Ronnie M

Bugs are in trouble, and our yards are part of the answer!🍂 ➡

If each of us — you, your neighbor, your friend down the block — takes a step, that adds up to a lot.

✅Learn more about the importance of microhabitats here ➡ beecityusa.org/blog

#BeeCityUSA #Gardens #Microhabitats #LeavetheLeaves

A morsel for your #WorldFoodDay: We can grow food in ways that restore our planet’s health. Across forests, farms and seas, regenerative food practices can help reduce climate change and biodiversity loss.

Here’s how: https://nature.ly/47rGC7V

Anyone attending BeeCon in person this week and would like to grab coffee? :)

Leave the Leaves! One of the most valuable ways to support pollinators and other invertebrates is to provide them with the shelter they need to survive the winter. Thankfully, all you need to do is do less yard work.

It’s time for one of the easiest things you can do for wildlife: just #LeaveTheLeaves! Leaves are vital homes & winter shelter! 🐝
🍂 Follow our easy tips & meet the animals you’ll be saving ➡️ xerces.org/blog/leave-t...
🪧 Get your own yard sign, now available in English & Spanish ➡️ xerces.org/gifts

“Virtual Firefly Symposium: Science, Conservation, and Education” A female Florida intertidal firefly perched on a red mangrove leaf at a nature center in Broward County, Florida.

Join us for a free 3-day virtual symposium on firefly research & conservation! Each day will include 6 presentations & time for networking. Everyone interested in fireflies is invited! 🪲💡
🗓️Oct 28-30 at 9am PT / 12pm ET
🔗Register for this free event: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Two male Longhorn bees sleeping on a Cosmo flower.

Two male Longhorn bees sleeping on a Cosmo flower.

Two male Longhorn bees sleeping on a Cosmo flower.

Second Wave of Longhorns is in full swing around here. No fewer than three sets of Sleepytime Twins in the Cosmo patch on the way to work this morning (and many lone ones). [Berkeley, CA 7-2-25] #bees #nativebees

Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system.

This Indigenous Peoples' Day, it's a good time to review how Land Grant Universities have profited from stolen lands. This article only covers Land Grants; many other universities (U of Michigan, for example) have benefited similarly. (1/2) www.landgrabu.org

Striking pink bell-shaped flowers are growing together out of a stem that has oval-shaped green leaves.

You're looking at the first iNaturalist observation of Fives Heath (Erica sicula) in both Libya and North Africa more generally!

📷 abdulnaser on iNaturalist
📍 Libya
🔗: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
#ObservationOfTheDay

Want to learn how to identify insects? Come to our insect identification workshop tomorrow at 6:30 pm in Natural Science Room 352!

No prior ID knowledge necessary - feel free to bring your own specimens as well.

#msu #msuentomology #msunatsci

None of our research exists in a vacuum. We are weavers.

We take a thread of tech made to do complete a different task, join it with preclinical work from a different species, and weave it together with statical approaches that were made to ask a similar question in a completely different field. 🧵

Photo by Nash Turley

🌼 New paper showing that it's not just pollinators shaping flowers—abiotic factors like humidity and temperature also influence floral form and function. Check out this new paper on a more complex picture of floral evolution. 🌬️🐝
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Postdoctoral Fellowship - Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior

Apply to become the next MSU EEB Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow!

These are two year positions with research stipend, working with 2+ MSU EEB faculty. Applications due 10 November 2025. More here:

eeb.msu.edu/initiatives/...

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

The future of environmental stewardship is Indigenous - Alliance magazine Lessons from the Great Bear All along the coastal waters of the Great Bear Sea, First Nations Guardians navigate networked waterways, patrolling protected areas, conducting research, and monitoring salmon populations and their habitats. Some 1,500 ...

Indigenous-led conservation is reshaping philanthropy. A new Alliance Magazine article spotlights how the PFP model empowers long-term stewardship and sovereignty. Read how First Nations leaders are driving change.

