Ainsley S
@americanbeetles.bsky.social
I hope you like pictures of bugs.
Curating at CMNH, teaching at CMU, beetling everywhere
Curating at CMNH, teaching at CMU, beetling everywhere
Pinned
The Pest Is Still To Come
YouTube video by Dan Warren
www.youtube.com
I'm proud of our li'l Schoolhouse Rock for Insect Taxonomists cartoon, but if you're not in Bug World here are some annotations for you... www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYSI... cc @danlwarren.bsky.social
Reposted by Ainsley S
The State of the World from NPR’s Mumbai bureau: Pigeon feeding ban in Mumbai sparks religious and caste backlash
www.npr.org/2025/11/14/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/14/n...
The Culture War Over Pigeon Feeding in Mumbai : State of the World from NPR
This year authorities in Mumbai, India banned feeding pigeons in public spaces over health concerns. That might seem like a minor civic act but the backlash has been huge. We go to Mumbai to underst...
www.npr.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:10 AM
The State of the World from NPR’s Mumbai bureau: Pigeon feeding ban in Mumbai sparks religious and caste backlash
www.npr.org/2025/11/14/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/14/n...
Reposted by Ainsley S
Science People: We at NSF are still recovering/catching up/getting our lives together. But the agency posted these FAQs about post-shutdown resumption of operations which might answer a lot of Qs for you: www.nsf.gov/resumption-o...
Resumption of Operations at NSF
Information for NSF staff and the research community regarding the agency's resumption of operations after a lapse in appropriations.
www.nsf.gov
November 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Science People: We at NSF are still recovering/catching up/getting our lives together. But the agency posted these FAQs about post-shutdown resumption of operations which might answer a lot of Qs for you: www.nsf.gov/resumption-o...
looking up an old Warren Steiner paper in Banisteria and oh noooo
November 18, 2025 at 9:51 PM
looking up an old Warren Steiner paper in Banisteria and oh noooo
I can't believe this cheap method of making depression slides never occurred to me >:O
Micrargus herbigradus palp, taken using the new 'washer on a slide' method - dab of gel, palp, topped up with alcohol. Much clearer, you can't see the gel, and the 'curly appendage' that makes it herbigradus is visible amongst the curls of the embolus. This is slightly enhanced in GIMP.
November 18, 2025 at 8:19 PM
I can't believe this cheap method of making depression slides never occurred to me >:O
Reposted by Ainsley S
🤯 Wild shit here. They put biologgers on greater noctule bats and found them pursuing, capturing, and eating birds in-flight. The recording of a European Robin getting blasted and snacked on is nuts.
Sci Am story: www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...
Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Sci Am story: www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...
Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Bat vs. Robin—Scientists Capture Real-Life Audio of Midair Hunt
Scientists suspected that Europe’s largest bats snack on migrating songbirds when they can, but a stunning newly published observation proves it
www.scientificamerican.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:15 PM
🤯 Wild shit here. They put biologgers on greater noctule bats and found them pursuing, capturing, and eating birds in-flight. The recording of a European Robin getting blasted and snacked on is nuts.
Sci Am story: www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...
Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Sci Am story: www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...
Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Ainsley S
a cool thing that happened is ppl destroyed a remnant prairie at Rockford Airport. While the rusty-patch bumblebee foraged there, there was no proof it *nested* there. So 💥
Publications only had proof they nested in forests
This paper would have saved the prairie
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Publications only had proof they nested in forests
This paper would have saved the prairie
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Prairie and edge habitats provide valuable nesting resources for bumble bees (Bombus) in the midwestern U.S - Apidologie
Bumble bees use three main habitats to complete their life cycle: foraging habitat, overwintering habitat, and nesting habitat. Overall, the majority of bumble bee research has focused on the foraging...
link.springer.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:22 PM
a cool thing that happened is ppl destroyed a remnant prairie at Rockford Airport. While the rusty-patch bumblebee foraged there, there was no proof it *nested* there. So 💥
Publications only had proof they nested in forests
This paper would have saved the prairie
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Publications only had proof they nested in forests
This paper would have saved the prairie
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Oh good, Australia has decided to DOGE its own federal research infrastructure. I was there for the Abbott cuts and it was miserable to behold.
