Paul Manning

Photo of a rather small circular painting with a stylized black bird who is having fun eating red berries. The bird is standing on a bright yellow background and there is a simple stylized tree or branch with big red berries and dark green leaves behind it. The animal is most likely either raven or black crow with a huge round eye and it has one big berry in its mouth. There are singular berries and a couple of leaves around the background too to fill it up. The bird also has a red bandana with white, yellow and green details in it.

Caw caw and some berries
#art ✧ #bird ✧ #painting ✧ #berry

Photo of a rock surface completely covered in multiple lichen species. Colours include orange, yellow, grey, white and black.

Lichen collage. On lakeside rock, Northwest Territories, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Nocturne: Labrador Gorge
Christine Koch
2011

This is driving me nuts. It just looks too much like an antenna. @jennyperry.bsky.social - how did it pop out of the strider? Did you see it moving? What was the size? What are you feeding the striders in lab? I'm invested!

A vibrant pink flower with five petals.

A vibrant pink flower with five petals. The plant has deep green, round leaves and a thick stem.

The plant has deep green, round leaves and a thick stem.

The plant has deep green, round leaves and a thick stem.

You're looking at the very first observation of this species (Symplocos psiloclada) on iNaturalist!

📷 jhon_yuca on iNaturalist
📍 Peru
🔗: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
#ObservationOfTheDay

Very small black beetle with fan shaped antennae and wings spread

Very small black beetle with fan shaped antennae and wings folded back

Rhipidioides sp.

This very small male Rhipidioides sp. beetle was a new visitor to our moth light this week. This is the only recorded observation in Western Australia. The larvae of this species parasitises cockroaches🪳
#ausinverts #wildoz #beetle #coleoptera #inaturalist

Animals (Kingdom Animalia) Animals from East Gore, NS B2S 3C9, Canada on June 23, 2025 by Jen Perry. Emerged from an adult male water strider, Gerris insperatus, collected June 4, 2025. Emerged back...

Anyone know what this is? Popped out of a water strider in Nova Scotia. Observation by @jennyperry.bsky.social. 🌿🪱 #gerridae #hemiptera #parasite #inaturalist www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Bronze plaque saying "A Letter to the Future. Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it. August 2019. 415ppm CO2"

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque:
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

Aw, thanks so much for the kind words Gwen! Really proud of this work! Hope your December is off to a great start!

Here’s my Spotify Wrapped 🎵✨

The East Room
Thomas Forrestall
1965

who decided to call it Secret Santa when Nondisclosure Claus was right there

Infection behavior, life history, and host parasitism rates of Emblemasoma erro (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), an acoustically hunting parasitoid of the cicada Tibicen dorsatus (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) - Zoo... Background ‘Eavesdropping’ parasitoids find their hosts by homing in on the communication signals of other insects. These parasitoids often exploit chemical communication, but at least some species of...

The final journal club in my entomology class is Stucky (2015) link.springer.com/article/10.1... Infection behavior, life history, and host parasitism rates of Emblemasoma erro (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), an acoustically hunting cicada parasitoid. It is *SUCH* a cool paper!

Millipede Assassin (Ectrichodia crux) Millipede Assassin from Klein Windhoek, Windhoek, Namibia on January 17, 2009 at 07:09 AM by Peter Erb

One of the joys of poking around iNaturalist is learning about organisms I had never heard about. Enough surprises to fill several lifetimes. E.g., here are millipede assassins doing their thing in Namibia. #inaturalist #hemiptera #millipedes #namibia www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Happy Birthday Steve! Have an absolutely fantastic day ^_^

Flat ncie looking grasshopper

Part 174 of 200 in historically interesting things to inspire your ttrpg dnd

Lid weight made of Haematite carved in the shape of a grasshopper,hand-carved between 1800-1700 BC, in ancient Babylonia.

It is *so* the perfect season for knitting. Would love to see what you're working on! ^_^ I'm using this as a sign to pick-up my needles again... maybe a christmas stocking or a hat...

