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Jess Marsh

@jessmarsh.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.4K following 58 posts

Researcher Adelaide Uni. Arachnology, taxonomy, conservation. Caves + cave biodiversity. Mum, hiker, ally. She / her. Co-founder Invertebrates Australia, Councillor Biodiversity Council, Co-chair IUCN Australia Species Specialist Group.

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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Want to join our team and work on cave invertebrate biodiversity?? We have a fully funded scholarship for a PhD student at Adelaide University. Open to domestic or international applicants. Enquiries: jess.marsh@adelaide.edu.au More info below...
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Gwen Pearson @bug-gwen.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Your periodic, sad reminder that some of the most trafficked live animals are arthropods. Based on the size and location, these were probably emperor scorpions, considered endangered and regulated by CITES www.citizen.co.za/news/south-a...
citizen.co.za
Cape Town Airport sting: Man nabbed with 150 venomous scorpions hidden in luggage | The Citizen
Police said the scorpions were found concealed between items of clothing.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Introducing the world's only known cave-adapted spider wasp... Troglopompilus miracaecatus (Pompilidae) from the caves of the Nullarbor, Australia. A world first: Eyeless, long limbs and antennae, highly reduced wings. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #cave #wasp #biodiversity
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Hugely excited for our work on the Nullarbor Caves to be featured on the ever excellent First Dog on the Moon. Oh yeah... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Did you know that there are huge caves full of weirdy bugs and ancient life right under the Nullarbor desert? | First Dog on the Moon
We simply don’t know even a fraction of what is in them
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Just back from surveys of #caves of the Nullarbor, Western Australia, land of the Mirning People. 🖤 amazing caves 🕷️ amazing cave #invertebrates ✨ hugely exciting finds The best start to my ARC Industry Fellowship. 👀 Watch. This. Space 👀 #biodiversity #conservation #ozinverts 📸 Dr Steve Milner
A woman (me!!) in dusty overalls standing next to the entrance of a cave, wearing a green helmet, a harness and gear for rope work.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
A brief peak at my home for the last three weeks. Surveying cave-adapted invertebrates of the beautiful and rugged caves of the Nullarbor plain, Western Australia. Some REALLY exciting finds. Stand by for updates #caves #invertebrates #troglobites #spiders #biodiversity
A vast treeless landscape, with a small, limestone outcrop in the centre, containing the entrance to a large cave
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Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Sand grains as big as her head ❤️
The tiny red nugget wasp, in white sand, individual grains like boulders around her
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Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
It's officially spring up here because there are tiny Metaphycus nugget wasps in the savannah grasses again and I am happy 🥹 #EmotionalSupportWasps
Tiny bright red stubby wasp with tiny wing stubs and big grey eyes with false pupils peering. She has thick red antennae with white tips, and she taps them on the ground rapidly as she runs.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 20/02/2025
Worm-like creature with ‘dark secret’ wins New Zealand bug of the year
theguardian.com
Worm-like creature with ‘dark secret’ wins New Zealand bug of the year
Velvet worms have rows of pudgy legs, skin speckled like a galaxy and dissolve their prey with sticky goo An ancient gummy-looking worm-like creature with a vicious hunting method that involves projecting sticky goo from its head has been crowned New…
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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Scientists first collected a pig butt worm from the dark ocean depths near Monterey, California. The size of marbles, pigbutts are a near complete mystery. Officially described in 2007, scientists aren’t even sure if the pigbutt form is an adult, or just a very very awkward adolescent stage.
A very pig butt looking round marble like animal that is pink. Photo by MBARI.The “front” of a pig butt worm showing tentacles and a round body. Image by MBARI.The bottom of a pig butt worm showing it’s odd bilateral butt cheeks. Images by MBARI
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Invertebrate species of the year, for the WHOLE world 🌍 … I know which species I’d choose. It has the name, it has the looks, it has the on-the-brink-of-extinction need for awareness… (Come on little #kangarooIslandAssassinSpider 🕷️💪)
theguardian.com
Nominate your invertebrate species of the year
We’re asking readers from around the world to nominate their favourite spineless species for our second Invertebrate of the Year competition
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
This is another very cool invertebrate #biodiversity #insects
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Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Anthony Davis spood (Mr Angry UniBrow)
Small bronze-y jumping spider boy on a palmetto frond, with markings like angry eyebrows (more of a unibrow on this little guy), peering up at you shyly
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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
🚨BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!🚨 I know everything is a lot right now, but this is the LAST WEEK of Bug of the Year, and team velvet worm are hot on our heels! Please VOTE NOW to make Giant Springtails victorious! bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20... IF WE WIN, I WILL GET A GIANT SPRINGTAIL TATTOO!!
