Florida Wildlife, January-February, 1981. Illustration by Wallace Hughes.
On Saturday I hung out with my 84-year-old ecologist great uncle and he stopped in mid-conversation (abt the return of the whooping crane) and very seriously told me that "you can go one of two ways, as a naturalist"; either you keep sight of the hopeful possibilities, or you don't. I'm one of nature's wretched little pessimists but when an old ecologist literally holds your hands in his and tells you, "don't despair," you have to try, I feel.
I'm immune to a lot of the "hopepunk" narratives about ecology but...
The Karner Blue butterfly was extirpated from Canada the year before I was born. He donated to one of the projects to bring it back for years, and even though the project he was working on fizzled out, I told him about the branch in Toronto, still going strong. They save every lupine seed they can harvest and germinate them carefully so that in 20, 30, 40 years we might have enough habitat to bring the Blues back. He was part of the first wave of that effort.
Fuck!!!! What do you do with that kind of care? You have to at least try to believe that better things are possible!
i used to work at a used bookstore and there was an insect anatomy book for sale that was over $8000 im not even kidding. and i just found it at my school library. its mine for the month.
It’s page after page of the most detailed illustration on insect morphology I’ve ever seen
External anatomy only I’m afraid, but an absolutely invaluable resource nonetheless
It’s called An Atlas of Insect Morphology by Steinmann and Zombori. Looks like there are some much cheaper options now than when I last looked. When I saw it in the bookstore’s system I thought it was a pricing error but I remember looking it up and seeing one for sale that was over $10,000 so I was like okay then. I could only find pdfs from university libraries I don’t have access too. So I’m glad my school has a physical copy.
Idk if I can describe how useful this book is. It’s all illustration. The only text is the labels. I have a really nice book on insect anatomy but it’s like your classic textbook
Like very useful but it is still a pain to flip through a thousand page book looking for images but it’s mostly text. There aren’t nearly as many diagrams. It doesn’t show you nearly as many angles. It doesn’t show or label even close to level of detail the one above does.
In case anyone hasn’t read my tags: I’m going to scan this whole book and make it into a pdf. You all can have it for free. It will take a while. Bear with me.
This is Dendrocephalus proeliator, the rare fairy shrimp that I co-discovered in 2019. This is a mature male in a 1/4 teaspoon. They are found only in certain soils in central Florida and they refuse to hatch unless they have their special soil chemistry intact
One thing I truly love about being an Entomology nerd, is nobody can ever get reasonably mad at me for not knowing what a bug is! There’s no way I can reasonably know every single bug in the world, that’s just not feasible!
And even better- that ALSO means I get to spend the REST OF MY LIFE learning about bugs! I get the joy of learning about new ones all the time, forever! It’s so awesome!! It also ALSO means I can easily divert my punk desire to better the world into insect conservation, which is super important for the earths continued existence!! And caring about little critters that most people find disgusting is frankly SUPER punk! I fucking love bugs!
I worked with a senior resource manager for a national park who’d been an entomologist for 30 years and I still knew some arthropod facts he didn’t
Florida Wildlife, February 1962. Illustration by Wallace Hughes.
Florida Wildlife, April 1968. Illustration by Wallace Hughes.
This article documents the severe and ongoing specimen neglect I witnessed over 12 months working at Florida State Collection of Arthropods. FSCA actively solicits donations, then picks and chooses what specimens to care about based on individuals' personal favorites. The rest are left to rot.
Please take a look and consider sharing this, it's extremely important for people (especially in science, taxonomy, natural history, museum curation, etc) to know how and why scientific material is being lost.
This Wet Beast Wednesday I'm going to talk about gars. This needs some clarification because there are a lot of different fish called gar, garfish, or garpike. I'm referring to fish of the family Lepisostidae, the only surviving members of the ancient clade Ginglimodi, which I mostly brought up because Ginglimodi is a funny name.
(image: a longnose gar)
Gars are predatory fish found exclusively in North and Central America, though they have been introduced outside of their native range. Their ancestors evolved in Triassic period and once occupied most of North America and large portions of Europe back when the continents were still connected. They are freshwater fish, though a few species will go into brackish or even marine waters temporarily. The name "gar" is though to come from the old english word for "spear", which is appropriate as gar are very elongated fish and often have pointy snouts. Many other groups of elongated fish are also given the common name of gar or garfish for this reason. Their long snouts are filled with sharp teeth which are used to crush through shells and flesh. Gars are opportunistic predators who feed largely on crustaceans, frogs, and fish and will eat carrion if they find it. The long snouts are also used to dig through sediment in search of prey They move slowly through the water, but are capable of short bursts of speed to catch prey. Most species are apex predators with no natural predators as adults.
