April-emerging Bombus queens id guide showing color patterns on bees for identification. Species included are Bombus impatiens, ternarius, bimac, perplexus, fervidus, vagans, affinis, fraternus, terricola

May emerging Bombus Queens from "Bees of Eastern North America" showing id patterns for Bombus griseocolis, rufocinctus, auricomus, borealis, pensylvanicus, sandersoni, and frigidus

Are you also gearing up for Bombus queen season? The ladies are already flying around Chicagoland, so I collaged together the queen IDs from Colla, Richardson, & Williams for quick reference.

See the full pdf here on @xercessociety.bsky.social :
www.xerces.org/sites/defaul...

Figure showing the evolutionary diversification of Lepidopteran larval appendages.

Really excellent paper on the genetics of caterpillar butt ornaments
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

A block of text that says "Scientists at the University of Miami are carrying out a research study on trends in the field of science communication. For this survey we are defining science communication as work that is done: • by a technical subject area expert in some field related to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, • outside of classroom settings • aimed at the public If you are 18 years of age or older and work or recently worked in this field (full-time, part-time, or as a side project), please click the link below to complete a short survey. If you are interested in learning more about this research study, please e-mail us at Julia.wester@miami.edu. In the body of your email please provide your full name, and if you would prefer to be contacted by phone, your phone number and the best time to reach you. Contacting us for more information does not commit you to participating, and should you decide to participate you may terminate your participation at any time."

Attention Science Communicators!

We are conducting a survey on the landscape of science communication & need your help gathering experiences.

Please send this to #SciComm ppl you know. We want to get as thorough a sense of the state of the field as we can.

umiami.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Marsupials previously thought extinct for millennia discovered in New Guinea The chances of finding one mammal species thought to be lost was ‘almost zero’ and finding two is ‘unprecedented’, biologist Tim Flannery says

Celebrate the positive when it comes along:
Two charismatic marsupial species that had been thought extinct for 6,000 years are alive in rainforest in remote West Papu
www.theguardian.com/environment/... 🧪

EntSoc's Chrysalis Fund gives out grants to K-12 educators for insect-themed projects. Applications due June 1st.

It's Official: the Cybertruck is More Explosive than the Ford Pinto - FuelArc News We now have a full year of data for the Cybertruck, and a strange preponderance of headlines about Cybertrucks exploding into flames, including several fatalities. That’s more than enough data to comp...

The Ford Pinto had a death rate of 85 people for 10 million cars sold. The Cybertruck hasn't sold 10 million, but the fatality rate so far maths out to 1,452 people killed per 10 million sold.

The Cybertruck may be the deadliest road car, for the occupants, ever sold.

fuelarc.com/evs/its-offi...

Richard Dawson - Polytunnel (Official Video) YouTube video by Richard Dawson

This was lovely and made me cry.

Found an additional graphic that gets even more of these quotes together.

I've kept "I hate myself, I hate clover, and I hate bees" pinned above my desk since I first started studying evolutionary biology as an undergraduate. So relatable to get extremely frustrated with your study system.

Dipterology has been handed a major blow: as a result of the Federal Gov.'s Work Force Adjustment Program, research on Diptera (true flies) at the Canadian National Collection, a hub of excellence in this field, is being discontinued

Please sign the letter to support our fly friends & colleagues! ❤️

Tiny pests are destroying American rice fields. It's another hit for farmers An invasive insect called the rice delphacid was a major problem for some farmers in 2025. With low prices for their crop and a high cost of doing business, many are wondering how they’ll make a profit in 2026.

An invasive insect called the rice delphacid was a major problem for some farmers in 2025. With low prices for their crop and a high cost of doing business, many are wondering how they’ll make a profit in 2026.

Question for Entomology curators: what printers are you using these days for archival specimen labels?

Scotland has passed a law that all new buildings must install ‘swift bricks’ which are hollowed out bricks to help nesting swifts and other endangered birds! Swifts are especially endangered because so many chimneys now have chimney caps. Swifts return to the same nesting spot year after year.

Postdoc job: Insecticide resistance genomics, Australia.

This is not what the problem is. We have many excellent, talented, engaging science communicators.

Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.

I was also confused! Missed this life update in the transition to bluesky!

Follow up fun fact: Roses have prickles not thorns, they pop right off because they don't have any vascular tissue, unlike thorns.

Rose stem covered in prickles

Rose stem covered in prickles

Two rose stems covered in prickles on a white background

We've had quite a few samples of roses coming into the lab showing symptoms of Rose Rosette Disease. Symptoms vary by cultivar, but overgrowth of prickles is one of them.

Iceland reports the presence of mosquitoes for the first time, as climate warms The discovery of three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes was confirmed this week by the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, which said the mosquitoes likely arrived by freight.

The discovery of three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes was confirmed this week by the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, which said the mosquitoes likely arrived by freight. n.pr/4qeQhWS

This rules

ATTENTION: The deadline to submit talks for this session is tomorrow! Please DM me for the link if you would like to submit a presentation for consideration.

Thanks and please share!

Fundamentally, Republicans are trying to bring forms of slavery back.

This is so good!

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

Not sure people realize how INSANELY DRAINING data centers will be on our planet.

If you imagine data centers as their own country, they'll rank fourth in global electricity use by 2035 — outranked only by China, India, and the U.S.

Read this in @bloomberg.com👇

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

This joke is in every dang insect ID thread I've ever seen

I figured he was a hymenopteran which is why is middle name is Haploid.

We're still looking for presentations!
Please share 😊

A poster saying "Wanted: Robber flies, Promachus and Allies. Wanted: freshly caught specimens of Promachus or other large robber flies for DNA extraction. Contact Teagan Mulford at teaganmulford@gmail.com with any questions or leads. Thank you! PC: Steve Collins"

Tired of doom scrolling? Want to help a PhD student out? Check your collection for Promachus (and friends) and I'll be forever indebted! If you need an excuse to get outside and go collecting this weekend, this is it! #Asilidae #Diptera

Sedation dentistry is no longer weird. Phone cameras are really good. The price of solar panels has dropped by tens of thousands. Southern white rhinos, giant pandas, Arabian oryx and Stellar sea lions are no longer endangered.

And, I can testify, modern cancer treatments are fucking amazing.

The Northeast Crop Production and Harvest Manual - SARE These two guides—the Northeast Crop Production Manual and the Northeast Harvest Manual—provide in-depth information on the production, harvest and post-harvest handling of dozens of common specialty c...

Two new simple guides to growing and harvesting vegetables (and other specialty crops) for farmers in the Northeast US.

Written by small/mid-sized farmers for farmers and published by NE SARE. Emphasis on organic practices, but useful to anyone.

There's a person on inaturalist identifying Scyphozoa with the username "readyforthisjelly" and that's just... very good.