Anurag A. Agrawal | Lightnews

Anurag Agrawal

@anurag-asclepias.bsky.social

1.6K followers 1.2K following 220 posts

Evolutionary ecologist studying species interactions, plant chemistry, community ecology, and comparative biology. Author of Monarchs & Milkweed and Professor at Cornell University. Proud parent and friend.

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Anurag Agrawal is an American professor of ecology, evolutionary biology, and entomology who has written over a 150 peer-reviewed articles, which earned him an h-index of 92. He is the author of a popular science book, Monarchs and Milkweeds from Princeton University Press, and is currently the James Alfred Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies at Cornell University. .. more

Agriculture 41%

Biology 36%

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Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · 7d

Watch the Extraordinary Caterpillar film trailer! homegrownnationalpark.org/extraordinar...

The Extraordinary Caterpillar - Doug Tallamy - Homegrown National Park

Join us for a special video presentation of What's the Rush from Doug Tallamy of Homegrown National Park to learn how biodiversity is declining,

homegrownnationalpark.org

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · 15d

Milkweed seeds, still dispersing

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · 15d

www.cornellsun.com/article/2025...

AGRAWAL | Tar, Traffic and the Butterfly's Silent Scream

Opinion Columnist Professor Agrawal argues that America’s dependence on roads and cars inflicts silent ecological harm and that investment in rail, via the “All Aboard Act” currently being considered ...

www.cornellsun.com

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · 16d

Cardenolide toxin diversity impacts monarch butterfly growth and sequestration

doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Cardenolide toxin diversity impacts monarch butterfly growth and sequestration

doi.org

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Nov 20

Oak Galls Exhibit Ant Dispersal Convergentwith Myrmecochorous Seeds

par.nsf.gov/servlets/pur...

par.nsf.gov

Reposted by Anurag A. Agrawal, Francis Martin, Martin Paul Eve

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Nov 20

Earlier on the expedition we found the most beautiful flower, and here, my friends, is the biggest: Rafflesia arnoldi seen in full bloom today in the Sumatran jungle. This is the largest flower on earth and one of the greatest wonders of the natural world.

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Nov 17

#Monarch #butterfly tagging advances in the NY Times, they are arriving in #Mexico

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/s...

We Can Now Track Individual Monarch Butterflies. It’s a Revelation.

www.nytimes.com

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Nov 9

A mentor, Spencer Barrett, and mentee, Marc Johnson - 20 years apart

Reposted by Anurag A. Agrawal, Ian Butler

David Bentley @sussextangerine.bsky.social · Nov 4

Part of a large patch of Devil's Fingers fungus (aka Octopus Stinkhorn) in Rye, East Sussex. I smelt them before I saw them. An intense bouquet of rotting flesh to attract insects that then help spread spores. Brilliant!
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
#fungi
#mycology
#UKwildlife

A patch of bright red fungi that look like clawed-hands reaching out of the ground.

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Nov 4

A theory of life: www.cornellsun.com/article/2025...

AGRAWAL | A Theory of Life

The Cornell Daily Sun - Independent Since 1880.

www.cornellsun.com

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Nov 4

The wooly bear, or #Isabella tiger #moth #caterpillar, Pyrrharctia isabella, still looking for overwintering spots on warm days. I'm still collecting them for research. Many years ago I became allergic to the hairs, a painful reminder of my love gone sour: agrawal.eeb.cornell.edu/2018/11/24/c...

A collection of 15 wooly bear caterpillars, orange and black, all curled up

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Nov 1

By popular demand, I'm offering "More #MONARCHS - No #Monarchy!" shirts and mugs at cost (no profit, just joy). Spread the word, decent quality for <$20

monarchs.printful.me

#NoKings #butterfly #peace #naturalhistory #plantinsect

T-shirt design with monarch butterflies and Statue of Liberty

Reposted by Anurag A. Agrawal

Biological Recording Company @biologicalrecording.co.uk · Nov 1

🕷️ Britain’s craziest creature? Meet Megabunus diadema — a harvestman with eyes on a spiky turret! Not a spider, but part of its own Order: Opiliones.

Learn more in our UK Harvestmen webinar on 5 Feb 2026:

🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1720584467...

@britishspiders.bsky.social @megabunus.bsky.social

Reposted by Anurag A. Agrawal

Eric R. Eaton @bugeric.bsky.social · Oct 31

I am an author being overwhelmed by emails from people offering their services to promote my new book. This is a brand new problem, and I do not have an agent or publicist to sift through the offers. Help? #writingcommunity #authors

Older White man standing behind a chair, and a table featuring four of my book titles. A large poster representing the cover of my newest book, Bugwatching: The Art, Joy, and Importance of Observing Insects, is on the floor to the right of the table. All of this is inside a public library.

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 27

I have tasted them too... I cannot tell if it is Taxus canadensis, but maybe? Plants are dioceous, deer prefer males. The genus is the source of taxol, a compound used in chemotherapy, which targets tubulin (cell division)

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 26

Red oak fall colors

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 26

Witch hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, Hamamelidaceae in the Saxifragales, now in #flower around #Ithaca

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 26

The maple leaf #Viburnum, when not eaten by deer #ithaca #fruit #naturalhistory

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 22

My monkey slug getting ready to transform to hag moth, Phobetron pithecium Limacodidae

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 20

Pear rust's spore-dispersing bodies... This #fungus, Gymnosporangium sabinae, is an obligate host - alternating #parasite (like many fungi and aphids) - alternate host = juniper

Reposted by Julia Koricheva, Zen Faulkes

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 17

New biology: stink bugs inoculate their eggs with a fungus that protects them from parasitoids

www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...

Science Magazine - Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs

Tympanal organs have repeatedly evolved in diverse insects and were thought to be required for auditory perception (1).

www.sciencemagazinedigital.org

Reposted by Anurag A. Agrawal

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · Oct 16

Melampyrum pratense has a huge distribution across Europe to central Siberia thanks to ants. It has myrmecochorus seeds—seeds carried by ants—unlike most holo- and hemiparasitic species, which have wind-dispersed seeds. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of green and leafy herbaceous plant bearing narrow leaves and yellow, tubular flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 14

Woody plants!

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 14

Monkey slug caterpillar, or "hag #moth" Phobetron pithecium. A late season Limacodidae of eastern forests, A generalized feeder of mostly blue plants

Courtesy of Sam Jaffe and the amazing #caterpillar lab in New Hampshire!

www.thecaterpillarlab.org