(image: a longnose gar with mouth open, displaying the teeth)
The body of a gar is covered with thick, diamond-shaped scales. Their scales are an ancient variety known as ganoid scales which are notable for their shape and composition. Where most bony fish scales have layers of a spongy, bony substance called cosmene, ganoid scales instead have an enamel-like substance called dentine, which is also a component in teeth. The scales are also covered in a rigid, glassy substance called ganoine where other scales use enameloid. Ganoid scales also don't overlap, instead laying next to each other in a manner that provided protection while still allowing flexibility. The result is a suit of armor that makes gar very durable. Because of how durable the scales are, they habe been used by humans for many purposes. Multiple Native American groups would use scales as arrowheads, there are reports of native Caribbean peoples wearing breastplates made of gar skin, and Europeans colonists would layer their plow heads with the scales to protect the,. There is currently a market for jewelry made of the scales.
(image: a close-up of ganoid scales)
(image: an arrowhead made of a gar scale)
Gar typically lay their eggs in early spring, with the female coating vegetation with thousands of sticky eggs. The eggs are toxic to humans, capable of causing sickness when ingested. Because of this, they are unsuitable for caviar. Scientists initially thought that the toxin was an adaptation to prevent predation, but natural predators of the eggs like channel catfish and bluegill are immune. Crayfish are affected by the eggs, though it's not clear if the poison is an adaptation targeting them or not.
(image: a shortnose gar)
The swim bladder of gar is highly vascularized, allowing them to act as lungs. Most gar will surface occasionally to take a gulp of air. While they are capable of surviving on their gills alone in good-quality water, air gulping allows gar to thrive in low-oxygen water where their prey will be sluggish from oxygen deprivation. Most species live around 20 years, but the alligator gar can live upwards of 70 years.
(image: a spotted gar)
There are seven living species of Gar: the Cuban gar, tropical gar, spotted gar, longnose gar, shortnose gar, Florida gar, and alligator gar. The shortenose gar is the smalles species, reaching an average length of 62.5 cm (24.6 in) while the alligator gar is the largest species and one of the largest of all American freshwater fish at an average length of 1.8 m (6 ft) in length. The largest alligator gar on record measured in 2.57 m (8 ft 5 in) and 148 kg (327 lbs). Alligator gar were long considered a nuisance species by fishermen as they preyed on sportfish and as a result, they were frequently killed. This resulted in population losses and the fish being extirpated from many states it was once native to. Now multiple states have laws and regulations protecting them and the population is starting to see a resurgence. Alligator gar and now a popular sportfish and have been introduced to places outside of their native range, becoming an invasive species in many areas including China.
(image: two fishermen with an alligator gar)
Gar meat is edible and is described as having a very unique taste compared to other fish meat. They are not commonly eaten in modern times, but some people consider them a delicacy. Gar meat is known to carry environmental toxins like pollutants and heavy metals, which can make eating them risky. Gar are mostly fished for their scales or for sport. Only the Cuban car is endangered (and critically so) while other species may be locally endangered, but as a whole are not threatened. Gar are used as aquarium fish due to their unique appearance, though they need large tanks due to their size.
(image: a close-up of an alligator gar's head)
99.99% of rap haters have never even listened to rap. or if they have it's like one gangsta rap song & they treat the genre as a monolith and act like it's representative of every rap song ever. and well of course they are also just racist
first & last line still stand even if rap was a monolith and all rap was gangsta rap. btw
Rap is great! Everyone knows the worst genre of music is country
99.99% of country haters have never even listened to country. or if they have it's like one post-9/11 pop country song by a rich poser & they treat the genre as a monolith and act like it's representative of every country song ever. and well of course they are also just classist
i would lecture you about the importance of jazz in US history and african american history and music history but you're a swiftie so there is no hope for you
Happy birthday, Woody Guthrie! (July 14, 1912)
A beloved and influential troubadour in the American folk tradition, Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma and grew up in a rough, hardscrabble life. His mother suffered from Huntington's Disease and was committed to a mental asylum, while his father worked in Texas to pay off debts, leaving Guthrie and his siblings to support themselves. Guthrie had an affinity for music from a young age, and took to busking for money to pay for his family's needs. When the Dust Bowl hit, Guthrie joined many others from Oklahoma in migrating westwards, coming to Los Angeles, where he began associating with left-wingers and progressives. Guthrie embraced a humanistic, Christian-influenced socialism that would color his work for the rest of his life, and he began writing socially-conscious songs that would loom large in the American folk songbook. Guthrie came to New York City as World War II began and formed friendships with like-minded socialist musicians, chiefly among them Pete Seeger. Seeger and Guthrie formed a close partnership, and along with other left-wing folkies formed the Almanac Singers, which enjoyed some popularity among those who appreciated folk music. It was during this time that he wrote some of his most famous songs, including antifascist tunes such as "Tear the Fascists Down" and the subtly socialistic "This Land is Your Land." Guthrie served in the Merchant Marine during World War II, and after the war settled for a time on Mermaid Avenue in New York. Guthrie escaped the Second Red Scare largely unscathed, mostly because his health was deteriorating; he had inherited Huntington's from his mother. He was hospitalized from 1956 until his death from the disease in 1967. He left behind a legacy that continues to this day, having inspired and influenced artists ranging from Seeger to Phil Ochs, Joan Baez to Bob Dylan.