A photograph of a giant springtail viewed from above, crawling on a NZ one dollar coin. The springtail is blue with yellow spines, and in length is only about half the width of the coin.
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Marshal Hedin @mhedin.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
welcome to the world new spider genus Siskiyu. you've been lurking in the dark, magical woods of far northern California for millenia. Now the humans have finally gotten around to telling your story, at least in part this research was funded by the NSF OA here zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1402...
a pale, elegant long-legged spider, with whispy silk, under a stone
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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
One more for the Year of the Snake, plus #TBT. It's one of my favorite photos I've ever taken, from ten years ago in Borneo, a gorgeous little snake called an eight-striped kukri (Oligodon octolineatus). I have a large print of it on my home office wall and it makes me happy to see every day. 🐙 📷 🐍
A photo looking down at a colorful snake coiled up atop a palm-like plant frond. The snake is coiled in the upper third of the frame in a flat circle, and has a bright orange dorsal stripe and white side stripes against a glossy dark brown background. The snake's curled shape contrasts with the straight central rib of the plant (running diagonally up from the lower left) and its also-straight, perpendicular frond branches.
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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
One more from my Borneo archives, because frankly, living in the past seems like a good idea right now. See the grasshopper? Look for the "holes" in the leaf - they're actually solid but transparent exoskeleton. I've shared this before elsewhere, but I don't think here. Even if, worth a re-post. 🐙🌿📷
A photo of what at first looks like a pile of dead brown leaves, but upon closer inspection is a pile of dead brown leaves and a grasshopper that is astonishingly camouflaged as a dead brown leaf. Its body is flattened with a crest to create the leaf shape; the end of the wings even has a projection that looks like the leaf stem. The abdomen tip curls up to meet it to help the deception. The grasshopper has markings that look like leaf veins, and a couple of what look like rotted holes in a leaf, but which are actually clear spots in the exoskeleton to create this illusion.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
The Grampians National Park is an important area for biodiversity. And it is burning. Many species have been impacted, but some species have had their whole know range burnt. The Grampians Assassin Spider, Zephyrarchaea grayi is one of these. Extinct? Possibly. #biodiversity #arachnids #fire
A map showing the extent of fire in the Grampians National Park in Victoria, Australia. Most of the park is marked in yellow and red colouring, indicating it has burnt, or is at risk from burning.
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Dr. Jack Brown @drjackbrown.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
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Danae Wolfe | Chasing Bugs @chasingbugs.com · 31/01/2025
When you’re willing to move slowly through the world, you’ll find amazing things. I call this Birth of an Assassin. #bugsky
A spindly legged white assassin bug nymph emerges from a brown egg case on a green leaf.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Unknown to me, a school student chose to write a poem on one of the species that I have fought to conserve. Convincing people that spiders are worthy of conservation often feels an uphill battle. This feels a little bit like a win 🥹💙 #australia #arachnids #biodiversity #poetry
redroompoetry.org
Kangaroo Island Assassin Spider
Australian poems by Australian poets are at the heart of Red Room Poetry an organisation devoted to creating, publishing and promoting the reading and writing of great new work.
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Danae Wolfe | Chasing Bugs @chasingbugs.com · 28/01/2025
Little bug. Big munch.
Small green sawfly larvae chews large squiggly hole in green leaf.
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Shahan Derkarabetian @sderkarabetian.bsky.social · 02/03/2024
Opilioacarida! Mites that kind of look like Opiliones (hence the name). Found all over tropical and subtropical habitats worldwide, poorly studied. These were the first I've ever seen alive! From south of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. This is Neocarus bajacalifornicus.
A macro photo of a small mite, facing right. The body color is light grey. Its front pair of legs are elongate and pointing forward like antennae. It is walking on a rock.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
The beauty of spider webs and water droplets
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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Do you need a New Year’s resolution that’s quick, free, easy to achieve and makes a difference? Then I’ve got one for you! Vote for Holacanthella in the Bug of the Year contest! You can vote from anywhere in the world, just follow this link! 🧪 #Invertebrate bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20...
A photo of a giant springtail, and invertebrate with a soft blue body and lots of yellow spines on its back.
