And if you want more detail on why I left iNat, I wrote about that too: kueda.net/blog/2026/01...

I quit my job at #iNaturalist, the product I co-founded. If you'd like me to keep working on natural history software, support me on Patreon: patreon.com/kueda. FWIW, I'm building an iNat backup tool and an app for viewing geologic maps. Or, if you think you'd like to hire me, get in touch!

During these frigid winter days when I am not out & about much it’s the synanthropic arthropods that catch my attention mostly. Clogmia albipunctata (Diptera: Psychodidae).

Zoom link for virtual attendance at this in-person event: us02web.zoom.us/j/8108013065...

A lecture on ‘Highland Biodiversity – Biodiversity of the upcountry Wet Zone’ will be delivered by naturalist, researcher and conservation biologist Rajika Gamage on January 8 at 6 pm at the Biology Lecture Theatre (BLT), Department of Zoology, Univ of Colombo www.sundaytimes.lk/260104/sunda...

Sunday book review: Pan-species Listing by @graemelyons.bsky.social Publisher: @pelagic.bsky.social Review: markavery.info/2026/01/04/s... "Hardly anyone has the knowledge to write this book & even fewer could write it so well!"

The recent Bay Nature Magazine with my article on UV Fluorescence is out. It’s full of tips on what habitats and organisms to look at. Big thanks to Editor Kathleen Ok-Soo Richards for helping fine tune the piece since I’m definitely rusty at writing article #Fluorescence #SFBay #UVF

Next week, Jan 8 at 12:00 pm EST, hear @bugeric.bsky.social, author of Bugwatching, discuss the fun and importance of observing our planet's most abundant, yet most overlooked, animals in this virtual event with Smithsonian Associates! Come learn to appreciate the small things: buff.ly/yWNSQF0

Database of Scientific Illustrators (DSI) c. 1450-1950 dsi.hi.uni-stuttgart.de/index.php

Here's a tiny trichogrammatid wasp stuck to a gall midge larva, which is pretty tiny itself... Check out my blog post for more about this midge species (I'm afraid I don't have much to say about how the wasp came to be stuck to it).

10 years of crowdsourced data shows the impact of climate change on plant flowering in the UK #NewYearPlantHunt @metoffice.gov.uk @bsbibotany.bsky.social www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

Ring-billed Gull, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1. #birds

We've been working with @metoffice.gov.uk to analyse 10 years of #NewYearPlantHunt data. The analysis provides the clearest evidence yet of how rising temperatures are impacting the British & Irish flora, with knock-on effects for all our wildlife. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Volumes like Woodland Life and Field & Meadow Life in the 1960s Blandford 'in Colour' series were - & are still - unusual among general insect/invertebrate guides in featuring larvae other than butterfly/moth caterpillars, plus galls & leaf-mines

I've been asked recently about my microscope & photography set up, so I finally wrote it up! Learn more here, or just enjoy some nice photos of animals I've found in the leaf litter of Appalachia: www.derekhennen.com/blog/2025/12/31/photography-of-millipedes-centipedes-and-other-leaf-litter-critters

Raptor Wednesday: “A New Year’s Eve round-up of the usual suspects.” From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2025/12/31/r...

Glad to find The World of Birds by Malcolm Ellis (1971) at Internet Archive, a copy of which I received when I was a teenager from a family friend. Recall these images well, esp Gyrfalcon by David Reid-Henry (from Brown & Amadon) & photo of George Lodge. archive.org/details/worl...

Ladybird Nature Series 536: What to Look for in Winter; What to Look for in Spring; What to Look for in Summer; What to Look for in Autumn. Internet Archive: archive.org/search?query...

Have to confess I can’t seem to resist the temptation to try out cheap gadgets that claim to help take big pictures of small creatures. Wonder if this would be of any use in the field… 🤔🔬🔍🕷️

Diogena lanka was described by G M Henry from Mannar 🇱🇰 in 1944. He found it well camouflaged on Acacia-type plants. Diogena occurs in Africa & S Asia, with @inaturalist.bsky.social records from Africa & peninsular India but none from Sri Lanka. Maybe in 2026? 🤔 www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Holiday Wishes (from Matthew Wills). matthewwills.com/2025/12/25/h...

Despite the claims, I have it on good authority that the fruit of the holly is not, in fact, a berry.

Raptor Wednesday. (American Kestrel catching & eating an Italian Wall Lizard (yes, a lizard in winter!) & a Dark-eyed Junco.) From the usual source, Matthew Wills’ blog. matthewwills.com/2025/12/24/r...

Can any entomologist point me to a biography of Leif Lyneborg (or Leif Lyneborg Jensen) who, in addition to authoring papers on Diptera taxonomy, wrote several natural history guides originally published in Denmark which were translated into English & published by Blandford in the UK, such as these?

