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Elaine T

@elntangle.bsky.social
202 followers 56 following 142 posts

birder, biologist, bedoodler: birds and bugs 🐦🐜🎨 (they/them) currently living in Sydney AUS

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Reposted by Elaine T
Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
My brother moves in this weekend & I’m panicking. I still have all this Skype a scientist merch in his room & there’s a crab in the kitchen. Who let me own a home?! If you were ever thinking about buying one of these t shirts today is a GREAT time lmao 😅😅😅 squidfacts.bigcartel.com/product/bina...
squidfacts.bigcartel.com
Binaries shirt Pre-order
You can't put biology into a box. Whatever rule you try to impose on nature, a species, population, or individual will break that rule. Embrace...
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Veeloxxy Bites @the-episiarch.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
I have to hand it to Ruri Rocks for nailing how a grad student's workstation looks like
Screenshot from the anime Ruri Rocks.
Nagisa sitting at her workstation while talking to Ruri who is standing in front of her, holding a newly published scientific paper.Screenshot from the anime Ruri Rocks.
A tray holding various rocks and a box of KimwipesScreenshot from the anime Ruri Rocks.
Corner of a desk with stacks of haphazardly arranged piles of books and scientific papers on and next to it, along with a backpack leaning against it all.
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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
basically I painstakingly took hundreds and hundreds of professional glam shots of these things. you can glean some very niche shrimp-related information from the shape of the shell
Photo of a clam shrimp, shelled freshwater crustacean, on a black background next to a centimeter ruler. The shrimp is about 5 mm long. The orange circles are her eggs
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 22/07/2025
iNaturalist Animals and Plants xkcd.com/3118/
Comic. The Most-Observed Animal and Plant in Each State on iNaturalist. (Not the most common species in the state, just the one people have reported the most times.) [labeled map of the US] WA: Mallard/Western Sword Fern. OR: Mule Deer/Western Ponderosa Pine. CA: Western Fence Lizard/California Poppy. HI: Green Sea Turtle/‘Ōhi’a Lehua. ID: Mallard/Big Sagebrush. NV: Common Side-Blotched Lizard/Creosote Bush. MT: White-Tailed Deer/Common Yarrow. WY: American Bison/Sticky Geranium. UT: Mule Deer/Utah Juniper. AZ: Ornate Tree Lizard/Saguaro. CO: Mule Deer/Great Mullein. NM: Mule Deer/Creosote Bush. AK: Moose/Fireweed. ND: American Bison/Prairie Rose. SD: American Bison/Hoary Vervain. NE: American Robin/Common Milkweed. KS: Ornate Box Turtle/Amur Honeysuckle. OK: Pond Slider/Eastern Redcedar. TX: Northern Cardinal/Pinladies. MN, WI, IL: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Common Milkweed. IA, MI: White-Tailed Deer/Common Milkweed. MO: Brown-Belted Bumble Bee/Amur Honeysuckle. AR: Three-toed Box Turtle/Chinese Privet. LA: Green Anole/Baldcypress. IN: American Robin/Amur Honeysuckle. OH: Eastern Pondhawk/Virginia Springbeauty. KY: Common Box Turtle/Amur Honeysuckle. TN: American Robin/Christmas Fern. MS: Northern Cardinal/Pale Pitcher Plant. AL: Gulf Fritillary/American Sweetgum. GA: Green Anole/American Sweetgum. FL: Brown Anole/White Beggarticks. NY: Eastern Gray Squirrel/White Snakeroot. PA: White-Tailed Deer/Garlic Mustard. WV: White-Tailed Deer/Great Rhododendron. VA: White-Tailed Deer/Eastern Poison Ivy. MD: White-Tailed Deer/Wineberry. DE: Fowler’s Toad/American Pokeweed. NC: Eastern Gray Squirrel/Christmas Fern. SC: Northern Cardinal/American Sweetgum. NJ: Spotted Lanternfly/Common Mugwort. VT: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Eastern White Pine. NH: White-Tailed Deer/Eastern White Pine. MA: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Eastern White Pine. CT: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Striped Wintergreen. RI: American Herring Gull. ME: American Herring Gull/Canadian Bunchberry.
