avispatica.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

WASP OR MOTH!? 🐝🤯 One of the most incredible mimics in the world, this Tiger Moth (Orcynia calcarata) looks so much like a wasp I was almost nervous holding it! 😳 There are so many tiger moths mimicking wasps in the Amazon it’s crazy! 😯🌳 How amazing is nature! 💛🖤

submitted 6 days ago • 63 comments

"‘Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects" Before long, the word "bug" will be reserved for computer software. #entomology #ecology #insects 🧪

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Announcing myloasm, a new long-read (ONT R10/PacBio) metagenome assembler that I've been working on during my postdoc in the Heng Li lab (@lh3lh3.bsky.social). myloasm-docs.github.io

submitted 16 days ago • 5 comments

Here are your Wednesday Wasps. 🐙🌿 What wasps, you ask? They're the tiny green "grapes" on the caterpillar. They're larvae of a Euplectus sp. wasp. The female wasp injects a venom into the caterpillar which stops it from molting ever again, so the wasp's externally-attached babies won't fall off--

submitted 23 days ago • 3 comments

the leafhoppers are back (warbler migration for entomologists)

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

#NewSpecies! New parasitoid wasp from #costarica just flew in: Perilampus falcatus Treatment: treatment.plazi.org/id/03E27E55-... Publication: doi.org/10.11646/zoo... #Zootaxa #PerilampusFalcatus #FAIRdata #biology #biodiversity #nature #animals #entomology #insects #hymenoptera #wasps #parasite

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

I find myself missing fieldwork in the tropics! Here is some Polistes stigma from the Solomon Islands for much-needed #wasplove The female with dark eyes has recently emerged, and her eyes will lighten in a few days. Some of the tiniest Polistes I've seen! Images by Al Uy @tropbiolab.bsky.social

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

🌟 Graduation party for our three undergrad stars from #teamwasp @tropbiolab.bsky.social ! 🌟 Grateful for mentoring an amazing team of rising scholars. The party included some 🦅🐝🐜 watching... & the most unesthetic piñata, decorated with early figures from our graduates! #proudPI

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

I think it's kinda cool that one of our city's biggest festivals is "these bushes are cool, go look at flowers and eat fried food" #LilacFestival #bloomscrolling

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

Now published!!!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 47 days ago • 13 comments

We are very pleased to share that our paper on sexual dimorphism in circadian rhythms has been published in @plosbiology.org. This work was led by the very talented Aishwarya Iyer and includes contributions from three undergraduate co-authors. You can read the full study here:

submitted 38 days ago • 8 comments

Tis’ the season that generous naturalists start to send me wasp pictures! This “booty” pic 🤣 shows the foundresses of Polistes dominula, native to Europe. It’s invasive here and in many other places in the world. #teamwasp #teamxenome @tropbiolab.bsky.social is ready, experiment time! #wasplove

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

I propose we start calling parasitoid wasps "friend wasps" and launch a massive PR campaign to make people love them

submitted 47 days ago • 6 comments

A nest of the northern paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus. The wasps like to build their nests under overhangs, especially of wooden houses. They masticate the wood they collect from the environment into a pulp, which they then use to construct their paper combs. Woodstock, NY.

submitted 48 days ago • 1 comment

A bald-faced hornet fly (Spilomyia fusca; a syrphid, or hoverfly) and an actual bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata). The former is supposed to be a mimic of the latter, and I can believe that one might be fooled upon a cursory look. Woodstock, NY.

submitted 53 days ago • 5 comments

Our new paper is out in Science. What is the synaptic plasticity rule in the brain, we asked. It turns out there are multiple, even within individual neurons. Congrats Jake! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 57 days ago • 2 comments

🌟Congrats to undergrad researcher Natasha Vacca @nvacca08.bsky.social for being awarded the NSF-GRFP! 🌟 We're also thrilled that Natasha is not tired of us and will continue as a doctoral student with #teamwasp @tropbiolab.bsky.social @urochester.bsky.social #wasplove #addictedtostrepsiptera

submitted 58 days ago • 1 comment

Arthropod Photo of the Week: April 16, 2025 Eggplant horned planthopper Leptocentrus taurus Hemiptera: Membracidae By Vijin Varghese, Kerala, India #arthropodPOTW

submitted 58 days ago • 3 comments

#bugtarot #Sciart Card 7: The Lovers Two parasitic Strepsiptera bound by fate to find each-other in the very brief window they have. A relationship as inevitable as it is violent.

