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Look at this little lump. It's a barely 2 mm. springtail (class Collembola), which are hexapods (6 legs) but not insects. This one was at almost ten thousand feet in the mountains of Montana, living its best gummi life under a rock. #BugSky 🌿🐙

Red-shouldered pine borer (Stictoleptura canadensis), Montana. The larvae of these attractive beetles eat dead or decaying wood; adults feed in flowers. I like the fancy antennae, and that the pitted texture of the elytra make the red "shoulders" look like the surface of a strawberry. 🐙🌿📷 #BugSky

Blue milkweed beetle (Chrysochus cobaltinus) on dogbane. It was a warm day, but a sprinkle of rain from a brief afternoon thunderstorm cooled things off, plus gave the beetle a few droplets for decoration. (Montana) #BugSky 🌿🐙📷

Another Phymata sp. ambush bug, because they are awesome. This one had a touch of green on the abdomen and legs, and this angle shows the mantis-like raptorial forelegs, for giving its dinner guests a final hug. (Montana) #BugSky 🐙🌿📷

I love spotting these tiny, armored-robot-looking ambush bugs. No bigger than a lentil, they can take down insects much larger than themselves with that venom-injecting switchblade of proboscis (here tucked under the chin). Amazing textures and A+ camo. (Phymata sp., Montana) #BugSky 🐙🌿📷

At first glance, this little katydid nymph might look like he's blushing, but in fact he's got a parasitic mite attached to him. Imagine having a tick on you the size of a grapefruit. I don't think one mite will kill the katydid, but it's gotta be annoying. #BugSky 🐙🌿📷

Our queen of the night cactus had a dozen flowers open on the same night this week. It was quite a show, worth staying up to see, plus the scent of so many flowers at once was incredible.

One of my favorite finds last week in Nebraska was this Bassaniana sp. crab spider. It was maybe 1/3 inch, and extremely well camouflaged on a tree. It's a new-to-me genus. I love finding cryptic creatures; it always feels like solving a puzzle to spot one of nature's "where's-Waldos." 🐙🌿 #BugSky

I wouldn’t quote post like this, but I wanted to share info and was unable to reply to or message them - when asked about the artists, they replied they didn’t know. But I know the lower right “rise” piece is by @toosphexy.bsky.social and perhaps they could learn the others after an image search.

Most bees are solitary, a few famous ones (like honeybees and bumblebees) are eusocial, and others fall in between – this green sweat bee was one of a couple dozen that were hanging out together, coming and going from a low-growing plant. Basically, it was an airport lounge for bees. 🐙🌿🐝 #Bugsky

Here is your Wednesday Weevil. It was only three or four mm. long. The first pic shows that it has what looks like a parasitic mite attached to it. Rhyncolus sp., Nebraska. 🐙🌿 #BugSky

Photuris sp. firefly, grooming its antenna. Females in this genus are known for "aggressive mimicry," meaning they mimic the flash pattern of other species' females, to lure in males of the other species and eat them. You go. 🌿🐙📷💡🍽️💀

Why the long face? (Scolops sp. planthopper, Nebraska) 🌿🐙 #bugsky

🌿🐙 I got back Friday after 5 days in Lincoln, NE, at the American Arachnological Society annual meeting. It was my first scientific conference. I have had a not-great 2026, and while some might not think a week full of spiders & scorpions would be good for the soul, it healed mine. To a person--

Brb, gonna spend the week with a bunch of arachnids 🕷️🦂

Excellent piece by Megan Mayhew Bergman 🌿

We know how to mourn other humans – but what about ecological grief?In Iceland, people commemorated its first glacier formally declared lost to climate change. Western culture needs more of these ritualswww.theguardian.com

I’ve been working on three(!) relatives’ estates, and one thing I’ve been reminded of is that social security numbers used to be widely visible. Like, in the envelope window on your bank statement. Because except for secret agent movies, there used to be virtually no such thing as identity theft. 🕵️‍♂️

My first macro lens as a kid was a magnifying glass my grandma gave me when I was 10 or 11, taped to the front of a used non-macro 50mm. lens on a used Yashica TL-Super film camera. This shot is that same magnifying glass taped to a 1964 50mm. lens, on my Nikon Z8 digital camera. See the aphid? 📷🪷

We have learned that our adopted dog Kosmo does not care about fireworks, so that is good.