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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
must resist the urge to despair. I have now photographed and digitized my entire collection of georeferenced Florida Clam Shrimp, no AI involved whatsoever, 100% trustworthy handcrafted artisanal dataset. Apparently about half of the Eulimnadia records on gbif (globally) are now mine. shimp
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
The crab spider Amyciaea in Asia and Australia mimics Oecophylla in order to eat them.
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GBIF @gbif.org · 14/07/2025
🌱 New partnership between GBIF and #Esri gives the #ArcGIS community seamless access to biodiversity occurrence records! This first-of-its-kind collaboration aims to increase overall use, delivery, data quality and citation of open access biodiversity data. 🌏 Read more: 🔗 gbif.link/esri-partn...
Green background with a collage of biological illustrations including plants, animals and fossils
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
New paper out on an important issue — monitoring insects requires preserving the specimens. We explored this issue using data from the Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab, which has systematically destroyed most of their specimens for decades. A 🧵(1/10) doi.org/10.1093/aesa...
doi.org
Big data, changing taxonomy, and ghost records: permanent preservation of collected specimens is essential for insect monitoring
Abstract. Successful long-term biodiversity monitoring requires consistent identification of all specimens, both those newly collected and those collected
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Plants that make structures to house ant colonies use architecture to avoid conflict among the ants.
earth.com
Some plants have a strategy to prevent violent ant fights
Fijian plants stop rival ants from fighting by creating separate chambers inside them. This keeps peace and benefits both ants and plants.
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Natalia (娜塔莉) @wrycritic.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
This baby pterosaur is no bigger than my thumb
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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
buy bug book
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Elaine T @elntangle.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Hey, y'all got any snacks? #birds #WildOz
A photo of a black swan floating on water below a concrete ledge. Three metal wires from a fence cross the photo, separating the viewer and the swan. Dewdrops speckle the swan's head.A photo of a black swan's head, out of focus. The swan's beak juts forward over the concrete ledge in front of the swan's body, under the metal wire of a fence between the swan and the viewer.
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Niki Hubbard, PhD 🐙🦀 @nikihubbard.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
I've been slacking on the sea slug skeets. Enjoy a recent nudibranch from a Sydney tidepool. Jorunna pantherina (I think). From a distance, these tiny 1cm nudis look pale, plain, grey. Up close, they are full of stars! 🐙🦑🧪 #MarineLife #Inverts
A tiny nudibranch, textured white, silver and grey. Bright and sparkling against a dark backdrop of brown algal turf
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Alana Sharp @acsharp.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Are you looking for a PhD project starting this year? I have a funded (UK rates) project on mammal skull diversity and function, looking at skull allometry and how mammal heads adapt to trade-offs in tissue demands during growth 🦌🦘🐘🦥 Please share and apply: www.liverpool.ac.uk/courses/buil...
liverpool.ac.uk
Building giants: tissue relationships during skull growth in large mammals | Courses | University of Liverpool
From elephants to rhinos to bison, enormous increases in body mass have repeatedly evolved within Mammalia over relatively short timescales, leading to a diversity of size and shape. In this project, ...
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
I avoid National Parks for research because working with them involves a huge amount of pointless bureacracy, heavy restrictrions, and onerous subsequent reporting requirements. Also, they claim ownership over any specimens collected, while not paying any of the storage costs.
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Jen Cross @jencross.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
This funky beetle is a Black Bladder-bodied Meloid. The beetle is a flightless blister beetle and it can secrete a defensive fluid that causes blistering. It's not from Arizona, @alexwild.bsky.social did some bug hunting on the way to #BugShot and picked it up in west Texas. (Cysteodemus wislizeni)
A beetle with a very large humped appearance and a small head. The elytra (hardened wing covers) and metallic green and dimpled like a golf ball. The beetle is standing on a dead branch with green in the background.