Black and white drawing of cats. Cartoony - surrounded by plants. Some hiding.

Creating has really taken a back-seat to reading and running! But I have a little sketchbook on the go, and that's been fun! I thought this one was fun - going to add some colour later!

Comic. Panels up to the 10-year point are grayed out. New panels since the Ten Years comic, which chronicles the first ten years of PERSON 1's journey with cancer: (1) [two people in bed] PERSON 1 (woman): One more chapter? PERSON 2 (man): Don’t we both have to get up early? PERSON 1: Nnnnnggggh PERSON 2: Sure, good point. (2) [many people wearing masks, walking while looking at graphs on their phones] (3) [birds landing on people] PERSON 2 in beanie and scarf: Hah! They like *my* seeds best. PERSON 1 in scarf holding phone with a bird sitting on it: Wait, how do I take a picture of this one? (4) [two people rowing boats with tree landscape] (5) [Person 1 carries overflowing stack of things to Person 2 in bed] PERSON 1: I brought you honey lemon tea, more pillows, a cinnamon roll, Tylenol, another blanket, a– PERSON 2: It was just Appendicitis, I’m really– PERSON 1: *It is my turn to take care of you and I am going to do it right!* (6) [Two people in car] (7) [still in car) PERSON 1: Oh my god. PERSON 2: Oh my god. (8) [car driving] PERSON 1: Pull over! PERSON 2: I am! (9) [both people get out of car] (10) [Large colored panel of aurora borealis over water with both people looking on] (11) [Person 1 sits against tree while Person 2 lies on the ground] PERSON 1: Fifteen years. No sign of the cancer. (12) I *am* having some weird symptoms. Joint pain. Fatigue. I think I’m losing my close-up vision. PERSON 2: Yeah. Me too. (13) PERSON 2: I think we’re getting old. (14) PERSON 1: I guess that’s okay. PERSON 2: It’s all I wanted.

Fifteen Years

xkcd.com/3172/

Carly that is so sweet! 10/10! Love seeing you share your creative work, thanks for the little positive boost ^_^

The secrets of the extreme durability of odonata wings Abstract. Essential properties considered in the design, fabrication, and application of contemporary bio/nanomaterials have been modeled on adaptations of

Terrific new paper by @jessicalwarelab.bsky.social and others on dragonfly wings, in particular the hydrocarbons which act in multiple ways - structurally, pheromonally and in terms of water resistance. Wish I were still teaching, I'd use this as a great example. of multiple adaptations.

No Longer Feel Alone
Mike Gough
2025

when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean

Today’s xkcd made me cry.

In a good way.

xkcd.com/3172/

A male Anna’s hummingbird at the door. So nosy! 🤣

Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.

This is who it was:

ChatGPT’s signature writing style is everywhere now, and I hate it. It reminds me of when we tried mixing all the beverages at the soda fountain in middle school. We didn’t actually create the perfect drink, we just made a cloying monstrosity that lost everything good about its constituent parts.

Close-up photograph of a praying mantis on autumn leaves with wings spread. White text reads "GO FIND SOME INSECTS"

Close-up photograph of an orange insect with metallic purple-pink eyes. White text reads "There are over one million described insect species on the planet (so far)! You can look for insects anywhere — whether it's right where you live, at a local park, or anywhere you might travel — and you don't need any equipment to get started."

Close-up photograph of an orange insect on a green leaf. Gray text box reads "START SEARCHING FOR INSECTS... • Under rocks, logs, and leaf litter • On (or inside) flowers • Around outdoor lights at night • In garden areas or compost piles • Nestled into tree bark or branches • Near water sources like ponds, streams, wetlands, or even fountains and bird baths • Even sidewalk cracks can host cool insects!" White text at bottom reads "PLEASE CAREFULLY PUT BACK ANYTHING YOU DISTURB!"

There are over a million insect species (that currently have scientific descriptions, at least), and they're *everywhere* ... under rocks, on flowers, around lights at night, in tree bark, and more.

Sooooo close! Fingers crossed for next time! Enjoy your time in Italy! ^_^