Sunday Surfing in the photo archives - here's a giant shield bug (family Tessaratomidae) from Malaysian Borneo awhile back. These are larger than the typical stink bugs we see here in the U.S. They can spray a defensive chemical that not only smells unpleasant, but can damage skin. 🐙🌿 #Bugsky

Phrictus quinquepartitus is what I'd call the dragon-headed lantern bug with the multiple tubercles lining its snout, or apical process. Photographed in Belize

Academic Rejection

Google defaulting all Gmail users to a setting that enables Google to harvest all your emails into chatbot training is straight-up evil and invasive. www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...

#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Who wants another baby earwig update? Everyone? Thought so. The babies are now two days old and slightly darker than when they hatched. Mama is guarding them and will stay on the job until their second molt. Btw, in the earlier post, the newly-hatched babies only had--

#ThrowbackThursday brought by a Ripipteryx marginata seem at El Valle De Anton in Panama last March! The amazing matte finish is really not captured by the camera!

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features." There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

Earlier this year I drew this magnificent Metallyticus splendidus. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. That's all.

Why did I only just find out that that there are water striders that live IN (ON!!) THE OPEN OCEAN? 🧪 OCEAN STRIDERS!!

Big news - I’ll be starting an #insect #systematics lab at University of Nebraska-Lincoln this coming academic year! I’m looking to #recruit #PhDstudents to work in #wasp systematics, especially gall systems, to begin Fall 2026. Please help me spread the word — more details on the flyer below!

I love these ctenophore vs. cnidarian vs. sponge papers. All we’re ever going to know is the most recent right answer, and we’re guaranteed fascinating arguments about it at conferences forever.

Q: Why are Bugs so silly? A: Because they don't have a serious bone in their body *loud booing* Anyway here's Apache degeeri, a silly derbid planthopper

The Trees That Were Saved and Destroyed by the Same Mistake botany.one/2025/11/the-... "The authors emphasise the importance of taxonomy throughout the conservation process."

Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake go.nature.com/47zrzYZ

Piper (no, not the magical man who tamed the rats) is the largest genus of Piperaceae & second largest angiosperm, yet its biogeography & global radiation still requires research. Here, phylogenetic analysis investigated divergence time, revealing it spread to mainland Africa twice! (1/2)🌍 🧪 👇

The black velvet is an optimal backdrop for these use cases, because even black paper or plastic tends to reflect a lot of light. Velvet is especially good for iridescent insects, IIRC it's what we used for these guys at DPI:

On this day in 1780, Túpac Amaru led an indigenous uprising against Spanish control of Peru. Centuries on, he and his wife and co-organizer Micaela Bastidas are still potent symbols of liberation in the Andes.

After almost 30 years, the Tree of Life Web Project has been retired as an actively growing site. It will be unavailable until we can build a static site that contains its final content. More details at subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...

Snootflies are back 🖤 Spotted a handful of these silly creatures this afternoon near a cypress swamp. Panorpa lugubris, the mourning scorpionfly. Distant relatives of fleas. I make a small pilgrimage or 7 to this spot every year around this time in hopes of seeing them, as one does

Research funds are scarce & competition is fierce. A recent paper by @andreasdeblock.bsky.social & colleagues explores how this competition shapes science—its practices, risks & ethics—and proposes ways to make funding fairer & more effective👇 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #AcademicSky #HPS #scipol 🧪

Zambullida «La esperanza de que morir sea nada más que un breve salto y una tranquila zambullida». Columna publicada en @heraldo.es

The Royal Ontario Museum is hiring a Curator of Birds to promote awareness and research on bird biodiversity. Apply by Nov 15, 2025. More info: https://royalontariomuseum.applytojob.com/apply/XBR2YcQAfM/Curator-Of-Birds. #job

We found this handsome blue tarantula just wandering down a trail in the Andes Mountains of Colombia. This genus of tarantula is popular in the pet trade, which may put pressure on wild populations. #Arachtober (Pamphobeteus sp.)Tatama National Park, Colombia, 2023

Over 400,000 beetle species exist, but how are they related? 🐞 Join Dr @beetlequeen.bsky.social ( @nhm-london.bsky.social ) on 15 Feb 2026 for a FREE webinar exploring efforts to map the global Beetle Tree of Life & uncover biodiversity patterns. 👉 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mapping-th...

Been looking for a fresh specimen of Leucauge sarawakensis for a long time! Each time we found one, someone walked into its web. Hence, the ex situ shots.

