gardeneticist

[gardeneticist]

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[gardeneticist]

oil pastel of a wasp

[gardeneticist]

crabs are literally being forcefemmed by barnacles every day and no one ever talks about it

[gardeneticist]

Do you happen to have any weevils? All time funniest bug.

your wish is my command

[gardeneticist]

No I need to make a fucking post about this because I just stumbled on this paper, and this is insane.

Going to be talking about and sharing images of various insects. You have been notified.

So y'all know fleas. The little parasitic insects.

Yeah. Those guys.

Well. This study did genetic analysis on fleas (and several other insects) to find out what these guys derive from. Because up to this point, fleas have been just these weird little things in their own order that are... somewhere??? in the Antliophora clade. Previous scientists have thought maybe they're some weird offshoot of Diptera (true flies), because they do actually have vestigial little wing casings.

But this study, and the genetic analysis they did, revealed that fleas are not especially similar to Diptera. They're actually most similar to Mecoptera. Scorpionflies.

That's right. These guys.

Which is completely and utterly insane to me. You're telling me these big, super unique and specialized, weird-ass bugs, somewhere down the line, created an offshoot of these tiny little insects that lose their wings in favor of hopping around, that parasitize vertebrates and feed on blood? Scorpionflies did that??

Idk this is just. So so interesting to me. The Big wide beautiful world of entomology.

Here's that study. I think you'll have to make an account on the site in order to read it (though I can also just send any interested folks the file I downloaded, since I successfully made an account), but it is SO fascinating.

[gardeneticist]

Yellow weevil, Ameris ynca, Curculionidae

Found primarily in Brazil

Photos 1-7 by rogerriodias and 8-10 by francisco_bezerra

[gardeneticist]

*me accepting the grammy for worst album of all time* i'd like to thank this bug i just foudn on the floor

[gardeneticist]

flowers in the community garden. watercolor on toned paper~

[gardeneticist]

This is what bug haters look like

[gardeneticist]

girl's best friend

[gardeneticist]

these are the miserable remains of a chestnut weevil (Curculio elephas) who will never again feel the joy of a freshly drilled acorn after unspeakable atrocities were perpetrated upon her by me

this is her thirty seconds later. the atrocities that she miraculously recovered from included "being gently scooped up from a branch"

(September 1st, 2024)

[gardeneticist]

She's just a little an't ♥️

Synemosyna formica lass

[gardeneticist]

Just found out there's a group on inaturalist dedicated to showcasing the silliest observations

[gardeneticist]

One year after birth. I grew up nicely. 🐌✨

生まれて一年。 僕は立派に育ったよ。🐌✨

[gardeneticist]

prints available here. pls dm for information on tattoo permisions.

my Legend of Zelda bug collection!

[gardeneticist]

I’ve decided that all bats fall somewhere on this horrid little graph I’ve devised. Here are some prime examples of the various Creature Varieties found in nature.

[gardeneticist]

I feel like it should be bigger news that in 2024 we found out a whole new category of Thing that apparently lives in humans and we have no fucking clue what it does