iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I found my first Pallifera today (finally!) and got this pic of it looking annoyed as I turned it over to show its underside.

A Pallifera slug, having just been disturbed from its rest under a chunk of moist rotting wood by a human who insisted upon turning it over to show its underside. It manages to have an annoyed expression.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Didn't get it done in time for seasonally appropriate posting. Oh well here's the sketch anyway

A rough pencil sketch of the words "Roses are red, violets are violet, I think about you, when I sit on the tiolet"

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Artists, quote with something silly!

A black and white ink drawing of an Arion slug whose lower portion becomes an entire human leg. A frame with a wood-grain pattern and little leafy things at the corners surrounds it.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Sleg, 2026. I was being clever and made it a right leg as a nod to gastropod dextral chirality, then realized that if I was doing the torsion correctly it would be a left leg. Oops

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Population in one of my isopod colonies has been dropping recently. Today while checking on them, I uncovered a likely culprit. I have no idea how a centipede got in there, but it's been relocated outdoors.

A reddish brown Lithobius centipede contained in a petri dish

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

End of year, end of #invertefest . Hopeful slug crawling towards the light away from a glob of its own defensive goo is how I hope to live in 2026

An orange-ish slug (Mesarion sp.) crawls on a mossy rotten log surface. Behind it is a glob of mucus that it secreted, and a thread of that goo is wrapped around the end of its tail. There is an unseen light source off to the right and upwards, which the slug appears to be crawling toward, looking hopeful.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

More Than One Bee seemed like it was missing something so I added a bit to it.

A black & white ink drawing of some stuff. A dragon expels the words "Aw Hell Yeah" from its mouth. A group of stylized simple "bees" fly across the image from top left to bottom right. They have little faces and all eyes are on the dragon. Some of the bees' bodies become banners with words on them, the words blending into their stripes. Together, they spell out "More Than One Bee" except that the word "Bee" has something like 35 Es in it because that bee is very long.
Filling the background is a sort of silhouetted natural landscape, a similar kinda-cityscape, and part of a circle with a cracked stone texture on it.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Before the end of #invertefest I must post this perfectly shaped animal I found under a log. (Carolina Mantleslug, Philomycus carolinianus)

A small slug, Philomycus carolinianus, sits scrunched up among leaf litter, head and tail fully retracted. It is a perfect little egg of an animal.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

"Big Four" 2025. This one is very deep

A black and white ink drawing of a bunch of stuff: a detailed square frame in one corner is empty and has text on it that reads "did you check the dog square?" This frame is flanked by two checkered arcs that contain spiraling lines. The letters "DREADF", dripping with some viscous fluid, arc across another corner. A creature resembling a sauropod dinosaur in a cartoonish style wears a collar that says "Bromposorbus". A signpost holds two signs: one reads "BOG" and points to the right, the other reads "Life's Little" and points downward to the left towards a frog with hair. The frog sits on a log which leans against another log. Behind the logs are the sort-of-silhouetted forms of grassy creatures with silly faces. Above them are the words "We are the vegetationes". In the lower right corner, in conversation with the vegetationes, a similar creature with mushrooms on it appears to say "Same". Behind all of this is a large number 4 with a stony texture. In the background there are a few curving lines, one of which is broken into two by a butterfly flying "through" it and making the ends spiral. On these lines appear the words "Do it" and "It's what he would have wanted."

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Megapallifera mutabilis is a native Philomycid mantleslug in my area. This species climbs trees at night to feed and descends in the morning. I wanted to see the morning slug migration and get some pictures, so I went to the park at dawn today. I was not disappointed!

A light grey-brown slug (Megapallifera mutabilis) with irregular black spotting crawling downwards on tree bark.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

This slug, having crawled up a line of a spider web and found itself dangling, is questioning its life choices

A slug (Deroceras reticulatum) dangling on a strand of spider silk against a black background.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Philomycid mantleslugs are native to my area but up until today, when I specifically went to a park looking for them, I had never seen one. They live in forests and don't do well in human spaces, unlike their numerous invasive competitors. This was the only one I found, a Philomycus carolinianus.

A slug (Philomycus carolinianus) with a mottled pattern of black, brown, gray, and cream colors.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

While I was watering my garden, a hummingbird stopped by to take a shower. Enjoy 20 seconds of flippety flap splishety splash

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

This #invertefest here are the main five types of slug in my yard

A collage of 5 photos of slugs. Top left: a brown slug with lateral stripes labeled "Arion (Mesarion) sp." Top right: a scrunched-up yellow-gray slug labeled "Arion intermedius." Center: A large brown slug with a spotted mantle labeled "Limax maximus." Bottom left: A brown slug with a translucent appearance and dark lateral stripes labeled "Ambigolimax sp." Bottom right: a pale, milky-brown slug labeled "Deroceras reticulatum."

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

"Worm" 2024. If I made this now I probably would have been tempted to make the worm identifiable as Lumbricus friendi rather than a stylized worm, on account of L. friendi being my gateway to the world of earthworms. That runs dangerously close to having actual meaning though

A black-and-white ink drawing wherein there are a lot of various tubes with things sticking out of them: a tentacle, some slime, a hand, a corded phone receiver, a clump of mushrooms, a cloud of smoke, a guy, an ostrich feather, a coniferous tree, an unidentifiable muppet-like thing, a sausage on a two-pronged fork, and the back half of a coelacanth. Some of the tubes instead hold signs of various forms that spell out "Beneath our feet there can be a worm."
From the largest tube emerges a worm with eyes and a toothy mouth, saying "WISDOM FROM ANCIENT TIM" because the ribbon representing its speech is curled at the end, cutting off any additional text. Who knows what wisdom is hidden in that ribbon, forever unrevealed, frozen in tim

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

For #invertefest I submit this Horned Passalus Beetle with a wig of phoretic mites. My piles of rotting wood are paying off this season it seems, lots of these little guys around.

A large, shiny black Horned Passalus Beetle (Odontotaenius disjunctus) with little red-brown mites all over its head.

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Matt Heartwood @gentlepotato.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Eating the last of the summer tomatoes on this the 7th of January. No frost until late November, and apparently "sweet million" cherry tomatoes keep a long time just sitting out in a bowl in the kitchen.