That's more than 1,100 jobs lost at the CSIRO over the last two years.
"Combined, the staff association estimates that equates to cutting the agency’s size by a third."
This is more cuts to the CSIRO than was attempted by the Abbott government.
www.smh.com.au/national/csi...
"Combined, the staff association estimates that equates to cutting the agency’s size by a third."
This is more cuts to the CSIRO than was attempted by the Abbott government.
www.smh.com.au/national/csi...
CSIRO to slash hundreds of jobs in cost-saving drive
The staff association at the nation’s leading scientific research organisation says the latest round of cuts marks “a sad day for publicly funded science”.
www.smh.com.au
November 18, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Oh good, Australia has decided to DOGE its own federal research infrastructure. I was there for the Abbott cuts and it was miserable to behold.
Come ON folks, we can do better??
AI slop gracing the cover of Royal Society B. Not only in AI yellow but scientifically nonsensical. Come on. I'm certain human photographs and artworks were ignored to platform ... this.
November 18, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Come ON folks, we can do better??
I know this is a transparently fraudulent attempt at greenwashing BUT: if this biodiversity offsets thing becomes real, beetle taxonomists will FINALLY get to cash in
As if carbon offsets weren’t a big enough fraud…welcome to the world of ‘biodiversity offsets’…sure the idea failed dismally in NSW but Murray Watt is keen to have a crack…
what could go wrong?
Just even more extinctions i suppose…#climate #nature
thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...
what could go wrong?
Just even more extinctions i suppose…#climate #nature
thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...
How many extra possums does it take to compensate for a dead platypus?
That’s the kind of calculation a bureaucrat would literally have to make under Environment Minister Murray Watt’s new ‘environmental laws’.
thepoint.com.au
November 17, 2025 at 11:29 PM
I know this is a transparently fraudulent attempt at greenwashing BUT: if this biodiversity offsets thing becomes real, beetle taxonomists will FINALLY get to cash in
Reposted by Ainsley S
We’re looking for a news reporter interested in writing about weather science and weather history for a social platform. This is a really great team and you should join us careers.wbd.com/global/en/jo...
News Reporter, CNN Weather in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America | Creative, Content & Editorial at CNN
Apply for News Reporter, CNN Weather job with CNN
careers.wbd.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:53 PM
We’re looking for a news reporter interested in writing about weather science and weather history for a social platform. This is a really great team and you should join us careers.wbd.com/global/en/jo...
Reposted by Ainsley S
My experience with the academic job market is that there is simply far more luck involved than the vast majority of people are comfortable saying. Which departments are even hiring, what internal politics mean for the research topics they want, what fields the NSF has postdocs for, etc.
All of us from the post-2008 era (and before, no doubt) have traumatic memories of the academic job market, but I don't think the real problem was the hotel rooms (or the ballroom!), & I think it should be noticed that the real problem (no jobs, ridiculous power disparities) is now worse
November 17, 2025 at 8:28 PM
My experience with the academic job market is that there is simply far more luck involved than the vast majority of people are comfortable saying. Which departments are even hiring, what internal politics mean for the research topics they want, what fields the NSF has postdocs for, etc.
Reposted by Ainsley S
parents freed a hummingbird from a skylight with a coleus flower attached to a pole
November 9, 2025 at 12:05 AM
parents freed a hummingbird from a skylight with a coleus flower attached to a pole
Reposted by Ainsley S
My job is so great... I get to learn new stuff every day and then teach other people what I learned and I also don't have to be submerged in the bone-dissolving environment of academia to do it
November 17, 2025 at 7:14 PM
My job is so great... I get to learn new stuff every day and then teach other people what I learned and I also don't have to be submerged in the bone-dissolving environment of academia to do it
🚨 breaking zokor news 🚨
Re-interpreting the origin and diversification of the rodent genus Eospalax (Spalacidae, Rodentia) with description of a new species: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
Re-interpreting the origin and diversification of the rodent genus Eospalax (Spalacidae, Rodentia) with description of a new species
Abstract. The zokor genus Eospalax includes seven recognized species, distributed from the south-western Hengduan Mountains to the north-eastern Loess Plat
academic.oup.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:15 PM
🚨 breaking zokor news 🚨
Reposted by Ainsley S
*taps the sign*
November 17, 2025 at 1:22 AM
*taps the sign*
Reposted by Ainsley S
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
Reposted by Ainsley S
After years of being curious but lazy, I finally got around to documenting what's inside the black walnuts in my yard. In the process I became obsessed with the strange wasp that hunts down the pupae of the resident flies. 🌿 #wasps #diapriidae #nature #diptera colinpurrington.com/2025/11/life...
