Sean McCann
@ibycter.bsky.social
3.1K followers 670 following 370 posts
Entomologist, sometime arachnologist, natural history enthusiast. I used study caracaras. I still do, but I used to as well. Avatar by the endlessly talented @blackmudpuppy.bluesky.social Also, photographer!
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Reposted by Sean McCann
cicadie.bsky.social
Would you believe this spindly guy is an assassin bug? I picked him up initially thinking he was a phasmid…then I got a closer look at the face and saw the rostrum, and the raptorial forelimbs started to make sense! He's a member of emesinae, a reduviid subfamily I didn't know about before!
#bugsky
Reposted by Sean McCann
nashturley.bsky.social
Big fan of this weevil's color scheme, pointy snoot, and huge feet!

www.inaturalist.org/observations...
black and yellow weevil on  a green leaf with long thin rostrum and very large foot pads
ibycter.bsky.social
You might like the song "Dare to be Stupid" by Weird Al.
Reposted by Sean McCann
cataranea.bsky.social
I love the way science used to be written. Is it necessary to know that the author was pushing his baby in a pram while making observations of insects? Perhaps not, but it provides delightful context, while assuming the reader is familiar with his previously published baby-wheeling-related work.
A screenshot of some text of a paper, with the following sentence highlighted: "One July evening last summer, while engaged in wheeling the baby (another one this time) through some tall grass in the corner of my yard, I noticed..." It continues "an Ammophila attached to a grass-stem in the peculiar..."
Reposted by Sean McCann
snake-spider-et-al.bsky.social
No. 2 and 1 in the weirdest spider palps contest (UK chapter).

Left: Labulla thoracica, right: Mastigusa arietina.

Lucky enough to see both within a week, and finally photograph Mastigusa properly (thanks to @chalkspring.bsky.social)

@tylanberry.bsky.social @britishspiders.bsky.social
Reposted by Sean McCann
tshahan.bsky.social
portrait of a male Hentzia mitrata or "White-jawed Jumping Spider" found beneath oak, NE Oklahoma, April 2025
Reposted by Sean McCann
cmacquar.bsky.social
Pretty cool publication, but I'll always be a Manual of Nearctic Diptera guy myself (but just Volume 1. They really let themselves go by Volume 2) #oldschool
pensoft.net
New book: A checklist to identify all known species of flies in Canada! doi.org/10.3897/ab.e...

"This checklist is a fundamental piece of work that will guide the assessment of the conservation status of those species."

@bioinfocus.bsky.social
Cover of "Checklist of the Flies (Diptera) in Canada" featuring two fly images, with contributors and publisher details below.
Reposted by Sean McCann
apsciencebylyn.bsky.social
I haven't seen as many Castianeira this year as I usually do, but this magnificent lass showed up at the end of my walk today and made me happy. Red lightning in the sand. ♥️
(still unclear which species this is, 4+ years after my first sighting)
Bright red ant mimic sac spider with stripy black and white and red legs and a white stripe down her carapace. She's chilling in my hand, grooming a foot Face of the gorgeous creature, chilling in my hand.
Reposted by Sean McCann
humanbyweight.bsky.social
Preorders are out NOW for the long-awaited SECOND EDITION of THE SOCIAL WASPS OF NORTH AMERICA!

The 2nd edition includes all new up-to-date taxonomy, detailed in crisp photo-quality illustrations. This is a must-have guidebook for naturalists everywhere!

press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
The Social Wasps of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, Second Edition
An authoritative, stunningly illustrated guide to every species of social wasp found in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean
press.princeton.edu
Reposted by Sean McCann
apsciencebylyn.bsky.social
Saw a dead yellow jacket on oak bark this evening, noticed movement and looked closer, and there were little Paratemnoides pseudoscorpions grabby hands poking out of the shadows. Seems they brought home a Big Snack to share with the community (Paratemnoides are social pseudoscorpions 🤎) 🧪
Dead yellow jacket wasp face first into a crevice of mossy oak bark, with 2 pseudoscorpions visible, one snacking, the other nearby in the shadows
Reposted by Sean McCann
joshlukedavis.com
ok ok I've read the paper and as expected it is really freaking cool

the queens are effectively hijacking androgenesis! so they store the sperm of the second species, and then clone that into their eggs so that the clonal males have a nuclear DNA from their og species but mito DNA from their mother
joshlukedavis.com
woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD

Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers!

This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother
Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.
www.nature.com
Reposted by Sean McCann
pjvphotography.bsky.social
"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
A pika sits on a mossy rock. Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head. An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye. An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.
Reposted by Sean McCann
travismcenery.bsky.social
This one is a little different, but if you want to see how some spider science gets done (and how you can do it, too), you can see what I learned from @cataranea.bsky.social and @ibycter.bsky.social when they put me up for three days in St. John's!

youtu.be/6c2XqAsHnuo
I Spent 3 Days with Spider Scientists - Here's What I Learned
YouTube video by Travis McEnery
youtu.be
ibycter.bsky.social
Anyone recognize this Euxoa, from Makkovik in Labrador? The larvae were munching some planted vegetables. We reared it out in hopes of an ID.
A large brown and gray moth, with two prominent silver spots on a dark triangle on each forewing. Pictured on white background.
Reposted by Sean McCann
thomasbarbin.bsky.social
A Sagebrush Sheep Moth (Hemileuca hera) on Mount Kobau in the Okanagan. What a great place to be for bugs!

#Lepidoptera #Moth #iNaturalist
ibycter.bsky.social
These are some little dudes that I work with, diamondback moth and cabbage maggot. Not good for brassicas!
A pretty moth, quite small, resting on a cabbage leaf. It is brown, with a pale cream pattern on the top. A fly, much like a house fly, against a white backdrop. It has red eyes and is fairly handsome, depending on your taste.
Reposted by Sean McCann
apsciencebylyn.bsky.social
Sexy resin bees!
They're so cute and stubby. The boy's little feets on her back 🥹
#BugSex
Two very round and stubby black and orange bees, on a dried stalk, mating bee-style (like doggy-style but Bee). They're facing you, big soft compound eyes peering Side view of the pair on the stalk
ibycter.bsky.social
Got visited by a dirty little male Antrodiaetus pacificus last night!
A small male mygalomorph spider, black with a purplish abdomen, on sand, covered in dirt and debris. He is missing his front right leg.
ibycter.bsky.social
Did it not used to sit by the lake on a plinth?