The girls wanted a place to give away the countless art pieces they make for fun 🎨 🖌️ So, on/off for a about a year we've been working on this little community art house, made from scratch 👩‍🎨 🏠 Finally finished & I think it turned out great! Hopefully it's a nice way to share with the neighborhood ☺️

Lately I've had great work-life balance: both work and life have been burying me in equal measure. So in lieu of new photos, here's a throwback to ten years ago: an Ectatomma sp. ant (I think) I found carrying off an incredibly beautiful grasshopper in the Peruvian Amazon. #Bugsky 🐙🌿

Leptometopa latipes (Milichiidae)...2-3mm freeloader fly. Seem to be few records nationally, but conservative estimate of 5000 today at Bempton Cliffs, where I suspect they associate with seabird guano. They were all over the cliff edge hand rails! @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social

If you study plankton, you’ll definitely come across polychaete (bristle worm) larvae, and today is a great day to recognise them, because it’s International Polychaete Day! #marineplankton 🦑 #wormwednesday

The world is a sh*tshow right now so I'm posting this #WaspWednesday image a day early. It's Conura sp., collected in central Texas, and I'll add the obligatory "never missed leg day at the gym" comment. #NaturalHistoryCollections #FocusStacking #Hymenoptera #Chalcididae

My slug son Merg has gotten so big. Perceive him.

What pollinates Pelargonium species? Long-proboscid bees & flies pollinate about 85% of the species. This extraordinary photo by Marie Delport (CCBYNC4) shows Psilodera valida (#Diptera: Acroceridae) targeting the small flowers of P. odoratissimum. #Geraniaceae #pollination #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

This weekend Erica McAlister. In the Library. With the maggots. Come along to The Repton Festival and listen to me wax lyrical about the planets finest creatures. Stay for a weekend of curated, eclectic arts events from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th July 2026. 🪰@dipteristsforum @royentsoc.bsky.social

The ground chattered like rain hitting dried dead leaves. The mound ants were abundant and fierce (why'd they have to bite me in the nipple!?!?) 🐜😬 But in the end @dradriansmith.bsky.social made peace with the ants. We'll see how long it lasts 🙏 #Formicidae: #Formica integra North Carolina, USA

serious pollination party going on here ... Anza Borrego Desert State Park

They’re breaking down the Polar Workd exhibit this week and all the best Little Guys are laid out for condition reports

Little tigers are all around 🐅 You just gotta look sometimes! 🔍 ground #spider; #Gnaphosidae: #Sergiolus capulatus North Carolina , USA

I just finished the first assignment in my entomological illustration class with RISD. Western hercules beetle, Micron pen on paper #beetles #entomology #Herculebeetle #pointillism #scientificillustration #bugsky #sciart 🪲 🐡 #inkdrawing

Our department is hiring folks to help with work on screwworm! Follow this link to see the position and apply: jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/231...

good morning please observe Sam Jaffe’s footage of Flannel Moth Play Group m.youtube.com/watch?v=z6lr...

lacewings (and dobsonflies and snakeflies) are fun because they have exarate pupae, which means their limbs aren't fused to the body like lep pupae and they can climb up substrate to emerge

Zombie (Camponotus floridanus ant, succumbed to an Ophiocordyceps species so far only known from one tiny preserve)

Tonight we have a guest lecture by Netta Dorchin - a world expert in Gall midges The biggest family in dark taxa, and by quite a margin..within Hymenoptera, it’s the Platygastrids, which are parasites of Gall midges…. #BIOCOREFlies26 #insectweek @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Munch munch munch

Saw a cool solpugid in central oregon today

These prints turned out beautifully, thank u @mothpotato.bsky.social

Schnoz to schnoz 👃🏻 Adult Drinker moths (Euthrix potatoria) are always a joy to see, with their chunky fluffy bodies, those rich warm tones of orange and brown, big black eyes and their adorable little snoots. I couldn’t resist going nose to nose with this one recently. Happy #InsectWeek!

