The
#ICE2024
conference in Japan has been so inspirational. It’s amazing to see so many elementary, jr, highschool presenters. Here’s Jo Nagai, 5th grader, by his poster on learned inheritance. He told me he next wants to do epigenetics/CRISPR on his butterflies!
@ice2024kyoto_jp
#NationalMothWeek
day 9! The final moth of the week is the truly spectacular Picasso moth (Baorisa hieroglyphica). Considered to be one of the most beautiful moths in the world. Photo: msone
#MothWeek
New butterfly evolutionary study is out as preprint! 2244 spp sequenced for 391 genes. Butterflies likely originated in what is now Americas, ~100 million years ago. Research led
@FloridaMuseum
#McGuireCenter
. Global study w/87 scientists from 28 countries
She’s a beauty! Japanese Silkmoth. Just came to the porch light in Japan. Haven’t seen one in nearly 20 years. They are amazing moths!
@ice2024kyoto_jp
#moth
#ICE2024
#NationalMothWeek
day 6! Today's moth is a wasp mimic, a video I took in Ecuador earlier this year. Hard to believe it's a moth! Protects itself from predators by looking like a wasp.
#MothWeek
Went to a reptile show recently in Florida with my kids. Whaat?!?Someone was selling these amazing rhinoceros beetles! They are so fuzzy! Very cute insects.
More Luna moths in the yard this morning! Tattered wings on some indicate the first generation of the spring is slowly nearing the end. Truly awesome insects!
I often here people saying that moths are not very attractive. I try to convince people that they are! Here is a photo I took of the Green-Banded Urania moth, Urania leilus, in Ecuador last year.
Another gorgeous moth to celebrate
#NationalMothWeek
. Eye-tailed moth, Sematura luna (Sematuridae). Eye wing marks likely to fool birds, twisted tails likely to fool bats. Photo by
@BiodiversiLary
It's the start of
#NationalMothWeek
! As a
#moth
lover and scientist, I'll be posting a moth photo/video each day this week with cool facts about them. Here's the first, one of my favorites - Madagascar Sunset Moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus). Photo: J. Sullivan (L), anonymous (R).
Day 4,
#NationalMothWeek
. Today's
#moth
is Uropyia meticulodina (Notodontidae). Check out the visual illusion! Head points to the left and wing pattern makes it look like a curled leaf! Photo: W.-C. Chang
@Moth_Week
Did you know? We wouldn’t have *Chocolate* if it weren’t for insects? The Chocolate Midge
#fly
(Theobroma cacao) is the main pollinator of the cacao plant. No chocolate if it weren’t for this little fly!
#SaveInsects
#NatureEducation
Our study on
#butterfly
#evolution
,
#hostplants
&
#ranges
is now formally out! We built a phylogeny of 2000 sp and found butterflies originated in N. America 100M years ago, likely fed on legumes. ~100 scientists from 28 countries contributed. Thanks all!
#NationalMothWeek
, day 2! Here is an amazing large moth, the long-tailed moon moth, Actias dubernardi. Beautiful, elegant long tails! Tails used for escaping predatory bats. Photo: N. Larson
New paper is out! By
@anapscarvalho
and others - new phylogeny of butterfly family Pieridae (whites and sulphurs) showing diversification is correlated with global temperature
@FloridaMuseum
Wow! Very cool research,
#Hawkmoths
lay more eggs on plants that are already damaged by
#beetles
! Moths hone in on a chemical that is released when prior insect damage occurs. photo: Mohammed Salman. Thanks
@BarberLab
for the heads-up
Day 7,
#NationalMothWeek
. Moth of the day is a tiger moth that "floats" its pupa in air and creates a golden silk basket around itself to protect against predators. Fascinating defense behavior! Photo: J. Horstman.
#moth_week
@Moth_Week
Hey Science Twitter - does anyone know what these are? I found these in a jelly-like goo. They come up to breathe out of the jelly. I think it’s a kind of fly? Super cool. Mashpi, Ecuador taken today. I have videos too.
One of the most spectacular insects! Has the longest ovipositor known. Megarhyssa. Endoparasitoids of horntail wasps; egg is laid on larva that lives in wood using long tail. One is laying in vid! Like most insects doesn’t/can’t sting. My top 10 coolest insect, found in NY!
#NationalMothWeek
, day 4! This is one of my favorite examples of camouflage in nature - the Dead Leaf Moth! Moth looks like a rolled dead leaf. Uropyia meticulodina. Photo: WC Chang.
#MothWeek
17 years ago, I was in college and had little money and needed protein. So yes, I ate periodical
#cicadas
consistently for about a week. Earthy version of shrimp. Good on sushi too!
#BroodX
This is an amazing
#wasp
that helps
#humans
. Attacks roaches and kills their eggs. If you see one in your home, don't kill the wasp! They remove your roaches. The way you can tell these wasps is by the abdomen that attaches at the thorax top (gaster)
#BenficialInsects
#Insects
Excited to announce that I’m starting as Director of one of the premier centers on
#Butterfly
and
#Moth
research and education — the
#McGuireCenter
for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity —
@FloridaMuseum
@UF
— starting today! Excited but nervous!
Very interesting study published today in
@CurrentBiology
showing that moth wings' ripples may be to lure predatory bats away from their bodies as defense! Moths are just so cool! By
@drtomneil
, Marc Holderied and colleagues.
Did you know? There are night-flying butterflies! We assembled the
#genome
of a nocturnal butterfly, and the DNA shares many similarities with nocturnal moths, such as color vision/
#opsins
. This is so cool!
