let me share a little story about a remarkable wasp that I encountered yesterday in our local deserts

I stumbled across her, and scrambled to get a few crappy photos .... but then realized that she had a burrow, perhaps a better photo op was possible ??

here she is at her burrow entrance.

Reposting because the final version finally came out and there are way more people on the site now. To you it might just be a genome note, to me it's the first fully Mongue lab paper (feat. @erincpow.bsky.social and @kkbugtime.bsky.social )!

A #newPI milestone!

academic.oup.com/g3journal/ar...

Florida's newest invasive mealybug currently prefers roadside weeds but may pose a threat to solanaceous crops (e.g., tomatoes, peppers).

This species was only recently described from Japan where it is likely also introduced.

New open access paper: www.degruyter.com/document/doi...

A tiny weevil (Euplatypus compositus) with several mites on board.

North central Florida

This moth was attracted my head torch and decided to rest on the net-casting spider I was photographing!

Deinopis spinosa (Deinopidae) with Arta olivalis (Pyralidae) in north central Florida. #SpiderSunday

New paper out! We describe three new species of giant mealybugs from Mexico & Guatemala. You think spiders have a lot of eyes until you see male Puto mealybugs. Some species have 18 eyes!

The drawing is Puto philo, pictured alive is a Puto decorosus from California.
www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...

More of the sentient gherkins 🥒 from yesterday, this time on their preferred host, croton (Codiaeum variegatum). They blend in beautifully.

Phalacrococcus howertoni first showed up in Florida in 2008 and was undescribed at the time. It probably originates from the Caribbean or South America.

Ants tending their sentient pet gherkins 🥒

Little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata) and croton scale (Phalacrococcus howertoni) in south Florida

Cockerell (1898) described this whitefly species as with "...ribbon-like rays of glassy secretion, not much shorter than itself. These rays are of a bright lemon yellow".

Now we have some live photos to show it! Lemon yellow indeed. Aleuroplatus vinsonioides (Aleyrodidae)

"Trash bug" lacewing larvae feed on mealybugs and then use the mealybugs' wax for camouflage. But mealybugs can fight back with "reflex bleeding," oozing fluid that gums up the lacewing's mouth. Entomologist @erincpow.bsky.social captures one-of-a-kind photos and video of this behavior.

The final guy of 2023 and #invertefest. A little subadult male Pardosa sp. (?) wolf spider (Lycosidae) in my yard this afternoon.

North central Florida #SpiderSunday

Only a small proportion of my photos end up on social media platforms. All of my observations go on iNaturalist, there's a total of 1,875 for 2023!
www.inaturalist.org/people/645281

L -> R Dysimia pseudomaculata mating pair, Cyarda sp., Encarsia noyesi, Colonus sylvanus eating Anasaitis canosa

Happy New Year! Here's a quick collection of just a few of my favorites from 2023.

An assortment of scale insects, spiders, various arthropods from Florida, and arthropods from my summer trip to Europe which spanned Georgia (Republic of), Switzerland, France, England, and Scotland.

My top inverts of the year! Pecan giant scales (Neosteingelia texana). Active for only a couple weeks, emerging from the bark briefly to mate. These were out on hickory in late October in north FL. This year was my first time seeing them, I was slightly obsessed.

Name a more sexually dimorphic duo!

Yessss @erincpow.bsky.social is here!

Get your scale insect, harvestperson, and spider science fix here, along with *checks notes* trash bugs?? 🧪🌿🕷️

Finally trying out BlueSky! Ever wonder how a 'trash bug' gets its trash? My new paper (tinyurl.com/42pw4r5m), with videos, documents dorsal packet construction by a lacewing larva & defensive reflex bleeding by mealybugs.

See the videos here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=As95...

#InverteFest