Woodchucks, continued. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/04/14/w...

What’s this then? On gills of a preserved freshwater clam from biological supplier (for teaching). Numerous enough for a student to draw my attention to them. Evidently a mite of some kind. About 0.5 mm.

Matthew Wills (Backyard and Beyond) will lead several walks to observe birds & bugs at Green-Wood Cemetery in May, June & July, 2026. Check out the Tours and Adventures page on Matthew's website: matthewwills.com/tours-and-ad...

The other Lamium, Henbit Dead-nettle (or simply Henbit). Perhaps not as conspicuous and usually not growing in dense patches like Red Dead-nettle but one of my favorite spring blooming wildflowers.

Red Dead-nettle is in bloom now and conspicuous everywhere in grassy places.

Eastern Red Cedar male (staminate) cones seem to almost done with releasing pollen. From yesterday’s walk.

It's hard to believe that 6 years have passed since the death of Norman "Norm" Ira Platnick (20 December 1951 - 8 April 2020). #spiders #taxonomy Here are 2 videos featuring Norm: 1) Norm speaking to Robert Raven (?) about his World Spider Catalog (early/mid 1990s): youtu.be/Mye-_Tt6LDU?...

Well, these bizarre spiders took me some time. Found these yesterday near Clemson. Looks like they're theridiids, Rhomphaea fictilium. I've seen pictures of similar spiders, but did not know we had them here. Spider folks agree?

I'm leading a FREE Wild Pavements plant hunt as part of the Books in the Park festival in Beckenham Place Park, S London. Saturday 25 April at 11:30. Details and how to register for a place here 👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exploring-... #urbannature #pavementplants #urbanplants

this is so important. the rise of AI is distorting our perception of animal behaviour and sadly, many of us don't have a great deal of awareness to begin with.

Was out with class today and came on a mass emergence of solitary bees. I think these are Andrena, or thereabouts.

Species descriptions should not be confined to "summary" PDFs only providing access to a fraction of the data underlying the conclusions. We here argue for "digitally native species" built around structured, specimen-linked, machine-actionable evidence from day one. rdcu.be/fcbwh

Hitchhiking across continents: phoresy of pseudoscorpions (Arachnida, Pseudoscorpiones) on Diptera, with new European records Jana Christophoryová, Vincent Mathy, Christoph Hörweg, Lucia Vičanová @zookeys.pensoft.net doi.org/10.3897/zook...

As our university is undergoing restructuring, its partnership with the natural history museum where I work, the Academy of Natural Sciences, is in jeopardy. If you value the involvement of science museums in the community, please consider checking out this petition. c.org/Db5WKdZSQ8

New preprint on the recent history of phylogenetic biogeography, with co-authors Isabel Sanmartín and Joel Cracraft, now up on EcoEvoRxiv: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Two New #NYC #Nature #Books. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/04/05/t...

Jewelweed and hummingbirds: a 20-million-year-old handshake. The flower's spur is sized exactly for that bill, and the pollen lands exactly on that forehead. Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Durham, NC. #BirdOfTheDay #SmallBirdsInFlight #RTHU #NativePlants

Arundhati Roy’s maternal grandfather was the Imperial Entomologist in India in the 1940s. This man, P. V. Isaac, seems to have been a truly horrible person who subjected his wife & children to years of abuse. Hard to imagine him occupying the post held by H Maxwell Lefroy & T Bainbrigge Fletcher.

The stem galls on Common Mugwort which puzzled naturalists in the northeast for many years are now known to be caused by the early stages of the tumbling flower beetle Pseudomordellina hattorii (doi.org/10.3157/061....). Expect to see adults in June & July. www.inaturalist.org/observations...

The recording of Rob Naczi’s @nybg.bsky.social talk on April 1, 2026, about the systematics of the pitcher plant family Sarraceniaceae is now available for viewing: youtu.be/BgmpDfrONms

At last! (The appearance of the first bees of the year). From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/04/02/a...

My son sent me a cellphone pic of a spider that had turned up inside his home office this morning. It seemed to be a juvenile 🐺🕷️ & I added that it was harmless. His response: “The term wolf, added to spider, doesn’t immediately give the impression of harmlessness but duly noted.”

One insect escaped; another captured in the tweezer-like bill of a Brown Creeper! Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1. #birds

Holly Leaf Miner, Phytomyza ilicis. Mine collected 25.02.2026, fly emerged 02.04 2026. #Diptera #VC55 #flies

The surprisingly mild weather yesterday had a lot of people outdoors with cameras & binoculars in Marine Park. Hairy Bittercress is blooming now & some of the flowers are developing into fruits.

Want more from BHL? 🌱 📚 🧪 🌏 Join 10,000+ subscribers and get stories, discoveries, and collection highlights delivered to your inbox. A new issue is coming soon. Subscribe: lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/YKrBfqY/B...