Congratulations to Luisa Vasquez Valverde on this amazing new paper about #millipede #systematics! doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Although this might look like an AI-generated bug, I assure you it is not. All* images I share are guaranteed to be fat-, sugar-, and AI-free! #NaturalHistoryCollections #FocusStacking #TrueBug #Membracidae #Wut (it's certainly true all of the images I personally take and share)

Yeah, fuck this. Our public money is essentially being diverted from science to supporting the stock prices of ruling party donors.

chasing these led me deep into the woods and I got a little lost and so basically I think these count as fairies

The answer? It's a dustywing baby/larva! These insects are small predators of small soft-bodied arthropods & can be beneficial in controlling plant pests. They are the smallest members of the order #Neuroptera, also having a reduced wing venation. #Coniopterygidae NC, USA bsky.app/profile/bert...

Hey there strange little one 👋 I like your vibe 😎 Anyone care to guess what this insect is*? About 2 mm in length 🔍🕵️ . . . *And maybe you just know it and want to let other people have fun with this?

A particularly unfortunately mosaic gynandromorph.

Can you see the dragonfly-like insect in this rock? It’s a Mischoptera, a Paleozoic insect!! #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

How many adult pygmy backswimmers can dance on the head of a(n insect) pin? Apparently just one, but look how adorable it is! #NaturalHistoryCollections #FocusStacking #Pleidae

"Whose Larva Is This?" A quick guide to figure out what you're looking at when you find something that resembles a worm or a Zerg unit crawling around. #insect #bug #education #SciArt

🚨funded PhD position in AUSTRALIA🚨, working on SMALL BROWN LEAF LITTER CREATURES, who could ask for anything more

friends. buddies. we all need to make our creature designs a lot weirder

wait what

I love this poem

You think your life is 💩? Sure, amateur. This baby lives in a little wizard hat made of its own poo, then blossoms into a lovely little fecal pellet beetle. And they wouldn't have it any other way 🥰 warty leaf #beetle; #Chrysomelidae: #Exema North Carolina, USA @dradriansmith.bsky.social

wizard

I've got a bunch of new followers suddenly, so I thought I'd roll this out again as a bit of an introduction... Hi, I'm the artist that painted this, "The Favorite". Perhaps you've seen it around? 😊

One year ago.

🚨 Lifer alert! 🚨 Check out this deer bot #fly that @dradriansmith.bsky.social found while we were hunting bugs - my first time getting pics of a wild adult of this family! It's a convincing bee mimic, whose babies live in the sinuses & throats of deer 😋 👀 #Oestridae: #Cephenemyia phobifer NC, USA

Managed to get up close an personal with these Currant Clearwings just now! An annual breeder in my little garden, very happy to see them again #teammoth #VC57

For #fossilfriday I present you with an ibis fly (Athericidae) larva and its syninclusions from Baltic amber - a worker and and a checkered beetle larva (Cleridae). Fly larva we have published (see alt text for the link). Preparation of the amber by inimitable Jonas Damzen of Vilnus 🦖⚒️🐝

I just think they're neat parasitoid #wasp #Hymenoptera #Eupelmidae #Phlebopenes North Carolina, USA

overlaying jumping spiders on insects at 50% opacity... clockwise from top left: salticid/caddisfly salticid/moth salticid/butterfly salticid/barklouse

A female and male Bird of Paradise fly (Callipappus sp), showing the extreme sexual dimorphism exhibited by these scale insects. Seen today in the Perth Hills, WA #ausinverts #wildoz #inaturalist #bugsky

This little origami bug's got it. diamondback spittlebug #Aphrophoridae: #Lepyronia quadrangularis; North Carolina, USA

Another awesome find yesterday! Not a scorpion, not a fly - but a Scorpionfly! Brachypanorpa Short-faced Scropionfly - have only seen a few and haven't seen one since 2016! Short-faced found only in OR, WA, CA, ID, MT - then waaay over in TN, VA, NC Nature never runs out of creativity! #inverts