"Now, the bank men have got their union, and the landlords got their union, and the finance men got their union, but down south and out west, on the cotton farms and working in the orchards and fruit crops, it's a jail house offense for a few, common everyday workers to form them a union and get together for higher wages, honest pay, and fair treatment."
we need to bully people who work monday through friday when they say “have a good weekend” on fridays or whatever. Your words mean nothing to me. i don’t fucking know what a weekend is you child emperor
why does it always gotta be "oh im a communist but not like those marxists leninists-" we had this debate. in the 1800s. in fact marx AND lenin wrote about it: you are either for some nebulous idea of communal living that gets you nowhere OR you realize that you have to start from the current material conditions, and organize, and the organization has to be centralized for it to work and you have to study a lot and also act in group because going to protests on your own is just perpetuating an individualist ideology. they were saying marx was outdated in 1915!! guess what happened two years later. like you can incorporate all you want from feminism and queer theory and even anarchy but at the end of it all. only one line of action can bring about revolution, has revolution as its objective and has in fact done so before. it's marxism leninism. you have just been conditioned to think it's outdated so you wouldn't use the only weapon that actually works.
"IF YOU BUILD IT, WE WILL BURN IT"
[VD: A black person stands at a podium. They say, "There is no war on police. There is no such thing as a blue life. The thin blue line is a tantrum of immature and petulant adult children. If your egos are too fragile to accept the rightful criticism of your tactics, then quit. If you can't do your job without somebody constantly hovering over your shoulder, then say it. We'll hold your timid hands at every step. You've already forfeited any career aspirations you may have had. We live here, y'all have made it abundantly clear that you all just work here. If accountability makes you uncomfortable, go somewhere else. Atlanta has no place for you. The police have shown time and time again that the training they've been given isn't interested in de-escalation, conflict resolution, or preservation of life. If I had 57 bullets, I could assassinate every member in this chamber with three shots each and still have nine bullets left over. I dare any single one of you to tell me that you believe that is justified, reasonable or acceptable as standard operating procedure. Wars have been fought over, much less. What's the difference between a bullet and a cop? If a bullet kills someone, you'll know it's been fired. If you have a problem, call the police. Then you'll have two problems: money or violence. You seem to only respond to these two categories using one to beget the other. Can't even get the correct dates on your signed off warrants, but expect us to believe that you have the competency and due diligence for a 100 million dollar project that we have told you repeatedly that we do not need and we do not want.The May 31 deployment of militarized police units on a residential street to raid a bail fund on suspicion of white collar financial crimes is tyrannical. Tyrannical entities must be demolished by any means necessary. You have the option to resign willingly, be cast out politically, or be removed violently. The choice you make today on this bill will be inextricably linked to the method that will be chosen. You will vote no. You will vote no. You will vote no. All of you will vote no today and you will re-plant every tree you uprooted a hundred times over. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. If you build it, we will burn it." End VD.]
found out that a plant i found a while ago in some wet ditches in a rapidly developing spot with constant new construction is actually very rare so im going to collect some eventually. with all this rain lately i think going in the ditches right now isnt really ideal though. i know theyre not in imminent pavement threat but now that i know theyre rare i want to just go get them already. they were really abundant in those ditches so i know i wont be taking too much. i want to propagate them and be able to give some to other native plant people. it doesnt seem like anyone actually cultivates them, maybe because as my mom said, "it just looks like a weed!"
theyre not protected or even slightly commercially valuable or anything. just a victim of demolished wetlands
the ditch has a lot of water in it currently. theres construction going on right next to the ditch. i think but am not certain the ditch is protected from construction. best be safe and take some, but theyre little forbs so itll be hard to see them, i wont be able to stand over the ditch and scan for them, ill have to be all in there sloshing around and searching. they might even be submerged. thatll be fun
Happy birthday, Salvador Allende! (June 26, 1908)
President of Chile from 1970 to 1973, Salvador Allende was the first socialist to be elected to that office. Born to a progressive middle class family in Santiago, Allende was influenced during his education by anarchists, socialists, and progressives, and began involving himself in political and labor activism from the 1930s. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1937, beginning a political career which would span four decades. A physician by trade, Allende served as Chile's health minister in Pedro Aguirre Cerda's popular front government from 1939 to 1942. A committed, lifelong, and leading member of the Socialist Party, Allende ran for President on several occasions, finally winning in 1970 as the candidate of the Popular Unity coalition which united the Chilean left behind him. In office, Allende sought to better the conditions of the working class, nationalize key industries, and pursue land reform. His government was bitterly opposed by both the Chilean right and the United States, which backed efforts to sabotage the Chilean economy and overthrow Allende. These efforts culminated in a coup d'etat on September 11, 1973, in which the armed forces led by Augusto Pinochet toppled the Allende government and instituted a brutal right-wing dictatorship. Allende gave a final address to the nation before Pinochet's troops could reach him, and then committed suicide using an AK-47 gifted by Fidel Castro.
"Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Keep in mind that, much sooner than later, great avenues will again be opened, through which will pass the free man, to construct a better society."