Nicole 🪲 🔜 ECCC D-17

I’ll be tabling at D-17! :)

Can’t wait to see what you all decorate with these patches :)

A photo of my hand holding a whale fall iron on patch design. The whale skeleton is surrounded by various deep sea animals such as octopuses, hagfish, chimeras, a crab, and a deep sea isopod. They are surrounded by a dark blue, almost black, background. The photo is taken in front of a colorful bush with many shades of red and green leaves.

New whale fall patches just got added to my site, along with 4 other new patch designs!

🐋 shop.fossilforager.art

SCIENCE IRL: SciComm mini-grant 2026 Skype a Scientist is offering $300-$1,000 mini-grants to support boots-on-the-ground science communication. The Science IRL mini-grants will support projects that put either 1) important science mess...

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Attention science communicators!
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The 2026 Science IRL mini-grant application is NOW OPEN!

Submit your creative ideas for connecting people with actionable science information *offline*.

The deadline for this round of grants is March 23, 2026.

Apply here!
forms.gle/4emvpRPddmEt...

absolutely!! Thank you so much for the kind words, hope you’re having a great Monday too ❤️

Highly recommend Sticker Ninja for the quality + vibrant colors and great customer service! They also have some fun vinyl options and they are very progressive. For speed (aka I need stickers delivered in 2-3 days) StickerBlitz is my backup option!

Title of infographic: Gift Giving is the Love Language for Ornate Bella Moths “Ornate bella moth females mate with multiple males over the course of their 3-4 week adult lifespan. In each sexual encounter, she will receive a nuptial gift from the male called a spermatophore.” An illustration of an ornate Bella moth, a colorful orange and cream colored moth with black spots, is surrounded by valentine’s presents and a chocolate heart. The tags on her gifts read: TO: BELLA <3 - JACOB FROM: EDWARD XOXO Text continues: “This gift contains sperm, nutrients to help the female lay her eggs, and toxic alkaloid compounds to protect herself and her offspring. She can secrete these toxins from her head when threatened, and infuse her eggs with them.”

“She will consume all of the nutrients and alkaloids from these spermatophores to make sure she and her offspring have the best chance of survival possible. However, she can decide which male's sperm from her gifts she wants to use to fertilize her eggs!” An illustration to the left of the text shows an iPhone opened to iMessage, with an ornate Bella moth on top of the phone screen. Texts from one of her male moth lovers (Jacob) read “Hey Bella. Did you like the gift I dropped off?” And a few hours later: “I gave you my spermatophore pls respond” The text on the infographic continues: “She'll usually choose the sperm of the male who had the strongest sex pheromones - chemical signals used to attract a mate. Stronger pheromones mean more toxic alkaloids, and thus, a healthier sperm donor.”

A Valentine’s Day card that reads “I’d give you my spermatophore any day” with an ornate Bella moth illustration surrounded by Valentine’s presents and gifts of chocolate and balloons. Text that reads “To:” and “From:” is at the bottom of the image. The background is a soft pink gradient.

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💖

Thank you so much!! I really appreciate that :)

I recently gave a talk at the Exploratorium’s After Dark event and talked all about bug sex!
One of the examples I brought up was how ornate Bella moth females receive “nuptial gifts” from males. I hope you enjoy the infographic and little silly Valentine’s Day card 💕

Title of infographic: Gift Giving is the Love Language for Ornate Bella Moths “Ornate bella moth females mate with multiple males over the course of their 3-4 week adult lifespan. In each sexual encounter, she will receive a nuptial gift from the male called a spermatophore.” An illustration of an ornate Bella moth, a colorful orange and cream colored moth with black spots, is surrounded by valentine’s presents and a chocolate heart. The tags on her gifts read: TO: BELLA <3 - JACOB FROM: EDWARD XOXO Text continues: “This gift contains sperm, nutrients to help the female lay her eggs, and toxic alkaloid compounds to protect herself and her offspring. She can secrete these toxins from her head when threatened, and infuse her eggs with them.”

“She will consume all of the nutrients and alkaloids from these spermatophores to make sure she and her offspring have the best chance of survival possible. However, she can decide which male's sperm from her gifts she wants to use to fertilize her eggs!” An illustration to the left of the text shows an iPhone opened to iMessage, with an ornate Bella moth on top of the phone screen. Texts from one of her male moth lovers (Jacob) read “Hey Bella. Did you like the gift I dropped off?” And a few hours later: “I gave you my spermatophore pls respond” The text on the infographic continues: “She'll usually choose the sperm of the male who had the strongest sex pheromones - chemical signals used to attract a mate. Stronger pheromones mean more toxic alkaloids, and thus, a healthier sperm donor.”

A Valentine’s Day card that reads “I’d give you my spermatophore any day” with an ornate Bella moth illustration surrounded by Valentine’s presents and gifts of chocolate and balloons. Text that reads “To:” and “From:” is at the bottom of the image. The background is a soft pink gradient.

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💖

Happy birthday!! ❤️❤️

an update: everyone should either give or attend a bug sex talk at least once in their life. i was nervous but had sm fun lol

i have truly reached the pinnacle of my career. i will be giving a talk on bug sex tonight at my local science museum

Thank you Allison!!! 💕💕

Thanks so much Andrea!! ❤️

Thank you Mali!! 🥰🥰

A photo of my iPad, featuring colorful Cambrian animals illustrated on a black background.

tonight’s progress! will resume this Friday and hopefully finish by the end of the weekend 😴

if there’s enough interest I might throw this up as a coloring page on my patreon :)

thank you!! 💕❤️

Thank you!! 😭❤️

it’s just hard to find good reference material as an artist for some of the more obscure ones unfortunately! but would love to collaborate more with folks to make art of some under represented ones :)

THANK YOU

A photo of a colored in opabinia next to some black and white line art of Cambrian animals

but also opabinia is included!

hard to include all of them! so many good ones haha

incredible thank you

I’m so glad!!

😭❤️❤️

thank you!!!

I appreciate that, thank you so much!!

thank you so much 😭❤️