iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Ant getting honeydew from a keeled treehopper (Entylia carinata) #insects #macrophotography

An ant coaxes a small drop of honeydew from a treehopper. This is a form of mutualism, with the ants protecting the treehoppers and their nymphs from predators while receiving honeydew, the sugary by-product of feeding on plant sap.

070

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

The Jagged Ambush Bug: Ambush predator (pic 1) and also a nectar drinker (pic 2) #insects #macrophotography

A jagged ambush bug hangs on to its prey, a bee about the same size as the ambush bug itself, or a little bigger.

An ambush bug has its rostrum (it's long, sharp, mouth part) extended into the blossom of a mountain mint flower.

020

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Brave little crab spider crawling on a jagged ambush bug (sitting in pearly everlasting flowers). #insects #spiders

A small juvenile crab spider crawling up the side of a jagged ambush bug, holding perfectly still and apparently ignoring the spider. I've seen ambush bugs eat all sorts of arachnids so that spider was playing with fire.

1123

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

My mountain mint has some of the most numerous and diverse visitors in my yard's plantings. #insects #plantnative

A bumblebee and a beetle (Macrosiagon limbata, a species of wedge-shaped beetle) share a cluster of mountain mint blossoms.

0161

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Lacewing larva hunting among pearly everlasting flowers (Anaphalis margaritacea) #insects #macrophotography

092

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

The appropriately named Long-necked seed bug (Myodocha serripes). #insects #macrophotography

070

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Early instar planthopper nymph - some sort of flatid planthopper. I couldn't really tell for sure when I photographed this what I was photographing, I just had my suspicions. #insects #macrophotography

Hidden in white fuzz on a plant stem, a white planthopper nymph sits mostly hidden. One of its eyes and some of the body markings are visible through the fuzz. The fuzz is a waxy cotton-like material produced by the nymph.

020

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Female parasitoid wedge-shaped beetle (Macrosiagon limbata) laying eggs in mountain mint #insects #macrophotography

050

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

On the move! Bumblebee working our bee balm patch. #insects #bees

A furry bumblebee in flight from one bee balm flower to the next.

141

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Milkweed Leaf Beetle (Labidomera clivicollis), beautiful new regular resident on our property. #insects #macrophotography

020

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Four-eyes Red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus) #insects #macrophotography

Face-on view of Tetraopes tetrophthalmus (common name: Red Milkweed Beele), whose Genus and species name means "four-eyed four-eyes" more or less. It's antennae completely bifurcate the eyes into two parts each.

051

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Honeybee checking out the milkweed flowers #insects #bees

A honeybee (Apis mellifera) caught in midflight while it chooses a spot to land among a cluster of milkweed blossoms.

051

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Saw a weird looking moth on the side of my house and took a closer look. Zebra Jumping Spider feasting on a Labrador Carpet Moth. #jumpingspiders #spiders

A zebra jumping spider (Salticus scenicus, top) holds onto and feasts on a much larger moth, on a rough vertical surface.

020

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

I saw a lot more of these Milkweed Leaf Beetles (Labidomera clivicollis) in my yard this season. Here's a couple of them helping to ensure I see even more in the future. #insects #macrophotography

A mating pair of milkweed leaf beetles facing the camera.

020

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Sometimes I just gotta shake my head and mutter "Bugs...bugs are weird."

000

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Center of an early season Echinacea flower. #macrophotography

000

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Hoverfly on fleabane - little fly, little flower. #insects #macrophotography

040

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Cribellate orb weaver (Uloborus sp.) #spiders They can do a good job of looking like a bit of debris stuck in their web, but you get up close and they're fancy little spiders.

A spider in its web, its long front legs extended and held tightly together, and its shorter rear legs held against its abdomen. It's abdomen has two distinctive "knobs" or "horns", and it front legs have a feathery texture about two-thirds of the way down. Its tiny black eyes are just visible on its mostly hidden head.

040

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

I bounced off the book at least twice. Something finally synced up the third (fourth?) time, and damn it was worth it.

010

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Peekaboo! spider. Dimorphic jumping spider (female). #spiders

A closeup of a jumping spider covering its eyes (in the process of grooming itself).

