Jeffrey Heilveil (he/him)
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nigronia.bsky.social
Jeffrey Heilveil (he/him)
@nigronia.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1K following 680 posts
Stream ecologist and entomologist at SUNY Oneonta.
#PUI #macroinverts #insects
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nigronia.bsky.social
Happy Friday!!!!
A braided bread on a wood board that says Challah. Burekas. A sheet of puff pastry, coated with a mix of sour cream, cottage cheese, ricotta, cheddar, mozzarella, sautéed mushrooms, chopped spinach, and 2 eggs. Then a second layer of puff pastry is laid over top, and it is cut linearly and on the diagonal. After an egg wash, the diamonds were sprinkled with either sesame seeds, green zatar, or red zatar. It was then Baked for 45 mon at 375F.
October 18, 2025 at 2:43 AM
nigronia.bsky.social
The course will feature daytime workshops with specialists like @dralgaegirl.bsky.social so students learn that knowledge is distributed and collaboration is key, and evening workshops on science communication, grad school and careers, and more. They also eat reasonably well for a field course.
Dinner and grad school night, graduate students from our MS program came to talk about picking programs, etc. This is a picture of students and grad presenters at dinner in our field station. On the table is challah, baked salmon, red picked cabbage, and frosted cauliflower.
October 12, 2025 at 7:48 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
June 11 -27, 2026, I'm teaching a 16-day field course on stream ecology. It's heavily focused on independent research projects, so they get some exposure to field research. Open to students from any institution. DM with your email if you want a poster to send your students. #Ecology #PUI #insects
Students learning to electrofish in a small stream in the woods.
October 12, 2025 at 7:48 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
For everyone, regardless of who or whether you worship, may it be a year of peace, health, and empathy.

And apples. Lots of apples.
A challah with raisins braided in the round. A glass plate in the shape of an apple. In the upper right quarter is a small apple-shaped glass dish. The smaller apple-dish is holding honey. On the rest of the plate are two slices of the World's Best Honey Cake (https://busyinbrooklyn.com/honey-cake-with-caramelized-apples/), two slices of an apple cake recipe from my first rabbi's wife, and 8 slices of a tiny apple from a 100-year old tree that produces red apples with a blush straight through to the core.
September 22, 2025 at 10:43 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Shabbat shalom!
A picture of a braided bread on a cutting board.
September 6, 2025 at 2:08 AM
nigronia.bsky.social
My profession is under attack. My institution horrifically underpays faculty.

But THIS! THIS is why my job is the best job EVER. To be part of someone's life journey. To introduce them to things that so excite them.

#AcademicChatter #PUI #insects #entomology
A screenshot of a text from a field course student. In all caps: "PROFESSOR I CAUGHT ONE" over the first in a set of images of a luna moth being caught. To be clear, I could hear them shouting it because I know it was their goal and they were so wonderfully excitable. They will not become an entomologist, and that's ok. They will become a citizen who appreciates the natural world and that's enough for me.
July 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Students had a good time playing the "firefly game". Two rounds to see which students can catch the most species in 10 minutes. Prize is an insect for their collections.

We caught all 3 night flying genera that are here and about 50% of the species.

Fun was had by all. #insects
30s exposure of the field were students are collecting fireflies. The nearly full moon shines overhead. Female Pyractomena palustris, with their yellowish elytra.
June 11, 2025 at 3:33 AM
nigronia.bsky.social
Great day in field entomology! Students saw a beaver, caught dragonflies, and the rain let up for half the day.
#insects
A dragonfly we found still curing after closing, sitting on my hand.
June 7, 2025 at 11:16 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Field entomology has begun! One of my favorite classes to teach: a 16-day research project and collections based course held at our beautiful field station in Cooperstown NY.
#insects
A view from the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station on Otsego Lake. Looking past a drive next to an old field with a lot of goldenrod, past the rooftops of the pole barn and hop house (which has been converted into lab space) to Otsego Lake, the Outflow of which is the start to the Susquehanna River. Beyond that are a series of wooded hills, with a gorgeous blue sky over everything.
June 2, 2025 at 10:47 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Woot! Saw my first Bombus lucorum (white-tailed bumblebee), I think. Outside Trinity library in Dublin.
Sorry the photo is as fuzzy as the bee.
A large bumblebee with a large white-haired section for the last (approximately) 1/3 of the abdomen, visiting some purple flowers.
May 21, 2025 at 6:02 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Happy Friday! We made it.
Last Shabbat before half the MS students I have the honor of mentoring graduate.

Today I felt like a Disney character, dragged around for photo ops. It was fun to see them so excited.
A table with a challah in the center, a large bowl of homemade hummus, and smaller bowls with Radishes, broccoli, red peppers, sugar peas, carrots, and small tomatoes. It was so hot today that the menu shifted last minute to accommodate lighter foods. Four people in academic regalia. Three in Masters robes and one in doctoral robes. The grads are super happy to be finished. The professor is excited to hear about all their adventures in the years to come.
May 17, 2025 at 1:23 AM
nigronia.bsky.social
Getting set up for field entomology! One of my favorite courses to teach. They will learn taxonomy, do an individual research project, and do a community service project, surveying a property for a land trust.
#insects #entomology
The "laboratory gear" room. A small room, about 10x10, with a wood floor (downed lumber from the property) and two desks. The nearer desk has 4 dram vials and lids, bench tools for entomology, and the stacked boxes holding the terrestrial teaching collection (the aquatic collection is hidden from view in this picture). The far desk, for holding pinning boards has only a sample insect collection. The main lab space. A second floor in a converted hop house. There's a large TV monitor at the front to hook up to a microscope for easier teaching, a back table with microscopes for the instructors, and a front table with 6 scope set ups for the students. The conference room-turned gear room. This has all the field gear for projects. Aquatic nets, extra terrestrial nets (their main nets are at our main building), Steve's, pans, calipers, tape reels, field flags, colored jars for attracting insects, extra collection jars, etc.
May 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Happy Friday! We made it. For those of you caught in the gyres of grading, may you soon escape its grasp. For those who are done, congrats.

