#nanonaturalist

[identifying-ladybugs-in-posts]

Harmonia axyridis

Asian lady beetle

@arcticarthropod submitted:

Would you by any chance happen to know whats on this ladybug?

Congratulations, it’s a fungus! Specifically, Laboulbeniales fungi seems to be particularly common on Asian Lady Beetles (the species of lady beetle in your photo). Bugguide put together a page for these beetles with the fungus [link]. Here are a couple close-up photos from bugguide:

Left: Photo source [link] Right: Photo source [link]

There is additional information on this fungus at the Cornell Mushroom Blog [link]. Apparently these fungi are the closest thing beetles get to fleas. They are annoying, but don’t otherwise seem to affect the health of the beetle. And: they can be transmitted during mating. Beetle STIs! 

Fun photo, thanks for asking about it!

August 8, 2018

[pastellieria]

me: i have a lot of work to do this week!

me: (spends 2 hours identifying moths on inaturalist)

[floridensis]

i often wonder how @nanonaturalist is doing, they were a huge inspiration for me. i hope theyre doing alright

[necro-mantis]

i went to Explore UT today and got some cecropia moth eggs from @nanonaturalist !! thank you SO much, i’m so excited to watch them grow up!

i also got to hold a hissing cockroach which was fun

[art-is-a-form-of-anxiety]

An update on Moose, my Indian Walking Stick.

Their looking good so far and I love them.

It’s been three months so far and I really hope they live to their full age.

The Gif below is from September.

@six-legs-and-more @nanonaturalist

[snoopy32102]

tag game!!

rules: answer 21 q's and tag 21 others!

tagged by: @raspberrytea tysm lovely!

nickname: vid!

zodiac: aries (i'm a pisces cusp tho!)

height: 5'0

last movie: mulan!

last google: what is a thesis? (research on the technicalities of a thesis paper, my findings were disappointing)

song stuck in head: mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm by crash test dummies (it's super weird but i like it)

other blogs: the rest of my blogs are storages for my writing and headwords and they're all private unless i know you!

do i get asks: no but i'd adore if i did

blogs following: a lot, tend to be cottagecore or dark academia which are wildly different bht i love both

amount of sleep: usually 5 hours a night which i'm desperate to change but i don't have the self accountability to do so. i'm working on it.

lucky numbers: 17, 4, 335, 94,

dream job: hermit who writes critiques on society but since i can't do that freelance writer and author

dream trip: to a little city near manhattan kansas that i have a shitload of family history in. i've been many times before but i love it so much

favorite food: gosh i'm not sure, possibly oranges, possibly pasta, possibly soup, who knows? not me

do i play any instruments: i don't, but i belong to a highly musical family and have been meaning to pick up the piano

languages: english, some german, i hope to eventually master german, and learn latin, french, greek, and italian but i'm just ambitious

favorite songs: we went wild by lord huron, wash by floor cry, dirty knife by neko case, hide and seek by imogen heap, any bon iver song, wallowa lake monster by sufjan stevens, there's too many more to list bht i have a LOT

aesthetic: sweaters over dresses, brown socks, baby's breath, wading barefoot in a creek, classics, victorian fashion, long and wild hair, foggy mornings, rainy nights, florals, soft classical music, the full moon, soft button-ups, maxi skirts, sunlight shining through water, botanical illustrations

tagging: @angel-clouds @antiquarians @terpsikeraunos @riverselkie @romanced @nanonaturalist @funky-toby (totally didn't forget that last one ahahaha)

obviously not 21 but those are all people i'm interested in learning about! obviously no obligation to fill out the questions!

[skelebee]

inspired by nanonaturalist’s post [X]

[caterpillar-gifs]

Mystery slug caterpillar! Who is this?! Stay tuned! Updates will be incoming in my @nanonaturalist blog Microscope shots magnified 20x May 20, 2019

[floridensis]

theres some fun stuff going on in the iNatters of tumblr project! for anyone interested, theres a scavenger hunt up, as well as badges for fulfilling objectives! for those who dont know, iNatters of tumblr is a project stated by @nanonaturalist​ to encourage people to use iNaturalist. you can see the original post about starting the project here. i have since become a co-admin of the project. if youre not already a part of it but want to be involved, we welcome you to join! create an account on inaturalist.org and let us (me, @pterygota​ or kuchipatchis on iNat, or @nanonaturalist​ or nanofishology on iNat) know you want to be included so we can add you to the project, because hitting “join” on the project page allows you to watch the project, but not to be included. that has to be done by us manually. theres much more information you can see by following the link, but if you havent looked, the scavenger hunt will run for the next two months, and heres the list: An example of camouflage A plant growing out from the water A mushroom A fish A pupa Something fuzzy Something spiky Something having a meal A symbiotic relationship Something growing on or out of a man-made object An animal with more than 8 legs An animal with no legs Something that lives in a shell Something yellow and black Something brown and white Something purple and green Something really common in your area Something not native to your area A bee native to your area Something classified as a threatened species A feather An animal track Mating behavior A plant gall A leaf mine you can post the scavenger hunt list with links to your corresponding observations for each item on your tumblr blog and/or iNaturalist journal. please note that posting your observations to tumblr may mean giving out personal location information to a larger audience, so use discretion if posting to there. we may make posts featuring observations from the scavenger hunt, but will check with you for permission before doing so. feel free to shoot a message if you have any questions, and if you are reading this, we would LOVE for you to participate!

