#bugsky is indeed a thing 🌝

The final page of the Icky Bug Alphabet book, featuring 6 bugs, and the on the top right is insane looking and unidentifiable.

Said unidentified bug. Looks like a fantasy space alien fairy bug.

Ok entomologists and #bugsky (is that a thing?)...
My 2-year-old daughter is loving Jerry Pallotta's Icky Bug Alphabet Book... and on the last page, top right is an unlabeled bug that she asks me about and I have no idea what it is.

Any clue?

To Up close photo of peculiar looking, cicada-like insects on a tree (only one in focus). It has wings with a black base but dense, green venation, making them essentially green. The wings have yellow spots bordered in white. This red-bodied insect has a long rostrum with white spots over its schnozz.

Hello, my old friend

A few weeks ago, I went looking for stick insects. While there is not a single one of those in sight, I saw a tree with 6 or so of these longan lanternflies (Pyrops candelaria), and I knew I had to get a good photo of one.
#bugsky

A magpie with a long tail. It has blue body and a black head, there’s a thick white stripe along its head. Almost like a stroke of a paint brush. It has red legs and beak. It stands on the root of a tree, with an earthworm in its beak.

Life update

Uni entrance exams are breaking me apart. I have 6 weeks left but progress feels slow. I’m not sure how well my established knowledge holds.

I went birding with my two best friends, it made me think that I don’t deserve them.

I still plan on posting more bugs! When I have time.

Ant queen frozen in time: New ant species found in Dominican amber A study by Dr. Gianpiero Fiorentino and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Paleontology, describes the identification of a new species of ant, Hypoponera electrocacica, belonging to the genus...

ANT

A posable toy of the pterosaur Dearc sgiathanach, a rhamphorhynchid pterosaur with a long snout and exposed, conical teeth.

chibi plush toy of the dinosaur Sinosauopteryx, a feathered theropod dinosaur with reddish brown feathers and a banded tail.

also the toys brought are the best things ever I need the Sinosauopteryx plushie 🥺

Screen of a presentation titled “Women in Science: The Invisible Women and Their Dinosaurs” in a lecture hall

Whiteboard drawing of the dinosaur Sinosauropteryx, a small feathered theropod dinosaur with a banded tail

Awesome talk by none other than
@nataliajagielska.bsky.social ! I can hear her talk for ages (and especially about crazy people throughout history).

#bugsky

Perhaps even lesser known is that they come in blue. This is a specimen I got and it seems to be a much more uncommon aberration than purple individuals.

People keep telling me they're "not good enough to submit" - I say, we don't gatekeep skill levels.

Sure, I use the books to scout for artists to hire/forward projects to, but our goal is to *encourage people to celebrate nature*.

This is why I insist on having kid & amateur artists each season.

Women in Science – The Invisible Women and Their Dinosaurs About the Speaker: Dr. Natalia JAGIELSKA is a Polish-born doctor in palaeontology, award-winning artist, film and TV dinosaur consultant, and former museum collections officer. She is currently working at The Chinese University of Hong Kong as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on studying skin and fur of pterosaurs (flying reptiles from the dinosaur times). Seats are limited, and will be available on first-come, first-served basis by online registration. Online Registration Enquiries: sfo@cuhk.edu.hk | 3943 0594 Date 30 Jan 2026 Time 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm Location LT3, Lady Shaw Building (LSB), CUHK

Join me for tour of dinosaur palaeoart from paleolithic cave art, eccentric Oxford homemaker to Nazi-fighting Polish women and wet vultures. History of dinosaur art, by women. A free talk delivered at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Details below.

Top view of black rhinoceros beetle with relatively small horns. It has a spoon-shaped cephalic horn and two prong-like thoracic horns facing forward. It has a purple sheen.

Side view of the same rhinoceros beetle, with a hornless female on the left. The purple sheen is better seen in this photo.

the Atlas beetle along with two other species belongs in the genus Chalcosoma, which means “bronze body”. This is a fitting name, considering they often have a bronze or metallic green sheen. But do you know they come in purple? I do, but I never expected to ever find one in the wild! #InverteFest

Top view of black rhinoceros beetle with relatively small horns. It has a spoon-shaped cephalic horn and two prong-like thoracic horns facing forward. It has a purple sheen.

