iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

When you eat two of the house sitter’s socks, then have to have them removed by endoscopy (thankfully not surgery), you will lose a bit of fur from the IV. Will you learn from this experience not to eat socks in the future, given that you are a highly intelligent standard poodle? No. You will not.

A black standard poodle asleep on his side on a cream colored carpet. There is a ring of shaved fur on his right front leg because he had an IV because he ate two socks and the vet had to remove them by endoscopy.

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Reposted by Tom Astle

Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Today is the day to commiserate with Charles Darwin, on the 161st anniversary of his confessing to Charles Lyell that he felt "...very poorly today & very stupid & I hate everyone & everything." Here's more of the back story on Darwin writing about this not-so-good day. www.npr.org/sections/kru...

npr.org

Charles Darwin And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Geniuses have it easy, right? They wake up and out pops the brilliance. Well, not really. And not if that genius is Charles Darwin, who's got lots to do and absolutely no desire to do it. Those days (...

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Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center @anzaborrego.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A thunderstorm developed over the Salton Sea just about an hour ago. Cloud-based lightning can be seen as it got darker (Video: Sicco Rood).

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

A few phone pics of various chunks of public land for National Public Lands Day. Keep Public Lands public. #publiclands #thislandisyourland

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Bald Eagle with fresh-caught cutthroat trout, plus a side salad. Yellowstone National Park earlier this month. #birds 🌿📷🦉🦅

A photo of a bald eagle, wings spread, looking down at the cutthroat trout it has just caught. There is a clump of water plant in the bird's talons along with the fish. The background is yellow grass and a bit of blue river at the bottom of the frame.

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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Army ants (Eciton mexicanum) are specialist predators of other ants. Here, a group of workers take down a Neoponera huntress ant in an Ecuadorian cloud forest.

Macro photo of four dark red ants with orange casters surrounding a larger metallic blue/black ant on a mossy rock.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Noticed a dead Eleodes sp. darkling beetle (sometimes called stink bugs/beetles) in the Mojave Desert a month ago, saw another one was walking toward it and decided to record the encounter: "Larry? You okay? You sleeping? Yeah, probably asleep. Sorry. I'll see you later. Maybe. Okay bye." #BugSky 🐙🌿

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This is a jumping bristletail, part of a wingless group of insects with roots going back to before the dinosaurs. They look a little like hump-backed silverfish, and often have beautiful, metallic, moth-like scales. I love these googly-eyed little land shrimps. (Montana) 🐙📷 #BugSky 🕶️

A macro photo looking into the face of a wingless insect called a jumping bristletail. It is cryptically colored and matches the black and tan, lichen-covered rock it's on. It has large, gold, forward-facing compound eyes, which kinda look like googly eyes or maybe a reflective pair of Ray-bans.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A small male bee (males have longer antennae), about a quarter of an inch long, hanging out under a flower. Beartooth Mountains, Montana. 🌿🐙📷 #BugSky

A macro photo looking up at the underside of a purple daisy-like flower with a yellow center. The green base of the flower is in the lower right, and in the upper left a small dark bee with long antennae is roosting upside down, clinging to the translucent purple petals.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This jumping spider looks like it's wearing a warm sweater, which isn't a bad idea since it was at over seven thousand feet up in the mountains in Montana, where things can get pretty chilly. (Phidippus sp., I think). 🌿🐙🕷️ #BugSky

A macro photo of a rather hirsute jumping spider between some yellowish tan pebbles. The spider is facing forward but directing its gaze slightly down and right. It is overall black but covered in yellow flat hairs plus many white bristly hairs on its legs and black bristles on its head. Its palps are reddish and also quite fuzzy.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Went hiking in Montana's Beartooth Mountains and was very excited by this wolf sighting 🐺🕷️🌿🐙📷

A macro photo at ground level, looking into the face of dark brown, almost black wolf spider. One pair of forward-facing eyes is much larger than the other visible eyes. The background is out of focus mottled pale rock.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Killdeer at Mammoth Hot Springs terraces, Yellowstone National Park. 📷🦉

A photo of a wall of yellow, soft-edged, terraced and many-layered minerals at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, with a small bird, a killdeer, in the lower left.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Boop (Hot-spring-killed tree, Artists Paint Pots trail, Yellowstone National Park) 📷

A black and white photo of a dead, twisted tree branch against a sunny, sparkling water background. The end of the branch on the upper left looks like and extended arm with a finger pointing at something.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Pika, Beartooth Plateau at close to 11,000 feet, Wyoming. These small fluffballs are not rodents, but related to rabbits. They don't hibernate, despite the brutal winters at high elevation. They gather plants in the brief alpine summer then live on the dried "hay" all winter. Also, they are cute. 🌿📷

A photo of a cute hamster-esque looking animal (but actually related to rabbits, not rodents) called a pika, sitting atop lichen covered boulders.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Ovoid animal in Yellowstone National Park

A photo of the back of a very fluffy chunky hefty hound squirrel that is essentially a fluffy ovoid, on the gravelly ground.

