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prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Pretty Ugly Things
@prettyuglythings.bsky.social
340 followers 1.2K following 150 posts
Amateur naturalist, serious collector, and appreciator of the unusual things our planet is capable of… based out of Tucson!

Purveyor of minerals, succulents, isopods, and information
https://prettyuglythingsaz.com // https://prettyuglythingsaz.etsy.com
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prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Predatory stink bug alert 🚨

(alert is just to look at it because it’s fancy)
Tylospilus acutissimus, a Northern sharp stink bug on a pinkish stem. The bug is shield-shaped, with a dark spine poking out each shoulder. It is vibrant green with black, red, and white details.
January 16, 2026 at 9:00 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
We’re having a warm winter and the passion vine is still absolutely COVERED with gulf fritillary eggs and caterpillars.

The caterpillar’s warning is to dissuade birds/predators because they taste foul from feasting on passiflora foetida
A caterpillar with spikes down its back, stretched long on a thin vine tendril. The caterpillar is a dark purplish color with an orange and white stripe down its sides. Detail of a gulf fritillary caterpillar’s face, covered with small hairs like a walrus and striped black and orange. The spikes stick out of its back and sides, and have secondary hairs poking out all along them. Detail of a caterpillar chewing on a leaf, its front three pairs of feet in focus. They are pointed and covered with black hairs, spread to reach for a leaf. Detail of the side of the caterpillar, a raisin purple-black color on the top and underside, with parallel orange and white stripes running the length of the side. There is a black dot along the orange stripe at every diameter where spikes radiate out, with a spike right below the white line and a row of random white dots below it. The feet gripping the vine just look like fuzzy black lumps.
December 25, 2025 at 5:38 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I just learned of glauberite this year after getting some gypsum-after-glauberite pseudomorph specimens from Camp Verde, AZ, via a local rockhound.

Look at this weirdo.
An opaque white mineral held in a hand over a flat of minerals. The mineral is composed of intersecting random-appearing jagged blades
December 23, 2025 at 8:16 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I’m prepping some “fairy forest” epidote quartz for sale, and my favorite subtype is when the quartz has phantoms. Excellent zoning!
A small specimen of epidote and quartz, the quartz is more prominent than the epidote which grows in small bunchy clusters between the quartz crystals. The quartz is colorless, but several of the larger crystals have mint green phantoms inside. Detail of the larger crystals with phantoms, showing more complex zoning with fine layers of the mint green inclusions inside like tree rings.
December 20, 2025 at 8:52 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Ash Meadows is off the beaten path but an absolute treasure. If I recall correctly, it has one of the greatest concentrations of endemic species in the world!
The desert around Ash Meadows, with low scrubby brush in bare ground, with flow marks around them from recent water flows. View from the boardwalk at Ash Meadows, with scraggy desert trees mixed with dense green reeds hiding a waterway. The same spring in the quoted post because it’s just so darn pretty, with crystal clear green-blue water.
December 11, 2025 at 5:14 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I thought this one was a beauty
A moth on the end of a finger, its tan and green coloration matching the desert brush. Its wet wings are still slightly stuck to the finger The same moth recovered with wings spread, the front wings green and back wings golden.
December 2, 2025 at 6:29 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I enjoy rescuing moths from water. They often find their way into bird baths and water dishes, I just put a finger under them, lift out, and let them rest until they dry off.
A pale tan moth on the tip of a finger, its wings wet, drooping, and stuck to the finger. The same moth on gravel with wings spread, dry and recovered
December 2, 2025 at 5:34 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Aww yeah look at the uropods on that baby
Close view of the rear end of a milkback porcellio laevis isopod, with focus on the well-built pleons and elongated uropods, the latter of which look like two spikes on its butt
November 23, 2025 at 10:45 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Climate change isn’t real, it’s normal for my orange tree to be blooming in *checks notes* the middle of November 👍
A bee visiting a white citrus flower
November 16, 2025 at 4:16 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
The passion flower variety Passiflora foetida is native to the US southwest. It is typically only open for a few hours, closing before the heat of the day. This is the first flower I’ve spotted on my vine!
A passion flower with white outer leaves, frilly light purple corona filaments, and a mobile-like structure raised above with yellow anthers and light green stigma. The flower is beginning to close, the petals and filaments curling in. The passion flower in the background, focus on a bud in the foreground covered with a network of fine hairy stems.
November 2, 2025 at 11:47 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Sir will you sign my ducky
A blonde rubber ducky isopod on moss held between fingers. The isopod is inspecting the fingers. It has an orange-brown body with golden yellow head and rear, and a small duck-bill face.
October 26, 2025 at 6:21 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
She has excellent taste in rocks, I dare say
A baby desert spiny lizard on a black and white stripy rock. Its eyes are nearly closed like it is resting.
October 21, 2025 at 3:15 AM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I’m slowly building a collection of milkweeds native to the Tucson area because we’re part of the monarch migration route. My plants are getting chomped by caterpillars right now—but not monarchs! These are the very similar-looking queen butterfly which has an extra set of antennae thingies
A caterpillar striped yellow, black, and white, with a set of feelers on each end and a third set about a third of the way up the body. The caterpillar is on an Arizona milkweed.
October 16, 2025 at 3:38 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
This post was perfect for today… the annual Tucson Insect Festival! These triops, named for their three eyes, were my favorite thing there (this fella was a bit rude though)
October 6, 2025 at 1:27 AM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Invertebrate? Haven’t heard of ‘em 😑
A plastic tarantula composed of bones, the abdomen is a goddamned rib cage with a spine down the back and even the fangy bits are bones
September 23, 2025 at 2:39 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
When I was growing up, I felt lied to about emeralds. All the movies showed deep green gems and then every one I saw in person looked like absolute crap. When I met dioptase I was like THIS this right here is what emerald is supposed to look like! 💚

