Hello little friend! This ladybug investigated my giant swiss chard quite thoroughly before settling in a leaf curl. #gardening#insects#ladybug@gardening
Apologies for the poor pictures, but here's a little bee-mimicking robber fly, after and before catching a tiny bee for dinner. I followed this wily hunter around for quite a while, and he wasn't pleased with my interference so he didn't let me get very close.
"Stranger than science fiction." That's how an ecologist describes a strange fungus that hijacks cicadas’ bodies and behavior, turning them into "zombies."
CNN reports on the the fungus Massospora cicadina and how it's impacting some of the cicadas emerging this year: https://flip.it/cxfw5K
One of my more successful attempts at taking mid-air shots of a male White-cheeked Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa aestuans) at Bukit Gombak Park, Singapore, on 14 Oct 2023. It was patrolling its territory and would return to hover at the same area, so it was a matter of pre-focusing on a spot and hope for the best. These turned out okay.
Head for the @fictionable#blog – available in full without subscription – and find Peter Kuper waxing lyrical on #insects Dina Nayeri on what happens when #fiction turns to memoir, Naomi Wood on her top five #ShortStories and more…
The accounts below are discussion groups. Follow them to see their discussions in your timeline, mention a group to post to it. (More info about how to use Fediverse groups: https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-groups-on-the-fediverse/)
➡️ @entomology - Discussion group about entomology
4/23/24 — Open 6-9p Mask recommended. No open drinks, please.
It's insect season. Some are good, some aren't. These will help you know the difference. You might look the bugs up on your phone; but real books are better... You can swat the bad bugs with an old book. Try that with your phone and you could be out a few hundred bucks!
Are some #insects evolving in response to light pollution?
"We find a stark decline in blacklight trap efficacy over 25 years of monitoring in Delaware, USA, mirrored over 10 years of monitoring in New Jersey, USA. While the precise causes of this decline remain a subject for discussion, the practical consequences are clear: insect conservationists cannot fully rely on long-term trends from entomological light traps."
A Chocolate Pansy (Junonia hedonia) spotted at one-north Park: Fusionpolis South, Singapore, on 29 Sept 2023. One of the most common butterflies locally but usually skittish, so getting shots is not so easy.
Stopped by Christie Pits on my way back from a dentist appointment today. Wasn't really expecting to find much given how much foot traffic and how little "wild" space there is, but to my astonishment there were a few different kinds of bees making burrows in sandy patches on the sunny hillside!
There were fluffy white-and-black mining bees (skittish, hard to get photos) and smaller, more docile metallic olive-green sweat bees.
A Burmese Puffin (Appias lalassis) spotted at Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, on 1 April 2024. Had to wait for it to settle down before getting this shot. The Burmese Puffin is a montane species, so usually only found in the mountains.
Invaders from underground are coming in cicada-geddon. It’s the biggest bug emergence for North America in centuries.
AP reports: "Crawling out from underground every 13 or 17 years, with a collective song as loud as jet engines, the periodical cicadas are nature’s kings of the calendar."