[harpsicalbiobug]

Going on an insect adventure inspired by the new iNaturalist group that @nanonaturalist created. I don't really use iNaturalist but I have a zillion "what's this weird alpine flower?" photos that I'm excited to ID!

[knit-braid]

@nanonaturalist I thought you’d like to see this cinnabar moth that emerged today.

[bowelfly]

So I’m a general bio student at a 4 year college and I’m quickly getting close to graduation and I want to go to grad school but I have no fucking clue what i want to specialize in. How the hell do I pick? Bugs are fantastic and plants and wonderful and fungus is just fucking wild as shit and mammals are so great and I absolutely adore reptiles but I kinda want to go into paleo but I have no idea what I want to do with my life and what to study. What do I do?

Well, study bugs, obviously.

But I mean, there’s no reason to jump straight from undergrad to grad school. I took a year off between the two to work in a couple different labs on campus before applying to grad school, and in retrospect I probably should have taken two or three years.

If campus lab jobs are an option available to you, I’d recommend doing that, and take that opportunity to experience working in or adjacent to fields of your interest. You can use that time to talk to people in those fields and consider what you want to do as a career ultimately, like if you want to be in academia, government, private industry, etc. Certain fields and subfields are more appropriate to different careers. My original plan for post-grad school was the forest service, so I applied to a lab that primarily deals in forest pests, for example.

Finally, regardless of what you do for grad school or your ultimate career, there are always ways to engage with these fields in a hobbyist or citizen scientist capacity. You can get a PhD in paleontology but still ID bugs or mushrooms on iNaturalist on the weekend or whatever. You could also talk to @nanonaturalist​ about becoming a Master Naturalist which I don’t know anything about but sounds badass. 

I think that’s about all I can offer without knowing more about your interests or situation. If you or anyone has other grad school related questions, feel free to slide into my DMs, but keep in mind that I’m a total dumbass and have spent most of the last 6 years squandering every opportunity given to me. Anyway thanks for reading here’s a moth.

[nanonaturalist]

Some additional info to add into your brain-cases about them.

I responded to my rejection email asking what I could do to be a stronger applicant, since hey I’m a polymer scientist, I like the environment, it’d be great to work someplace with a mission I could hop on board with, right? 

Recruiter responded essentially right away. Ignoring additional info I provided about other qualifications I have that would be in-demand for a new office in a major city, she said I could be involved by buying bracelets, basically.

So, uh...

...

Yeah.

Now look, younger folks, maybe you aren’t familiar with recruiting etiquette? This isn’t something recruiters at legit companies do.

Something’s fishy, and it ain’t the plastic.

June 23, 2019

Here’s a link:

https://4ocean.com/pages/octopus 

There’s different colors representing different sea creatures ❤️🌊 

Just a little reminder that the US Military is the world’s biggest polluter.  The fight against ecological disaster must include fighting the war machine! 

[arcticarthropod]

@nanonaturalist hey check out my awesome shirt.

I couldn't find a moth for the picture but here's a cat!

[saturniidays]

I'm scared of bees and I know it's irrational but I just can't get over it. I'm really down about it. Do you know any ways to maybe build up a positive experience with them? I love bees and wish I could be around them and interact with them without constantly worrying. I'm just upset and frustrated idk

It’s not irrational at all. We evolved to be afraid of things that can cause us pain. Fear is completely natural and healthy. It’s already amazing that you still love bees despite your fear! The only thing that is irrational is when people claim that an animal is “evil” just because they can harm us. You are clearly not one of those people.

If you would like to interact with them more, maybe you could start with dead ones? If there is a museum or zoo near you that has insect collections, visit! Ask questions about them! Maybe seeing all the different survival strategies each species has will help you associate bees with more than their stingers. 

If you are ready to graduate to live bees, many beekeeping organizations take volunteers. If that is available near you, try it out! You can see them up close with the assurance that there is a barrier between them and your entire body. 

I’ve seen @nanonaturalist cover this subject far better than I have so if she wants to chime in with more ideas, by all means.

[cyberrat]

if someone needs a cool bug blog, you should check out @nanonaturalist.

but be aware that there are BUGS to be seen there (duh!)