Spartan scientists contribute to global examination of pollinator habitat MSU Entomology professor and former graduate student collaborate with team of 80 researchers to examine global pollinator landscape needs

MSU Entomology professor Dr. Rufus Isaacs and former graduate student Dr. Gabriela Quinlan collaborated with a team of 80 researchers on a global study examining pollinator habitat needs in agricultural landscapes!

Read more: www.canr.msu.edu/news/spartan...

#Entomology #Ecology #Conservation 🧪🌎🍁

Another exciting discovery from 2025! Though the half-black bumble bee is fairly common in other parts of the US, Missouri is at the southern extent of its range, so this is a rare find.

Learn more about the Atlas and how you can get involved at our website: bumblebeeatlas.org

The Salmonfly Project: Anglers, Insect Conservation, and the Future of Freshwater Streams | Bug Banter Podcast Insects play a critical role in rivers, lakes, and streams, acting as a vital food source for many animals and maintaining the health of these freshwater ecosystems. A few of these insects include: ma...

Like rivers & lakes full of fish? Then you need rivers & lakes full of insects!
On this #BugBanterPodcast we'll dive underwater to meet freshwater insects, & discover the conservation work they need!
Audio & transcript 📻 xerces.org/bug-banter/s...
Video w/ captions 📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=22sh...

Are you a POC student, early career researcher, or professional entomologist from a country in the Global South?

We are now funding memberships!
Apply from October 1st to December 15th.

More info:
www.entopoc.org/apply.html
Apply:
docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLS...

Tired of the corruption and anti-science in our government? You're not alone—and you don't have to do it alone!

Meet like-minded scientists, activists, and allies in Stand Up for Science at our two Action Hours coming up this month — Join us in the fight to protect science!

zurl.co/viaW8

Consider signing - Petition to NSF to Restore Eligibility for the 2026 Graduate Research Fellowship Program Competition 🧪🌐https://laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

A large very furry bee stands on a cluster of small white flowers.

This bee looks like it just got back from the salon. Such perfect floof and a marvelous mustache

#invertebrates 🌿 🐝

Ive worked with @jhemberger.bsky.social, Ellie Darling, and Malorie Pangilinan on logos for MSU Bee Palooza. I dont have the other two on bluesky but I could send you their emails!

You're absolutely right!

Painted lady butterfly, Nymphalidae, from Bandera County Texas, Lost Maples State Park. It's a closeup of the head and wings; the antennae have "knobs" on the end, and the wings are a pretty pattern of mossy browns with a splash of pinkish orange. The "knobs" on the antennae are characteristic of Nymphalids, and their first pair of legs are reduced.

Holy cow a lot is going on in the US right now. You may also need to take a deep breath and look closely at a painted lady butterfly.

Job Posting - University of Illinois
Assistant/Associate Professor in Agroecology

"[...W]ill serve as Director of the Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture Program (ASAP). ASAP aims to promote sustainable food systems while conserving biodiversity."

illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

You may also need a beestache this evening 🐝

A gulf fritillary visiting pinkscale blazingstar

Palamedes swallowtail

A grasshopper visiting pinkscale blazingstar

Pinkscale blazingstar

Pinkscale blazing star (Liatris elegans) is blooming in the SRS Corridor Project experiment and attracting many visitors

Healthcare is a basic human right

Housing is a basic human right

Education is a basic human right

Food, clean air and water are basic human rights

A universal basic income would ensure everyone has their most basic needs met

It’s doable, we just have to demand the rich pay their fair share!

We need much more semi-natural habitat (6-37%, depending on species group) in agricultural landscapes to effectively conserve pollinators. Large collaborative synthesis study looking at 59 studies in 1250 landscapes from 19 countries now published in Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Find a classroom to support | DonorsChoose DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on our site, and you can give any amount to the p...

These teachers at historically underfunded schools have insect related projects -- Donations at @donorschoose.bsky.social are DOUBLED today! 🍎❗🧪🪲🐛 www.donorschoose.org/donors/searc...