how about a little candy cane feather pede on this Christmas Day!

A wet desert lily flowering with a grand view while storm clouds are moving in from the west this morning (Photo: Sicco Rood).

and the sun sets at Bosque del Apache

my modest collection of flies with WIDE heads 🙇 a hammer-headed Richardia (Ecuador), a stalk-eyed Chaetodiopsis (Mozambique), a pointy-eyed Ophthalmoptera (Colombia), and an antlered Richardia (Colombia) why though? male-male competition? sexual selection? chime-in if you know!

that time of the year when this little species (Habronattus ustulatus) becomes active found this little male yesterday in eastern San Diego County, In-Ko-Pah County park, perched on little pieces of granite and quartz along wash edges

A packrat (Neotoma) nest made completely out of cholla cactus, crazy spiny impenetrable fortress But I’m left wondering, how the hell ??…

Day 19 of my 2025 Favorites: Schizomida mom and her cluster of baby clones! I've had many generations of these tiny arachnids from 2 females (they're parthenogenic) collected in a public park near Miami a few years ago, and happened to spot this one with her babies one evening. Delightful lump 🥹

Colleague, cleaning out her lab Damn

New postdoctoral fellowship opportunity! Please pass along. Excited to announce the launch of the Tom Lovejoy Fellowship Program at the University of Arizona for innovative research to protect species, sustain ecosystems, and promote a thriving planet lovejoycenter.arizona.edu/lovejoy-fell... 🧪🌐🌾

Finally published: #Cryptic species and taxonomic revision of kangaroo mice, the rodent genus #Microdipodops. 4 new species! Integrative taxonomy! Great co-authors! @n8upham.bsky.social @mammalogists.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jmam...

Washington’s refusal to regulate AI is a corruption story. Just ask Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson.

“A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress - though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known" - Bertrand Russell, 1976. Time-lapse video of Vampyrella lateritia eating Spirogyra algae from Science Source/Oliver Skibbe. 🦠

@andrewlhipp.bsky.social 30 years after I published "A species concept for the Modern Synthesis", and a shitpile of genomics later, botanists and zoologists maybe have a consensus of what species are, rather than what we thought they ought to be! Thank you Andrew! ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

I love being able to help to inspire young people. Really, really lucky 😊

Spent some of Sunday looking through the wet collection at BENHS HQ. Most specimens from the late 60s and early 70s in great condition! Their members days offer us to look through specimens and utilise brilliant microscopes @britentsoc.bsky.social #arachnids #harvestmen #entomology #invertebrates

Ready to meet our third plenary speaker? We are delighted to announce it's.... 🥁 🥁 🥁 The extraordinary @mherberstein.bsky.social

more like a Sunday image, but I'll post on Monday cranes @ sunrise, BdA

Oh, you're tired after taking care of your one kid for the entire day?

Sunset on public land in the Galiuro Mountains last night during the #Geminid meteor showers (no meteors pictured - just a gorgeous sky). Photo 3: illustrates light pollution and habitat destruction from the current exploratory #mining in the area

NSF - Forced reorg - POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements) - Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …) I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing. “Details matter” 🙃

I know of at least 3 new species in those forests!

In an era marked by rapid climate change and biodiversity loss, it is imperative that we continue to invest in the unique value of natural history collections data "Global sampling decline erodes science potential of natural history collections" 🧪

A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new datacenters in the US, part of a growing backlash to a booming AI industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate crisis. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Anyway my forever recommendation is Ologies with Alie Ward (@ologies.bsky.social) Ask smart people silly questions and learn cool stuff!!

In a new ZooKeys paper, authors named a new spider genus after our subject editor and prolific author Shuqiang Li! We congratulate Shuqiang on this distinction. blog.pensoft.net/2025/12/08/a...

sandhill cranes landing at dusk Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Here is a Youtube video describing our new research. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rWG...

Deep sea mining is very bad for deep sea ecosystems.

Check out our review/perspective piece on phylogenetic diversification analysis, intended for the 75th anniversary of @systbiol.bsky.social. I had the privilege of working with great coauthors, @fhenaodiaz.bsky.social, @tvasconcelos.bsky.social and @roszenil.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

Earlier this year, the Trump administration gutted the Institute of Museum and Library Services, leading to canceled federal grants. Now, after a court order, those grants are being reinstated. n.pr/4phxzwN

mundane perhaps .... but sheeeesh what a beautiful animal mule deer doe, Bosque del Apache

I finally got to observe these tiny theridiosomatids that live at the edge of streams, thanks to Yuya Suzuki. Then my 9-year-old showed me her comic book detailing Wendilgarda's hunting strategies to tell me what a noob I am. 😱😱😱

Absolutely devastating account of the CSU's $17 million capitulation to ChatGPT, from a fellow faculty member watching it happen www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

I wanted to see if I could design and 3D print an insert for Le Parfait bail jars that makes it easier to see the contents and labels in the smaller vials. What do you think? #CuratorsCorner #NaturalHistoryCollections #3DPrinting #SpiritCollections #WetCollections

Sandhill cranes at sunset Bosque del Apache, New Mexico Volume up 😊

This is the Sunburst Candy Spider from Thailand. Not AI (sucks to have to declare this). Very real and had been on my wish list for a long time. The taxonomic placement is unclear, so we are leaving it at Cyrtarachninae.

Enjoy a very large number of snow geese Volume up Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Cave life's not all bad for olms. They live *exceptionally* long lives for an amphibian (100 yrs!), possibly arising from the fact that they have no natural predators & have been known not to move for up to 7 years. Just tiny pink dragons guarding their tiny water-filled caves for a century. 🐉💧

Olms (Proteus anguinus) look like you took an axolotl & stretched them out. 'Dachshund axolotls', if you will. They're a cave-dwelling salamander that live deep under the Alps of Central Europe. When floods flushed them out to streams, they were described as 'baby dragons'. And they lack eyes...

Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research? We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections. Find out more: collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/

Also featuring the incredible @mhedin.bsky.social and Kefyn Catley!

Blind cave spiders~ This occurs due to the process of regressive evolution. In an environment without light, vision provides no advantage in finding prey or avoiding predators. The loss of their eyes means that energy and resources once used for eyes are instead allocated to other traits.

Look at those eyes! #flyday #bugskye #entomology #macro

Spooky clouds this evening

In honor of #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth, our Museums will offer free admission to all visitors from 3 - 5pm this Friday, November 21. Free tickets will be available at any on-site museum ticketing desk. The #NHMLAC is proud to offer this general admission benefit at both @nhm.org and @tarpits.org.

A taxonomic revision published in our Zoological Journal in 2017 completely upended this belief, revealing the silky anteater (she who looks like an evil popcorn kernel) is actually 7 species! Read more in the paper here: buff.ly/WsIJz4y 2/2

I’ve released a tool to sketch and edit phylogenetic trees! yawak.jp/PhyloWeaver/ Load a Newick file and intuitively add/remove/resize branches. Useful for quick conceptual trees, extracting subtrees, or turning ideas into Newick.

A migration corridor that allows jaguars and ocelots to cross into the U.S. is the latest border wall construction zone.

🕷️ Meet Rodrigo Monjaraz Ruedas (Assistant Curator, Entomology). Area of expertise? Arachnids. Be sure to drop in to our seasonal #SpiderPavilion to see some of our favorite living specimens up close now through November 30! www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSIC...

The fight has come to NC, and it just hit close to home. Our daughter teaches in Durham public schools and she said almost all of the Latinx kids are not in school today. ICE is targeting everyone who "looks Hispanic", citizen or not. I am even more angry today-kids need to go to school!