🚨 New journal launch! We're ecstatic to announce #ApproachesInEntomology - a new #OpenAccess journal focused on methods, tools and innovation across #InsectScience, designed to support transparency, reproducibility, and practical advances in the field. Read more 🔽 buff.ly/tNTmujq @wiley.com

This book looks pretty cool. From @princetonupress.bsky.social WILDGuides series. Expected June (UK) or September (USA). press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Turdus migratorius -- for some, but in NC, they never leave. We get these colors year-round: black velvet head, burnt-orange breast, bill like a shard of gold. The beautiful American Robin, so common and so underrated. #BirdOfTheDay #tricolour #YearRound #AMRO

Spring Peeper from yesterday's visit to Return-a-Gift Pond, North Forty, Floyd Bennett Field. These frogs' chorus calls are so loud, it's surprising to see how small they actually are, with a head-body length of only about an inch. #NatureNYC

Spring Peepers chorus-calling at the Return-a-Gift Pond, North Forty, Floyd Bennett Field, as expected.

Spring. Photograph: “Bufo bufo tadpoles on the coast of Northumberland, June 2015.” From Matthew Wills’ blog. [Also link to: George Orwell, “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad,” first published in Tribune, 12 April 1946.] matthewwills.com/2026/03/20/s...

Magdon Jayasuriya, former systematic botanist & curator of the National Herbarium, Sri Lanka, died in December 2024. This obituary of Magdon Jayasuriya by Siril Wijesundara appeared in Ceylon Journal of Science 55(2), 2026. cjs.sljol.info/articles/10....

My big monograph is finally out in @ejtaxonomy.bsky.social right on #taxonomistappreciationday! 169 new species of flat wasps from Australia, many of them with remarkable head modifications for seeking their hosts. So excited to see this published after 8 years, available free and open access. 🧪

Enter the hidden world of moss! In this moss-safari led by Dr Andy Chandler-Grevatt, prepare to explore how moss-dwelling organisms contribute to wider questions in ecology, evolution and environmental change. Grab your free ticket at the link below: buff.ly/0ncs6Fs

A visitor just outside my window.

Fungi & Lower Plants. Even in a General Biology course it’s worth introducing students to the actual diversity of organisms out there & help them understand that they can find & identify organisms if they would only look! 👀 🔍 📚

Regrettably, I have decided to decommission SimpleMappr, www.simplemappr.net on September 1, 2026. You may read about its origins, what others have accomplished in its 18 year run, and the reasons why I must turn it off in a document I wrote last night bit.ly/simplemappr.

Lots of Mire Mourner sawflies (Dolerus madidus) in a rushy meadow at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve today. Males with abdomen orange-banded; females with orange more extensive, over the thorax as well. Things really starting to liven up now. 😃 @ynuorg.bsky.social #symphyta #sawflies

An observation by me from Sri Lanka in July 2008 seems to be of the same peculiar moth larva (see previous 2 posts). It was photographed on the trunk of a coconut palm in a garden in Kalutara. (A few other observations of this larva are known from Sri Lanka.) www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Very excited to find out that someone in Cambodia has succeeded in rearing the peculiar Tineidae moth larvae mentioned in the previous post & has submitted the photos of the adult moths in a new @inaturalist.bsky.social observation: www.inaturalist.org/observations...

A type of Tineidae moth larva with a peculiar slender conical larval case with a disk-like expansion of the case round the opening, has been noted in tropical Asia via many @inaturalist.bsky.social observations. This observation from Hong Kong has links to others: www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Endosperm is triploid (a unique character in Flowering Plants), but in a few lineages, the endosperm’s job is taken over by the perisperm, a diploid maternal tissue surrounding the megaspore. A classic example of perisperm is Piper nigrum. #cotyledon #Piperaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Have you seen a robin yet? www.jerthorp.me/post/have-yo...

Here's a cool tool a made to help you write more good. academic.oup.com/ae/article/7...

From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/03/11/r...

Female Common Earwigs Forficula auricularia are very good mothers. After spending the winter guarding her batch of eggs she cares for the nymphs for several weeks and regurgitates food for them. The nymphs will disperse when they are large enough to fend for themselves. Dartmoor, Devon

New #OpenAccess research in #RESSystematicEnt #Phylogenomics of #Anthomyiidae and a revised classification of #Scathophagidae (#Diptera: #Calyptratae) doi.org/10.1111/syen.70037 #Taxonomy @gkergoat.bsky.social @wileyecology.bsky.social

Excited to finally get pics of this genus of oil/blister beetle! This female played dead when disturbed & exuded droplets of cantharidin from her legs. This sticky substance can cause blisters & has been called "Spanish fly". Larvae are parasites of solitary bee nests. #Meloidae: #Meloe; NC, USA