iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jim Hayden

Matt Bertone @bertonemyia.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Some crane flies in the genus #Geranomyia produce a little gel nursery to develop on leaves in the tropics. There they graze on algae & other organic matter. The mass provides moisture (other spp. live in water/soil) & likely protects from predators. #Tipulidae #Limoniidae #FlySchool2026 Costa Rica

A jelly mass on the midrib of a long leaf contains a long translucent larva within

A close up of a long, worm-like, translucent larva curving around inside a clear jelly mass

A thick jelly mass on a leaf surface has a long crane fly pupa suspended within

Two greenish crane flies with long beaks mating on a leaf. The female is resting above, while the male contorts himself underneath, connected by their genitalia.

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Andrew Warren @andybugguy.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

So, know it or not, today is your lucky day! You are one of the first humans to see the fully-grown caterpillar of the undescribed Hypsocompe species! They have been happy feeding on a lot of plants, but at the moment seem to prefer the organic romaine from Whole Foods… 🐛😁

Bristly blackish caterpillar with orangish highlights, in the palm of my hand. This is an undescribed species… I’ve been rearing this and its ~200 siblings, with good success so far. I hope they beef up and make cocoons soon, otherwise I might have to figure out how to overwinter them…

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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Alma Solis busted out some chrysaugine pyralids and I was ready to stand up and applaud

A dramatically lit Pachypodistes from iNat

A fluorescent pink Pachypodistes, from Wikipedia

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Digital Naturalism Laboratories @dinalab.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Did yall know Moths were around 200 MILLION YEARS AGO! This is apparently before FLOWERS even existed and the scientists think their long slurpy tongues were for drinking juice in dinosaur poop. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #teammoth #yearofthemoth #moth

science.org

A Triassic-Jurassic window into the evolution of Lepidoptera

The oldest ancestors of moths and butterflies evolved in a gymnosperm world.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Ryan St Laurent @ryanstlaurent.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Introducing the newest species of moth from the US, and likely one of the rarest. Cicinnus albarenicolus is known from just 19 specimens, all in white sand scrub in peninsular Florida. Only one verified extant population! zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1817...

zookeys.pensoft.net

A new species of sack-bearer moth (Lepidoptera, Mimallonidae) from Florida

A rarely reported new species of Mimallonidae from Florida, USA, is described. Remarkably, the distinctive new species has not been seen across much of its historical range since the 1960s, and all re...

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Matt Bertone @bertonemyia.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Predators got you down? Want to hide from the world? Just slough off your skin and flop it on your back! 👍 #lifehack tortoise #beetle #larva #Chrysomelidae: #Cassidinae Vieques, PR 🇵🇷

A pale oval beetle larva with spiny spikes radiating around the sides of the body sits on the underside of a hairy green leaf. It's carrying dark, dried cast skins on its back for protection.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

I thought our new “visible lab” space felt like a petting zoo but @mothpotato.bsky.social had a much better idea

Beloved lepidopterist Kevin dissects some noctuid genitalia in the Visible Lab, which he has decorated to look like the penalty box at a hockey game. He is wearing a Pens jersey and a hockey helmet while he looks thru the microscope.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Andrew Warren @andybugguy.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Just a friendly reminder everyone, it is now “community science”, not “citizen science”, no matter what country you’re in. #communityscience

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Jim Hayden @jeh8i8.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Here’s an invite link: invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWK...

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Jess Awad @parasitoidrex.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

INSECT TAXONOMY IN THE 21ST CENTURY @entsocamerica.bsky.social Online, April 27-29! Featuring keynotes from Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social, Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, and Dominic Evangelista. Now accepting contributed talks! Grant deadline Feb 4, abstracts due Mar 6. entsoc.org/membership/b...

"Dark Linnaeus" - a portrait of the famous biologist with scary glowing red eyes

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Jim Hayden @jeh8i8.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

The FSCA is opening an OPS position sorting Lepidoptera in the McGuire Center! Please apply here: jobs.myflorida.com/job/GAINESVI...

jobs.myflorida.com

OPS BIOLOGICAL SCIENTIST I - 42900373

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Jim Hayden @jeh8i8.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

This greenbriar leafminer, Marmara smilacisella, adorned its cocoon with clusters of pearlescent bubbles. I wish my holiday decorations were so neat!

Cocoon of a leaf-mining moth ornamented with bubbles excreted by the caterpillar

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Jess Awad from Naturalis (massive Dutch biodiversity institute, formerly known as RMNH)— massive collection in a gorgeous new building (2019)

New Naturalis campus in Leiden. It’s very bold and modern.

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Jim Hayden @jeh8i8.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

On this night, let's not forget that the reason for the season is souls coming out of holes in the ground.

Little sidhe with illuminated passageway as Halloween decoration

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Spookiest decoration at the "Zoo Goes Boo" event at the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids? Giant model of parasitoid wasps hatching from cocoons affixed to their caterpillar host.

Large model of a green caterpillar, the back of which is covered by dozens of white cocoons. Wasps can be seen emerging from some of the cocoons.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Jess Awad @parasitoidrex.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Just published! A new discovery in biological pest control: Synopeas ruficoxum, a natural enemy of the soybean gall midge in North America. 🧪🧵 doi.org/10.3897/jhr....