A closeup of a jumping spider, seeming to peer out over a pedipalp (in the process of grooming itself).

050

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

I assumed you were doing some sort of weird bit, read the story to get the real info, and holy crap.

061

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Small carpenter bee (Ceratina calcarata - Spurred Ceratina) on Fleabane flower #bees #insects

Ceratina calcarata, the spurred ceratina, is a species of small carpenter bee. It's foraging on small daisy-like flower of a Fleabane plant (Genus Erigeron)

030

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Hello my nozzle-faced friend! Common picture-winged fly (Delphinia picta)

010

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

A neat little hummingbird feeder I got as a Christmas gift. It's been very popular this summer, and the little birds have been checking out our monarda and monkey flower plants too. #birds #birdphotography

A little green female ruby throated hummingbird sips from a feeder. The red cap of the feeder is just about 1.5 inches (38mm) across.

070

Reposted by Turnip Reflex

D. Allan Drummond @dadrummond.art · 07/07/2025

Of course the main purpose of a yard is to attract bugs, and the best way to attract bugs is with native plants, so that’s mostly what we do. Here’s a sampling—descriptions in alt text. 🐝🦋🐛🐜🪰🪲🐞 (Remaining grass lets us play games and lets doggies chase balls, but is slowly going to clover)

A nine panel overview of native insects on native plants from our yard. Starting in the upper left, Agapostemon (a native bee) on echinacea, a young grasshopper, a Mydas fly swamp milkweed, a woolcarder bee with just its butt showing out of an obedient plant flower, two mating milkweed bugs (strikingly yellow and red) on milkweed, a hoverfly on a cherry blossom, another hoverfly on queen of the prairie flowerbuds, a monarch butterfly on blazing star, and a great black wasp on mountain mint.

711924

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

I've been kinda off social media lately. I'll probably drift back on eventually, but for sure I wanted to share this shot I got today of Summer Lovin' hoverflies, mating in mid-air. A shot that's been on my wish list for a while. #insects #insectphotography

Two hoverflies float against a dark, speckled background. Seen from the side, the top male fly is holding onto the female while it mates, its wings a blur.

010

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

That's an English meaning as well, but ambiguous without further context.

000

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Wavelength is a property of light. Color is a product of sensory processing.

030

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

A Yellowjacket wasp gathering wood fibers from our privacy fence #insects

050

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Wait...what are the cons of allowing supermarkets to be open on Sundays?

000

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

I don't often get a good picture looking up at an ant from below, but they really like my tall sunflowers (Helianthus giganteus). #insects #ants

An ant perched on a slender sunflower stem.

0162

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

I mean, I *think* they're wasps.

110

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Extremely tiny wasps on some of my sunflowers from this summer. Well beyond my ability to identify. #insects #wasps

140

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Goldenrod soldier beetle on a cup plant flower, taken at a local park where the city has nurtured native plant growth. #insects #insectphotography #beetles

191

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Rudbeckia fulgida / Orange Cone Flower. Native to the eastern half of the USA.

Close-up black and white photo of of a Rudbeckia flower, petals radiating from a glossy dark center

Low angle close-up of a Rudbeckia flower. It's fully bloomed but fairly young, with a relatively smooth, glossy center

010

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Certainly a real and meaningful difference, but this sort of thing always seems to get remembered "men are like this, women are like this." But take the U.S.: if you say "about 1/5th of people expressed a political opinion online in the last month" that would be pretty close for either gender.

010

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Red-winged blackbird (female) photographed in a nearby park (Washtenaw County, Michigan). #birds

A femaled red-winged blackbird perches on a vertical talk, looking over its shoulder

0150

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

It's a great replacement for Twitter, but it isn't really built to be like Facebook, and to the degree it is it would require your friend base to make the leap in significant numbers and spend time on it, so there's a always going to be a big hurdle first.

020

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Hello Daryll - that sounds great!

110

Turnip Reflex @turnipreflex.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Here's a lovely little American Goldfinch foraging on our giant purple hyssop plant (Agastache scrophulariifolia). Plant for wildlife! #birdphotography

A goldfinch perches on a plant, holding a small bundle of seeds in its beak.

150