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でんか @k-hermit.com · 03/07/2025
Tiny, colorful baby scallops — a total cuteness overload in one dish! You might think, “This person posts the same creature every year!” But honestly, seeing the same life return year after year is something truly wonderful𓂃🫧‪
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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 02/07/2025
In Australia, millions of newly hatched Bogong moths embark on an impressive journey twice a year. A new study has found that the moths, with no parents to guide them, rely on bright stars and the Milky Way visible in the night sky to aid their migrations.
news.mongabay.com
Bogong moths use stars and the Milky Way to make epic migration
In Australia, millions of newly hatched Bogong moths embark on an impressive journey twice a year. Each spring, they hatch from eggs in their breeding grounds in Australia’s southeast and fly up to…
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
*INDIANA JONES AND THE CLOSURE OF THE ARCHAEOLOGY DEPARTMENT*
A news story: "Disney Reportedly Planning Full Reboot of the INDIANA JONES Franchise"
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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
In an unconscionable decision, the Smithsonian Institute has decided to no longer support the Biodiversity Heritage Library from 1 Jan 2026. Please someone step up and take it over.
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Mike Keesey @tmkeesey.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Did you know you can view the evolutionary lineage of any group on PhyloPic (not just humans)? Here’s monarch butterflies, for example: www.phylopic.org/nodes/a71ca7... #sciart
phylopic.org
Lineage of Danaus plexippus - PhyloPic
Illustrated evolutionary lineage of Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus 1758).
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Wayne Maddison @waynemaddison.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Mesquite 4.0 released! A major update — many new features, small and large (phylogenomics, visualizations, workflow management, &c). Check out the trailer video: www.mesquiteproject.org. Come discuss in our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-project). @bembidion.bsky.social ‬🧪 #evolbio
The two Mesquite logos. At left, a mesquite tree leaf is against a black background. At right, a leaf is against a blue sky and sun.
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Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Babydid 🥹
Baby katydid, pale blue and green with black spots, feasting on a closed flower. The creature is all spindly legs and wavy antennae
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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
by age 30 you should have one friend for every major animal group to spam. seen a good crab post? forward to your token crab person. bat post for the bat person. cicada post for the cicada person. bear post for the bear person. jellyfish post for the jellyfish person. and so on and so forth.
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Kezrek Laczin @kezrek.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Only on the darkest arctic nights can you encounter this Primordial Pokémon. It manifests as aurora and ice, gently towering over the pole's frigid denizens... ✨❄️🧊 (There are 12 kinds of Pokémon in this #art! Can you find 'em all? Some are well hidden. Have fun & don't give away answers! 💕)
Gigantic aurora Pokemon in a nostalgic nighttime dreamscape of ice and sparkling stars. There are 12 kinds of creatures in this illustration - some obvious, others well hidden. Can you find 'em all?
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こまちみゆた @comatimiyuta.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
怪虫図
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Rebecca | Palaeoplushies @palaeoplushies.com · 26/06/2025
Planaria party! I've been over-feeding my giant plush aquarium and look what turned up! If you'd like to take your own giant (for a planaria, they're 18cm long) beanie plushie planaria home, I promise they won't mulitply. They're for sale (£20gbp, worldwide shipping) here: www.palaeoplushies.com
A pile of plushie planaria. They're brown flatworms with triangular heads, with silly little beadie eyes. They are floppy. Some of them have two heads!
