Fantastic post - reposting and will share widely - a must read! Really appreciate all the work that went into this important essay.

Hidden treasures - Leaf litter arthropods and the good that they do - Value in nature I spend the majority of my research time looking at minute arthropods that live in soil and leaf litter. These species represent a large proportion of biodiversity, hundreds of thousands...

Interested in the ecosystem services provided by leaf-litter arthropod communities? Read all about it in the latest 'Value in nature' post: 'Hidden treasures'. #biodiversity #nature 🌐

mscaterino.pika.page/posts/hidden...

An artistic reconstruction of the fossil lichen Spongiophyton.

Through an extensive investigation using over 20 complementary analytical techniques, researchers identify Spongiophyton as one of the earliest undisputed lichens in the fossil record.

Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4oHMxeU

Seven new species of the leaf insect genus Phyllium are described from across the Indonesian archipelago. Find out more about them here: doi.org/10.3897/zook...

#endemicspecies #insects #newspecies @tbuescher.bsky.social @uni-goettingen.de

Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna: The Brazilian acarofauna (Arachnida: Holothyrida, Ixodida, Mesostigmata, Opilioacarida, Sarcoptiformes, and Trombidiformes) ABSTRACT The diversity of organisms is one of the most fundamental questions in sciences. Here,...

Very excited to see this preliminary catalog of the mites (Parasitiformes and Acariformes) found in Brazil - several thousand species are documented and many tens of thousands eventually expected. Putting together a catalog like this is a tremendous amount of work! www.scielo.br/j/zool/a/nRq...

Science Magazine - Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs Tympanal organs have repeatedly evolved in diverse insects and were thought to be required for auditory perception (1).

New biology: stink bugs inoculate their eggs with a fungus that protects them from parasitoids

www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...

Screenshot of the "Browse nomenclature" task in TaxonWorks loaded on the taxonomic name Miridae.

Screenshot of the Biological Associations Graph interface witha couple plant-bug relationships selected.

Welcome Miridae (and Reduviidae) to TaxonWorks! Comprehensive plant (and assassin) bug nomenclature with >44k names, distribution and host records are now imported. Christiane Weirauch, R. Toby Schuh and
Michael Schwartz lead the evolution of this decades long effort on these important #insects.

Very excited to see this important research on an endangered California lichen species be published! #lichen #conservation
www.int-res.com/abstracts/es...

Calling all those interested in bees, wasps, sawflies, and ants!!! The International Society of Hymenopterists (@hymenopterists.bsky.social) is putting out a survey to both non-members and members to find out what you would like to see from the society: forms.office.com/e/ekULRH4Tdt

Please share! 🫶

YouTube video by Kim Wilde Kim Wilde - Kids in America (Official Music Video)

OK, I love this song, but there is some sketchy geography in the lyrics that always catches my ear - maybe Kim Wilde hadn't spent much time in the US, because "East California" really isn't a thing... :)

"New York to East California
There's a new wave coming, I warn ya"

youtu.be/80TfG7C9azA?...

🔬🧬🍄 @science.org Distribution of haploid chromosomes into separate nuclei in two pathogenic fungi | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@ubcbotany.bsky.social
#fungi #fungisky #mycology #genetics #chromosome #nucleus #DNA #evolution #genome #biodiversity

One more beauty for #flyweek : a bee fly I photographed in the Mojave Desert a couple of years ago which was kindly identified as Poecilanthrax californicus by York Niu.

(PDF) Tetraleurodes gilli (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aleyrodidae), a new whitefly species on Quercus L. from California PDF | A new species of Tetraleurodes Cockerell (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aleyrodidae), T. gilli, occurring on Quercus L. (Fagaceae) in California is... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...

Very excited about a new paper from Natalia von Ellenrieder on a new species of whitefly in CA! Especially because "A key to all species of whiteflies with black puparia known to occur on oaks in North America is provided". :) www.researchgate.net/publication/...

#hemiptera #whiteflies #taxonomy

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

A surprising amount of flies migrate! Fascinating stuff for fly lovers everywhere. 🪰💕

A "long-horned" bee, possibly in the genus Eucera, found at Carrizo Plain NM in California today. #bees #pollinators

2 of Fossombronia’s black sporophytes towering over the green foliage of the liverworts

Fossombronia from the Oakland hills. By far one of the best looking liverworts around. If springtails go to raves in the Oakland hills this is definitely the disco balls they dance beneath. #oakalnd #Fossombronia #liverworts #nature

Wtf! A bazillion species to choose from and they picked something from another family?

Phase contrast photomicrograph I took recently of a "fingerprint"-like pattern on the integument of a snout mite (Bdellidae) - a few hairs and hair sockets are visible. Apparently the precise pattern is useful for species identification.

Balloon Man!

(PDF) Phylogenomics of North American cybaeid spiders (Araneae, Cybaeidae), including the description of new taxa from the Klamath Mountains Geomorphic Province PDF | The systematics of humble-in-appearance brown spiders (“marronoids”), within a larger group of spiders with a modified retrolateral tibial... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on R...

Exciting new paper from the Hedin lab - I always love to see thorough descriptions and analysis of new California species! The phylogenies in this paper are a huge bonus as well! www.researchgate.net/publication/...

#spiders #California #biodiversity

Possibly my new favorite moss - Hedwigia (maybe H. detonsa) growing on the north side of a large rock outcrop in San Luis Obispo County, California.

#acarology #mites

I was really excited to be able to key out this tiny (395 micron) mesostig mite I found in coast redwood leaf litter all the way to species - not an easy task for most mites. Meet Cosmozercon setosus, slide mounted in Hoyer's medium. 🤩

Another tiny but fearsome predatory soil mite - Labidostomma sp. recovered from coast redwood leaf litter in northern California and mounted on a microscope slide. Check out the massive jaws (chelicerae) and the ornate ornamentation on the cuticle! :)

#fungi

I found this mound of scat (?) on a log in northwestern CA recently and it appears to have become a food source for a cool-looking fungus in the family Phycomycetaceae? Not able to check with microscopy and have never seen this before, so corrections welcome if I've got this wrong! 😁

I photographed this Condylostylus sp. long-legged fly at a little city park in Fresno County, California earlier this year. It was only a few millimeters long. This family of predatory flies is diverse and can be photogenic because of their metallic sheen. #diptera #entomology #flies

#mites #acarology #soil #entomology

A slide mounted cunaxid mite, Cunaxa capreolus, collected from leaf litter in northern California recently. Only 0.5 mm long, but sure to strike fear into the hearts of the litter springtails it might have encountered.