Thank you to @americanbeetles.bsky.social for her phenomenal Steely McLep meeting logo :)

I'm hosting this year's Lepidopterists' Society meeting June 24-28 at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Submit an abstract for a talk here: lepsoc.org/2026-meeting... We'll have a couple of collecting trips, go to a Pirates game, and we'll have a Silence of the Lambs viewing. Join us!

Booooooo (contractually required to boo as a Bostonian)

(1/4) 📢 Applications are open for the #LepEU Workshop 2026: a joint training + hackathon event focused on the analysis of #Lepidoptera genomic data. 🗓️ 26–29 May 2026 📍 Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon (Portugal) Save the date! ⬇️

Good article, but the framing is wrong. There is not a dearth of interest in taxonomy. There is a scarcity of funding and positions, which is a deliberate choice by funding agencies and institutions. The youth love taxonomy! It's the olds that are failing to meet their passion!

So I pleased to announce the conceptual spawn of FigTree: PearTree (acronym still to be finalised). If you want to dive right in it is hosted as a web app here: artic-network.github.io/peartree (click the “Example...” button for immediate candy and then click every button you can find).

Our beloved fence pets are back. [Xylocopa sonorina male, Alameda, CA 2-28-26] #bees #nativebees

It’s crazy that it’s basically just a combination of the single worst most disastrous parts of every administration in history

Randy Newman: In my song "Political Science" I invented the narrator as a cautionary tale United States of America: At long last,

Nothing is surprising about the US starting another war. Nothing is more dangerous to Earth and mankind at large than the United States and its complete and utter failure to curtail the worst excesses of humanity. The US oligarchy and its influence on global politics must end.

YAAAAYYY!!!

NSF leaders have just acknowledged what many scientists have long suspected: Presidential directives to boost AI and quantum have upended its traditional way of doing business. www.science.org/content/arti...

An amazing new species of Cordyceps-mimicking spider has just been described from the Ecuadorian Amazon - Taczanowskia waska www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...

we finally reached the end of this calendar event i accidentally made 12 years ago

Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below! Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage

Yeah

At the New York Historical Society.

A sphinx moth came to slurp at a desert lily as we were watching the sunset over the Anza Borrego badlands.

The Hall of Fame remembers Class of 2001 inductee Bill Mazeroski, who passed away Friday at the age of 89. ow.ly/JC2r50Yjlzg

For Maz 🖤💛

The Natural History Museum Denmark seeks a Tenure Track Assistant Professor and Curator of Lepidoptera. Candidates should have a strong research background in Lepidoptera. Applications due March 22, 2026. Info: https://snm.dk/en/about-museum. #job

The Velotta Lab seeks a seasonal field tech for deer mouse research in Colorado from April 15 to October 15, 2026. Pays $19.29/hour. Apply by Feb 24, 2026: https://jobs.du.edu/en-us/job/498599/seasonal-field-technician-velotta-lab #job

Later today I'll be giving a virtual lecture about erasure to a Carnegie Mellon University class. Considering what's happening in the world today, this may be the most timely erasure talk I've ever given.

44 days until Opening Day

Buller's albatross over Rakiura

REMINDER: The deadline to apply for Fly School is 28 Feb. Visit dipterists.org/fly_school.h... for info & application. Photo by @bertonemyia.bsky.social

To reject the US as a fundamentally American country with a deep shared history and commonality with the rest of the Americas, including that Spanish has long been our de facto national second language, is on a deep level anti-American. It's hating actual American culture and history and tradition.

This is a beautiful case of how real science happens & serious scientists work. Kudos to both set of authors: “This has been a humbling experience, but one that speaks to the self-correcting nature of the scientific endeavor.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

💚🦋 Moth of the day: Spurge Hawk-moth🦋💚 (16/100) #MothEmbroidery #Hyleseuphorbiae #Sphingidae #MothsMatter #MothsofAsturias

Exciting new undergraduate research opportunities here at Carnegie Museum in Botany! Applications due March 1. drive.google.com/file/d/1jNNy...

Coyote amongst desert dandelion/phacelia flowers Borrego Valley this morning (Photo: Sicco Rood).

Desert lily sunrise in the Borrego Badlands (2/6/26).

AI paul skenes telling bob nutting to sell the team is gonna go so hard

Frank Grant was the best Black baseball player of the 19th century, paving the way for the next generation of stars.

paid summer internship in our museum, it is in BOTANY but you cannot get in there without walking through the insect collection and being subjected to Beetle Facts drive.google.com/file/d/1jNNy...

it's the AI PRFB now 🙃

Read the RFP and watch your happiness turn to pure rage

Hopes and Dreams Bowdon, GA

Lone dune evening primrose flowering on a large dune in the Borrego Badlands (Photo: Sicco Rood).

I can officially confirm that the snow in NC is roughly one (1) corgi deep

A quick collage of some snow flakes 🙂. Forsyth County, North Carolina, today

Flamboyant Borrego sky Wednesday evening (Photo: Sicco Rood).

I don't know why they need to make short AI films about the American Revolution when the perfect one was created 18 years ago www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRo...

No Kings is hosting what is shaping up to be the largest ICE Watch training in history tonight. Join here: www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

One of the things I like best about big snowstorms in the city is that people often walk and play in the middle of the streets during the day, and get to imagine — even momentarily, and maybe for the first time ever — what city life could be like in a world without cars.

Learn something new every day: these are called “caltrops,” a modern version of an ancient device used to hinder chariots. Apparently some people are using them against ICE/CBP vehicles.

Absolute banger of a comment on r/military: www.reddit.com/r/Military/c...

decent people who care about each other and stand up for each other, are going to win btw