franz, #InverteFest 25-31 Aug

A little process video of me painting a landscape digitally!

#art #illustration

Ink and watercolor drawing of an Opabinia, a tiny marine creature who looks kind of like a shrimp with flaps along its side and an elephant's trunk.

The Opabinia is an extinct marine creature, only around 7 cm long, who probably didn't have a silly expression like the one I drew for #AugArthroAwe

A green dragon (leafy sea dragon design) and her rider on Watch.

Today on #AsianPernFen

I am thinking about the stories riders on Watch can have and share.

yeeeeeeeeyyy purple friend

Pencil drawing of Opabinia regalis labeled as such. It's from the 90s so it is interpreted from Marianne Collins reconstruction with no legs and no obvious mouth. I got the setal blades on the flaps right at least! There is a rock structure below it and some random turquoise pencil streak next to it. In the top right I also drew Marrella splendens

Quickly doodled pen sketch of Utaurora comosa in one of my lined lab notebooks from 2021. I was explaining it to a student. I noted the dorsal furrows, setal blades across the dorsal and flaps (actually this is bad at showing that), 7 pairs of tail fan blades, and serrated caudal rami which I discovered. I also drew a few ventral lobopodian legs, and didn't draw the end of the proboscis because we don't know. I put the 5 eyes even though we also don't know for Utaurora

How it started / how it's going:

For today's #AugArthroAwe I thought surely I have something already!

At left, my Opabinia drawing circa 1997-1999 (based on where the sketchbook was). At right, Utaurora, an opabiniid I described in 2022. #SciArt ⚒️🦑

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

yeah that's such a narrow range but it probably makes sense that there'd be lots of tiny endemic things we never thought of!

ooh another cool pick with a cool back story!

Handwritten text reads: #Insert An Invert 28: Subterranean (stygofauna) Hay's Spring Amphipod (stygobromus hayi) Stygofauna live in groundwater ecosystems. This tiny crustacean is endemic to groundwater beneath Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., and only occasionally is seen spilling out into shallow seepages.

The latest #InsertAnInvert2024 in 2025 is a minute resident of a park my sister in law's family loves. They'll probably never see it but I think they'll enjoy hearing about it!

wtaf

oh wow the fuzz is odd. do other plecos have this too?

goals tbh

Illustration of a red, purple, and gold crab eating a pink and blue fish. There are Taino inspired designs around it and handwritten text "burukéna"

Buruquena/Epilobocera sinuatifrons, our endemic freshwater crab, for #AugArthroAwe! Burukéna is a surviving Taino word 🖤

Photograph of a hand holding a small piece of tree bark, on which is painted a tiny horseshoe crab and other sea creatures admid the actual algae growing on the bark.

I was trying to think of something unique for today's #AugArthroAwe prompt Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab. While I was outside, I picked up some bark that had tiny algae on it, so I decided to draw on it.

Can anyone recommend free or cheap effective software that converts scans of handwritten text into editable digital text or word-type files.

yes sophie?

hand holding a folded slice of bread, hard boiled egg in the middle

rate my dinner

OOOH it's shrimp time!!! hope you're enjoying it

it's awesome how transparent you are with these, it helps new devs set their plans and expectations better

i wake up around noon and only start functioning around 9pm, this is too relatable

your good mornings are getting more and more elaborate!

IT'S BUG TIME

WORM TIME

I am all too familiar with the price of medical care for animals. Ken is a legit person and will draw you something purdy!

Ken's also still puttering around Twitter so let's show em how we do here on Bluesky 😘

August Arthropod Awesomeness 2025 1 Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab, Tachypleus tridentatus, 2 Opabinia, Middle Cambrian (505mya), 3 Black Bladder-bodied Meloid, Cysteodemus wislizeni, 4 Devil Reef Crab, Zosimus aeneus 5 Rhombic Leatherbug Syromastus rhombeus, 6 Epimeria rubrieques, 7 Phantom Crane Fly, Bittacomorpha clavipes, 8 Japanese Rhinocerous Beetle, Allomyrina dichotoma, 9 Bluff Wētā, Deinacrida elegans, 10 Jaekelopterus, Early Devonian (410 mya), 11 European Oil Beetle, Meloe variegatus, 12 Giant Antarctic Sea Spider, Decolopoda australis, 13 Shoveller Crayfish, Scyllarides elisabethae, 14 Slug Caterpillar, Thosea vetusta, 15 Tropical Tent-web Spider, Cyrtophora citricola, 16 Long-necked Ground Beetle, Colliuris pensylvanica, 17 Callichimaera perplexa, Middle Cretaceous (95 mya), 18 Fluffy Crab, Lamarckdromia beagle, 19 Rain Spider Wasp, Tachypompilus ignitus, 20 Striped Gooseneck Barnacle, Conchoderma virgatum, 21 Coffee Bee Hawkmoth, Cephonodes hylas, 22 Walker's Moth, Sosxetra grata, 23 Giant African Fruit Beetle, Chelorrhina Polyphemus, 24 Skeleton Shrimp, Caprella penantis, 25 Dragonhunter, Hagenius brevistylus, 26 Pseudopulex jurassicus, Jurassic (165 mya), 27 Spoonwing Lacewing, Nemoptera sinuata, 28 Ant Mimic Moth, Xestocasis iostrota, 29 Giant Emerald Pill Millipede, Zoosphaerium neptunus, 30 Neon Cuckoo Bee, Thyreus pictus, 31 Black Beauty Stick Insect, Peruphasma schultei #AugArthroAwe @thefuzzyslug Green field with segmented caterpillar squiggle decoration at the bottom of the page, a few icon-like bugs scattered around.

Templates available! https://tinyurl.com/augarthroawe Art card size 2.5”x3.5” A gray scale card template with areas for art, common name, and scientific name, text above “color me in!” squiggle arrow pointing to template then over to a filled in example with an illustration of a tri-spine horseshoe crab, tachypleus tridentatus. Between the two, “or not! You do you!”

August is upon us and there's a new bug filled #MonthlyArtChallenge in town! 💖🦀🐛🐝🕷🦐🪲💖

Celebrate all the good bugges with August Arthropod Awesomeness! Old and new bugges! It's bugs all the way down!
Templates and refs: tinyurl.com/augarthroawe

#AugArthroAwe #ArtPrompt #arthropod #SciArt

Corporate clients:
-Are you available? [Ghosts you]
-Pays 45 days after project completion, no up front payment
-puts you on hold for revisions for a million years so you can't file final invoice
-Pays late
-you've been working for us for years so can you give us a discount this time

Are Fireflies Going Extinct? Here Are Six Ways To Make Sure They Survive Is this the last generation to see fireflies? We don’t think so. But we need to take action now to ensure they’re here to stay.

Social media is abuzz—not just with reports of fireflies, but with a startling claim: that this is the last generation to experience their dazzling light show. 🪲💡
Our firefly team has been getting this question for weeks, so today we are bringing you some answers!⤵️
xerces.org/blog/are-fir...

i'll try to add this to the cover

𝘱𝘴𝘴𝘵

I know I get real spammy with my art comms and stuff but also, hey if you can, you should buy artwork from artists.

This is how we keep human-made art around: paying artists to make it so they don't have to go do some other fuckin' job to make ends meet.

they might not be visible from the outside but they strike fear deep inside your heart