Sean McCann

Would you believe this spindly guy is an assassin bug? I picked him up initially thinking he was a phasmid…then I got a closer look at the face and saw the rostrum, and the raptorial forelimbs started to make sense! He's a member of emesinae, a reduviid subfamily I didn't know about before!
#bugsky

black and yellow weevil on a green leaf with long thin rostrum and very large foot pads

Big fan of this weevil's color scheme, pointy snoot, and huge feet!

www.inaturalist.org/observations...

You might like the song "Dare to be Stupid" by Weird Al.

A screenshot of some text of a paper, with the following sentence highlighted: "One July evening last summer, while engaged in wheeling the baby (another one this time) through some tall grass in the corner of my yard, I noticed..." It continues "an Ammophila attached to a grass-stem in the peculiar..."

I love the way science used to be written. Is it necessary to know that the author was pushing his baby in a pram while making observations of insects? Perhaps not, but it provides delightful context, while assuming the reader is familiar with his previously published baby-wheeling-related work.

No. 2 and 1 in the weirdest spider palps contest (UK chapter).

Left: Labulla thoracica, right: Mastigusa arietina.

Lucky enough to see both within a week, and finally photograph Mastigusa properly (thanks to @chalkspring.bsky.social)

@tylanberry.bsky.social @britishspiders.bsky.social

Rare bird normally found in South and Central America spotted in northern Ontario | CBC News Birdwatchers from across northern Ontario and as far south as Toronto have flocked to the rural community of Foleyet to catch a glimpse of a rare bird usually found much farther south.

weird bird alert

Dispersal capacity of larval green lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae): laboratory-derived estimates and simulations
doi.org/10.4039/tce....
#NewInCanEnt

YouTube video by Colin McCann Orca at 10 Mile Point - September 19, 2025

Orca off #Saanich yesterday: youtu.be/ID-Jfrpa-WE?...
#yyj #whalewatching @ibycter.bsky.social

portrait of a male Hentzia mitrata or "White-jawed Jumping Spider" found beneath oak, NE Oklahoma, April 2025

Pretty cool publication, but I'll always be a Manual of Nearctic Diptera guy myself (but just Volume 1. They really let themselves go by Volume 2) #oldschool

Bright red ant mimic sac spider with stripy black and white and red legs and a white stripe down her carapace. She's chilling in my hand, grooming a foot

Face of the gorgeous creature, chilling in my hand.

I haven't seen as many Castianeira this year as I usually do, but this magnificent lass showed up at the end of my walk today and made me happy. Red lightning in the sand. ♥️
(still unclear which species this is, 4+ years after my first sighting)

Brown mantidfly, grabby hands clutching a small green leafhopper which she's crushed up and eating

Ms Grabby Hands, with a leafhopper snack

The Social Wasps of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, Second Edition An authoritative, stunningly illustrated guide to every species of social wasp found in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean

Preorders are out NOW for the long-awaited SECOND EDITION of THE SOCIAL WASPS OF NORTH AMERICA!

The 2nd edition includes all new up-to-date taxonomy, detailed in crisp photo-quality illustrations. This is a must-have guidebook for naturalists everywhere!

press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Dead yellow jacket wasp face first into a crevice of mossy oak bark, with 2 pseudoscorpions visible, one snacking, the other nearby in the shadows

Saw a dead yellow jacket on oak bark this evening, noticed movement and looked closer, and there were little Paratemnoides pseudoscorpions grabby hands poking out of the shadows. Seems they brought home a Big Snack to share with the community (Paratemnoides are social pseudoscorpions 🤎) 🧪

ok ok I've read the paper and as expected it is really freaking cool

the queens are effectively hijacking androgenesis! so they store the sperm of the second species, and then clone that into their eggs so that the clonal males have a nuclear DNA from their og species but mito DNA from their mother

A pika sits on a mossy rock.

Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head.

An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye.

An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.

"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.

Tips for better poster sessions » Colin Purrington's blog If you are in charge of organizing a poster session for your organization, you are in a position to dramatically improve the experience for both presenters and viewers. Below are some ideas. 1. Make s...

How to improve poster sessions at conferences. 🧪 #science colinpurrington.com/tips/poster-...

YouTube video by Travis McEnery I Spent 3 Days with Spider Scientists - Here's What I Learned

This one is a little different, but if you want to see how some spider science gets done (and how you can do it, too), you can see what I learned from @cataranea.bsky.social and @ibycter.bsky.social when they put me up for three days in St. John's!

youtu.be/6c2XqAsHnuo

A large brown and gray moth, with two prominent silver spots on a dark triangle on each forewing. Pictured on white background.

Anyone recognize this Euxoa, from Makkovik in Labrador? The larvae were munching some planted vegetables. We reared it out in hopes of an ID.

A Sagebrush Sheep Moth (Hemileuca hera) on Mount Kobau in the Okanagan. What a great place to be for bugs!

#Lepidoptera #Moth #iNaturalist

A pretty moth, quite small, resting on a cabbage leaf. It is brown, with a pale cream pattern on the top.

A fly, much like a house fly, against a white backdrop. It has red eyes and is fairly handsome, depending on your taste.

These are some little dudes that I work with, diamondback moth and cabbage maggot. Not good for brassicas!

First detection of mosquito Uranotaenia sapphirina (Diptera: Culicidae) in New Brunswick, Canada
doi.org/10.4039/tce....
#NewInCanEnt

Two very round and stubby black and orange bees, on a dried stalk, mating bee-style (like doggy-style but Bee). They're facing you, big soft compound eyes peering

Side view of the pair on the stalk

Sexy resin bees!
They're so cute and stubby. The boy's little feets on her back 🥹
#BugSex

A small male mygalomorph spider, black with a purplish abdomen, on sand, covered in dirt and debris. He is missing his front right leg.

Got visited by a dirty little male Antrodiaetus pacificus last night!

Did it not used to sit by the lake on a plinth?

A pale blue and black striped horizontal stripped beetle with long blue and black banded antenna, on a blue and black camp chair.

A pale blue and black striped horizontal stripped beetle with long blue and black banded antenna, on a blue and black camp chair, looking head on into the camera.

Look who visited us at the farmer's market: the Banded Longhorn Beetle 🪲

Three cuckoo bees clustered on a dead flower, gripping on with their mandibles. They’re black and white and have green eyes

A cluster of Coelioxys on their nighttime sleeping perch

Photograph of a young Grey Huntsman Spider (Isopeda villosa) eating a Harlequin Red Bug (Harlequin Red Bug). The spider is mottled shades of brown. The bug is on its back, exposing the bright colours of its belly: red, green, yellow, orange, and blue.

As before but a close-up of the spider's face.

Taste the rainbow.
#spiders #bugs

Closeup of a dead plant at sunset with thread waisted wasps and cuckoo bees resting

Some Ammophila and Coelioxys hanging out on a dead gumweed

two pages from our been book, lots of of images and a bit of text for each bee genera

cover of our Bees of Pennsylvania book with photo of green sweat bee

Our guide to bees of Pennsylvania is available for free now, you can order print copy (just have to pay shipping) and/or download PDF from Penn State Extension page: extension.psu.edu/bees-of-penn...

For every one of the 47 bee genera we have beautiful photo(s) and natural history facts