Louis Nastasi

UIowa put out a short news story about our lab’s gall wasp work! Take a look if you want to see the excellent work that our students are doing.

Galls, thieves, and parasites: Iowa biologists unspool wild world of oak-dwelling wasps Iowa biologist Andrew Forbes’ lab, with a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, is revealing the unknown ecological world of parasitic wasps, which have value to cataloging biological diver...

However small my role may be, I’m proud to be a part of this research! @lordforbington.bsky.social @toomanywasps.bsky.social @guerin-brown.bsky.social

stories.uiowa.edu/galls-thieve...

a canva graphic that says "How it works Step 1: Go to SkypeAScientist.com Step 2: Click “Sign Up” then “Scientist Sign Up Form” Step 3: Tell us about yourself Step 4: Get matched with a classroom Step 5: Connect with the teacher Step 6: Make a kid’s day isn't that great? @SkypeAScientist"

Scientists!

@skypeascientist.bsky.social matches scientists with classrooms, libraries, & more for virtual Q&As! It's easy and fun!

We are looking for 750 more volunteers by 8/15

If you're down to chat with 1-5 classrooms this semester, sign up here
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

There's a new episode of the Arthro-Pod podcast out. We interviewed @toomanywasps.bsky.social about gall wasps, especially the understudied herb gall wasps.

www.podbean.com/eas/pb-xcecc...

Review of Herb Gall Wasp Tribes (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Aylacini Sensu lato), with an Updated Key to Cynipid Tribes and a Checklist of World Species We review the tribes of Cynipidae that are known to contain gall inducers on herbaceous plants, which are presently classified in four tribes: Aulacideini, Aylacini, Diastrophini, and Phanacidini. We ...

New #gall #wasp paper in PESW! We provide an updated key, checklist, and commentary for the four tribes of “herb gall wasps” including some nomenclatural changes. Check it out here: bioone.org/journals/pro...

Review of Herb Gall Wasp Tribes (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Aylacini Sensu lato), with an Updated Key to Cynipid Tribes and a Checklist of World Species We review the tribes of Cynipidae that are known to contain gall inducers on herbaceous plants, which are presently classified in four tribes: Aulacideini, Aylacini, Diastrophini, and Phanacidini. We ...

New #gall #wasp paper in PESW! We provide an updated key, checklist, and commentary for the four tribes of “herb gall wasps” including some nomenclatural changes. Check it out here: bioone.org/journals/pro...

RT for anyone who might want to know more about free flashcard software for memorizing things

Such as bug names

*Thesaurus.com is garbage and has been for a long time. Does anyone have recommendations for a better equivalent?

I will be working more on oaks during my postdoc which I start in August - I’d be happy to receive some samples if you’re willing to send them!

Indeed a wasp gall! But it doesn’t appear to be a described species! More info can be found on GallFormers here: www.gallformers.org/gall/4590

The cover of the book "The Social Wasps of North America". Many wasps of all shapes, sizes, and colors are arranged radially out from the center.

The cover of the book "The Cicadas of North America". Many cicadas of all shapes, sizes, and colors are arranged radially out from the center.

I've been told that it's #InsectWeek and that I should plug my work.

I'm so bad at marketing... Uhhhhh... Buy my books...!

www.owlflyllc.com/publishing

OH MY GOD it's online and it's free!! I made it for YOU keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/botw/

@codeymathis.bsky.social pop quiz

I am an expert and top identifier for several difficult-to-recognize groups. I did not contribute my knowledge to this platform only for it to be scraped and contributed to misleading generative AI features. It’s not too late to reverse course! I assure you that your users did not ask for this.

A macro photo, front three-quarter view, of a little butterfly perched on a green leaf. The butterfly has pale green eyes with black speckles, legs covered in thick yellow fuzzy hair, and orange wings sprinkled with metallic light blue patches. It is very cute.

A macro photo, side view, of a little butterfly perched on a green leaf. The butterfly has pale green eyes with black speckles, legs covered in thick yellow fuzzy hair, and orange wings sprinkled with metallic light blue bands and patches. It is very cute.

Please enjoy this ridiculously cute butterfly, which was about the size of my pinkie fingernail. It's in the butterfly family called metalmarks (Riodinidae). Males, like these, have reduced front legs and perch using only the rear 4 (females can use all 6). Sarota acantus; Costa Rica 🐙🌿 #insects

My defense went extremely well, so it’s time to update your contacts to Dr. Nastasi!!! We recorded the seminar for anyone who was unable to attend over zoom- send me a DM if interested!

Probably still better than having to establish a dozen genera to fix a trash can genus?

I got hits for all four IDs in one server - thanks for sharing! We have a lot of people sharing art, writing, etc so keeping these bots at bay is super important

It's a good time to remind folks that you can't do the "high impact big picture studies" without the "not worth publication because it's only of regional interest" localities and the "merely specimen ID and taxonomy" research.

Hey folks, my #entomology doctoral #dissertation defense seminar is May 30th from 2-3pm Eastern / 6-7pm UTC! Join in person in at 118 ASI or via Zoom (info on flyer or DM me for a direct link!). Come learn about my five years of #gall #wasp #research!

Just sent my dissertation to my committee... time to start preparing for my defense on May 30th!

So my girlfriend is an amazing stop motion animator, and she recently did a medieval cat themed bumper for Adult Swim!

Sharing it here because she only has Instagram and I think everyone needs to see her animations. She's so freaking talented, y'alls. PLEASE go follow her!

Posting this rather colorful and snazzy-looking gall midge (Cecidomyiidae) I found in the Mojave Desert recently for #flyweek !

Thanks for your encouragement, folks. As always, it gives me a little shot of enthusiasm. Here's a look at some more of my concept pages. My idea was to have some general pages that explain the fundamentals, then focus on individuals.

Important to remind everyone that this is an ILLEGAL DIRECTIVE from the Executive Branch (impoundment).

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

🔔BREAKING🔔

The NSF has frozen all research grant awards—cutting off life-saving science midstream and demanding ideological screenings for future funding.

This is censorship disguised as oversight.

Here’s how you can help us spread the word ➡️🧵(1/3):
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Scientists reel as turmoil roils National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation, a major government funder of basic science research, is being shaken up with over 1,000 grants already terminated and the White House looking to halve its budget

The National Science Foundation, a major government funder of basic science research, is being shaken up with over 1,000 grants already terminated and the White House looking to halve its budget.

The Human Genome Project cost taxpayers $3 Billion.

Two decades on, it has generated a staggering return on investment of $1 Trillion, with benefits in medicine, agriculture, energy, the environment, & more.

If you want to boost the economy, funding science is one of the best things you could do.

A wooden drawer of insect specimens in unit trays. Each of the ~85 new species has a red labelled 'Holotype', the 'official' representative of that species name for all time. Most also have one or more 'Paratypes' with yellow labels. These are, I assert, the same species, but they don't have the same status as the holotype.

A little over a month left of my time in Quito, and things are coming together. Here's one of my working drawers, freshly supplied with type labels. This is about a quarter of the new species I'll end up describing. Nice to see it reaching this stage!