Notices by Alex Wild (alexwild@mastodon.online)

Face to face with a brown recluse, which I promise is far less dangerous that you might think. These are exceptionally shy spiders that do not bite except when literally being squished. Texas. #spiders #Loxosceles

Bluesky seems to have hit a network effect threshhold in the wake of the election, and some of the last Twitter holdout communities have re-grouped over there this week. New celebs, more sports commentators, scientists, etc, and nearing 15M users.

Mastodon also seems to be picking up a bit, but not to the same extent. I think that's fine, I've been encouraging people at Bluesky to at least have an account over here.

#Bluesky #Twitter

Meet.
Fall in love.
Wedding.
Honeymoon.
Have children.
Laundry.
Laundry.
Laundry.
Laundry.
Laundry.
Laundry.
Laundry.
Laundry.
Laundry.
Death.

The wasp mantisfly, Climaciella brunnea, is not a wasp, a mantis, or a fly. It is instead a type of spider-eating lacewing that keeps itself safe by looking like it has a painful sting, which it does not.

Evolution continues to be marvelous. #Entomology #Mantispidae #Insects

Who will pick the crops if we deport the immigrants?

It’ll be the same people, but sourced through private detention companies that take all the wages and return the immigrants to their indefinite holding cages overnight.

Chattel slavery, back again.

When you cancel your Washington Post and other billionaire-compromised media subsciptions, consider replacing them with your support for outlets still performing real journalism. Local public media, ProPublica, etc.

A snail-eating beetle, Scaphinotus, from Arizona. #insects #Scaphinotus #beetles

@AngryBlackLady it’s kinda like bluesky but more introverted and less drama. I don’t ever recall there being a person of the day over here

A male woolly bee fly hovers at a mistflower, collecting nectar. Dripping Springs, Texas.

#Insects #Flies #Bombyliidae

Brazilian court formally orders X/Twitter offline and removed from App stores following noncompliance with Brazilian law.

This could be pretty damaging to X/Twitter, as Brazil is one of their largest user bases.

#X #Twitter #Brazil

https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/twitter-fora-do-ar-justica-ordena-que-anatel-apple-e-google-impecam-acesso/

1. Carrying luggage with midlegs
2. Larvae wearing swimsuits
3. Feeding on more expensive plants that aren’t their usual fare

One of the more exciting aspects of being a collections curator is never knowing which part of the building will randomly fail. Today, an overflowing AC condensate pan over the butterfly room:

The fascists who took over Florida's once-progressive New College at the behest of Ron DeSantis have been caught dumping vast numbers of books.

#Fascism #GOPExtremism #Florida #NewCollege

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/education/2024/08/15/new-college-of-florida-throws-away-hundreds-of-library-books-diversity-lgbtq/74814756007/

Not sure the world needs yet more photographs of leafcutter ants carrying leaves, but I thought this one turned out pretty good.

Atta cephalotes, from Colombia.

#Atta #Ants #Insects #Nature

A gallery of ladybird beetles from around the world.

My favorites are the little brownish ones, because there are a ton of them and no one knows that they’re ladybirds.

#insects #beetles #Photography #Coccinellidae

https://www.alexanderwild.com/Insects/Coleoptera-Beetles/Coccinellidae

Trying not to be seen, a lichen-camouflaged treehopper (Glossonotus acuminatus) sits on an oak twig in central Texas.

#Membracidae #Bugs #Insects

The invasive Joro spiders everyone’s freaking out about do not eat monarch butterflies, recognizing them as distasteful even though the two species have no history together.

#Spiders #JoroSpiders #science

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/15/5/309

Every now and again I put a few photos into the public domain.

Here's a gallery:

https://www.alexanderwild.com/Professional/Public-Domain

@blogdiva SmugMug is great. I've been with them since 2008 and they still have excellent customer service and great design.

UT Austin, my employer, beats and jails students engaged in peaceful protest, then manufactures propaganda that deeply misrepresents what the students were doing and had planned to do.

How am I supposed to work at an institution willing to hurt any students I recruit to come here? This is untenable.

#UTAustin #Texas

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2024-05-03/uts-war-on-students/