Life inside rotting walnut husks » Colin Purrington's blog
There’s an eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra) on my neighbor’s property that rains down fruit every fall, and I finally got curious about what species might be inside. So far I’ve found four flies, ...
colinpurrington.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:26 PM
After years of being curious but lazy, I finally got around to documenting what's inside the black walnuts in my yard. In the process I became obsessed with the strange wasp that hunts down the pupae of the resident flies. 🌿 #wasps #diapriidae #nature #diptera colinpurrington.com/2025/11/life...
Reposted by Ainsley S
The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT, has a new exhibit: Ants - Tiny Creatures, Big Lives. We went today, and here are some impressions. It’s not a massive exhibit, but well done and certainly worth checking out if you’re in the area. The exhibit runs through May 17.
November 16, 2025 at 10:31 PM
The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT, has a new exhibit: Ants - Tiny Creatures, Big Lives. We went today, and here are some impressions. It’s not a massive exhibit, but well done and certainly worth checking out if you’re in the area. The exhibit runs through May 17.
Reposted by Ainsley S
#invertefest propaganda in the wild
November 16, 2025 at 9:52 PM
#invertefest propaganda in the wild
Reposted by Ainsley S
November 16, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Ainsley S
Because international student enrollment is so often used as a cudgel in discussions about immigration, this is a good time to remind people that international students aren't taking up spaces for US students at state schools, they are paying full tuition that FUNDS SCHOLARSHIPS FOR US STUDENTS.
November 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Because international student enrollment is so often used as a cudgel in discussions about immigration, this is a good time to remind people that international students aren't taking up spaces for US students at state schools, they are paying full tuition that FUNDS SCHOLARSHIPS FOR US STUDENTS.
Reposted by Ainsley S
I sent this to someone yesterday who had no idea it existed and so I’m sharing it here—if you are trying to find a publisher for your scholarly monograph and not sure who to approach, start with this, courtesy of our pals at @aupresses.bsky.social
AUPresses Subject Area Grid - Association of University Presses
Guide to the subject areas in which member presses have recently published.
aupresses.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:26 PM
I sent this to someone yesterday who had no idea it existed and so I’m sharing it here—if you are trying to find a publisher for your scholarly monograph and not sure who to approach, start with this, courtesy of our pals at @aupresses.bsky.social
Reposted by Ainsley S
the internet is already irreversibly overrun by AI pollution so effective immediately we're all going to be replacing the entire internet with copies if this book, everything we know is somehow related to mammoths now, to add to this new internet mail a letter to the author for the next book edition
November 13, 2025 at 11:45 PM
the internet is already irreversibly overrun by AI pollution so effective immediately we're all going to be replacing the entire internet with copies if this book, everything we know is somehow related to mammoths now, to add to this new internet mail a letter to the author for the next book edition
Reposted by Ainsley S
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 PM
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Ainsley S
Spread the word: we are providing multiple $5k awards for grad & undergrad research on invertebrate conservation !! In addition to our continuing DeWind Award (for Lepidoptera research), we now have the 1st annual BanDrosky Award (for any invert in decline). Details in thread🧵 ⤵️
November 10, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Spread the word: we are providing multiple $5k awards for grad & undergrad research on invertebrate conservation !! In addition to our continuing DeWind Award (for Lepidoptera research), we now have the 1st annual BanDrosky Award (for any invert in decline). Details in thread🧵 ⤵️