#lab notebook

[musiclovingmoth]

and when i say "specimens" i don't mean taxidermied mounts made to look lifelike for exhibit, i'm talking about the thousands to millions of specimens lying in drawers and shelves like this:

asking because i didn't know this until i was in high school. reblogs greatly appreciated, i want to reach as far out of science nerd tumblr as possible!

[ecto-hazard]

I love lab notebook idk what the fuck is wrong with them

[hyadez]

sometimes i think about how ppl want nonbinary characters with ambiguous birth assignments and feel Bad that I have no desire to write that. hyades being afab is actually a fairly important part of their backstory. it influences their sex life heavily and is the main reason they refuse to bottom. and they're written like that bc its what i personally want to see in nonbinary characters- being Actually Trans and not just handwaving it

i mean it's also significant that hyades quite literally just says they're transsexual/transgender in most circumstances. if asked by someone that isn't cis they'll probably say androgyne or neutral or so but like. they identify more with being trans

[rayraystudies]

Instagram story on Sept/17/2023 (@rayraystudies)

[musiclovingmoth]

i like that we all think about a rock's journey so often no matter our education on the subject

i think we should all consider getting emotional over this xkcd. as a group. let's get emotional about it

[musiclovingmoth]

stand up for science march 7!!!

please stand with me and my colleagues in entomology and science at large to fight for research and education! stand up for science is an organization that just formed inspired by the 2017 march for science movement and they're organizing protests across the country.

find your local rally here!

if you can't attend a protest, organize a walkout at your school at noon local time!

[ecto-hazard]

The objectsonas

[chaosandorder46]

[musiclovingmoth]

even better lookalike: the red admiral

hi here’s a cool bird I betcha didn’t know existed, ✨the wallcreeper✨

it literally looks like a monarch butterfly it’s so cute

[ironshrikes]

check out the cowboy-wizard hat i made!

[hyadez]

hyades and james are very funny to me bc theyre both obsessed with christmas but have entirely different taste in decorations. which isn't atypical of them but it does mean that everyone else around them is forced to deal with this

[escyn]

i-

[musiclovingmoth]

just because i'm a systematics stickler: gracula is the old genus name, it's quiscalus now. but back in his heyday.... they called him count gracula

the scientific name for the grackle is gracula quiscula so now next time i see a grackle i will call it count gracula

[musiclovingmoth]

about hellgrammites :3

so my post of these bugs with the little bows has been getting really popular and i got some questions about what they are:

these are hellgrammites, the aquatic larvae of dobsonflies (order megaloptera: family corydalidae: subfamily corydalinae)! not centipedes, but insects. they have 6 true legs at the front. the other leggy things on the back are lateral filaments for tactile sensing and breathing. they also have abdominal gill tufts on their bellies and a pair of spiracles on their butts for the air.

this hellgrammite (eastern dobsonfly, corydalus cornutus) is out on the pavement because they can actually crawl pretty far from the water to find a place to pupate under a log or rock. if you know someone who fishes, they might know about these (as well as where to find them!) because they make good bait. some fishermen even make cool lures based off them!

^eastern dobsonfly pupa!! like beetles, their limbs and other appendages are free unlike the smooth casing of many flies and moths.

as adults, they're generally large flying insects though they don't fly super well. many are also easily recognizable because the males often have GIANT curved mandibles. despite this, they're actually too cumbersome to bite you. females will give you a strong pinch but only if you manhandle them. the adults also only live a few weeks compared to the few years (many insects are like this) that hellgrammites spend as ambush predators under large rocks in cold, fast-flowing streams. because of their specific habitat requirements, hellgrammites' change in abundance in streams can be really important for monitoring stream health.

^male eastern dobsonfly. he is so polite for taking time out of his night to pose for this photo

so you know how there's like. 400,000 species of beetles and 180,000 species of moths and butterflies? megaloptera only have 400 species!! and dobonsflies are only part of that group alongside alderflies and fishflies!! while megaloptera as a whole are found on every continent, dobsonflies are absent from huge portions of north america, europe, africa, and australia. globally speaking, they're kind of an uncommon insect. so to my fellow bug nerds in southwest/eastern north america, south america, and eastern/southeast asia, think about your local hellgrammites :3

^figure from jiang et al. 2021 showing global distributions of corydalinae. their wacko distribution is probably the result of regional extinctions since they need specific habitats and can't fly very far.

some more dobsonfly friends from around the world:

^protohermes, a genus of dobsonfly from asia. lemony fresh

^platyneuromus, a genus of dobsonfly from south america. seems like a good listener (they're not actually ears, just extensions of the head, and are probably for sexual display)

^chloroniella, the one genus of dobsonfly in southern africa. tiny!!

^the big boss dobsonfly, acanthacorydalis fruhstorferi from china! it is probably longer than your hand. allegedly the world's largest aquatic insect by wingspan (even tho the adult itself is not aquatic shrug)

[science-bastard]

i bend sexily over my lab bench to jot down a data point but my assistant doesn’t notice because they’re too busy drawing little faces on the test tubes and making them kiss

[musiclovingmoth]

fans of the cambrian should check out paleopals!! they're the paleontological research institution's line of plushies and they're soooo cute!! your money supports them and their museum, the museum of the earth, both of which are in danger of closing permanently. (petition here btw)

i think we've done a great job expanding the view of what a child's favorite animal can be. kids these days can say they love axolotls or pangolins or coelecanths and their decision is respected. maybe their parents can even find them a stuffed animal of it if they know where to look. and i think that's beautiful