@caeculus.bsky.social
Ken Schneider; pathologist and California-based naturalist and microscopist on a mission to document the diversity of tiny and/or obscure invertebrates and cryptogams (lichens, mosses) living in western North America.
Reposted
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
Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4oHMxeU
October 31, 2025 at 9:15 PM
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
Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4oHMxeU
Reposted
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
#endemicspecies #insects #newspecies @tbuescher.bsky.social @uni-goettingen.de
October 27, 2025 at 1:36 PM
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
#endemicspecies #insects #newspecies @tbuescher.bsky.social @uni-goettingen.de
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...
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,...
www.scielo.br
October 18, 2025 at 1:51 PM
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...
Reposted
New biology: stink bugs inoculate their eggs with a fungus that protects them from parasitoids
www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
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).
www.sciencemagazinedigital.org
October 17, 2025 at 11:35 AM
New biology: stink bugs inoculate their eggs with a fungus that protects them from parasitoids
www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
Reposted
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.
Michael Schwartz lead the evolution of this decades long effort on these important #insects.
October 10, 2025 at 12:04 AM
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.
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...
www.int-res.com/abstracts/es...
Population assessment and conservation strategies for the Critically Endangered lichen Sulcaria isidiifera
The epiphytic lichen Sulcaria isidiifera is a critically imperiled species endemic to the coast of central California, USA, where it occupies just a few patches of old-growth maritime...
www.int-res.com
September 25, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Very excited to see this important research on an endangered California lichen species be published! #lichen #conservation
www.int-res.com/abstracts/es...
www.int-res.com/abstracts/es...
Reposted
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! 🫶
Please share! 🫶
Microsoft Forms
forms.office.com
May 29, 2025 at 8:55 PM
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! 🫶
Please share! 🫶
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?...
"New York to East California
There's a new wave coming, I warn ya"
youtu.be/80TfG7C9azA?...
Kim Wilde - Kids in America (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Kim Wilde
youtu.be
May 24, 2025 at 11:12 PM
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?...
"New York to East California
There's a new wave coming, I warn ya"
youtu.be/80TfG7C9azA?...
Reposted
🔬🧬🍄 @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
@ubcbotany.bsky.social
#fungi #fungisky #mycology #genetics #chromosome #nucleus #DNA #evolution #genome #biodiversity
May 17, 2025 at 7:34 PM
🔬🧬🍄 @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
@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.
May 4, 2025 at 6:31 PM
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.
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
#hemiptera #whiteflies #taxonomy
(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...
www.researchgate.net
May 2, 2025 at 1:59 AM
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
#hemiptera #whiteflies #taxonomy
Reposted
A surprising amount of flies migrate! Fascinating stuff for fly lovers everywhere. 🪰💕
It's published!
The largest research work I've ever undertaken:
Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important
Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz
1/x
The largest research work I've ever undertaken:
Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important
Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz
1/x
April 8, 2025 at 5:54 PM
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
April 6, 2025 at 1:21 AM
A "long-horned" bee, possibly in the genus Eucera, found at Carrizo Plain NM in California today. #bees #pollinators
Reposted
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
March 24, 2025 at 2:54 AM
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
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.
March 2, 2025 at 2:47 PM
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.
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
#spiders #California #biodiversity
(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...
www.researchgate.net
February 8, 2025 at 10:48 PM
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
#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.
January 28, 2025 at 12:47 AM
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.
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. 🤩
January 18, 2025 at 6:25 PM
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! :)
December 29, 2024 at 3:29 PM
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! :)
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! 😁
December 14, 2024 at 11:22 PM
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
December 1, 2024 at 6:29 PM
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
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.
November 29, 2024 at 5:35 PM
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.