Nancy 🪲SciBugs🪲 Miorelli

NEED TO KNOW:

There are over 20,000 species of bees across the planet.

Around 90% of these bee species are Solitary Bees.

40% of bee species are endangered.

There are only 8 honey bee species.

Honey bees are not endangered.

1/2

#bees #nature
#science #education
#pollinators
#worldbeesanctuary

A close up on a watercolour painting on a kingfisher

An in progress painting of a kingfisher in watercolours

A progress update on yesterday’s partial sketch 🥰 Still very much a work in progress

#watercolours #birdart 🪶

If ever there was a day to announce it - it's today.

My paper (one I own) is finally online - we've got fact checking local politics, a spotlight on girls HS sports & Crawlies and MORE!

Celebrating 50 years (I did NOT own in in 1976 lol) of publication

Check us out!

upperrogueindependent.com

This toucan is struggling

As one of my guide friends says

"If you believe in climate change, its climate change.

If you don't believe in climate change ... it's climate change"

We're seeing birds in all sorts of places we haven't historically seen them. Their altitunidal restrictions and lines are becoming quite blurred.

When i first moved to Ecuador (2015 ish) every bird book ever was like "this is a coastal species!"

Then there was a runaway population near thr airport. Now theyre common inthe dry forests around Guayllabamba.

Now theyre all the way in the Amazon on the opposite side of the country.

Thank you!!

Omg right? Some of the bird names are hilarious

Nature journal page. Watercolor in a graphic style featuring the Green Jay with his bronelia crown. A copper chrysomelid beetle done in metallic paint. And the toucan choking on a grape.

Nature journal page. Watercolor done in a graphic style. A male and female masked trogon. A very cool psocoptera we found and a chestnut bellied chat tyrant. Plus a little sketchy diagram of a wren hopping up the lodge stairs

A nature journal page. Done in wafercolor and a graphic style showing a small stick covered in moss, lichens, and a bromelia. The lichens are in their sporing stage. The text reads "This is a small stick (~8 Inches and pinkie width) that was COVERED in lichens and mosses and had a small bromelia on it. It looked like a coral reef with all the stuff on it!"

And here are my nature journal pages with some of our finds

Here is said majestic toucan struggling to get down a grape.

A colorful toucan with a slate blue body and dark black cap and wings. He's eating a grape. His bill is reddish pink on the end with yellow and blue thick stripes

Turqoise Jay. Arguably royal blue with a pale cap and a black mask.

Green jay posing in front of a red bromelia so it looks like he has a crown. Yellow belly green with green. A black bib and a blue face with a bright yellow eye. He's a lot to look at especially because his tail is kind of ratty. Looks like he just came out of a rave.

A plump trogon. Dark forest green ba j with a red eyering and bright red belly. Hung around the lodge like he owned the place. He probably does own the place.

Here are some cloud forest birds we found at Gaungo Lodge, Ecuador.

Gray breasted Mountain Toucan
Turqoise Jay
Green Jay (sporting a bromelia crow )
Masked Trogon

One of the biggest tells of gen-AI ants is the waist.

I think this is because most ants belong to one of two subfamilies- Myrmicinae and Formicinae- that have very different waist structures, but the algorithms often average them into fake ants in a non-existent morphospace in between.

Some critters from this year's #EvoTour in the Amazon Jungle with @scibugs.bsky.social

(she can do custom tours for you or your group too on scibugs.wetravel.com)

Can you name all the species, or at least the genera?

Nothing but the pink bus for our tours!

Im so happy you guys were with us ❤️ 🪲

Photography of millipedes, centipedes, and other leaf litter critters — Derek Hennen I get questions about my microscope and photography setup every so often, and it’s about time I centralize this information. It took me a while to figure out a system that works for me, and now I have...

I've been asked recently about my microscope & photography set up, so I finally wrote it up! Learn more here, or just enjoy some nice photos of animals I've found in the leaf litter of Appalachia: www.derekhennen.com/blog/2025/12/31/photography-of-millipedes-centipedes-and-other-leaf-litter-critters

YouTube video by SciBugs 11. Justice and the Locust Swarm

Here is the process video
youtube.com/shorts/TQhTF...

a tarot card. The plaque says "11. Justice" In a stylized gouache painting, many yellow desert locusts swarm the sky and the grass.

Justice and the locust swarm.
And with that I managed to finish the major arcana by the end of the year! #Stoked

Maybe I'll put them all in order in a long thread. Let me know if you'd be interested in that.

YouTube video by SciBugs 13. Death and the Chrysalis

youtube.com/shorts/y1uyC...

The process video and what goes on in the chrysalis

A tarot card. The plaque reads '13. Death" A golden chrysalus is painted on a black background

Death and the golden chrysalis.
A time of change, transformation, and reflection

Cold weather brings out the weirdos in the leaf litter, so it's time to get out there!

Watercolor painting of a derpy looking blue bird with black beak and big eyes. It has black legs.

For day 18 of #ArtAdventCalendar is the derpy blue borb, which for some reason is my bestseller sticker on inprnt.com

so if you like the blue borb, you can get a print or sticker: www.inprnt.com/gallery/luci...

#TraditionalArt #Art #ArtForSale #MastoArt #waterColor #sticker #BirdArt

I too am burnt out and jaded by the social media hustle. I now just use my Instagram like a portfolio and as a place to direct ppl in case they ask

A digital painting hand done using Procreate on an iPad, this ruby slippers Echevaria has a trio of fuzzy rosettes that turn from green at new growth to a deep crimson on the edges and older outermost leaves. It seems to glow, and has been accented with gold leaf to highlight the long, fleshy, drop shaped leaves and their geometric arrangement against the dark background.

For day 13 of #ArtAdventCalendar I thought I’d show off my most Christmassy feeling #plant painting- Echevaria Ruby Slippers. It turns this fantastic crimson in full sun.

Mine was unfortunately eaten to nubs by my pet lionhead rabbit BunBun and is still recovering. 😅
🌱 🌵 🪴 🐡 #art #HumanMadeArt

Three women on a large wooden Hercules beetle. Two people have butterfly wings

When you get the entomologists together at the Monteverde Butterfly Garden

#ComunidadIG Trabajos de monitoreo interinstitucional en el volcán El Reventador, provincias de Napo y Sucumbíos.

Más información en el siguiente enlace:
👉 igepn.short.gy/Ux0HKH

Slop graphics in academic journals Use this form to share graphics (e.g., figures, covers, graphical abstracts) made using generative A.I. that have appeared in academic journals. The plan is to compile these slop graphics in an ope...

If you run across a gen A.I. slop 🤖💩 diagram in an academic journal, I’d love to know about it! Please fill out this form:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.

#AcademicChatter

18th Century illustration of Cotacachi. The town was founded in 1544 by Friar Pedro de la Peña. He was a Dominican priest who later became a Bishop of Quito.

So what does Cotacachi mean? According to some, it's a reference to the town's once-thriving salt market.

You know - I've considered. But I use a lot of images not under creative commons and also - I like having presentations that are special for my tours. That people can't find on the internet. I think it makes it something special for them.