A small black platygastrid wasp, around 1.5 mm long, with an elongate metasoma, veinless wings, and a small spine on the mesoscutellum. Lateral view.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

🦇 Murphy @mjosmurphy.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

through the magic of AI, MS word suggested the following alt-text for this image: "a closeup of human skin". It's moth butts (credit: Arnaud Martin lab)

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Say hello to Florida's newest established species, Typhlonectes natans - the Rio Cauca Caecilian! You can read about their relative abundance, distribution, & natural history, in our brand new paper: journals.ku.edu/reptilesanda... Here is one individual I CT scanned that had 7 babies inside!

A 3d rendering of a CT scan of a Rio Cauca caecilian with transparent body and bone colored skeleton, showing 7 baby caecilians inside, each rendered in a different color - counter-clockwise from tail to head - red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, purple.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Andrew Warren @andybugguy.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Oh to be a moth that cannot fly... Meet the newly described genus/species Coloradactria frigida, a moth with females that don't fly- they scurry around on the ground like a spider or silverfish... lepscience.com/wp-content/u... @inaturalist.bsky.social observations helped us locate populations!

This female moth cannot fly. She has wings, but they are not fully developed (called brachypterous). Females of this species require warm bare ground and stubby grass to be active during their late October-late November adult emergence. Currently known habitats are regularly mowed. Before the evolution of lawn mowers, we speculate that their specialized habitat was maintained by grazing and movements of large mammals such as bison, pronghorn, elk, deer, and prairie dogs. Females lay 250-400 eggs near the bases of highly disturbed Sand Dropseed grass. When larvae eclose in the spring, they immediately burrow down into bases of the grass clumps, and they apparently develop underground feeding on the roots of Sand Dropseed. While described from and currently only known from Colorado, we suspect this species will be found to occur elsewhere once targeted searches are conducted. Perhaps additional species in this genus will be found? Unidentified observations at iNaturalist helped us find additional populations once we knew what to look for. Several males and one female were found there, as cited in the paper linked in this post. They are now identified at iNaturalist as Coloradactria frigida.

This male moth spends all of this time looking for females in highly disturbed (= mowed, trampled) patches of Sand Dropseed grass. The late October to late November flight time of this moth is unusually late for its known habitats in Colorado. The other moth that is common during this period is the geometrid Alsophila pometaria, which also has flightless females. Why do late-season moths evolve flightless females? We talk about this near the end of our paper linked in this post.

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Jim Hayden @jeh8i8.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Micromoths & company from a UV trap in scrub west of Gainesville. Every time, I get a range from common species to things I've never seen before.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Charles Darwin famously laboured for years to write a 4-volume monograph on barnacles. It won him accolades and helped establish his reputation as a zoologist - well before 'The Origin of Species'. And these are some of his own specimens (at the Danish Natural History Museum, Copenhagen). 1/2

A dozen or so glass jars with heavy glass lids, each partly full of liquid containing barnacle specimens.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

ZooKeys @zookeys.pensoft.net · 02/05/2025

This is Iconella melitaraevora, a new wasp species parasitoid of Melitara subumbrella caterpillars. Find out more about it here: doi.org/10.3897/jhr.... #wasps #newspecies #entomology @texasscience.bsky.social #biodiversity

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Jess Awad @parasitoidrex.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

I propose we start calling parasitoid wasps "friend wasps" and launch a massive PR campaign to make people love them

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Jim Hayden @jeh8i8.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

On the La Chua Trail at Paynes Prairie today, we stopped counting at 160 alligators.

Two big fat alligators basking on a creek bank

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Matt Bertone @bertonemyia.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

How small can moths get? 🔎 Very. shield bearer #moth at UV light #Heliozelidae: #Coptodisca Raleigh, NC, USA @dradriansmith.bsky.social finger for scale

A small pearlescent moth with dark and yellow markings near the tip of the wing. It's resting on a white sheet, and it's so magnified you can see the weave. The moth is about 2mm long.

A finger pointing at a small pearlescent moth with dark and yellow markings near the tip of the wing. It's resting on a white sheet, and it's so magnified you can see the weave. The moth is about 2mm long.

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Reposted by Jim Hayden

Jess Awad @parasitoidrex.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Gall midges and their parasitoids are abundant, megadiverse, and very hard to identify! Such "double dark taxa" systems present special challenges for ecology and agriculture. 🧵🧪🐙 @smnstuttgart.bsky.social @marinamoser.bsky.social @krogmann.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/aesa...

doi.org

Untangling host specialization in a “double dark taxa” system

Abstract. Platygastrine wasps (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) are parasitoids of gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae). They and their hosts are exceptionally

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Jim Hayden @jeh8i8.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Pyraloid moths aren't into blue so much, but this Parotis sp. from Indonesia is a delicate aquamarine. Parotis prasinalis in Madagascar looks similar. Specimen in the Florida State Collection of Arthropods / FLMNH McGuire Center. #BlueBugs

Photo of a pinned tropical moth, aquamarine in color.

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