New in The Urban Naturalist: Predation of the Endemic Ring-tailed Ground Squirrel (Notocitellus annulatus) by Introduced Cats and Dogs in a Protected Natural Area in Colima, Western Mexico by Peña-Mondragón, Ortega-Álvarez, Casas, Pacheco-Flores, and others. eaglehill.us/URNAonline2/...

New open access paper in The Urban Naturalist: The Nesting Ecology of Southern Two-lined Salamanders (Eurycea cirrigera) in Urban Streams by Rittenburg, Downing, and @twpierson.bsky.social. eaglehill.us/URNAonline2/...

"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants. Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."

Apparently, it's #WorldTapirDay! My life and career have not intersected much with tapirs. This is my rather peripheral connection: bootstrap-analysis.com/2005/10/book...

Latest Natural Areas Journal is an Invasive Species Compendium, and includes a paper of mine (doi.org/10.3375/043....) on the dispersal of buckthorns in North America. bioone.org/journals/nat...

This is absolutely impacting us. No paper for the copier, returning to the office (but no supplies, monitors, or chairs), and no field equipment. The DOGE cuts are wasting taxpayer money, not saving it. At the same time Elon’s companies continue to get contracts. Conservation over corporations.

Thank you, @entsocamerica.bsky.social, for making this fund a reality in just a few weeks. The recent terminations of #entomology employees have been halted for now, but we know the government will likely attempt to return and finish what they started. 🧪 entsoc.org/support/memb...

It’s amazing to find out at this late date how much the rule of law depended on people simply deciding, on a voluntary, daily basis, not to break the law.

Appreciate that my paper continues to be discovered and adds context to European Goldfinch sightings in the U.S. #birds #IntroducedSpecies #birding #GreatLakes

Simultaneously fascinating and horrifying: a coot nest in Amsterdam, reused over many years, turned out to be a time capsule of plastic trash dating back to the early 1990s. #ornithology

THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS. ⬇️

This spring, cicada Brood XIV will emerge in the eastern US! This is the second-largest periodical cicada emergence on the planet (after Brood XIX, which emerged last year). Expect to see them in parts of the following states from May to June in 2025: KY, TN, IN, OH, WV, GA, NC, MD, PA, NY, MA.

This makes me so happy! Also, Puck Arks looks like a great account to follow.

Excellent opportunity to learn about the incredible diversity of spiders (& their relatives) at the Southwestern Resesrch Station in the beautiful Chiricahua Mountains. @ibycter.bsky.social & I did the spider course there in 2015 & it was fantastic.

For the right person, this is a unicorn dream job. 🧪🌎 www.linkedin.com/posts/north-...

We also urge you to send your stories directly to your legislators. 3/3 https://entsoc.quorum.us/campaign/109016/

The integration of LLM agents into TaxonWorks is inevitable. The amazing: A *single* prompt and image was all it took to generate this, 10 seconds of human work. The horrible: It is for all intents and purposes 100% wrong, hours to fix. Over time we will find a balance.

I had so much fun taking photos of my colleagues at the @asubiocollections.bsky.social last week. Here is Sangmi Lee, ASU Hasbrouck Insect Collection Manager. She poses with her study species -Gelechiidae - the twirler moths.🦋✨

This drying "crumbs on a napkin" stage of insect mounting is difficult to get past, even though I enjoy pointing. By now, I usually have ID'd everything of interest to me, and I have to commit to the first step in an arts & crafts activity I've done hundreds of times before.

Open access paper just published in The Urban Naturalist: Fisher Use of an Ecological Corridor Near the City Center of Edmonton, Canada, A City of Over One Million People by Sage Raymond and Colleen Cassady St. Clair

Your Friday #ornithology read: White-throated Sparrows will overturn all of your assumptions about the differences between bird sexes.

Any terminated/current federal employee who’s furious & wants to run for local office, @runforsomething.net would love to help you figure out next steps. We have lots of public resources for all & programming for ppl of all ages, even if our endorsements are targeted. runforwhat.net

If we’re renaming bodies of water based on petty grievances, I propose that this be renamed the Kendrick Lamar passage.

