So awesome! (Chrysometa chuchaqui)

Blue isopods with ribbons🎀

This is an awesome lab and everyone should definitely check it out! (yes I'm totally biased ☺️)

1/2 Ever wondered what 1,000 slaters in a jar looks like? These tiny isopods were once abundant near Marree, south of Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre in South Australia. #southaustralianmuseum #conservation #katithanda #lakeeyre

Last day of #invertefest so let’s end with one of my most popular pieces of art! linktr.ee/squishyfauna #invertebrates #bugsky #bugs #entomology #insects #herps #frogs #snakes #sciart #bsnm

I've never seen Barnacles being this active. #InverteFest 🦑 #Nature #TidePool

🌺🌸🍄🌸🌺🌺🌸🌻🌸 🌸🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄 🍄🍄🌱🌱🌱🍄🍄🌱🐢 🍄🌱🌱🍄🌱🌱🍄🌱🍄 🍄🌱🍄🍄🍄🌱🌱🌱🍄 🍄🌱🌱🥗🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🌸🌷🌺🌸

5/ Some wings have evolved strategies to help reduce damage resulting from collisions. For example, we learned a few years ago that wasp wings have a flexible joint that acts like a reversible crumple zone, allowing the wing tip to easily bend out of the way when it hits things...

Harry Potter $ helped pay for this ruling #boycott

A colossal squid — the largest invertebrate in the world — has been photographed alive in its habitat for the first time. And it's just a baby. www.newscientist.com/article/2476...

I kept forgetting isopod (slater) leg anatomy so I made a handy image to help me remember all of the segments in order. Credit to chatGPT for creating the mnemonic itself 😆 #isopods

Shrimps is bugs? No, it’s kinda the other way around. Insects are technically crustaceans, which highlights the importance of systematics in understanding how evolution unfolds. My latest for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social.

📣 New preprint! We reconstructed the cave cricket family tree and found the Australian biota have not 1, but >5 independent evolutionary origins. 🇦🇺 is at the centre of a radiation in the S. Hemisphere that began in the Lower Cretaceous ~119 million years ago. 1/ #bugsky Paper: tinyurl.com/bddev8kn

If you want to read one more dire wolf take this week, i can thoroughly recommend @maxhenrybarnhart.bsky.social's deep dive on what scientists make of the announcement, just why it broke like it did, and what that means for conservation work more broadly. @cenmag.bsky.social 🧪

Happy National Library Week!! A great time to ask everyone you know if they have a library card. #art #nationallibraryweek

In addition to the reasons mentioned here, I haven't seen anyone mention the fact that the genomic imprinting could not have possibly been the same as from a real dire wolf. They are really dire wolf/grey wolf/dog hybrids.

Vestige (Golden Arches) by Michael Kerbow

This project gives a really cool overview of how diversity of all sizes contributes to the stability of an ecosystem. It features awesome critters including ostracods, springtails, isopods, and blind fish! #troglofauna #inverts

Megazosteria patula is just one of Australia's many beautiful native cockroaches. The species is found in a range of habitats, from deserts to caves to under seaweed. Look at that gorgeous iridescence! #bugsky 📸: Ryan T Hughes, Nick Volpe via iNaturalist

ento people, what's your favourite bug pokemon? I've always had a soft spot for burmy. the idea of a living bagworm moth's "bag" is adorable #bugsky

Sicko Animal

A genetic tree as a movie: Moving beyond the still portrait of ancestry www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Come and see our new FREE exhibition: Naturalist Notebooks! A close look at the nature journals of naturalists through history displayed in our historic library. Open Tuesday-Friday, 10:00-17:00.

🍄🌷🌺🌺🍀🌷🍀🍀🌻 🌷🌷🍄🍀🌸🍀🍀🍀🍄 🌸🍀🌻🍀🌻🌻🌻🍀🍀 🌻🍀🍀🍀🌸🦋🍀🌻🍀 🌸🍀🍀🍀🌷🌷🍀🍀🌸 🌸🍄🌷🌺🍀🌻🍀🌸🍀 🌻🍀🌻🌻🌻🌷🌸🍀🍀

Some more really cool work from our lab!

Flappy flappy flappy

Microplastics contribute to evolution of antimicrobial resistance, study finds Experiments by researchers at Boston U find that growing E coli in the presence of microplastics significantly increased resistance to 4 antibiotics. www.cidrap.umn.edu/a...

Jetzt muss ich doch mal meinen Kohlweißlingsschlupfthread von Twitter rüberholen. 😊 Ich hab damals genau den richtigen Zeitpunkt erwischt, um Großen Kohlweißlingen beim Schlupf zusehen zu dürfen! 🤩 Unten schaut noch jemand zu 😄 (Leider nur Handyaufnahmen) 🧵 1/x #Insekten #Raupen #Schmetterlinge

Woolly mice are cute and impressive – but they won’t bring back mammoths or save endangered species 🧪🧬

My latest “ask a marine biologist” www.scubadiving.com/how-deep-sea... 🦑🌎🧪🐠

Seems we have enough Australian Entomology / other insect people to start a starter pack. Who have I missed? go.bsky.app/8d9RtMC

Australian Researchers, If you want to support @arc-tracker.bsky.social being awarded a Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science, sign this letter of support. forms.gle/WxfVjk9JaGpn... Q: "Are they eligible?", A: "Let's find out" Sign, repost & send the link to colleagues. Word of mouth. Do it!

Really excited to share that the first paper I’ve contributed to has been published! With the help of citizen science, we described 34 new Australian parasitoid wasp species, including Apanteles darthvaderi. doi.org/10.3897/zook... #Conservation #CitizenScience #DNAbarcoding #Entomology #Hymenoptera

What scientific discovery absolutely blew you away? Of course there are many for me, but this one comes to mind (one I discuss in ENDS OF THE EARTH): freshwater lakes, some the size of the Great Lakes, buried under 2 or more miles of ice in Antarctica. With living creatures inside, no less.

Bird nests made from anti-bird spikes?! 🤯 Hi, I'm a nest researcher 👋 and new here on BlueSky, sharing the craziest #bird nests I've ever found. 👀 Today, I’m sharing my discovery of rebellious birds that build nests out of anti-bird spikes. And honestly, it's like telling a joke... A thread. 🧵

BREAKING NEWS: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals. Banned terms must be scrubbed. Goes beyond MMWR +other CDC pubs. Applies to research already submitted to top medical journals. Take a look. open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

#pixelart #artpost

Those curl grubs could be Christmas beetles as well as other native Australian scarabs which are important for the soil.

NEW: Platformer has obtained the dehumanizing new guidelines moderating what people can now say about trans people on Facebook and Instagram. Employees tell me these changes are likely to inspire more violence against LGBT people: www.platformer.news/meta-new-tra...

Merry Christmas everyone 🎄 Image: The Latest Kate