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Robby Deans @hydaticus.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Prokoenenia wheeleri, a micro-whipscorpion in the rarely seen arachnid order Palpigradi. Travis County, Texas #nature #photography #arachnids #invertebrates
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Ian Smith @ecologian.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Seems we have enough Australian Entomology / other insect people to start a starter pack. Who have I missed? go.bsky.app/8d9RtMC
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
@NatGeo just published an article about mound-building Formica wood ants, featuring a series of spectacular photographs by Ingo Arndt: www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... Here is Ingo’s winning wood ant photo from @NHM_WPY last year:
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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
He's right, you know. Let's make Giant Springtails NZ's bug of the year, it only takes a moment to vote: bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20... #Invertebrate #TeamGiantSpringtail 🧪
A meme showing a male character from the US tv show Shameless lighting a cigarette, with text saying "nobody is too busy to vote Giant Springtail, it's just a matter of priorities".
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Jen Cross @jencross.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Hey all, I made a Bug Friends starter pack a while ago and have added a few accounts since then. If you enjoy insects, spiders, and other arthropods then this is a nice list for you. go.bsky.app/DCu5DxX
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Dax Kellie @daxkellie.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
The galah package 📦 lets you use R to download images from Living Atlases around the world! 1. Choose an atlas with `galah_config(atlas = )` galah.ala.org.au/R/articles/q... 2. Download images with `collect_media()` galah.ala.org.au/R/articles/d... #rstats 🌏🐦🦋🐛🌱 (cc @rowdynerd.bsky.social)
A collection of animal images and where they were downloaded from, using the galah R package. The galah hexagon logo is in the upper left, with a graphic of a galah (a species of parrot) with pink head feathers and grey wing feathers on a green/aqua background. Images are displayed in circles with the country and description beside each. There are images of a Great grey owl (from Sweden), a King swallowtail butterfly (from Guatemala), a Swan (from the UK), a weasel (from the UK) and a galah (from Australia).
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Perry Beasley-Hall, PhD @pbeasleyhall.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
📣 New preprint! We reconstructed the cave cricket family tree and found the Australian biota have not 1, but >5 independent evolutionary origins. 🇦🇺 is at the centre of a radiation in the S. Hemisphere that began in the Lower Cretaceous ~119 million years ago. 1/ #bugsky Paper: tinyurl.com/bddev8kn
A plate of six photos of cave crickets from throughout the Southern Hemisphere: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Chile. All of the crickets are spindly and spider-like, with elongated legs and antennae for sensing in low-light environments. While they share the same body plan, each of the images has a slightly different colouration or pattern; some are mottled and sandy, others are dusky and appear almost covered in peach fuzz (setae). The species from Chile is almost jet black and matte. 

Images © Jessa Thurman, Keith Martin-Smith, Greg Tasney, commoncopper via iNaturalist, Peter Swart, and Benjamin Silva Ahumada. Photographs reproduced under Creative Commons licences.A phylogeny (evolutionary tree) with groupings of species coloured by their geographic location. In the tree are four different, unrelated groups from Australia, two from New Zealand, and one from South America. To the left is a zoomed-out schematic of the phylogeny showing that only half of the tree is shown in this figure.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Now, I totally don't have favourites...but if I did this species would come close. Feared extinct after fire burnt all of its known range in 2019. Finding this girl during post-fire surveys in an unburnt area of vegetation was like magic. Kangaroo Island Assassin Spider, Zephyrarchaea austini 🌏🧪
A small brown spider, facing sideways, holding a small darker spider in its long mouthparts. The background is cream-brown.
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Union of Concerned Scientists @ucs.org · 10/01/2025
While deaths and destruction are mounting and thousands flee inferno in LA's devastation, the President-Elect has used the catastrophe to spread misinformation, offer false solutions, and disrespect the suffering of people and the hard work of first responders. Here are 6 facts you should know:
blog.ucsusa.org
Six Facts About Water and Wildfire in the West
While deaths and destruction are mounting and tens of thousands flee a devastating inferno in Los Angeles, the President-Elect has used the catastrophic wildfires to spread misinformation, offer false...
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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
We don’t have to choose this fate. But I fear we will.
User "Annie Wu" says "this tweet is my Roman Empire," along with a screenshot of tweet from @PerthshireMags that reads, "climate change will manifest as a series of disasters as viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it."
