Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Vanna Bartlett

@vannabartlett.bsky.social

1.4K followers 670 following 1.7K posts

Artist, naturalist, author, cyclist. Loves insects/invertebrates especially solitary bees & harvestmen. County Recorder for Harvestmen and Pseudoscorpions. Hefted to Norfolk. Website https://arthropedia.co.uk/

arthropedia.co.uk

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 6h

The perfect kind!

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

duleyp.bsky.social @duleyp.bsky.social · 9h

A pseudoscorpion for #arachtober. A Compost Chernes [pselaphochernes scorpioides] from the garden compost heap.
#wildlifefrommywindow #invertebrates #ukwildlife #gardenwildlife #macro

A plan view of a eight legged invertebrate that has two long arms reaching out from its head with crab like claws on the end. The body looks like one large reddy brown oval, with the main portion bisected by a lighter line, with each side split into 10 regular sections. The body, arms, and legs, are covered in tiny short hairs, with occaisional longer ones which act as sensory organs.

1 4 20

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 9h

Shrews beware!

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 22h

Grumpy boi (why is my stick moving, I didn't ask the stick to move)
#EmotionalSupportSpood #Arachtober

(Phidippus regius lad)

Large fuzzy black and white jumping spider with bright green chelicerae, on grumpy salticid posture (legs tight around him like cat loaf), on the tip of a stick peering at you

5 32 170

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Helen Whistberry @whistberry.bsky.social · 13h

Happy #Invertober day 8!

Bee-killer robber fly (mallophora fautrix)

#SciArt #Invertober2025

A black and gold insect that looks like a bee but is actually a species of fly that mimics bees. It is crawling through thick green grass.

2 14 110

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 9h

Gorgeous!

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 9h

I don't pay for anything and don't get sms notifications. Seems a bit odd.

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 10h

It's Wednesday. You need some eels in your life, right? And some otters?

Here you go!

A scene of otters & eels, from an early 15th C. copy of Gaston Phoebus's Livre de la chasse. Eel blood is toxic to mammals, but otters don't care. They love them some eels.

Can you blame them?

A medieval painting of otters playing in a pool, chasing and catching eels and other fish. There are 10 adult otters, and what look to be 2 younger otters in a den at the base of a tree. They are all doing serious otter things: playing, eating, cavorting, eating, gamboling, eating, swimming, and eating. They are having a good time. For now.

It can't last, though. This pond seems way too small to support all of these otters, and the painting has a border around it. They can't leave, and soon they will turn on each other in a bloodbath that will make the Donner Party look like a tea time at the Rotary Club. If you check back with these otters in two weeks, I suspect you'll find only carnage.

That, though, is a problem for Future Otters. Today's otters are carefree, with spotless souls.

Source:
Morgan (MS M.1044 fol. 28r)

7 45 160

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Terumbu @terumbudivers.com · 10h

Nudibranch Phyllidia
#gili #giliislands #lombok #diving #scuba #trawangan #diveandstay #giliair #pets #ocean #sealife #marinelife #padi #seaslug #nudibranch #Phyllidia

3 10

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 10h

Not seen this one before #FungiFriends, think it’s Green Brittlegill, Russula aeruginia, found beneath Silver Birch. Caps of the mature specimens were very green, younger ones were paler. Stipe chalk white & tapering at base, gills white & crowded. Such a pretty mushroom 💚
#FungiFriday

Photos of green-capped mushrooms beneath Silver Birch trees. I’ve not seen a Brittlegill with a green cap before! The young specimens were pale minty green deepening to a darker moss/olive green in the more mature examples.

2 3 40

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Jeremy Bartlett @jeremybartlett.bsky.social · 14h

Parent Bugs, Elasmucha grisea.

Boughton Fen, Norfolk.

www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/...

#Hemiptera #UKWildlife

Parent Bug nymphs, Elasmucha grisea, on a Common Alder leaf.

3 26

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 10h

Oh, fab!

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 10h

I tend to only use FB for help with IDs, some good groups for Diptera, sawfiles, pseudoscorpions etc. And to post my own pics to help people learn about existence of some of the more obscure species.

1 1

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 10h

I look forward to welcoming it into my home in due course!

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 11h

Fantastic footage. Wish we had this species of pseud in UK!

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 29d

I'm still shook by this, it's like 5 mice taking down a lion, but the lion can fly 😳

Yellow jacket next to a crevice in a wooden post, out of which a pseudoscorpion is grabbing the antennae of the wasp to hold it down

Wider view, with another pseudoscorpion poking out of the crevice to grab at the yellow jacket's stinger basically??

Closer shot of the the previous pseudoscorpion whose latched onto the yellow jacket's posterior, and a pale small baby pseudoscorpion is getting in on the action

5 21 140

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 11h

👀👀

Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 29d

I'm still shook by this, it's like 5 mice taking down a lion, but the lion can fly 😳

2 1 8

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 17h

my biggest complain about these tiny creatures is that they're so adorably smol, i have yet to photograph one in the wild

Jake Withee @witheelabs.bsky.social · 1d

My latest for @bizarrebeastsshow.bsky.social concerns these li’l cuties that live in our homes and ride around on other bugs.

The Tiny Scorpions* In Your House

YouTube video by Bizarre Beasts

youtu.be

9 4 82

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Jason Jong @plesiomorphy.bsky.social · 12h

I regularly see them when I sift leaf litter, but I've only observed phoresis once. There was one riding on the back of this harlequin beetle.

A harlequin beetle with its elytra open and its wings coming out. There is a tiny pseudoscorpion riding on the back of the beetle's abdomen.

6 5 32

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 15h

My first pseudoscorpion observation was pure luck. Happen to see this wasp and took a shot. It was only later did I see what was hanging on the antenna.

On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ]

A brown pseudoscopion hanging on to the antenna of a wasp. The wasp is yellow with black stripes and transparent wings.

9 31 170

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 13h

Nice one! Lovely wasp too. @dadrummond.art will love this.

1 3

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

In Otter News @in-otter-news.bsky.social · 13h

The winter Olympics we actually want to watch.

25 130 1K

Reposted by Vanna Bartlett

D. Allan Drummond @dadrummond.art · 13h

Loving the burst of pseudoscorpion posts! Gave this grabby guy some bristles and a bit more attitude 😈 (remember in reality they’re like sesame seeds with attitude) #arachtober

A gray resin sculpture of a pseudoscorpion, sitting in my open hand against a white background.

8 31 190

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 13h

Looking good!

1 1

Vanna Bartlett @vannabartlett.bsky.social · 19h

Well they are arachnids but if you watch them move you will see that they only use 6 legs for walking; the long sensory 2nd pair of legs are held out in front feeling the surroundings as they move along, almost like antennae.