Ellen O. Martinson

That's a weird one! It looks to be a rust gall, which are formed by fungi. You should upload your finding to gallformers (www.gallformers.org/gall/3482) so there can be a second observation of it!

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...

go.bsky.app/8zZNEGV

Great resource to connect early career folks with more senior scientists looking to hire postdocs! 🧪

Hey #Evol2025 - My colleague @waspvenom.bsky.social and I are looking for a postdoc for our #NSF - #USDA funded grant to understand the genetic basis of gall formation! Please see that attached ad, and feel free to talk to me @evolmtg.bsky.social, or contact Dr. Ellen Martinson directly!

If you see this post a flower🪷

The Rocky Mountain Irises are blooming in Northern New Mexico!

NSF Grant Termination Information Collection Form Please use this form to submit information identifying specific NSF grants that have been cancelled for any reason after January 20, 2025. We are tracking these grants to increase transparency, organize affected PIs, and facilitate responses, including via litigation. Please share the form as widely as possible with your networks. We are actively building a pipeline to organize these terminations and will soon have a tracker akin to our NIH grant tracker at https://airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJLocRy/shrNto1NNp9eJlgpA WE WILL NOT DISCLOSE THE IDENTITY OF ANYONE WHO USES THIS FORM TO PROVIDE INFORMATION. We will keep your identity confidential. These resources are maintained by Noam Ross of rOpenSci and Scott Delaney of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with input and support from additional volunteers. For any questions, please contact Scott Delaney on Signal (sdelaney.84). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE!

🚨Report your NSF grant terminations! 🚨

We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely!

airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

The Democrats on the House Science Committee have set up a website to collect stories from fired federal employees, anonymously if desired. Please amplify. (This helps the lawyers establish standing for bringing legal cases against the administration!)

democrats-science.house.gov/sciencefirings

I lost my job at the National Science Foundation yesterday, along with 167 of my colleagues, including some dear friends. This was the best job I've ever had, and I thought it would be my last. The PI community has been sympathetic and supportive, without exception. I will miss working for you.

Untangling host specialization in a “double dark taxa” system Abstract. Platygastrine wasps (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) are parasitoids of gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae). They and their hosts are exceptionally

Gall midges and their parasitoids are abundant, megadiverse, and very hard to identify! Such "double dark taxa" systems present special challenges for ecology and agriculture. 🧵🧪🐙 @smnstuttgart.bsky.social @marinamoser.bsky.social @krogmann.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/aesa...

Posted with alt text 🧪

“Dead” plant stuff hold food for birds during winter, when food is scarce. Galls such as this goldenrod gall have insect larvae in them. You can see who knows what to do … 😊. My tiny brush again 🤓. This painting shows a cute downy woodpecker pecking on a goldenrod gall to get wasp larvae in winter. #birdsinart #botanicalart #naturalhistoryart #SciArt #natureart #conservation #oneearth

“Dead” plant stuff hold food for birds during winter, when food is scarce. Galls such as this goldenrod gall have insect larvae in them. You can see who knows what to do … 😊. My tiny brush again 🤓.
#birdsinart #botanicalart #naturalhistoryart #SciArt #natureart #conservation #oneearth

Parasitoids FTW!!! Illustration in homage to Eric Carle by Sloan Tomlinson

Many examples of the diversity in morphology of insect induced galls from hairy to colorful to spiky.

Why do insect galls have such varied shapes even among closely related species?? The Enemy Hypothesis, posits that pressure from parasitoids drives the dynamic evolution of external gall traits. We have a new paper in @rsocpublishing.bsky.social on this hypothesis see more in this 🧵! 🧪 #galls

Additionally it shows the importance of collecting guild information when studying these communities. End 🧵

These insights enhance our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics between galling insects and their parasitoids and highlight the broader ecological implications of symbiotic interactions as drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem complexity.

Conversely related gall species with the same gall morphology had consistent parasitoid guilds even though the taxonomy of the community changed

We also searched for other studies that had guild data available. We found that in four galling systems (Aciurina flies, oak gall wasps, rose gall wasps, and sawflies) there are significant differences in enemy guild composition in closely related gall inducers with distinct gall morphologies

So we determined the guilds for as much of the parasitoid community as possible between two closely related galling Aciurina flies with very different external gall morphologies

We propose that to properly test the EH, you need to consider the ecological interactions with the gall, as certain external traits are better at deterring particular enemy guilds. For example, thick-walled galls defend well against parasitoids with short ovipositors, but poorly against long ones

Traditionally the Enemy Hypothesis was tested by looking at the differences in parasitoid species between galls with different external morphologies. However, changes only in taxonomy could be from other neutral processes (drift, range expansion, etc) which don’t support the EH

External insect gall morphology influences the functional guilds of natural enemy communities | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences The evolution of diverse and novel morphological traits is poorly understood, especially how symbiotic interactions can drive these adaptations. The extreme diversity of external traits in insect-indu...

With Quin Baine and @bugsinbugs.bsky.social #insects #evosky The full paper can be found here: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Many examples of the diversity in morphology of insect induced galls from hairy to colorful to spiky.

Why do insect galls have such varied shapes even among closely related species?? The Enemy Hypothesis, posits that pressure from parasitoids drives the dynamic evolution of external gall traits. We have a new paper in @rsocpublishing.bsky.social on this hypothesis see more in this 🧵! 🧪 #galls

Gall-making insects - Alex Wild Many insects induce plants to grow unusual swellings to feed and house them. This gallery shows a few of them.

Positively galling: a gallery of insect galls.

A Tale Of Two Glassworkers And Their Marine Marvels Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka are perhaps best known for crafting a collection of glass flowers for Harvard. But together they made their mark fashioning thousands of marine invertebrate models.

Find out more at www.sciencefriday.com/articles/a-t...

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-100-year-old-glass-flowers-accurate-rival-real-thing

Today, the collection is housed in a dedicated gallery at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Where you can see hundreds of plants and a few invertebrates as well! I encourage you all to go see it if you're in the area!

https://www.gibbesmuseum.org/programs-events/harvard-glass-flowers/838

In the late 1880s, the Blaschkas began making botanical models for the Harvard Botanical Museum and in 1890 they entered into an exclusive, ten-year contract with Harvard to create glass models of flowers and plants

Some of their models were incredible complex, with glass blowing methods that stump modern artists. Published in 1878, the Catalogue of Glass Models of Invertebrate Animals from H. A. Ward's Natural Science Establishment offered 630 invertebrates, ranging from $0.30 to $6.50.

From left to right: A photo of a living mauve stinger (Pelagia noctiluca), a jellyfish found in the Mediterranean; the Blaschkas’ glass model; and a Blaschka watercolor. Photos by Drew Harvell and the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Geneva; watercolor courtesy of the Rakow Research Library, Corning Museum of Glass, BIB ID: 122405. From https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/a-tale-of-two-glassworkers-and-their-marine-marvels/

In 1870s and 1880s, they would make details drawings from live specimens and replicate them in glass with water-soluble pigments for life-like coloring.

A type of sea slug called the spotted sacoglossan (Caliphylla mediterranea), in glass. Photo by Guido Mocafico, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Ireland

Last day of #nudivember, thought I’d draw attention to the amazing work of the Blaschka Glass nudibranchs and other invertebrates. Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, were a father and son team that started making glass eyes, but moved onto making extremely scientifically accurate marine invertebrates

YouTube video by Vinheteiro Total Eclipse Of The Heart on the Chicken

Total Eclipse of the Heart Played on Increasingly Smaller Rubber Chickens