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Dezene Huber 🍁 🌻 @dezene.me · 09/01/2025
“From what I’m seeing, you are not really de-extincting anything. You are creating something else.” (Dr. Clare Palmer, Texas A&M) Efforts focus on vertebrates, which are ecosystems to many other creatures. Many of those creatures went extinct with their ecosystem. 🧪 🌎 e360.yale.edu/features/de-...
e360.yale.edu
Despite Biotech Efforts to Revive Species, Extinction Is Still Forever
In the last decade, laboratory initiatives to recreate long-extinct species have stirred controversy. Now, scientists increasingly agree "de-extinction" is not possible, but breeding living animals wi...
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Rebekah Jones @georebekah.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
ABC, NBC & CBS dedicated about 16 minutes of airtime last night to the California wildfires without once mentioning climate change. Since the news failed do it's job, here's a short summary of the role of climate change and wildfire risk: www.noaa.gov/noaa-wildfir...
noaa.gov
Wildfire climate connection
Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States during the last ...
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Global Center for Species Survival @protectspecies.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Did you know we're hiring? We're looking for conservation biologists with expertise in plants and fungi. To apply for the Plant Conservation Coordinator job, click here: bit.ly/PlantCoordin... 🌱 To apply for the Fungus Conservation Coordinator job, click here: bit.ly/FungusCoordi... 🍄
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Andy Murray @mesofauna.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
So, it’s about time everyone got behind the bug of the year 2025 contest as Holacanthella is nominated as one of the ‘bugs’ and to see a springtail winning would be beyond awesome. So please please please follow this link for more info… www.frankashwood.com/boty2025
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
The absolute cuteness of Collembola. Fascinating little important things. Brilliantly photographed. 🌏
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Corey Bradshaw @conservbytes.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Just throwing this old poem I wrote out to @bsky.app My Daughter's Earth Warning: uses repeated profanity to convey a sense of futility and exasperation 🌏🖋️🧪
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
With our recent estimations of an exceptionally high extinction rate for Australia’s invertebrates since European arrival (>9,000 species, with 1-3 species lost per week), the evidence for a mass extinction event is only strengthened 🌍🧪
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Quote with a favourite cover I saw her play this live 20 or so years ago, and I can still feel the ghost of the shivers that ran down my spine. m.youtube.com/watch?v=1nnh...
m.youtube.com
Tori Amos Enjoy the Silence
YouTube video by herein myhead
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Wayne Maddison @waynemaddison.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Species concepts in conservation biology — some thoughts derived from our 2023 paper advocating a retrospective reproductive community concept. waynemaddison.wordpress.com/2024/12/28/s... #conservationbiology #evolbio #philbio #philsci #hpbio #SpeciesSaturday @jeannettewhitton.bsky.social
waynemaddison.wordpress.com
Species concepts in conservation biology
When Jeannette Whitton and I were writing our 2023 paper on species1, we were acutely aware that, for species concepts, the “rubber hits the road” in conservation biology. What concept …
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Early morning reflections. Quiet, broken only by the cry of a lone bird, protesting my presence. The smell of salt water and seaweed.
Photo showing small, dark trees reflected in still silvery blue water, with the blue sea in the background. Clouds in the sky, low on the horizon, surrounded by blue.
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Andrew Warren @andybugguy.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Check out those spiracles and tracheae! Brazilian Skipper caterpillar here to show us how insects breathe... Alachua County, Florida, USA
Greenish caterpillar with an orange head and transparent skin, showing the fine details of the spiracles and tracheae which serve as its respiratory system.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Wanna learn more about earthworms? (we all know the answer is YES). Then have a look here. All the wormy goodness.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Always a pleasure to speak about #invertebrate #conservation and raise awareness of the importance of these animals, the threats they are facing and what we can all do to help (even with my croaky post-Covid voice 🐸🐸) 🐝🐌🐞🪱🦋🕸️🪲🪰🪳🦟
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
I was happier to see this giant Narceus millipede in hill country yesterday than it was to see me. It curled into this defensive spiral and just sat there. Made a nice photo, though. With bonus mites, if you look closely.
Photograph in close-up with a coiled millipede filling the frame in a large spiral. It is dark grey with red legs, and red trim on each segment. The lighting is very soft, as if in a studio, allowing us to see all the fine texture on its body. Several tiny white mites cluster near the center.
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Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Just a dog with a superhero alter ego ⚡️
A small brown dog, with a white chest leaping through the air. The shadow beneath him looks like he is flying.
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