an undescribed Megacina from far northern CA that actually has very little 'Mega' in it's cina ...

young winter ant workers, storing lipids in their abdomens for the rest of the colony

and with immaculate spacing!

high noon ant queen and workers

Here's a collection of cactus photos I captured this year in Death Valley. 🌵💕

Western Dracula Ant, from far northern CA

found by my student T Hays, who then allowed me to capture these in situ images

portrait of Paeromopus angusticeps from Shasta County CA

Kids these days … 😊

Student comes prepared to take an exam with 5 backup pencils. Pretty goddamned solid …

such cool little animals ... a phalangodid harvester (Texella) from far northern California

Plumatyla millipede from a northern California lava tube

'dainty' and 'sausage' rarely go together well ...here's an exception

another dainty little sausage millipede

from under limestone, Shasta County CA

色々カニムシのまとめ
神経質なので「んん！」とハサミを掲げて警戒したり、後退りしたりと自然な振る舞いを撮影するのはなかなか難しい。
後半はナイフ舐めがち悪キャラなカニムシたち。でもビビリだったりウデナガダニと握手したりする。

We're on the cover of Evolution!!

Thank you, Evolution Journal, for featuring our special little insects!

Pimus (Amaurobiidae), from Butte County CA

quite the pede menagerie

Brachycybe, Butte County CA

itsy bitsy spider, literally

Usofila, from Trinity County CA

these are generally too small for my search image (*that's what I tell myself!!); found by my grad student T Hays

Today's Observation of the Day is this vibrant #jumpingspider species (Scientific name Siler collingwoodi) seen in Hong Kong by siuyeung.

More details at inaturalist.org/observations/2… #arachnids

Pale clouded yellow, Colias hyale. On the underside of the hind wing, the distinctive spot, outlined in red, can be seen from afar. A great example of a motif that somehow becomes more and more beautiful with increasing magnification. Scale 10:1 with 155 individual images.…

Pimus (F Amaurobiidae), from far northern CA