@lepidos_Rachit
and YiMing Weng lead this study.
Happy
#NationalMothWeek
! There are >150,000 species of
#moths
in the world and many of them are beautiful, important to us + our ecosystem, yet declining. Help save moths by dimming/turning off exterior lights this week. One of the largest is Atlas moth, from SE Asia!
@Moth_Week
Excited to be giving a different kind of talk today - on cultural entomology at
#entsoc2023
. Come check out the subculture of insects in Japan, especially if you're going to
@ice2024kyoto_jp
next year! => 2:30 pm, Azela 2
This caterpillar is as an incredible snake mimic. Cat is twisted upside-down inflating its body to look like a serpent; which they do to protect from predators. See legs in middle of snake head. Cat of hawkmoth H. triptolemus. Bugs=Spectacular!!! Photo: the amazing Andreas Kay
Happy Valentine’s Day! Let’s not forget to love
#nature
and appreciate all the important things that
#insects
do for us! Chocolate we eat today wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for insect pollinators of
#cacao
!
A beautiful Luna moth comes to the porch light today. Florida, spring time. While we are faced with social distancing, let’s spend time looking at amazing wildlife around us. This species is shifting its distribution northward each year due to changing climate.
A strange thing I saw while on a
#shinrinyoku
walk in the woods. Looks as if a fungus froze flies. All pointing same way. 1 fly has its arms out, as if calling for help. All found on same tree just outside of NYC. Anyone know whats going on? Nature is odd and amazing!
@flygirlNHM
I'm saddened of the shocking news that my friend, musician & lepidopterist extraordinaire, Jim Miller, died unexpectedly last night. Jim-thank you for that letter of rec that got me in Cornell when I had no direction in HS. I'll make sure our book is awesome. RIP, will miss you
Morpho butterflies are amazing. This is one of my favorites, Morpho cypris. Striking metallic blue iridescence! The wings actually don’t have blue pigment, it’s made from scale structure and way the light reflects! Specimens in the
#McGuireCenter
at
@UF
@FloridaMuseum
#Moth
fact! Many unrelated moths have clear, see-through wings without scales. It’s not just hummingbird moths that have clear wings. This one, Sesiidae. Photo: S. Padron
#MothWeek
#NationalMothWeek
Japan has some very strange things. This is a silkworm moth chocolate gift set covering 3 life stages. I guess the egg stage is missing because it’s too small. Edible!
#Bombyx
Many
#insects
appear to be declining. We are often asked why insects are important. I suggest every
#entomologist
know the “5 Ps” by heart. Here it is (slide from prior talk)👇
#EntSoc21
#NationalMothWeek
day 7! Today let's recognize the other moth life stages. One of my favorites is the colorful caterpillar of the Cecropia moth. Vibrant colors of blue, yellow, red and green! Stunning! Photo: M. Smith
#MothWeek
Check this out- male glowing Scorpion in a courtship dance with dark female. Scorpions glow in the dark, but in some, only males glow in UV. Thanks
@anapscarvalho
@ryan_stlaurent
for showing this while in the woods with UV flashlight during filming for
#AmericanSpringLivePBS
First Luna Moth sighting of the year today! Beautiful! On
@UF
campus by
@FloridaMuseum
Dickinson Hall. Likely emerged because of 85F (30C) today. Thanks Robb Stokes for sharing the photo!
New study by Juliette Rubin and others showing that
#MoonMoth
tails are driven by
#bat
predation. Interestingly, seasonal temperature variation has exerted a nearly equally counterbalancing constraint on hindwing length.
#LunaMoth
#MoonMoth
#evolution
Here's a
#moth
fact - Did you know that moths are more efficient pollinators than bees? Photo shows a hawkmoth with orchid pollen attached to head. Photos: A. Day, J. Webbinton, ; Pollination study:
#NationalMothWeek
#MothWeek
Possibly one of the best insect exhibits I have ever seen. Still on display in Tokyo until November. 素晴らしい昆虫展覧会。「虫展-デザインのお手本-」”21_21 Design Sight”. This is just a short clip; you should see the entire exhibit if you can!
An amazing thing
@UF
is seeing bats fly each night on campus! They’re insect feeders+hunt w/sonar in aerial battles. Bugs are declining in numbers; what happens to bats when bugs vanish? If you visit check it out!フロリダ大学内のコウモリの群れ-毎晩見れる!
@FloridaMuseum
@UF_IFAS
Entomologists!!! I am compiling fascinating/incredible facts about insects for a book. If you have any facts/stories about incredible things that insects do, please share by reply or email. Email is same as my first [dot] last name at gmail. Bugs are amazing! Please RT! Thanks!
Many small moths are beautiful! Check out this leaf roller moth (Pseudatteria volcanica, Tortridae). Not all small moths are brown. Many are colorful, jazzy!
Tomorrow at 17:30 at
#ICE2022
- David Plotkin and I will be talking about several of our big recent evolutionary studies including the 2000+ butterfly tree, dating
#Lepidoptera
, and evolution of
#moths
and
#ultrasound
production! Come check it out, Rm 205.
In a new preprint we show that ~20% of moths produce anti-bat ultrasonic warning signals to bat sonar playback – comprising, perhaps, the largest mimicry complexes on earth! A 10-yr effort with
@DrAkito
@KawaharaLab
@BoiseState
@UF
Cool Japanese bug net, designed to collect insects off of tree bark so they don’t fall out of net edges. Works well for beetles, cicadas, others, has changeable telescoping insect net handle (not shown).