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Season of Scaryanne Denton 🧡🎃 @mariannedenton.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

These two pictures are of the same thing. Just arranged differently. Tiny Sweat Bee (Halictidae) on Rocky Mountain Beeplant (Cleomella serrulata).🌿 M16 in the constellation Serpens. 🔭

Small native bee collecting green pollen on a purple wildflower with long stamens that end with green pollen

The Eagle Nebula in a dark sky through an Astrophotography telescope.

From Wikipedia: The Eagle Nebula is a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is catalogued as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 5700 light-years distant. A spire of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula in the northeastern part is approximately 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometers long.

The cluster associated with the nebula has approximately 8100 stars, which are mostly concentrated in a gap in the molecular cloud to the north-west of the Pillars. The cluster's age has been estimated to be 1–2 million years.

The descriptive names reflect impressions of the shape of the central pillar rising from the southeast into the central luminous area.

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Reposted by Tom Astle

Patrick @watchinthesky.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I hear it’s #NationalHummingbirdDay! They have flight feather structures that can play games with sunlight in the right conditions. #birds #RainbowWings

From a year ago, an image of a hummingbird in flight with a rainbow of colors seen in one wing that is backlit by the late afternoon sun.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Happy #NationalWildlifeDay - here is your reminder that wildlife can be small, like these ambush bugs making more ambush bugs in goldenrod. Single shot at 3X; these tiny armored predators are about the size of a lentil. They have amazingly textured exoskeletons. Phymata sp., Montana 🌿🐙📷 #BugSky

A macro photo, side view, of a mating pair of orange, yellow, and brown ambush bugs in bright yellow goldenrod flowers, against a muted olive green background. The male bug is more brown, the female more yellow. They have heavily armored exoskeletons and mantis-like grasping forelegs.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Photo of the Milky Way on a two year old iphone. I mean, not bad! Not pictured: in only 20 minutes, I saw at least a dozen Nazi bottle rockets/Starlink satellites streak across the view. I don't know how it's even possible to take long exposure night sky images any more.

An iphone photo of the night sky, with the Milky Way visible on the left. I mean, it's not the Hubble, but it's not bad for a phone pic.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

A wee masked bee, I think Hylaeus sp., maybe 5 mm. long. Every time I leaned in with my camera, the bee would run a lap around the flower then come back to face me. Single shot, handheld, with the new Laowa 45 mm. 1-5X at 3X with a crop to about 3.5X. (Montana) #BugSky 🌿🐙📷

A macro photo of a small bee, upper left in the frame, facing the camera from its perch on a yellow flower petal. The bee has a pale cream-yellow face and black eyes. The background (apart from the yellow petal) is blue sky and a bit of out of focus green in the lower left and lower right corner.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

A tiny jumping spider, about 2 mm long, hunting in a flower (Montana). #BugSky 🐙👍📷

A macro photo, side view, of a small jumping spider in a yellow flower. The spider has dark eyes, an overall orange body covered in fine, flat white hairs, with darker spots and banding on the abdomen.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Nothing says happy anniversary like testing out the new macro lens on the inside engraving on my wedding ring 📷🥂

A macro photo of a segment of the inside of a gold wedding band, resting on a wooden surface. Engraving inside the ring reads 9-1-84.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Back from two days in the Mojave Desert, where my (legally registered captive) desert tortoises, Bob & Eddie, had an "acting" gig for a nature documentary. Desert torts are Endangered in California and Threatened nationally, so handling wild ones isn't allowed – so enter Bob & Eddie, stage right. 🐢🎬

A photo at ground level behind a desert tortoise, walking across the desert floor not long after sunrise. In the distance are creosote bushes and a lone Joshua Tree. The sky is cloudless.

A photo looking down at a desert tortoise named Bob, who is circling a Canon camera atop a beanbag on the desert floor. Bob looks a bit wary, because he generally prefers working with Nikon gear.

A photo of sunrise in the Mojave Desert. The sun is barely peeking above the horizon, dead center in the lower third of the frame. The sky is cloudless, and the orange dawn light is backlighting a scraggly creosote bush in the foreground, highlighting its little fuzzy white seed pods.

