iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Spotted a bunch of wild Austroplebia hives along a mental bridge Cairns Botanic Gardens.

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Day 1 of the Australian Native Bee Association conference today! My talk is all done and I got to show off my custom bee shirt. #nativebees #anba2026 #tetragonula #science🧪 #bees #entomology

080

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The Australian Native Bee Association's July meeting is tomorrow via zoom. At 6pm AEST (UTC+10) I will give a brief talk about my research on the brains and intelligence of Aussie native bees. You don't have to be from Australia to join, you just need to love bees! #science🧪 #nativebees #entomology

141

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Barcoding museum collections has given me a very cool opportunity to see extinct and rare Australian specimens. Very grateful for the chance and will be sad when it comes to an end at the end of June.

040

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

I was asked to give a talk and join in at a native bee art workshop! There's nothing I love more than a captive audience and rambling about bees! Check out art workshops by @curiositiesbyz (on Instagram). #scicom #bees #nativebees #art #entomology

0110

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

The trickiest bees I've photographed so far! The cuckoo bees (Thyreus), with the chequered cuckoo bee (Thyreus caeruleopunctatus) on the left and the neons cuckoo bee (Thyreus nitidulus). #bees #australianbees #entomology #macrophotography #nativebees

070

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

First day at new job! Excited to teach undergrads about animals and zoological research.

0150

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Happy start to the Sydney Mardi Gras season! Here's a couple of pride flags (rainbow + trans) I made up using my Australian native bee photography! #QueerSTEM #macrophotography #nativebees #sydneyMardiGras #transgender #Australiannativebees

0112

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

New stingless bee tattoo for submitting and finishing (corrections are almost done) my PhD. My PhD focused on the cognition, learning and brains of the only Sydney stingless bee - Tetragonula carbonaria. I have a pretty full arm of bee tattoos now! #bees #entomology #tattoo #scientistswithtattoos

1212

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Local bush walk today and stumbled onto some male native bees, Lipotriches australica, aka. green and gold nomia. #entomology #nativebees #bees #australianbees

070

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

My garden is being visited by the aptly named, Amegilla bombiformis, aka teddy bear bee. On the left is a female and on the right, a male. #macrophotography #entomology #insects #australianbees #nativebees

0200

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Why does my desk turn into a mess every time I do some insect pinning! 😭

040

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

This male Lipotriches australica was bubbling! A process in which the bee will bubble nectar in order to evaporate the water and condense the nectar! #macrophotography #entomology #nativebees #australianbees #insects

051

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Today's native bee for #auspollinatorweek is Leioproctus sp. (hairy colletid bee). These small, hairy bees are most commonly found in Australasia! #pollinatorweek #invertebrates #bees #nativebees #entomology #macrophotography

0122

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Female round-headed masked bee (Hylaeus rotundiceps) pollinating lillypillys today. Named for their mask-like facial markings. #nativebees #auspollinatorweek #pollinatorweek #invert #australianbees #invertebrates🐙 #Australianwildlife

041

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Megachile (Eutricharaea) sp. or the leaf cutter bee. This female was covered in pollen, they store the pollen on the long scopal hairs under their abdomen. #auspollinatorweek #pollinatorweek #bees #nativebees #macrophotography #entomology #australianbees

030

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

This was my first time combining two of my photos, at different focuses, to get a clear, in focus, subject. These Amegilla sp. are currently pollinating all the salvia and tomato plants in my backyard. #macrophotography #bees #auspollinatorweek #pollinatorweek #insectphotography🐝📷

192

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

It's Australian native pollinator week! I'll be trying to post a native bee a day. Here's today's (10/11) bee the Ferruginous-tailed Austral-Nomia (Lipotriches phanerura), capable of buzz pollination. #auspollinatorweek #pollinatorweekaus #australianpollinatorweek #entomology #nativebees #science🧪

2174

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

How many pollinators can you fit in one photo? Found these two brown flower beetles mating next to flying ants and two foraging native bees (Hylaeus and Parasphecodes). #nativebees #bees #entomology #pollinators #science🧪

0112

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

I’ll be giving a short talk on Aussie bees their cognition in a few weeks for the @neuroethology.org webinar series! Tune in if you want to learn about bees! #science🧪 #entomology #neuroethology #bees

