Alex Wenninger
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awenninger.bsky.social
Alex Wenninger
@awenninger.bsky.social
110 followers 55 following 23 posts
🐛 Entomologist; primarily Hymenoptera with the occasional dalliance in other taxa 🪰
🐟 Seafarer
❄️ Anchorage, Alaska
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awenninger.bsky.social
Visited Delta, AK this weekend to teach a pollinator workshop and I got to visit a coworker's yak farm after!! This is Flora, she is just 1 year old and I LOVE her ♥️
#babyyak #alaskalove
A small yak leans her head on a woman's thigh as she pets its head. The yak has a purple ear tag that reads "Flora".
May 19, 2025 at 5:21 AM
awenninger.bsky.social
An article about a recent community science project on the fireweed flower gall midge in Alaska! These galls caught my attention while doing field work for a pollinator research project but turned into a project all of their own! www.akentsoc.org/doc/AKES_new... #entomology #Alaska #cecidomyiidae 🧪🪰
A screen grab of an article titled "Community science collaboration enhances understanding of fireweed flower gall midge distribution in Alaska". The cover shows a three panel photograph displaying a fireweed flower spire on the left, a closeup of a galled bud in the middle, and an opened bud with larvae inside on the right.
April 19, 2025 at 4:12 AM
awenninger.bsky.social
A headlamp set on the table works great for when you want to prep mini hyms for mounting at the kitchen table instead of at your desk (filter paper underneath the mini petri for contrast)✨ #hymenoptera #entomology
A mini petri dish set on a table with many microhymenoptera inside, lit from the side.
April 13, 2025 at 4:29 PM
awenninger.bsky.social
Seed-feeding chalcids are always a favorite to rear out; getting a whole adult wasp out of a tiny seed is nearly magical! This tiny rose seed chalcid (Megastigmus nigrovariegatus) emerged this week from a wild rose seed (Rosa acicularis) collected last month. 😍 🧪 #chalcidoidea #entomology #Alaska
Lateral habitus of a point-mounted rose seed chalcid, Megastigmus nigrovariegatus. She is about 4 mm long and a mottled golden brown color. The Rosa acicularis seed from which the wasp emerged. A tiny circular hole is visible on the surface, which the wasp chewed when she was ready to emerge from the seed.
April 9, 2025 at 9:36 PM
awenninger.bsky.social
On today's episode of Moss Makeover, a moss-covered boulder gets brushed by an entomologist who decided to take a quick look for Boreus snow scorpionflies during a fishing trip. Sadly she did not find any Boreus but this moss looks really great. #entomology #mecoptera #Alaska 🧪
A woman is standing next to a mossy boulder holding a white tray with one hand and raking the moss with her fingers using the other hand. The landscape is springtime in an Alaska coastal rainforest; some snow patches remain and the trees haven't yet leafed out but the moss is very green.
March 30, 2025 at 3:13 AM
awenninger.bsky.social
The world's cutest puzzle!! A gift from @danasaur406.bsky.social ♥️ 🐛🐛🐛
#thecaterpillarlab #entomology #lepidoptera
A puzzle picked together to depict many different caterpillars arranged by color starting with reds in the top left, yellows and greens diagonal across the center, and browns in the lower right corner. "The Caterpillar Lab" is printed down the right-hand side of the puzzle.
March 22, 2025 at 8:01 PM
awenninger.bsky.social
Anyone know of a good key to Nearctic dryinids? This one has been tricky to key out using Hymenoptera of the World, but seems to be either Anteoninae or Gonatopodinae subfamily. Specimen from Anchorage, Alaska. More details in comments. #hymenoptera #chrysidoidea #dryinidae
The lateral view of a tiny female pincer wasp on a glue board. The head and mesosoma are coarsely textured and black in color. The metasomal is smooth and brown in color.
March 12, 2025 at 5:44 AM
awenninger.bsky.social
A little Sunday morning coffee and my least favorite bug chore. 500 points later and all I have to show for it is a very sore palm and what appears to be a pile of 12 points 🐝
#entomology #entomologistchores
A black-and-white image of an insect point mount punch tool next to a few very small piles of finished points.
March 9, 2025 at 5:35 PM
awenninger.bsky.social
Putting a little art into entomology with STEM night elementary kiddos! Love to see their creativity in action 🦋🧪
#entomology #scienceforkids #scienceisart
A panel of nine photographs of folded paper moths, each decorated in an array of colors and patterns with crayons. Each moth is photographed on a bug-themed table cloth.
February 21, 2025 at 3:29 AM
awenninger.bsky.social
Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! 🧪 It's hard for me to resist a good insect collection opportunity, here I am taking a break between shrimp pot sets to do some bee collecting for the Alaska Bee Atlas 🐝 #entomology

(and in my hand-knit fisherman's Gansey, of course) #knitting
A woman with glasses and dark hair worn in a ponytail holding an insect net in her left hand. She is wearing a greyish blue handknit fisherman's Gansey. A peat bog meadow and sparse spruce trees are visible behind her.
February 12, 2025 at 7:39 AM
awenninger.bsky.social
Some highly photogenic flower galls on fireweed made by the fireweed flower gall midge in Alaska 🌸 My fly mom skills were put to the test but we pulled through and the adults were used to redescribe these Holarctic cuties 🪰
bioone.org/journals/pro...
Swollen fireweed flower buds galled by an insect called the fireweed flower gall midge.
January 23, 2025 at 4:43 AM