One of a trio of Hirudinella ventricosa specimens acquired in a very timely donation. While it looks a bit like a leech, this is a trematode that parasitizes wahoo. • found in the stomachs of two wahoo caught off the coast of North Carolina a week ago. Happy Halloween 🎃

Oh, and perhaps my proudest moment? Saying “butt sucker” on camera and having it make the cut. (Small goals) *It’s a butt. It’s a sucker. Therefore it’s a butt sucker! Note: “floofies” w/ respect to dorsal appendages on branchiobdellidans is next.

Earlier this year we spent an amazing and fun 2 days filming various invert things in my lab with the PBS Sci NC science team. A YouTube short just dropped from this endeavor. Learn about crayfish worms, clawed ostracods & witness me making crazy facial expressions: https://youtu.be/mX6IKpaAeqw

Hello! My nature photos are wonderful to me, and one of my many pithy mottos is “If I love it, I want you to love it, too.”

For some inexplicable reason I feel like posting images of a few crayfishes - all of which occur in North Carolina - that are various shades of red, white, and/or blue. Photos by my amazing talented colleague Michael A. Perkins, NC Wildlife Resources Commission.

As my initial offering, please have this collection of photos that didn't crop well for a header image

I knew pill millipedes were adorable, but this pushes it over the edge. Zephroniid from Cambodia, Kampot Province | collected May 2000

Behold this 102-year-old adorably furry Orange Jumper (I think 😬) InverteButt from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences Collection. Collected in Raleigh, North Carolina, September 1921, by C.S. Brimley.

That time you collect a turtle leech with a brood of eggs, forget about it - leaving it in a tackle box for three weeks - finally remember and think to move it to find dozens of leechlets. Score!

Q- How many undescribed crayfish species can we find in 1 day in an area in western North Carolina 22 miles long x 4 miles wide? A- At least five, plus one with a name. 😑 We have our work cut out for us! One small miracle: the branchiobdellidans shown here ARE known (Xironodrilus bashaviae) 😮‍💨

here's our larger giant isopod, which just got its ethanol changed after taking this photo 😅 (new pfp of me holding it like a baby for scale)

THIS is custom-fit protective wear! A Granulate Shellback Crab (Hypochonca arcuata) collected 28 July 2004 off Usina Beach, Jacksonville, FL by SEAMAP biologists. The functional form-fit shell even comes with its own bling: bryozoans, a tiny anemone, worm tubes, and traces of barnacle.