0224

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

In the park across from my house, these bottlebrush trees attract a ton of native bees. Here is a Lasioglossum (maybe L.bicingulatum but was hard to tell they were so fast) #wildoz #nativebees #entomology #bees

081

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Another native bee during teaching this week. This one is a masked bee (Hylaeus sp.) They (usually) have facial markings, typically in bright yellow - hence the name. #hylaeus #wildoz #nativebee #entomology #australianbees

0102

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Not a honey bee (Apis mellifera) but an Australian native bee, Trichocolletes sp. on flowering Bossiaea scolopendria. #nativebee #wildoz #australianbees

0155

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

A memorial piece I did for my partner’s dad, who’s 17 year old cat, Sherlock, recently passed away. I’ll miss you Mr. Sherlock.

080

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Day 2 of our invertebrate prac was great! My students caught a beautiful ichneumon wasp. While o wish I could have shown them some native bees (It’s still a little too cold and no flowers), I was happy to show them at least one Hymenopteran!

021

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

We have a fun new prac for the ecology unit I help teach, all on invertebrates! Trying to get the students excited about insects 😭

040

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Ecology practical I’m teaching this week was on parasites! I think it was a hit with the students 🪱🪰 (we need more invert emojis!)

070

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Some oil pastel spider art I did for my art clubs monthly theme (escape!) I’m enjoying getting back to non-academic art a lot while I wait for my thesis results. #oilpastels #entomology #entoart

0131

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Been taking a big break while waiting for the response for my submitted PhD thesis. So I’ve decided to take up a more physical art medium, oil pastels! Slowly starting to get the hang of it featuring my blue banded bee and European garden spider. #bees #art #oilpastel #insects

0122

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Had a book club meet up at one of my favourite places in Sydney, The Australian Museum!

060

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Acquired two new cats! My first two cats were both older adults we adopted from shelters but these two are my first kittens (rescued from an abandoned property).

0180

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Happy world bee day! Featuring some of the native Australian bees (and honey bees) I’ve gotten to work with through my research. I’m hoping I’ll be able to find future work with native bees and contribute to our growing knowledge of these amazing insects #worldbeeday #entomology #bees #science🧪

15812

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Thanks to those who came, listened and asked questions during my talk on stingless bee brains. Small but mighty 🧠🐝 #pintofscience #pintofscienceaus #science #entomology

060

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

PhDone! Three years and three months, 186 pages and 45,000 words. And all on learning and brains of one of my favourite Aussie bees 🐝🧠 #phd #phdone #phinished #entomology #science🧪

8742

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Thesis is done and all ready for submission first thing tomorrow morning! 186 pages, 45k words and three years. #phdchat #phdthesis #phdone

4181

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Only one more day until submission day! Last edits being made in between lots of pets from the cats. Bittersweet. #phdchat

070

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Working on some cover art for my thesis chapters in between writing and editing. Here's a couple of my favourites so far, all featuring my study species - Tetragonula carbonaria. #entomology #phdchat #science #scienceart #bees #stinglessbee

0204

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Caught getting excited about frogs! I’d rather be back at the zoo then stuck thesis writing inside #phdlife

080

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Sydney Zoo have stingless bees (Tetragonula carbonaria) aka. my study species! Glad to see other guests were just as excited as me about the bees. Would love to see more zoo’s include native bees. #entomology #science🧪

1315

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Doing some final brain dissections on these Aussie stingless bees: Austroplebia australis. The left is what the males look like and the right are the female workers. #phdlife #entomology #insects #science🧪

170

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

First time Macquarie Uni marched in Sydney Mardi Gras (and it was my 5th time!) 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

191

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I am furiously gluing butterflies onto a shirt and hat for #SydneyMardiGrads tomorrow. Marching with my uni for the first (and last) time 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈. #pride #mardigras #queerinSTEM #transinSTEM

1430

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Working from homes means having to analyse data with one hand and pat the cat with the other. #phdlife

0340

Dr. Faelan Mourmourakis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝 @fumblebeefae.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Nope! Just my hands using some very fine pointed entomology tweezers and scalpels under a compound microscope. I set the head still using some wax so it won’t move around.

030