My bestie is under the weather and its been raining for days, so to dissipate this maudlin mood, a story about these small challahs.
1/7
Two small (8 in) challahs. These are double braids, with the base 3-strand braid larger (3/4 of the dough) and a top 3-strand braid made from the last quarter.
May 9, 2025 at 10:22 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Last one I'll show is the trout. This was WAY beyond expectations and you don't even get the rest of the presentation.
I did take the time to point out that we're she to sell them, she should charge at least $30/hr. Artists too often undersell their work. The trout took about 7 hours.
A brook trout. The body is in green with red dots and the fins are orange with the characteristic white leading edge. The underbelly has a yellow separating border and a brown belly. Above it is the salamander, obstructed by the many trophic connections from the trout.
May 8, 2025 at 2:31 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Here's the caddisfly larva! 5/n
A crocheted larval Hydropsyche. The head, legs, and three dorsal plates on the thorn are in black, the membranous part of the thorax and abdomen are in green, and the gills are in an off-white.
May 8, 2025 at 2:24 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Here's the midge larva.
4/n
A larval chironomid. The head is a mocha color with a beige segmented body.
May 8, 2025 at 2:20 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Here's the mayfly nymph.
A nymphal Epeorus in crochet. The body is a yellow-brown, the head has the characteristic large eyes, the wing pads are in a brown, and the suction cup like gills are in a light tan. The two cerci (butt-antennae) are in black.
May 8, 2025 at 2:16 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Here's a close up of the copepod
2/n
A hand-crocheted copepod. This is a small microcrustscean that has an oval-shaped body which splits into two cylindrical pieces posteriorly. From the head region are two very long antennae.
May 8, 2025 at 2:13 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
OMG!!! This students' science communication project on food webs blew me away. Here's PART of it... 1/n #insects #rivers #PUI #AcademicChatter
A crocheted food web. The top level is a banner with a sun, a falling leaf, and the bottom of a tree trunk on a stream bank. The next level is two rectangles, one with Diatoms and on with detritus. Below that are a series of crocheted organisms, with connections made of bicolored crocheted strings, the blue half leads to the eater, the white to the eaten. The next level has three organisms: a copepod (Cyclops), a mayfly nymph (Epeorus), and a midge larva (chironomid). The next level has a caddisfly larva (Hydropsyche) and a shredder/scraper stonefly (perlodid), the level below has a salamander, and the level below that is a trout. Many organisms link to multiple trophic levels.
May 8, 2025 at 2:10 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Saw some friends on our last day of lab!
#insects #entomology #rivers
A nymphal Cordulegaster maculata (baby dragonfly) and a larval Rhyacophila fuscula (baby caddisfly) on a hand. Larval Nigronia serricornis stretching it's mandibles wide to say "hello"!
May 1, 2025 at 9:54 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
I did my part for their MS exit seminars. The rest is on them.
#academia #amazingGradStudents
Two batches of chocolate caramel bars, one for each exit seminar this week. Both grads requested the same treat, so there you go. Chocolate, caramel, butter,... and oats. Yeah, lots of oats. So it MUST be healthy.
April 30, 2025 at 1:03 AM
nigronia.bsky.social
Working on an articulation with a community college and found their chat assistance.
As an entomologist, I whole heartedly approve. I guess some people might see it as super passive-aggressive, or a way to convince people not to ask questions.
An AI chat assistant link that says "Questions? Ask the Hornet"
April 28, 2025 at 8:25 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Phew. Made it.
Happy Friday!!
A challah with seasame seeds on a cooling rack. Challah is a braided egg bread. This challah has a main braid of three ropes and a thinner top braid, also with three strands.
April 25, 2025 at 6:28 PM
nigronia.bsky.social
Oooh! I'll play!
#invertefest Nigronia serricornis, the saw-combed fishfly is an aquatic insect that burrows into banks to pupate (undergo metamorphosis). This makes them especially at-risk to floods and bank erosion. The adults are beautiful too. Seen in central NY.
A larval Nigronia serricornis crawling along a hand, it's mandibles wide to energetically resist a dictatorial word. Megaloptera larvae are easily identified by the lateral abdominal appendages that are definitely used for balance, but not (as historically hypothesized) used for oxygen acquisition.
April 25, 2025 at 12:50 AM
nigronia.bsky.social
When there are so many super tiny insects, for each one that happens into a space we can observe it, how many did we miss?
Same black and red beetle as in the previous post next to a sliver of an index finger, showing the beetle to be a couple mm long at most.
April 23, 2025 at 11:11 PM