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jacob 🧍 @jajeumm.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Another painting of Megarhyssa atrata, this time a top down angle (minus its longgggg ovipositor) #sciart #wasp
Painting of Megarhyssa atrata (giant black ichneumoid wasp) from the top down, in an unnatural pinned position
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Petra Korlević @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
for shame I do not actually have 9 finished Hymenopteran #SciArt drawings for today's #InsectWeek higlight, so have 8 finished ones and one #wip wasp you all like bees 🐝, but as the second largest insect group sooo many are little parasitoids helping to keep the "bad bug" populations at bay
a black/white checkerboard of insects from the Hymenopteran order which includes bees, wasps and ants, from top left to bottom right:
- a blood red and black bee with orangey wings (on black)
- a dark brown orange red and black hornet, looks kind of fuzzy (on white)
- a tawny mining bee, really fuzzy with an orange thorax and yellow abdomen (on black)
- a spider parasitoid wasp, tiny black with curly antennae and spikes on the legs (on white)
- a light orange fire and with a tiny stinger protruding in the back (on black)
- a bee with jewel like green eyes, light yellow and black stripes (on white)
- extremely fuzzy bee, chubby leg warmers, wings folded on the back hiding the abdomen partially (on black)
- a red velvet ant, which is actually a wingless parasitoid wasp, black legs, two black bands ont he abdomen and the rest is bright fuzzy red (on white)
- work in progress color block of a ruby railed wasp, with a metallic sheen all over, a blue/green head and thorax and red/magenta abdomen (on black)
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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Native bee and thrips discuss how the neighborhood has gone downhill lately
Daisy flower with one (anthophorine?) bee, an individual thrips, and more than a dozen tiny red mites
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Craig White @craig-white.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
In about a week we (Biological Sciences @ Monash Uni in Melbourne, Australia) will be opening a search for 3 (!!!) permanent academic positions (40% research, 40% teaching, 20% service) at Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. 1 Genomics, 2 Ecology. Please share, email me, DM, follow, send carrier pigeons…
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
These are called “Ensign Wasps” for how they move their little butts like flags.
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Corrie Moreau @corriemoreau.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Happening this Sunday morning (6/22) at 8:30am if you are at #Evol2025! My talk is titled "An inordinate fondness for ants: What evolution has taught me about change, resilience, and communication" Hope to see y'all there!
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John Carlson @johncarlson.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
A Blue-eyed Ensign Wasp is hunting cockroaches in downtown Austin
A black insect with long spider-like legs is standing on a metal gray surface. It has two long black antennae coming from the head. On close inspection there is a bluish color to the oval eyes. The wings are also visible folded on the body when looking close
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Entomological Society of America @entsocamerica.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Some tiger beetles have a taste for red imported fire ants. A new study shows a Cosmodela aurulenta tiger beetle could kill nearly 30 red imported fire ants per day, and researchers are examining prospects for mass-rearing tiger beetles for use in efforts to manage the invasive ants.
entomologytoday.org
Tiger Beetles Show Potential for Biocontrol of Red Imported Fire Ants
A Cosmodela aurulenta tiger beetle could kill nearly 30 red imported fire ants per day, according to a new study on tiger beetles as predators for use in fire ant management efforts.
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iNaturalist @inaturalist.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
It's always a good day to celebrate an endemic snail. Meet Nesiohelix swinhoei — found in Taiwan and nowhere else. 📷 naturalist121932 on iNaturalist 📍 Taiwan 🔗: www.inaturalist.org/observations... #ObservationOfTheDay
A brown and cream mottled snail with a pale brown shell crawls along some moss.
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EvolDir @evoldir.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Field assistant needed for a bird breeding study (Sept 2025 - Jan 2026) in Canberra. Experience with birds preferred but training provided. Contact Jessica at jessica.mclachlan@unimelb.edu.au. More info: www.ecomedina.com #job
ecomedina.com
BEAM group
BEAM group
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Jess Zimmerman @jesszimmerman.com · 21/06/2025
Literally begging you to post about Just Some Stuff. We will see the news I absolutely promise. Twenty people will repost the same exact thing about the news. Only you can post about a turtle you saw
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Matt Hollingsworth @matthollingsworth.com · 20/06/2025
Clip Studio Paint is on sale for $23 for a perpetual license. Go. Do it. www.clipstudio.net/en/
clipstudio.net
CLIP STUDIO PAINT - More powerful drawing.
Your go-to art studio, fully packed with customizable brushes & tools. Available on Windows, macOS, iPad, iPhone, and Android.
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Elaine T @elntangle.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Any ideas for uses of this double-pronged ento pin? I guess I could have it hold up a label in between the prongs like a little signpost, but you can do that with a regular pin if you so wished.
A photo of an entomological pin with one round brown pinhead conjoining two pins, held slightly open by pale fingers.