A phone pic of sunrise in the Mojave Desert, with a clear sky and the sun and surrounding orange glow just above the horizon, behind a stand of Joshua Trees and creosote bushes.

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Reposted by Tom Astle

Thomas Shahan @tshahan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Lovely checkered skipper seen in Guyana - Burnsius orcus Didn't know the genus in the field, but recognized it as one of those "little fancy spread wing skippers" I see back home here in Oklahoma, just a bit more contrasty!

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Reposted by Tom Astle

Marshal Hedin @mhedin.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

look real close! amazing cuticular sculpturing on these slow Stenamma ants from Sequoia NP I enjoyed their unhurried & intentional pace of life

dark orange ants with ornate sculpturing of cuticle

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Test shots with the new Laowa 45mm 1-5X. It has a fixed focus distance (~4cm.) no matter the magnification. Handheld, 3.5X & 4.5X; f/5.6, 1/160th, ISO 200. (Gray hairstreak butterfly caterpillar, about 1 cm.). Lens is stout, and I need to work on lighting, but I think I'm gonna like it. #BugSky 📷🐙🌿

A macro photo of a mint-green, plump, gummi-looking caterpillar covered in short stiff hairs, hanging on the underside of a green stem. Pinkish-orange flowers are out of focus behind it. The caterpillar's head is small and orange, and tucked beneath the body.

An extreme closeup macro photo showing a portion of the side of a mint-green caterpillar atop pale pinkish flowers. The caterpillar has darker green chevron markings along the side, and is covered in short, stiff, fuzzy-spiky hairs.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Flower longhorn beetle in arrowleaf balsamroot, Montana #BugSky 🐙🌿

A macro photo, side view, of a longhorn beetle in a yellow flower. The beetle has long antennae and is liberally sprinkled with yellow pollen grains, stuck to the many fine hairs on its body. The beetle is elongated in shape, with mahogany-colored elytra and a darker head and thorax.

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Reposted by Tom Astle

Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Germany was suffering a brutal heat wave when we were there this month, but it did finally rain when we were in Freiburg and I managed to do a little bug photography. Here is my most recent photos feed, including a few lab ants in addition to wild insects.

alexanderwild.com

Recent - Alex Wild

Alex's most recent photographs.

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Bea Leiderman @bealeiderman.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

A red-bordered stink bug, Edessa rufomarginata. It’s one of the largest stink bugs I’ve seen, about 2cm long. 🌿🌱

A blue-green insect shaped like a shield with a bright orange border all the way around its body. Legs and antennae are also orange.

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Reposted by Tom Astle

Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center @anzaborrego.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Desert spiny lizard at Borrego Palm Canyon earlier this week (Photo: Sicco Rood).

Desert spiny lizard at Borrego Palm Canyon sitting on a rock, showing detail of claws.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Bought a new lens. Please stand by 👁️

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Jen C Mars @jencmars.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Look at this absolute beast

Close up photo of a confluent leaf beetle. The beetle is metallic green for its face and pronotum, and a cream color with dark metallic green spots for its elytra. Its legs a deep orange color. The face is sporting a MASSIVE mustache, and it appears to have a ferocious expression

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Reposted by Tom Astle

The Mincing Mockingbird @mincingmockingbird.com · 20/08/2026

"Yes, Your Babysitter Can Sue You Over Your Snack Selection" 10 inches round acrylic on panel #birdillustration #artwork #birddrawing #natureart #birdwatching

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Reposted by Tom Astle

Entomological Society of America @entsocamerica.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Arthropod Photo of the Week: August 19, 2026 Band-gapped swallowtail and Andean stained white Heraclides torquatus/Melete leucanthe Lepidoptera: Papilionidae/Lepidoptera: Pieridae Observed in Napo, Ecuador By Joseph Spencer (@talkingrootworm.bsky.social), Illinois, USA #arthropodPOTW

Two black and white butterflies and two pale yellow butterflies are gathered on a wet, orange-brown rock surface. The butterflies appear to be feeding or resting near the edge of water.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Happy #WaspWednesday! Here's a tiny Torymid wasp (so far iNat suggests Monodontomerus sp.), about 5 mm long. I found her under a rock at almost 10K ft. in the mountains of Montana. These pretty little solitary wasps are parasitoids of other insects. #BugSky 🐙🌿

A macro photo, ground level side view, of a metallic green wasp with orange legs, atop a yellowish brown rock. The wasp is a female, told by her long, thin ovipositor, about half the length of the rest of her body.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

