Bea Leiderman
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bealeiderman.bsky.social
Bea Leiderman
@bealeiderman.bsky.social
1.1K followers 800 following 1K posts
Educator, technologist, photographer crawling in the underbrush of the forest next door. Natural conservation is political. Please don’t complain about my liberal views. They are a feature, not a bug (pun intended).

Also follow people w funny handles
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bealeiderman.bsky.social
Mesothen nomia, a gorgeous clear wing moth. The blue is so blue! But only when I shine the flashlight at it. It’s not blue, really. Just reflects blue light without having any blue pigment. 🌱
A moth with transparent wings. The body is black and yellow with three blue stripes near the tail end. The moth is on my little wooden dowel that I use to pick up interesting moths that come to our lights.
February 17, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
benphillips76.bsky.social
I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is
February 17, 2026 at 11:41 AM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Sometimes there are jewels just sitting on leaves out here

This is a tortoise beetle, beautifully iridescent, about the size of my fingernail.
A tortoise beetle on a leaf. The clear elytra extend past the body of the critter. The body is blue and yellow and iridescent.
February 16, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
andybugguy.bsky.social
Just a friendly reminder everyone, it is now “community science”, not “citizen science”, no matter what country you’re in.
#communityscience
February 1, 2026 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
wolvendamien.bsky.social
This is so deeply fucked. I wish these people would just admit they hate the idea of democracy and get it over with. This kayfabe bullshit is just silly at this point.
diggybaby.bsky.social Ann Elizabeth @diggybaby.bsky.social · 3d
North Carolina lawmakers have voted to remove all college campus voting sites. Specifically at the largest HBCU in the US NC A&T. They now have to walk 30 minutes to their nearest polling place. Students are protesting this - pls share and support.

www.tiktok.com/t/ZThx29BJ9/
Even without an on-campus voting site, NCAT students still marched to the polls. 💙💛 Students at North Carolina A&T showed that barriers won’t stop their voices. When access isn’t easy, they organize. ...
TikTok video by HBCU Student Action Alliance
www.tiktok.com
February 15, 2026 at 3:48 AM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Since I love insects but have no formal entomology training, sometimes it takes a picture like this to realize the critters are in the same species. Also, I startled the poop out of them. Literally.

🌱
A pair of mating beetles. The male is black and the female is red with a black head. The tips of the antennae and legs are yellow. I startled them so one or both of them pooped and the poops are right there
February 15, 2026 at 2:20 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Cotton stainer bugs very much in love

🌱
A pair of mating bugs. They have red heads, black and red thoraxes, yellow elytra, and black wings. They are back to back on a leaf.
February 15, 2026 at 12:36 AM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Solitary bees not being very solitary. Happy Valentine’s weekend

🌱
A pair of bees mating on grape hyacinth flowers. The bees are brown and black. The flowers are not in full bloom
February 14, 2026 at 12:15 AM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
I’ll be sharing paired insects this weekend. Why not? Here’s a pair of hairstreak butterflies from my yard in Virginia the last summer I lived there.

I hope everyone has a moment of sweetness this weekend

🌱
Butterflies mating, so seen here back to back with wings held closed. They are mostly white with black flecks and some orange spots near the tails
February 13, 2026 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
Democrats should promise, today, that Melania Trump, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel will be stripped of citizenship and deported if the administration advances this effort
justinwolfers.bsky.social Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 4d
cool, cool. so we are sort of like citizens, but not really?
February 12, 2026 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
markjacob.bsky.social
"We've had great success in this operation," says Tom Homan in Minneapolis.
Renee Good and Alex Pretti were unavailable for comment.
February 12, 2026 at 2:26 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Moths are cool, and so are their caterpillars. This one in the genus Xylophanes is pretending to be a snake. It was big, almost the size of my index finger.

#lepidoptera 🌱
A caterpillar in a defensive pose. It is light green with a rough texture along the body. Above the place that will later be the thorax, where the three permanent legs are, the caterpillar has two big circular bumps bordered on black. The bumps are covered in concentric circles, the outer a yellowish green and the center light blue. They look like eyes. Then the caterpillar tapers down to a narrow bit where its head is. It’s pretending to be a snake to keep predators away.
February 12, 2026 at 2:16 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
It is #weevilwednesday. It’s also the day I found out I’m an @inaturalist.bsky.social ambassador and I’m very excited to help others help scientists and conservation efforts. Wooo!!!