Isopods!! 🧡

Humanity’s history is a continuous battle between us and the microbes. For most of our history, we were on the losing side. It wasn’t even close. We were losing very decisively.

I failed to reject the null hypothesis today. Again. (🧑‍🎨: @safelyendangered.bsky.social)

Courtship dance of the peacock spider 🕷️

In 1911, Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt was diagnosed with cataracts, where lenses in the eye become clouded with protein deposits as we age. A failed cataract surgery left her essentially blind. Her last painting was 1914. Claude Monet was diagnosed with cataracts in 1912...

thank you to the bugs

Thank you @coleopterasam.bsky.social for such nice entomological chat 😊😊😊. ¡Ojalá podamos vernos pronto de nuevo!

Y’all, Spotify’s stock price sunk by 5% in 1 day. YOU did this by spreading the word to boycott them for running ICE ads. These billionaires only speak one language—money—so let’s keep up the pressure. Tell everyone you know to cancel their Spotify subscriptions. Send them to BoycottSpotify.com.

Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu

Scorpions 🦂 from ‘Die Arachniden: Getreu nach der Natur abgebildet und beschrieben’ by Carl Ludwig Koch, published in Nürnberg: In der C.H. Zeh'schen Buchhandlung, 1831-48. #naturalhistory #scientificillustration #sciart #rarebooks

Eight new species of Greigia (Bromeliaceae) from the Andean cloud forests! Their pineapple-flavored fruits feed spectacled bears, their flowers smell like fermented milk, and one, G. muysca, honors the Indigenous Muysca people. Read more: doi.org/10.11646/

Arthropod Photo of the Week: October 15, 2025 Tangerine furry-legs moth Acraga moorei Lepidoptera: Dalceridae By Tom Myers, Kentucky, USA #arthropodPOTW

The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) has released “A Practical Guide to Implementing Responsible Research Assessment at Research Performing Organizations”, designed to help research performing organizations. ℹ️ Learn more at https://bit.ly/4gSzFA6 @dorassessment.bsky.social

Proof that climate change is real and horrible: www.bbc.com/news/article...

How many #birds are killed by #cats in Canada? Between 19-197 million! This is the main result from my first chapter of my PhD thesis just published in Avian Conservation and Ecology. ace-eco.org/vol20/iss2/a... @gowelizabeth.bsky.social @ryannorrissci.bsky.social 1/6

Diamond access is very important! Even more in this discipline (biogeography). I would love to see more and more academic journals going diamond and owned by societies/institutions. Nice @stanfordpress.bsky.social !

The new journals are: Biogeography (BIOG) is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles ranging from biological work that is geographically situated to geographical work that is biologically relevant. biog.journals.sup.org/index.php/biog

Reposting for the Monday morning scrollers! Funded PhD opportunity with me @multipleye-lab.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social - spiders, their eyes, and their babies under long- and short-term light pollution!

From the vault: my life-size Meganeuropsis model, a giant griffinfly (Meganeuridae) from the Early Permian Wellington Formation of North America. The wingspan is 71cm. #SciArt #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #Paleontology #Palaeontology #JurassicWorld #Meganeuropsis #Meganeura #Griffinfly #DragonFly #Permian

Scorpionfly female feeding on a dead insect #insects #invertebrates #ukwildlife #nature

#Poemasderebeldía Victoria Santa Cruz 🇵🇪 De hoy en adelante no quiero laciar mi cabello Y voy a reírme de aquellos, que por evitar –según ellos– que por evitarnos algún sinsabor Llaman a los negros gente de color ¡Y de qué color! NEGRO ¡Y qué lindo suena! NEGRO ¡Y qué ritmo tiene!

Wow, nature is too cool! Structures on stinkbug hind legs that used to be interpreted as ears are actually chambers with fungi. The bugs coat their eggs in those fungi to protect them against parasitoid wasps. 🧪 Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I found a mature Membracis dorsata today with the immature ones! Such a cool leafhopper! At @casabentbill.bsky.social #CostaRica #insects #invertebrates #nature

As usual, a very cool thread from @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social

Students (and recent graduates) working on anything phylogenetics, systematics or taxonomy-related, the abstract submission deadline for this year's (FREE ONLINE) Young Systematists' Forum approaches! Send us your abstracts by Saturday, OCTOBER 25 11:59PM GMT+1 tinyurl.com/2w5n3e8