submitted 85 days ago • 1 comment

A long, long time ago, we started this review project during the first Coron lockdown, but if finally made it out into the world - Origin and function of beneficial bacterial symbioses in insects! @naturerevmicro.bsky.social

submitted 79 days ago • 5 comments

🐜🐜🐜 Invasive Ant Boot Camp registration is now open! Join us in Gainesville, FL May 7-9, 2025, to learn to spot the most ants with the worst reputations. 🐜🐜🐜www.invasiveantbootcamp.org

submitted 101 days ago • 2 comments

Hemiptera, the fifth most diverse insect order, have often been overlooked in macroevolutionary studies. In this study, the authors analyse its fossil record and show that global flora changes through time shaped the evolution of hemipteran insects. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

submitted 98 days ago • 0 comments

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗘: Stylopization by Xenos spp. (Xenidae, Strepsiptera) in invasive alien hornet, Vespa velutina, in South Korea Stylopization, the condition caused by these parasites, is known to negatively affect hornet colonies.🧪 More: doi.org/10.1051/para... #Entomology

submitted 117 days ago • 0 comments

Emerged today from its winter cocoon in damp sand, this rather wonderful Sciapteryx costalis soror (the Shady Sister) sawfly. Rarely seen due to their habit of skulking around at ground level.

submitted 111 days ago • 1 comment

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

submitted 113 days ago • 1 comment

How do complex social behaviors evolve and shape species' success? Here doi.org/10.1038/s420... we reveal how a key social behavior in ants - mouth-to-mouth food sharing #trophallaxis - emerged as ants opportunistically exploited new ecological niches as terrestrial environments changed.

submitted 118 days ago • 1 comment

This is what happens when two social insect labs host our departmental’s happy hour Karl Glastad’s effort here! 🤣🤣

submitted 113 days ago • 2 comments

Robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) are voracious predators of other insects. They patiently wait for prey to pass by and then grab them. They use their piercing-sucking mouthparts to inject digestive enzymes and then suck out the insides. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas, 17 Jun 2017.

submitted 122 days ago • 0 comments

Apologies for this long post I put together to explain to non-scientists the impact of NIH cuts: Last night, an “atomic bomb” was dropped on the biomedical science community. We were informed that effective immediately, indirect costs on NIH grants (both current and future) would be fixed at 15%.

submitted 125 days ago • 19 comments

I hope you will all join me in expressing your thanks to the NIH and NSF staff who are working in an impossibly difficult and chaotic environment to keep science going in our country.

submitted 131 days ago • 13 comments

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗘: Stylopization by Xenos spp. (Xenidae, Strepsiptera) in invasive alien hornet, Vespa velutina, in South Korea 🧪 🔜 www.parasite-journal.org

submitted 138 days ago • 0 comments

I have a bunch of pictures of tiny tiny wasps. They are very cool and they come in alm sorts of shapes and colors, but they are very hard to photograph, mainly because of their size, but also because they move around a lot haha. #macro #hymenoptera #insects #parasitoids

submitted 134 days ago • 8 comments

Trop Bio lab alumnus, Dr. Diego Ocampo, published the final chapter of his amazing dissertation on hybridization in #birds of #Neotropics. Through field experiments, we find that plumage traits distinct between populations are not used in species recognition. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

submitted 135 days ago • 0 comments

At long last, my first paper (ever, first-author, and with @davetoews.bsky.social) is out in @plosone.org 🐦🎶 We quantified and compared song divergence within and between 8 pairs of common North American songbirds—please check it out! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

submitted 169 days ago • 3 comments

If you are interested in the biological function of piRNAs and how they interact with TEs, this is the tool for you (for any organism with relevant info available) - full credit to @alicegodden.bsky.social who came up with this brilliant idea! And enjoy the fish 🐟 eating the Pi(e) 🥧

submitted 137 days ago • 0 comments

I can't be the only human who suddenly feels a deeper kinship with parasitic isopods

submitted 149 days ago • 0 comments

Wanna come work in Yellowstone and its archaea with us?

submitted 158 days ago • 1 comment

On the flight home to Costa Rica, I heard the most uncalibrated conversations from foreigners. Privilege and lack of awareness blows my mind. Also, there are no "expats". Everyone is an immigrant in another country. Respect our country or don't come.

submitted 160 days ago • 0 comments