Rocky meets a large Carpathian Shepherd who helpfully stuck his head through a hole in a concrete wall

Melanophoxus griffinii, a small conehead katydid from the Amazon region, trying to climb on my lens. This is one of the many challenges in shooting wide angle macro: you have to get very close, and for some animals this is an opportunity for them to go and explore your camera and flash system 😅

Researchers call on public to report Vancouver Island sightings of rubber boas

Too chilly for much native bee activity around lunchtime yesterday, but this male Longhorn bee was still on duty, diligently watching his turf. Side note - yes, he clearly has been doing a lot of pollinating! [Alameda, CA 7-7-26] #bees #nativebees

Baby red widows (Latrodectus bishopi)! Central Florida endemic species. ❤️

ctSpyderFields: A Python package for visual field reconstruction in spiders https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.28.728173v1

This crumpled little thing isn't going to look exciting to most people but real bugheads will know why i said OH DAMN when i saw it in my sample just now

Great thread on Plaster of Paris! Note that if you cast ant nests with this, the ants will survive, and will chew their way out and roam across your apartment floor. Just a fact I learned once.

I've been documenting a pair of black-capped chickadees nesting in our garden as they fly back & forth every few minutes, hunting meals. An avg clutch of 6 to 8 chickadees requires 3,000 to 5,000 feedings over the ~16 days from hatching to fledging. Most popular foods: caterpillars, moths, spiders.

Proof that juvie Steller's Jays are, in fact, angels!! 😇 #birds #becurious

Spider webs don’t just catch insects, they also catch DNA from the air. 🕸️ Our new study shows they can detect a major forest pathogen more effectively than conventional passive samplers, offering a low-cost tool for biodiversity and disease monitoring. 🌳🔬 www.ezlab.si/post/spider-...

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 🐙🌿

ok now they're both doing it

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

Day 26, #30DaysWild. Happy to see a little Marmalade hoverfly enjoying a Ribwort plantain in a #NoMow area at the back of @theul.bsky.social this morning. #Hoverflies #Diptera

Planning an unexpected trip to Romania, from Canada. Family illnesss, I have to see my dad. If anyone has advice on such a trip, I would welcome it. I have booked a car rental to get from Bucharest to Cristian and back, Do i need an Intl. Drivers licence? I did not need one for Ireland last year.

The prettiest wolf spider in Labrador? I think Alopecosa kopeneni is lovely

Saw a nice bear this afternoon near Makkovik, Labrador

The town of Makkovik, seen from Makkovik Hill.

A Xysticus crab spider lies in wait on a bakeapple flower in Makkovik, Labrador

I found a dead fishing spider at the top of Makkovik Hill in Makkovik, Labrador. Gonna look for some live ones today.

Moderate insect activity on bakeapple (cloudberry) near Makkovik, Labrador this afternoon.

I wasn't prepared to see this face in a tree when I walked around a curve in the trail. #TreeHog Ferguson Trail, Shiawassee NWR June 8, 2025

The Labrador tea in Makkovik, Labrador is pretty small! This is Rhododendron tomentosum, or marsh Labrador tea. I am up here looking for pollinators, but it is pretty cool and cloudy so far. All the flowers are waiting, but few customers.

#SciComm Job!

Scientists find new species of dragonfly, grasshopper and a fluorescent spider www.reuters.com/business/env... #Animals #Biodiversity #Spiders #Science

grabbing every small business owner I can find by the shoulders and yelling directly into their faces that IF I DON'T HAVE AN INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT I CAN'T SEE ANY OF YOUR SHIT GET A FUCKING WEBSITE

A nice cuckoo wasp my student found trapped in a barn. Released after photos!

lunch break with the lads

Voting is open for the people's choice awards in the Puget Sound Bird Fest Photography Contest, and I'd love if you took a look (the loon photo isn't in there, I just wanted something shiny on the post) Adult: pollunit.com/polls/PSBF_C... Youth: pollunit.com/polls/PSBF_C...

It's always a joy seeing your study organisms in their natural habitat. Cyrtophora citricola, facultatively group living spiders, near Càdiz, southern Spain 🕷️🕸️💕

todays warmup

Sharing with the #SciArt Feed:

And another must view video from spider communicator extraordinaire, @travismcenery.bsky.social

Adorable young kestrels surprised by a butterfly.

Had the great fortune today of witnessing the emergence of a beefly (Hemipenthes morioides) from its pupa in the sandy hillside. It all happened very quickly, and within a few minutes it looked like a mature adult!

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

#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Shared with me by a fof in SoCal - this is a gynandromorph (both male & female) valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa sonorina). Females are black, males orange, so the extreme color dimorphism really stands out. Per Doug Yanega at UC Riverside, bee gynandromorphs he’s seen are mosaic instead—

Thrilled to finally share our new paper on giant scorpions from the Early Devonian! Behold Praearcturus gigas! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/S54Y6Y...

I helped describe a new species of Andean widow spider! zookeys.pensoft.net/article/185973 This was a rare occurence where an arthropod had a common name before a scientific one. Locals call it "la lucacha," so we are pleased to formally introduce "Latrodectus lucacha" to the scientific community.

#FlyFriday #InternationalBiodiversityDay #BiodiversityDay Exciting mass digitization project at Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History | >325,000 pinned specimens of pollinating insects are being digitized on a conveyor system developed by Picturae #USNMDiptera

Note that the quote is from a WDFW spokesperson, a position once (heroically) filled by my very own beloved mom

Baby turkey! Just by the side of the trail, with another baby and mother turkey close by. 🤎

Definitely a yellow jacket queen in flight, very scary, yes (Milesia virginiensis, the virginia giant hover fly)

A Wisp Mr Carrot Wasp (Gasteruption sp). The neck on this lad

Here’s a poem called ‘What Don Corleone Did Next’. #worldotterday

a glorious click beetle with a metallic rosy red pronotum

This new book by Dr. Stephanie Dole (aka Dr. Beetlelady) is fantastic. For any kids in your life (it's aimed at ages 8-12), "Bug Power" depicts various invertebrates as having superhero-powers with great illustrations, alongside excellent photos and real-life information. More in alt-text!

Snakefly Season has arrived! Arguably the best season! This Ms. is Genus Agulla If you're asking, "What the WHAT?" You probably live east of the Rockies. Snakeflies are their own thing, Order Rhaphidioptera found west of the Rockies in NA. Beautiful and beneficial! #inverts #becurious 1/2

So, Godox has released a new macro twin flash, the MF-T76. It is relatively inexpensive, compared to the outrageous prices commanded by the brand name manufacturers. www.godox.com/product-e/MF...