Donna Giberson (Elbows UP!) 🇨🇦🇺🇦

Source of image: https://heterodoxacademy.org/blog/social-science-pandemic-cultural-evolution/

A tenure-track faculty position (Professor of Evolutionary Biology) is open at #UQAR in Quebec, Canada. Teaching in French. Application deadline: 4 May 2026. Details: www.csz-scz.ca/job-postings... 🧪

There was even a vial with an elaterid in amongst my mayfly vials. Don't think you'd be too interested, though, as it was a wireworm from the Ag station.

Green Party news release about the pending closure of the Diptera unit at the Canadian National Collection of Insects
www.greenparty.ca/en/news/gree...

An historic black and white illustration of a paper nautilus floating on the ocean. There are boats, a city and hills in the background.

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪

Very old ethanol. Some dark brown from a combo of bleeding from old stoppers & from the exoskeletons on the insects. All were examined in 80% ethanol & placed in clean vials with fresh 80% ethanol. The real work tho was deciphering the labels to make them readable! Most specimens were in good shape!

a map of eastern Canada, with black dots showing sites in Newfoundland and Labrador where mayflies were collected during the 1970s and 1980s.

photos shows a desk with microscopes set up for identifying mayflies, and a shelf unit filled with vial racks. Each rack contains several vials of mayflies, collected in the 1970s and 80s by workers at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

A vial rack containing vials of mayflies collected in the 1970s and 80s by workers at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Vials contain from one to several dozen specimens, and these were opened, labels updated with georeferenced locality information, and identifications updated as much as possible with current taxonomic information.

A selection of vials of mayflies collected in the 1970s and 80s by workers at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Vials contain from one to several dozen specimens, and these vials were opened, labels updated with georeferenced locality information, and identifications were updated as much as possible with current taxonomic information. These specimens will be returned to the Newfoundland Museum, The Rooms, for long term storage.

Big milestone day for me: finished curating ~1400 archived vials from several 1970s/80s collecting expeditions in Newfoundland & Labrador. Result: >15,000 specimens & 66 species of mayfly. Breakdown: 63 from Labrador, 25 from Isl. of Newfoundland; 25 in common. 37 genera represented, in 12 families.

The pictured ones were from archived samples from Newfoundland & Labrador so I didn't collect them. I have collected them from fast moving streams in New Brunswick though - just a normal Hess sampler with 200um mesh for larvae, and emergence traps for adults.

They were common in a small stream I worked on in New Brunswick (Canada) many years back, but I hadn't encountered any since then, so this was a real treat!

📚 Four special issues will be published as a major scientific output of our conference.

The participating journals are Pedobiologia, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Applied Soil Ecology and Journal of Sustainable Agriculture & Environment.

globalsoilbiodiversity2026.org/journals-spe...

Accommodations - Global Soil Biodiversity Conference 2026 Accommodations Stay with Us: Conference Hotels for #GSB2026 The #GSB2026 Local Organizing Committee is excited to partner with four outstanding hotels, all within walking distance of the Victoria Conf...

🛏 Have you booked your accommodations yet?

Two of our hotels are fully booked, but you can still get a room at a discounted rate in other two hotels (Marriot and Parkside). Don't miss out! #GSB2026

globalsoilbiodiversity2026.org/accommodatio...

a pair of mating Nymphomyia walkeri adults. These tiny little flies would have feathery wings when they first emerge, but lose their wings when they re-enter the water to mate.

A larva of Nymphomyia walkeri from Newfoundland. This is a tiny little white worm-like larva with a shiny head and little prolegs all along the abdomen.

Dorsal view of a Blepharicera tenuipes larva from Labrador, Canada. The larvae is a pale tan in colour, with a darker mark on its head. Each segment is expanded out on each side, with a proleg on each side.

Ventral view of a Blepharicera tenuipes larva from Labrador, Canada. The larvae is a pale tan in colour, and each segment is expanded, with a dark, circular sucker in the centre to help the larva hold on to rocks in fast water. Little finger-like gills can also be seen on each segment.

Quite a treat to encounter some cute little Diptera in vials inadvertently included amongst my Newfoundland and Labrador mayfly vials: these are Nymphomyiids and blepharicerids.

