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 · 2d

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

Reposted by Anurag A. Agrawal, Ian Butler

David Bentley @sussextangerine.bsky.social · 6d

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 · 6d

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 · 6d

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 · 9d

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 · 9d

🕷️ 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 · 11d

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 · 14d

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 · 15d

Red oak fall colors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 · 24d

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 · 25d

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 · 27d

Woody plants!

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

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

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 12

Matelea cyclophylla, a vining succulent #milkweed vine with a corky #caudex from western Mexico, hairy burgundy #flowers

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 12

Two more Asclepiadoideae (among 3000 #milkweed species), a Hoya and Cynanchum - every thing comes in fives #flower #oldworld

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 12

Southern Africa

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 11

Hoodia and Huernia, two Ascleps flowering in my house

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 11

Two pairs of wild turkeys in Cambridge, Mass

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 8

Why I tried whale meat

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

AGRAWAL | Why I Tried Whale Meat

Professor Anurag Agrawal writes about the history and biological context that led to his first time trying whale meat.

www.cornellsun.com

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 6

Echinopsis tubiflora an Argentinian endemic Cactaceae, night blooming, open <18 hours (120x = 2 hours) #timelapse #cactus #flower #sweetsmell

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 2

Scaldweed, Cuscuta gronovii, a native annual non-photosynthetic #parasitic #plant - haustoria instead of roots; shares #herbivores with its host plants (you are what you eat) - but a #flowering plant nonetheless. Most plant communities have several distantly related species of parasitic angiosperms

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Oct 2

Temnothorax sp., a small #ant that lives in colony in acorns (and in #galls formed on #oaks

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Sep 30

Galling #aphids on staghorn sumac make plump succulent galls full of aphids and predators - near Watertown, NY

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Sep 30

I've been seeing more of the Jerusalem artichoke Helianthus tuberosus around the great lakes region. This is from the sandy east shores of Lake Ontario. Said to be native, I wonder if it's being planted more and spreading?

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Sep 30

The American searocket,
Cakile edentula, a sand loving semi-succulent #Brassicaceae. I knew this plant from the west coast; here on the shores of lake Ontario. Fruits have two-parts, one that breaks off and floats for water dispersal. immature silliques are edible, like radish pods

Anurag Agrawal @anurag-asclepias.bsky.social · Sep 30

A leaf mining #moth on a quaking Aspen, caterpillar apparently secretes cytokinins which suppress senescence in leaf sectors. Adaptive for the moth? #fallcolors

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