Pretty Spooky Things 🎃
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prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Pretty Spooky Things 🎃
@prettyuglythings.bsky.social
290 followers 1.1K following 130 posts
Amateur naturalist, serious collector, and appreciator of the unusual things our planet is capable of… based out of Tucson!

Purveyor of minerals, succulents, isopods, and information
https://prettyuglythingsaz.com // https://prettyuglythingsaz.etsy.com
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prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Climate change isn’t real, it’s normal for my orange tree to be blooming in *checks notes* the middle of November 👍
A bee visiting a white citrus flower
November 16, 2025 at 4:16 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
The passion flower variety Passiflora foetida is native to the US southwest. It is typically only open for a few hours, closing before the heat of the day. This is the first flower I’ve spotted on my vine!
A passion flower with white outer leaves, frilly light purple corona filaments, and a mobile-like structure raised above with yellow anthers and light green stigma. The flower is beginning to close, the petals and filaments curling in. The passion flower in the background, focus on a bud in the foreground covered with a network of fine hairy stems.
November 2, 2025 at 11:47 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Sir will you sign my ducky
A blonde rubber ducky isopod on moss held between fingers. The isopod is inspecting the fingers. It has an orange-brown body with golden yellow head and rear, and a small duck-bill face.
October 26, 2025 at 6:21 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
She has excellent taste in rocks, I dare say
A baby desert spiny lizard on a black and white stripy rock. Its eyes are nearly closed like it is resting.
October 21, 2025 at 3:15 AM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I’m slowly building a collection of milkweeds native to the Tucson area because we’re part of the monarch migration route. My plants are getting chomped by caterpillars right now—but not monarchs! These are the very similar-looking queen butterfly which has an extra set of antennae thingies
A caterpillar striped yellow, black, and white, with a set of feelers on each end and a third set about a third of the way up the body. The caterpillar is on an Arizona milkweed.
October 16, 2025 at 3:38 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
This post was perfect for today… the annual Tucson Insect Festival! These triops, named for their three eyes, were my favorite thing there (this fella was a bit rude though)
October 6, 2025 at 1:27 AM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Invertebrate? Haven’t heard of ‘em 😑
A plastic tarantula composed of bones, the abdomen is a goddamned rib cage with a spine down the back and even the fangy bits are bones
September 23, 2025 at 2:39 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
When I was growing up, I felt lied to about emeralds. All the movies showed deep green gems and then every one I saw in person looked like absolute crap. When I met dioptase I was like THIS this right here is what emerald is supposed to look like! 💚

#Dioptase with calcite and duftite (I believe)
A small mineral specimen with dioptase and small white calcite crystals on a light-colored matrix. The dioptase is emerald green with chunky crystals. Detail of some of the larger dioptase crystals with vibrant color and gemmy clarity. Detail of another set of more blue-green gemmy dioptase crystals surrounded by white calcite forming tiny rhombs. I would describe the dioptase crystal shape but not gonna lie I do not know the name for this shape. Blocky? Detail showing the underside of the specimen, mostly light colored and covered with white calcite rhombs with fine yellow-green duftite and a few dioptase crystals across the face.
September 22, 2025 at 6:51 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I feel you, my endo may have triggered ibs and fibro soooo
Doctor: Are you feeling any pain ? Me: Only the normal amount Doctor: The normal amount is zero Me: Meme of the awkward stare monkey puppet
September 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Holy crap I thought this meant they burned it somewhere close nearby, but they were using the incinerator IN the building for years without staff knowing. That is so dangerous, I would be livid!
She and other workers at the shelter put on masks and started evacuating the 75 cats and dogs that were inside before some of the workers started feeling ill, Ms. Halverson said. At the hospital, doctors wanted to know what had been burning in the incinerator. The answer, she said, was surprising: It was methamphetamine that the F.B.I. was destroying. Ms. Halverson, the shelter’s executive director, said she had never been told that federal agents burned drugs in the incinerator, which is typically used by the city’s animal control office to dispose of euthanized wild and domestic animals.
September 16, 2025 at 3:33 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Give them the ol razzle dazzle
A glamour shot of a baby spiny lizard proudly resting atop red-orange swirly layered sandstone, with plants in the background. The lizard has its back to us but is looking at the camera over its left shoulder, with its back left leg stretched out. The lizard is brown-gray patterned with white and black spots, with a black ring around the neck.
September 12, 2025 at 10:41 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Seek couldn’t narrow down the genus of jumping spider so I’m going with “cutie”
A detail view of a small jumping spider striped with light and dark brown pattern, at an angle from behind. One eye on the back of its head keeps an eye on the photographer. Another view of the jumping spider after it has climbed atop the rock, a light-colored ropy chalcedony.
September 5, 2025 at 7:11 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Tiny uppies
A small jumping spider on the edge of a ceramic pot filled with rocks. The spider has its two front legs reaching out, as if its about to jump onto a rock above it. The spider is brown with near-black patterning, with rings of alternating color down the legs. This guy is nice and fuzzy.
September 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Fluorite is my favorite mineral to collect!