Brilliant and fascinating use of #invertebrate #collections to look at parasite distributions through time and space in the #lepidoptera family Danaus. Kudos to the authors and @royentsoc.bsky.social resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

A new study found that introducing Asian parasitoids didn’t harm the 4 native parasitoids in Michigan—a key finding for future #EmeraldAshBorer biocontrol. #forestecol #entomology 🧪 🌎 Read the study here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Libby chills out on #caturday. Oh, to live the carefree life of a beloved and spoiled cat. #CatsOfBluesky

Yesterday I got map files on the U.S. Census website to plot insect data (sample here). Today the links are dead. The federal data purge is real. Help preserve data: using a browser extension, you can submit pages to the Internet Archive; the links are on the left side of their page. web.archive.org

"Gradually, then suddenly." - Hemingway

Three key points: true, necessary, kind! #peace #happiness #compassion #joy #mindfulness #kindness #love #courage #faith #truth

Talk by Roland Allen on the history of naturalists' notebooks -essential tools for thinkers such as Gessner, Linnaeus & Darwin. The talk will outline the origins of the notebook, early importance to medieval Italy & its adoption by renaissance thinkers and more! @zibaldoni.bsky.social bit.ly/3CnOYRt

Electric Ecology: How Invertebrates Capitalise on Static Electricity Join us and Dr Sam England for our next Brad Ashby Memorial Lecture Thursday, January 23, 2025 · 7 - 8:30pm over Zoom Booking open now: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/electric-e...

My favorite of all #BlueBugs is the Spatterdock Darner, Rhioaeschna mutata. I netted this one in southeast Michigan. #BlueMonday

Next Monday, help me transform #BlueMonday into a celebration of BLUE INSECTS! Join in by sharing your photos or artwork along with the hashtag #BlueBugs 🦋🪲🔬🧪 This weevil was my 2024 offering…

In the 10 years after a Walmart Supercenter opened in a given community, the average household in that community experienced a 6 percent decline in yearly income — $5,000 a year in 2024 dollars. Low-income, young, and less-educated workers suffered the largest losses.

I had this watercolor done to help me honor the memory of my beautiful girl, Juniper, who died of cancer 2 years ago today. I miss her every day. #cats #rainbowbridge

On progress in science, a cherished hypothesis falling, and seeing your own work cited. Plus, weird, weird fish! scientistseessquirre...

MANY #dragonfly specimens @ the Univ of Michigan Mus. Zoology were collected by EB Williamson: banker, iris breeder, & #curator. His outer paper triangle comments can be fascinating, but the inside of this one caught my eye - made from a slip from his bank! #entomology EBW: tinyurl.com/yxbwjncs

My new book A Natural History of Empty Lots is released today. I hope you like it—it distills 20 years of exploring the edgelands, working on rewilding projects, and trying to understand what such places teach us about our lives, history and future: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/chris...

Somehow I've never browsed the journal "Archives of Natural History" published by Edinburgh University Press @edinburghup.bsky.social. Will spend at least some of the holiday break nerding out reading some interesting niche papers. www.euppublishing.com/loi/anh

There’s no shortage of powerful people and forces trying to shape our world. But we have power too, when we come together. That’s what our funding model is all about: 60K+ individuals standing up for fearless, independent journalism that demands transparency. Join us: https://propub.li/4gLZ2Cs

Applications for WOS Research Grants are due February 1! These grants provide up to $5000 in funding to support #ornithology research, with a focus on projects by students, early-career researchers, & those without access to institutional funding. https://wilsonsociety.org/awards/research-grants/

Libby asks: Did I miss #caturday?

There is a wealth of interesting open access papers in The Urban Naturalist. #UrbanEcology #ecology #scicomm www.eaglehill.us/URNAonline2/...

The mason bee Osmia cornuta, native to Europe, has become established in British Columbia, Canada, based on observations over the last two years. A new study suggests the bee could find wide swaths of suitable habitat in both the Pacific Northwest and eastern North America.

When they talk about privatizing Veterans’ care and Medicare, they mean allowing companies to provide healthcare for a profit. But how do companies make those profits? By *denying* care to many who need it. Don’t get fooled by the “privatization” label. It means “for profit” and YOU are the cost.

I sometimes go by the nom-de-plume "Nannothemis" because the Elfin Skimmer, Nannothemis bella, is one of my favorite #odonata. It's the smallest #dragonfly species in North America and favors open, boggy habitats. Here's a male I netted for perspective.