A plump, I think about-to-molt pseudoscorpion, smaller than a rice grain, next to its fortress of solitude. When arthropods molt they are soft and vulnerable; these pseudoscorps create a little disk-shaped hideout made of silk and fine debris for protection during this vulnerable time. #BugSky 🐙🌿

A macro photo of an orange-brown pseudoscorpion (kind like a tiny scorpion, but with no tail or stinger), seen from above, frame left, on a sandy rock. In the right half of the frame, out of focus but still obvious, is a circular, pale area made of silk. The tiny arachnid made this structure to hide in, probably because it is about to molt (it's pretty chunky, having outgrown its current exoskeleton).

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Sarah Finn @romanceofbooks.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Beetles from French artist E. A. Séguy’s “Insectes” portfolio of pochoir prints, published in 1929. Pochoir is a labor intensive process where each color is applied through a stencil. Séguy’s prints require many different layers. #EASéguy #pochoir #naturalhistory #scienceart #insectart

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I can't believe I almost missed #WorldLizardDay! I haven't gotten any lizard photos I like yet this year, so here are six from the archives. All taken in situ in the wild, except the baby alligator lizard, who snuck into our house and was released after its photo session. IDs in alt text. 🌿🦎📷

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

It's never good when you can look directly at the sun. There was no wildfire close to where I photographed this scene in Montana a couple of weeks ago, but as we all know, smoke blown in from hundreds of miles away can stain the sky.

A photo, vertical orientation, of a wildfire-smoke-stained sky and orange sun above a tree and shrub landscape and a river below. The orange sun is reflected in the water, like a sunset, even though the photo was taken well after sunrise.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

#BugSky 🐙🌿 Caviar? Sure, if you don't mind a very small portion: the cluster in pic 1 is about 3mm. across. My guess is that these are mite eggs; whenever we found them, there were chunky red-brown mites near them. I am also guessing that the orange ones in this next photo may be more--

A macro photo of a cluster of spherical, nearly jet-black eggs, like a dollop of caviar, on a yellowish brown rock with out of focus greenery in the background.

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Reposted by Tom Astle

Marshal Hedin @mhedin.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

a wonderfully cute Pika in early morning reflected light, CA Sierra Nevada this one became accustomed to me, let me get quite close look at those whiskers!

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Eddie is bashing at our back door, so all is well 🐢🔨

A photo from inside a house of a desert tortoise named Eddie on a brick patio outside a glass door. Eddie has one leg up on the door frame and is trying to shove the door down.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Friday #Flyday! Here's a romantic pair of ambush bugs (Phymata sp.) on a dinner date. But check out the fly's abdomen. See it? The dark-light patches are opposite on the left vs. right sides. Cool mutation? Gynandromorph? Just a fancy fly? @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @bertonemyia.bsky.social #BugSky 🐙🌿

A macro photo of a pair of ambush bugs, yellow with brownish patches, feeding on a black and white fly they have caught in a yellow flower. The fly's abdomen shows an unusual pattern; the light and dark patches mirror each other on the left vs. right sides of the midline, that is, an area that's dark on the left is light on the right, and vice-versa.

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Matt Bertone @bertonemyia.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The mint chocolate chip flavor of flies [I imagine] 😋 #Stratiomyidae: #Promeranisa #FlySchool2026 Costa Rica

A fly stands on a white background facing right. It is mint green with brown stripes on the thorax and a pointed face with long thick antennae.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Mama pseudoscorpion & her cute baby high in the mountains of Montana. Mama is half the size of a grain of rice. These harmless micro arachnids have no stinger, but can deliver venom to prey via their pincers. Also, they can walk backward. Also, you probably have them in your house. #BugSky 🐙🌿

A macro photo looking down at a mother pseudoscorpion and her baby. They're on a patch of pebbly, sandy substrate. These arachnids look kind of like regular scorpions but without a tail and stinger, which means they are to regular scorpions what corgis are to collies. The mama is dark orange with reddish-orange pincers, while the tiny baby facing her is translucent, with a bluish white cephalothorax and pale yellow abdomen.

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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

A little brown bat (both a description, and possibly the actual species) on the deck yesterday. It was also under a wooden bench, so it was slightly sheltered, but it was still odd place to roost, which made me wonder if it was rabid or otherwise unwell. I didn’t touch. Cute critter.🦇

A photo looking down at the back of a small fuzzy brown bat resting on a wooden deck, with some green house siding to the left.

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