(Locales: Weardale, Xinjiang, YGX, Elmwood)
Detail of a corner of a piece of Weardale fluorite with color zoning, the interior a warm purple, with a distinct white band making a sharp right angle around it, then green outside. The green is turning deep blue due to daylight fluorescence. A light purple fluorite forming a flat surface with cube and rectangular crystals protruding like a miniature city. A vertical stack of intersecting cubic fluorite crystals, a subtle violet-blue with darker coloration at the edges and centers. A large cubic fluorite with smaller intersecting cubes around the edges. The fluorite is dark purple with complex cubic surface patterning, and featuring carthage corners
September 5, 2025 at 3:11 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
This calcite hails from Irai City, Brazil.
A trio of houndstooth calcite crystals with good composition, and a smaller trio at the base. Small drill-bit habit crystals cover the surrounding matrix.
September 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Calcite ranks pretty high in my hierarchy of needs, it has a remarkable range of forms.

This variety from China is known as ‘laser’ or ‘aurora’ calcite
A wide piece of matrix covered with small glassy clear hexagonal drillbit crystals Detail of the calcite crystals, extra clear hexagonal prisms with rainbows inside Another detail image showing the ‘aurora’ colors of rainbow refraction in the calcite crystals.
September 4, 2025 at 1:44 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
It looks like this (cute)
A close view of a brown patterned baby lizard with a large head relative to its body size. Its eensy little toesies are spread out. It is definitely keeping an eye on the photographer.
September 1, 2025 at 2:36 AM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Eye test, spot the baby desert spiny lizard (difficulty 3/5)
Looking at the ground, covered with semi-rounded river stones of mixed colors. There is a tiny dark brown lizard with a ring around its neck camouflaged amongst the rocks.
September 1, 2025 at 2:32 AM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I have some favorites but dioptase vs wavellite is a tough one. I hate to see either one knocked out that early!
Detail of emerald-green dioptase crystals with lush jolly-rancher translucency A thumbnail specimen of wavellite with lime-green botryoidal structure, broken spheres showing intricate radial structure with banded layers.
August 30, 2025 at 3:23 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
The saguaros seem done fruiting for the year, but there are plenty of other types of cactus apples to be found
A Jackson Pollock-esque arrangement of three red-purple bird splats down the side of a rock.
August 21, 2025 at 9:54 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Please appreciate this moth I met! Pyrausta volupialis “volupial mint moth” according to Seek, seen in Tucson AZ
A small fuzzy moth on striped red sandstone. The moth’s wings are a subtle maroon color with a white zig-zag line across the top, a straight shite stripe below, and a white spot between. The moth’s fuzzy body appears almost green-brown in contrast.
August 21, 2025 at 3:59 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Vanadinite is one of those minerals that shows off for the camera, if only every mineral were this photogenic. These images are cropped but otherwise unedited.

The Mibladen region of Morocco is known for gemmy deep-red specimens with complex growth forms like these thumbnails
A mineral specimen of vanadinite composed of hexagonal tablet crystals with deep orange-red color, good gemmy translucency, and high surface luster, mostly covering a near-black matrix. The specimen is mounted on a glossy black acrylic square. Detail view of a vanadinite thumbnail specimen, the main crystal in focus an elongated hexagonal tablet with a smaller crystal growing out of the face, which is also sprinkled with tiny lighter orange crystals. The main crystal has a gradient of color, deep red and translucent at the top to an opaque light orange at the bottom. There is a fluid swirl pattern on the surface. Detail of a vanadinite thumbnail specimen, showing the side of a cluster of thick hexagonal crystals. The crystals are a deep red-orange and translucent on one face, transitioning about halfway through to an opaque golden brown color. There are complex stepped formations in the sides of the crystals. A vanadinite thumbnail specimen composed of a dense cluster of smaller hexagonal crystals with several larger crystals at one end. The specimen is vibrant orange-red in color with good translucency, and a few patches of yellow-orange provide nice contrast. One of the larger crystals is spotted with several tiny crystals on the main face, and has a fluid-like pattern of concentric rings on the surface.
August 16, 2025 at 4:32 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Finally we might have success! The fledgling on the left has been learning to fly over the past week and nesting among the pots overnight!

Live long and prosper little buddy.
Two morning doves on top of a concrete block wall, the one on the right smaller with scruffy feathers, and the one on the left the mother standing at attention watching the photographer
August 11, 2025 at 2:54 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
The third and forth attempts got slightly further. One had a fledgling who didn’t make it. This mother was killed (likely by a cat) while watching her nest overnight. If you look closely you can see she had built her nest on top of some paper spine cacti 😅
A proper nest of twigs built in a bowl pot. Underneath on the left is a small paper spine cactus
August 11, 2025 at 2:54 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Nest attempt number two… well outdoor breaker boxes are popular
A pile of twigs on the ground below an electric panel Distracted boyfriend meme with doves replacing the couple, who are both turning to look at electrical boxes. From r/Tucson, titled “doves in Tucson right now be like” with added text “somebody please explain to me why these doves absolutely GET DOWN on solar combiner boxes?”
August 11, 2025 at 2:54 PM