#Haplodiploid inheritance is found in all species of #Hymenoptera. @mwbstr.bsky.social &co map the #sex determining #gene of the red mason #bee to the ANTSR gene region, suggesting a shared, ancient origin of #SexDetermination in bees & ants >150 Mya ago @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/47COEtH

Darragh lab ready for Halloween! @zar-rebholz.bsky.social

If you know North American ants, you'll know exactly what this scene smells like.

After a long series of flights from Chicago, I am happy to announce that I am standing at THE world famous, Seagull Pit, of Christchurch, New Zealand maps.app.goo.gl/3MXMLMkZvhkV...

*thicc* cave cricket spotted in Mammoth Cave NP last weekend (plus a shot of its many friends...or enemies?). Look at that ovipositor #bugsky

Tiny native Carolina mantis on my pepper plant this morning #bugsky

The thing about entomology is, there are always weirder bugs than anything you could imagine on your own. Here's Cysteodemus wislizeni, a blister beetle from west Texas.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

It seems that only the science community is noticing that NIH and NSF budgets are cut 40% and 55% in the budget bill, respectively. If you live in Maine, West Va, Pennsylvania, Alabama, or Louisiana, CALL YOUR SENATOR as they could make a difference. See below. prospect.org/politics/202...

The six spot burnets are out in numbers. Proper stunners #mothsmatter #insectweek

Great day for stink: Wally, the corpse flower in the Indiana University Bloomington Biology greenhouse, bloomed today

🚨🚨the corpse flower at IU Biology Building is probably going to bloom today, this is not a drill🚨🚨😬

Against Technofeudal Education - Pillars For Protecting Our "Core Infrastructure" From OpenAI theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/against-te...

Come here me talk at #Evol2025 about butterfly chemical evolution today (Saturday) at 3pm in room Athens AB (Parallel Evolution I). Stay for Zarley Rebholz on chemical convergence between plants and ladybirds!

It’s the first time a near-complete skull has been definitively linked to the extinct people https://go.nature.com/4e8cekR

He's right. "Nothing short of devastating" By @holdenthorp.bsky.social @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Little shepherds #bugsky

Fascinating article published last week about chemical corpse-mimicry in plants www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Each spring, a hidden spectacle unfolds when subterranean citronella ants (Lasius subgenus Acanthomyops) bring their mutualistic mealybugs (the large fluffy white thing) up under rocks to warm up. Here, the prolific mealybugs produce vast numbers of nymphs (the small purple things).

#TansleyInsight: In the #nectar, there are answers: exploring the intersection of colored nectars and reactive #oxygen species in manipulating #pollinator behavior Evin Magner, Rahul Roy, Adrian Hegeman & Clay Carter 👇 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #LatestIssue #PlantScience

[Dutch tilt to indicate my descent into madness]

Call them what they are: robber barons. Billionaires are destroying the federal government so they can profit off deregulation and privatization. They're stealing from us only to sell it back as AI. And just like in the Gilded Age, they're blaming everything on immigrants, instead of class warfare.

As a biologist, I'm appalled at pride the White House takes in willful ignorance. In yesterday's executive order about NPR and PBS, their first example of "the trash that passes for `news' at NPR and PBS" is the statement that "banana slugs are hermaphrodites." But this is unequivocal fact.

Zebra swallowtail, Eurytides marcellus. If you see one these dudes, it is a good sign that pawpaw trees are near by -- their larvae feed exclusively on the leaves of pawpaw species, and are chemically defended by sequestered acetogenins from the host plant. #bugsky

I say this every time de-extinction comes up: it makes no sense to devote science to bringing back extinct animals when we can’t be bothered to keep extant ones alive in the first place.

Beetle sighted 👀 Brachiacantha lady beetle. Halloween is year round for them. Respect

Here are some lovely green beetles for St Patrick's Day. ☘️ Thistle Tortoise Beetle (Cassida rubiginosa) Pennsylvania; (Dircema sp.) Ecuador; (Tribe Doryphorini) Ecuador; (Platycoelia sp.) Ecuador

May I suggest additional roaches for the day you want to explore their wonderful world? And one of my fave articles: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Excited to see this out!! In this thought-provoking review led by @davidperis.bsky.social and Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente we further demonstrate that insect #pollination was once widespread among #gymnosperms and existed long before the origin of #angiosperms onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Lasius claviger, the small yellow ant AKA "citronella ant" --This species is a social parasite -- queens establish new colonies taking over existing ant colonies. A hypertrophied mandibular gland in workers is filled with huge amounts of citrus-smelling terpenes used as an alarm pheromone #bugsky

Sun's out, bugs out (after cruelly disturbing their home, a rock) -- Reticulitermes flavipes workers and soldier

Good roots 👍

"Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little more to eat next winter, but what will we plant so we and our children will have enough to get through the winters to come?" - Carl Sagan #standupforscience2025 #HoosierSky

Indianapolis STAND UP FOR SCIENCE MARCH 7, 2025 Indiana Statehouse South Lawn 12-2 #Hoosiersky

Convergent floral scent loss following transition to hummingbird pollination in spiral gingers (Costus). I had so much fun on this project with @kathleenmkay.bsky.social and Santiago Ramirez and am thrilled to see it published now in @MolBioEvol! academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

the artist is dead, long live the theater