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rohnertparkbirds @rohnertparkbirds.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
The same jay from yesterday examines an object on the ground. Taken June 2025 in #RohnertPark, #California. #birds #birdphotography #sonomacounty #m43
A California scrub jay strikes a curious pose as it examines an object on the ground.
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Adrian Smith @dradriansmith.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
New Ant Lab video out today: Ants mating and flying at the same time! youtu.be/bG9I9u-aM8g
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Lauren @tinylongwing.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Congrats to @sierrawormlion.bsky.social for his fantastic Ph.D. work on insect declines and the impact on birds! I'm so pleased to have done this commemorative illustration of a Dark-eyed Junco pondering a tiny world full of bugs and red clover. Species in alt! 🎨 #SciArt #BirdArt #invertebrates 🪶
Digital illustration of a Dark-eyed Junco, a dark brown sparrow with a pink beak, looking down from the background at a patch of red clover. The clover is covered in a variety of insects from Graham's work, including Harmonia axyridis (Asian ladybeetle), Scaptomyza terminalis (a small fly), Altica sp. flea beetles (tiny iridescent green beetles), Forcipata loca (pale yellow small leafhopper), Evacanthus interruptus (yellow and black leafhopper), and Anaspis rufa (small golden-brown false flower beetles).
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Chentomology @chentomology.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
“Shrimps is bugs” is a funny meme, but there’s some truth in the reverse version, “Bugs is shrimps” 🐛🦐 Since insects are literally a group of terrestrial crustacean. And among all the insects, bristletails are probably the most shrimp-like in my opinion!
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Fire ants are still moving north in the United States. As a subtropical species, they're pretty much near their physiological limit. But the climate is warming, so...
abc10.com
Imported fire ants invade new Virginia localities | Stings pose health risk, officials warn
Imported fire ants swarm and sting aggressively when disturbed. Their painful stings cause blisters. All of Hampton Roads and much of South Virginia are quarantined.
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Gil Wizen @wizentrop.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
A bug that looks AI but is actually real. I present my humble contribution: Seed beetle (Ctenocolum sp.) from Honduras
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Janessa Goldbeck @janessagoldbeck.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
This would be the largest public lands sell-off in modern U.S. history and it's happening with no hearings, no debate, and no public input. See what public lands would be available for sale: www.wilderness.org/articles/med...
wilderness.org
120 million acres of public lands eligible for sale in SENR budget reconciliation package
The bill mandates disposal of over 2 million acres of BLM and National Forest lands; public lands eligible for sale in the bill encompass over 120 million acres, including local recreation areas, wild...
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Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Convergent evolution (flat lump with grabby face appendages) Pseudoscorpion, and owlfly baby
Dark brown pseudoscorpion with chonky pinchy arms spread wide, facing you Flat fuzzy dark grey owlfly baby, facing you, toothed mandibles spread wide, just like the pseudoscorpion
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Elaine T @elntangle.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I'm obsessed with this common bronzewing that we banded two weeks ago. When it was in the bag for transport and unable to see anything, it made the softest little "coo, coo" noises you could only hear by holding it up to your ear 🥺 #birdbanding #birdinthehand #pigeons
A photo of a common bronzewing pigeon (Phaps chalcoptera). The bird's subtly colored purple-orange-blue-grey head with white markings around the black eyes pokes out of a white bag, pale fingers encircling its body in the bag. A photo of a common bronzewing pigeon (Phaps chalcoptera). Its body is partially covered by a white bag while pale hands hold and manipulate the bird, showing off the iridescent green-orange feathers on the upper wing above the brown secondary flight feathers. A photo of a common bronzewing pigeon (Phaps chalcoptera). The bird's body is partially in a white bag while pale hands hold and manipulate the bird, showing off its buffy orange underwing. A photo of a common bronzewing pigeon (Phaps chalcoptera). Pale hands firmly encircle the bird's body, and bird and hands are lit by strong sunlight.
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Karl Magnacca @kmagnacca.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
The corollary to this is, with some basic knowledge of insect taxonomy, you too can become the world expert on a group! Just spend a few years obsessively reading about and looking at them and you'll know more than anyone else. The downside is you'll then be asked to review every paper on them...
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