Anyway. Here’s a weevil with its cute sad face and oddly blank eyes. 🌱
A beetle with a long snout on a twig. The snout is dark gray and the eyes are black. The rest of the weevil is marbled in brown and tan. The elytra have ridges running lengthwise and the whole weevil is a little furry like it’s made of velvet.
February 11, 2026 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
chanda.blacksky.app
Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude
February 10, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
atrupar.com
Bloomington police announce arrests in sex trafficking bust: "Rashad Johnson out of Maple Grove. This is the most disturbing arrest that we've had here. He is a backgrounder for ICE, Homeland Security, and federal agencies."
February 10, 2026 at 9:04 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
A blushing grasshopper 😜

A female in the family Eumasticidae. It was a nymph with developing wings. I’ve seen hundreds of Paramastax duquei specimens all over the place, but this is my first red-faced grasshopper. 🌱

Also, this is how embarrassed people in the Jeffrey files should be.
A grasshopper on a leaf looking straight at the camera. The back legs are in the typical perpendicular position and the other legs are also visible. The face is bright red. The leaf is a bit hairy.
February 10, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
amybrown.xyz
always so funny to me when people are like “how am I supposed to explain Gay to my kids?” my kid asks me way harder shit all the time. “why did they build the road this way? why are some people bad?” I don’t know. please ask me about Gay
February 10, 2026 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
histoftech.bsky.social
When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts
Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...
www.reuters.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:42 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Any governor who attends and doesn’t speak up is complicit in this behavior.
macfarlanenews.bsky.social Scott MacFarlane @macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 9d
Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) says he was uninvited from a bipartisan White House dinner for governors

"As the nation’s only Black governor, I can’t ignore that being singled out for exclusion from this bipartisan tradition carries an added weight — whether that was the intent or not"
February 9, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Bea Leiderman
jessicacalarco.com
This is torture. The US is torturing children. Children whose words and whose art contain infinitely more humanity than the people keeping them detained.
propublica.org ProPublica @propublica.org · 8d
5/ “I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals…going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…”

From 12-year-old Ender, detained 60+ days
Page 1 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in Spanish in a cursive script. Translation: “Hello I am Ender and I am 12 years old, I have been at this center  for 2 months. I arrived here for an immigration appointment and I don’t think they should grab immigrants who are innocent, like instead of grabbing criminals because I mean they prefer to lock up children than look for people who really shouldn’t be in the U.S. They told me I could only be here 21 days but I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals, going outside and that the majority of guards never pay attention to people, eating dinner  always the same as the day before, seeing people cry every day for the same reasons, trying to sleep in that horrible uncomfortable bed, going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…” Page 2 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in Spanish in a cursive script. Translation: “…going to wait for the bad answers from the judges, hearing the bad news from people who no longer have hope, having to share a room with minimum 3 families, and all that so they send us back to our countries.” Below the text is a drawing in pen of three women, titled “My family” and labeled with “Mama,” “Sister,” and “me” in Spanish.
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Maybe the halftime show will cause an aneurysm or two. Here’s hoping.
February 9, 2026 at 2:10 AM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Got the butterfly, though. Sorry the alt text is crap. I hurt. 🌱
A morpho sulkowskyi butterfly perched on a leaf displaying the drab brown underside of the wings.
February 8, 2026 at 9:37 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
This is the picture of me sliding down a steep muddy slope and tearing the crap out of my shoulder. I did get that one butterfly shot, though.

Bug hunters, beware of muddy slopes.

Heading to ortho ER

#photography
A blur of green and brown my camera captured as I fell.
February 8, 2026 at 9:30 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Overnight development. About the moth, not The Pitt. This could be an undescribed species in the genus Melese. It’s similar to M. peruviana but not close enough. 🌱
bealeiderman.bsky.social Bea Leiderman @bealeiderman.bsky.social · 10d
Never have I ever had to turn off the tv while watching ANYTHING because I could not stop gagging. The Pitt did that to me today. Went outside, shot this picture, came back in and finished the ep. Best line, “Does Dr. McGyver work at this hospital?”

Insanely good show.

#thePitt
Moth in the subtribe Phaegopterina. Mostly gray moth with yellow margins at the posterior end of the wings and a bigger yellow spot about 1/3 of the way up. The yellow is bordered in a dark orange. The same dark orange is in spots closer to the head and in three tufts of fur on the thorax.
February 7, 2026 at 2:57 PM
bealeiderman.bsky.social
Never have I ever had to turn off the tv while watching ANYTHING because I could not stop gagging. The Pitt did that to me today. Went outside, shot this picture, came back in and finished the ep. Best line, “Does Dr. McGyver work at this hospital?”

Insanely good show.

#thePitt
Moth in the subtribe Phaegopterina. Mostly gray moth with yellow margins at the posterior end of the wings and a bigger yellow spot about 1/3 of the way up. The yellow is bordered in a dark orange. The same dark orange is in spots closer to the head and in three tufts of fur on the thorax.
February 7, 2026 at 3:19 AM