Side view of the same rhinoceros beetle, with a hornless female on the left. The purple sheen is better seen in this photo.

the Atlas beetle along with two other species belongs in the genus Chalcosoma, which means “bronze body”. This is a fitting name, considering they often have a bronze or metallic green sheen. But do you know they come in purple? I do, but I never expected to ever find one in the wild! #InverteFest

A bright green katydid with wing buds. Her legs are spiny, has an ovipositor, and the pronotum is lined in white.

Front view of the katydid. It has a blocky, stout head.

Happy #invertefest! I was going to tell everyone how much I love this beautiful Pseudophyllus titan I got, unfortunately she refused to eat and passed away today 😞 that’s just how bug keeping goes, isn’t it?

visit the Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium if you’ll ever visit Shizuoka too! They have 5 coelacanth specimens and a very impressive roster of deep sea creatures too

A small giant isopod looking right at its dignified yet alien face

Blue jellyfish

The underside of a spider crab

A weird crab looking at the camera

Today I visited the Takeshima Aquarium in Gamagori, which specializes in deep sea animals. I saw giant isopods, spider crabs, deep sea octopus and all kinds of fascinating #invertebrates.

Rarely heard, less-seen, enjoy an ex-amplicant (note the girth of the forearm) the Oxapampa Poison Frog, Ameerega planipaleae & this one took me longer to find a photographic reference for than to paint & only one person had recorded the call at the time & was kind enough to share it for the book 🐸.

#inverts 🕷️

A small, hairy spider (tarantula) in a vial, submerged in alcohol.

The prolateral view of the spider’s chelicerae. It has a large fang, black serrations on the anterior side.

In the little speck that is Hong Kong lives a tarantula.

Well, not a very big one. Phlogiellus is a genus of tiny tarantulas which can be found even in urban environments. Members of the genus can only be identified by dissection and this specimen appears to be P. bogadeki, described in 2016.

A messy ink drawing of a robustly shaped weevil. It has club-like antennae and three thick black stripes on its pronotum.

#Invertober Day 4: Palm weevil (Rhycnhophorus)

schizomida are awesome you’re lucky

A tiny (2mm) brown scorpion-like bug (with no tail) on the side of my index finger

They’re quite hard to find… only time is when I found one under a longhorn beetle. You can try sifting leaf litter though they are more easily found this way

It doesn’t matter if one only buys captive bred, by engaging with this trade you also increase the demand for wild animals. This is because fresh bloodlines need to be introduced for a healthy captive population and they will keep coming.

So many reptiles are made endangered PRIMARILY because of the pet trade. Your inbred, contaminated animal isn’t fit for release either.

We also can’t guarantee the sustainability of collecting. There is little study done on the actual impact of collecting especially on big insects w low turnover.

A few things for those engaging in the wildlife trade but care about conservation to make peace with:

While exotic pet trade helps understanding the habits of animals , it doesn’t directly help conservation.

This is a rhetoric I’ve seen a lot of herp keepers buy, but it’s crazy cope.

Would love to see this genus in the wild one day, I thought seeing a dead one in a vial of leaf litter sent to me was already very cool!

Insect populations drop even without direct human interference, a new study finds Research published this month found that even in pristine, untouched areas, insect populations are still on the decline. Climate change is a likely culprit.

Pristine areas see insect decline. New research points to climate change as a primary factor.

#Insects #Climate #Environment

A male stag beetle with a black head. It has short, curved mandibles. Its pronotum and the centre of its elytra are blood red. It has an orange border on its elytra, and between the two colours is black.

The female stag beetle has the same pattern, but it has a smaller head.

Hello Bluesky.
Contrary to its name, i am typing this when Hong Kong is hit by a super typhoon.
Last Sunday, I got my hands on this gorgeous stag beetle (Odontolabis stevensi duivenbodei), endemic to Sangihe Island. I look forward to breeding them. #inverts

let me share a little story about a remarkable wasp that I encountered yesterday in our local deserts

I stumbled across her, and scrambled to get a few crappy photos .... but then realized that she had a burrow, perhaps a better photo op was possible ??

here she is at her burrow entrance.