#Dioptase with calcite and duftite (I believe)
A small mineral specimen with dioptase and small white calcite crystals on a light-colored matrix. The dioptase is emerald green with chunky crystals. Detail of some of the larger dioptase crystals with vibrant color and gemmy clarity. Detail of another set of more blue-green gemmy dioptase crystals surrounded by white calcite forming tiny rhombs. I would describe the dioptase crystal shape but not gonna lie I do not know the name for this shape. Blocky? Detail showing the underside of the specimen, mostly light colored and covered with white calcite rhombs with fine yellow-green duftite and a few dioptase crystals across the face.
September 22, 2025 at 6:51 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I feel you, my endo may have triggered ibs and fibro soooo
Doctor: Are you feeling any pain ? Me: Only the normal amount Doctor: The normal amount is zero Me: Meme of the awkward stare monkey puppet
September 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Holy crap I thought this meant they burned it somewhere close nearby, but they were using the incinerator IN the building for years without staff knowing. That is so dangerous, I would be livid!
She and other workers at the shelter put on masks and started evacuating the 75 cats and dogs that were inside before some of the workers started feeling ill, Ms. Halverson said. At the hospital, doctors wanted to know what had been burning in the incinerator. The answer, she said, was surprising: It was methamphetamine that the F.B.I. was destroying. Ms. Halverson, the shelter’s executive director, said she had never been told that federal agents burned drugs in the incinerator, which is typically used by the city’s animal control office to dispose of euthanized wild and domestic animals.
September 16, 2025 at 3:33 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Give them the ol razzle dazzle
A glamour shot of a baby spiny lizard proudly resting atop red-orange swirly layered sandstone, with plants in the background. The lizard has its back to us but is looking at the camera over its left shoulder, with its back left leg stretched out. The lizard is brown-gray patterned with white and black spots, with a black ring around the neck.
September 12, 2025 at 10:41 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Seek couldn’t narrow down the genus of jumping spider so I’m going with “cutie”
A detail view of a small jumping spider striped with light and dark brown pattern, at an angle from behind. One eye on the back of its head keeps an eye on the photographer. Another view of the jumping spider after it has climbed atop the rock, a light-colored ropy chalcedony.
September 5, 2025 at 7:11 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Tiny uppies
A small jumping spider on the edge of a ceramic pot filled with rocks. The spider has its two front legs reaching out, as if its about to jump onto a rock above it. The spider is brown with near-black patterning, with rings of alternating color down the legs. This guy is nice and fuzzy.
September 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Fluorite is my favorite mineral to collect!

(Locales: Weardale, Xinjiang, YGX, Elmwood)
Detail of a corner of a piece of Weardale fluorite with color zoning, the interior a warm purple, with a distinct white band making a sharp right angle around it, then green outside. The green is turning deep blue due to daylight fluorescence. A light purple fluorite forming a flat surface with cube and rectangular crystals protruding like a miniature city. A vertical stack of intersecting cubic fluorite crystals, a subtle violet-blue with darker coloration at the edges and centers. A large cubic fluorite with smaller intersecting cubes around the edges. The fluorite is dark purple with complex cubic surface patterning, and featuring carthage corners
September 5, 2025 at 3:11 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
This calcite hails from Irai City, Brazil.
A trio of houndstooth calcite crystals with good composition, and a smaller trio at the base. Small drill-bit habit crystals cover the surrounding matrix.
September 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Calcite ranks pretty high in my hierarchy of needs, it has a remarkable range of forms.

This variety from China is known as ‘laser’ or ‘aurora’ calcite
A wide piece of matrix covered with small glassy clear hexagonal drillbit crystals Detail of the calcite crystals, extra clear hexagonal prisms with rainbows inside Another detail image showing the ‘aurora’ colors of rainbow refraction in the calcite crystals.
September 4, 2025 at 1:44 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
It looks like this (cute)
A close view of a brown patterned baby lizard with a large head relative to its body size. Its eensy little toesies are spread out. It is definitely keeping an eye on the photographer.
September 1, 2025 at 2:36 AM