Someone mentioned sexual dimorphism in flies involving broad-headedness. Can’t find the original post but here’s David Grimaldi & Gene Fenster’s (1989) paper that briefly reviewed the literature. archive.org/details/evol...

Two new species of bird-dropping crab spiders, from the Philippines and Malaysia, are diagnosed, illustrated and described. See more here: doi.org/10.3897/zook... #biodiversity #spiders #taxonomy

More freshwater crustaceans from John Clegg's Pond & Stream Life of Europe (1963)

Ostracods and Water-fleas illustrated in John Clegg's Pond and Stream Life of Europe (1963) #Crustmas

We’ve had Indian Meal Moth (Plodia interpunctella) infestations in raisin & walnut containers a few years ago, so this video from Jessica Jousse-Baudonnet (Terrapodia on IG & YouTube) was interesting. youtu.be/PM6lMoClzy8

Can anyone provide an ID? Some sort of insect found inside a well-travelled grand piano. #insects #entomology #piano www.inaturalist.org/observations...

What we know, and don't know, about humane insect collection by @beebytes.bsky.social from @tanyptera.bsky.social . youtu.be/12at-F6mz9A

I am curious to know what “macro” attachments folks use with their cellphone cameras to take pictures of small organisms, like insects and spiders? My default “gear” (😁) (below) costs about US$26 at the very big online store but is available at certain Asian online retailers for much less.

Description of 𝘓𝘪𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘨, a new species of orb-weaver spider: doi.org/10.3897/zook... #biodiversity #DNAbarcoding #taxonomy

Why would the editor of a newsletter of a natural history society put an AI-generated image on the front cover of the newsletter? Caption for image : “Nilgiri Burrowing Spider Haploclastus Nilgirinus Pocock, 1899 (Araneae, Theraphosidae) Rendition by Meta Al, thanks to Karthik Ramesh of Wellington.”

It may not have wings, but you're currently looking at a moth! Specifically, an adult female Mottled Umber (Erannis defoliaria). Adult male Mottled Umbers have full wings. 📷 knittedpotato on iNaturalist 📍 United Kingdom 🔗: www.inaturalist.org/observations... #ObservationOfTheDay

Land Snails of the British Isles by A A Wardhaugh, 1989. A slim (24 pages, £1.95) volume in a series (Shire Natural History) that I hadn’t heard of. Doesn’t cover the slugs. Illustrated with a nice mix of text figures & photos. The things I find on @archive.org ! 📚 archive.org/details/land...

Snail Notes. From Matthew Wills’ blog. matthewwills.com/2025/12/12/s...

🌱Just published in @annbot.bsky.social : “An insect trap adjusting to weather conditions: Nepenthes rafflesiana plants control the fluid level in their pitchers to maximize prey capture” by Charlotte Andrew and co-authors🧵(1/8) 👉 doi.org/qhfz #CarnivorousPlants #Nepenthes #PlantScience #AoBpapers

The Object and Method of Zoological Nomenclature by David Sharp, 1873. archive.org/details/b223...

New work in #RESInsectConsDiv explored composition, abundance, biomass & environmental drivers of #arthropod rain in a tropical forest. doi.org/10.1111/icad.70046 #ArborealArthropods #FoodWebs #ForestCanopy #SpeciesComposition @manusaunders.bsky.social @wileyeco.bsky.social

Taxacom (lists.ku.edu/listinfo/tax...) is ending. 😢

A nice set of images of Leucauge rubromaculata from Sri Lanka by Michał Górski for an @inaturalist.bsky.social observation, showing the less often photographed upper side of the abdomen as well as the underside with the diagnostic 3 brilliant red spots. www.inaturalist.org/observations...

“32. Leucauge ditissima (Thor.). I have specimens resembling this species very much, but they have, when alive, on the abdomen three brilliant red dots which turn silvery after being kept in spirit.” So wrote Sherriffs (1919). We now know he was referring to Leucauge rubromaculata Benjamin, 2024.

Sizing up the hidden beauty. Kalama tricornis, a lace bug, not rare, lives right among us. Colored pencils

[Originally on Twitter Feb 2022] This thread is about William Rae Sherriffs (7 March 1881 - 7 October 1964) who wrote several papers on the spiders of S India & Sri Lanka. [Photo & bio from Pierre Bonnet's Bibliographia Araneorum, Tome I (1945); English version slightly edited from app output.] 1/n

Gall of the week is caused by the cynipid wasp Cynips longiventris f. agamic on oaks, Quercus spp. Photo by Peter Shirley

RECORDING: Scaling Identification Expertise Webinar @inaturalist.bsky.social youtu.be/YYflkC2CM-Q?...