Relationship of Trichoptera species in Iceland with Europe and North America In the present study we examine the geographic variation in the COI mtDNA barcode marker in eight Trichoptera species from Iceland to determine their postglacial colonisation history. The patterns in ...

Unraveling how Iceland’s #caddisflies colonised the island after the last Ice Age, this study uses COI mtDNA barcodes to trace multiple waves of arrival and unique Iceland-only lineages. The results reveal... doi.org/10.3897/zook...

#phylogeography #trichoptera

Hydrology Paper of the Day @richard-fewster.bsky.social on quantifying how Arctic peatlands change due to global warming: 12 peatlands and transects in Europe and Canada; drone aerial surface photography and 91 soil monoliths; quantitative methods of dating; and how peatlands have expanded.

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.

Two brightly-coloured houses on sunny day in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories.

We are in #Ulukhaktok, #NorthwestTerritories this week to conduct #InuitKnowledge workshops on the distribution of #KingEiders and #CommonEiders, supporting ongoing community-led initiatives to use #Inuvialuit knowledge on #eiders to inform the development of a #MarineProtectedArea in the region.

Professeure, professeur en biologie évolutive Selon la convention collective en vigueur. Les personnes intéressées sont priées de soumettre leur dossier de candidature incluant un CV, une proposition de programmation de recherche (max 5 pages)…

2 postes de prof à l'UQAR!
Biologie évolutive www.uqar.ca/emploi/profe...
Chaire de recherche en Résilience et adaptation des organismes et écosystèmes nordiques www.uqar.ca/emploi/appel...

Predicting landscape disturbance using adult Trichoptera: one (caddis) metric to rule them all? The adult stage of Trichoptera is valuable for assessing the biotic integrity of streams; however, it is not clear which specific metric(s) have the greatest value for doing so. In this study, >500...

Aquatic insects are key indicators of stream health, but which metrics work best? 🤯 By sampling >500,000 adult #caddisflies (299 species) from 903 stream sites across the northcentral United States, this study puts bioassessment metrics to the test ➡ doi.org/10.3897/zook...

Danielle Smith Is No Separatist. She’s Much Worse | The Tyee The premier’s referendum plan is destructive, divisive and ultimately evil.

The Tyee has republished my post on Danielle Smith's fear-sowing, xenophobic, unconstitutional 'referendum' plans. thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026...

ski cross sabre fencing.

Part of a litter sample from one 1m2 plot (Harvard Forest, plot 100S, Macrosystems transect, 2013). These mites represent a "mesofauna" that is as daunting as it is fantabulous.

It takes a certain blend of self-confidence and derangement to study the ecology of oribatid mites.

Just One More Goal
Bill Brownridge
2013

there's no such thing as a "non-controversial" topic in a university... all knowledges, in any field, are the result of ongoing controversy and debate and disagreement... that university boards and admin aren't able or willing to make that argument really is appalling

Under Northern Skies
Elizabeth Lennie
c. 2025

Dragontail butterflies.

Yesterday, I got to see the oldest book in our Canadian Agriculture Library 🍁

It’s almost 400 years old!

📖 Insects.- Moffet (Thomas) Insectorum sive minimorum animalium theatrum, first edition, woodcuts, contemporary calf, Thomas Cotes...[and] William Hope, 1634.

Bug science is cool!
🐞🪲🪳🐛🐜🧪

BC’s Newest Record Label Sows Local Talent | The Tyee ‘I want to have a music farm stand,’ says Smithers artist launching Understory Records this month.

Yay for Naomi! I still have a band shirt from what I think was her first group here in Prince George.

Via @amandafollett.bsky.social
www.thetyee.ca/Culture/2026...

Reupping my only sports celebrity claim to fame is that I have played Brad Jacobs once in Wednesday night Soo Men's league. Threw lead stones against him and we got our asses handed to us. Congratulations to the local boy!

I willingly own up to being kind of old, but I still love my iPod. It stays connected to my old Sony Dream Machine iPod dock and provides endless music from my younger years, while I putter away at identifying Canadian mayflies. 🙂

Curling in the Back Lane
Terry Annany
n.d.

still unclear to me how the species made it this far