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Lucky Instar
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August 30, 2026
Welcome to 'random bee', a short writing series where I choose a random page in the book "Bees of the World: A Guide to Every Family" by Laurence Packer, then read up on it and do a short write up.
Today's random bee is:
Genus: Megalopta
Family: Halictidae
Subfamily: Halictinae
Tribe: Augochlorini
check out the huge ocelli - the extra eyes on top of the head. by Ajay Narenda.
Megalopta are super cool tropical bees that are active at night. Because this is so weird for a bee, they…
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Lucky Instar
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August 28, 2026
this female is carrying eggs. by Ian Gardner.
I have good news for you: clam shrimp exist nearby almost no matter where you live. As long as you can find at least at temporary body of water or pond, that is. Even in the southwestern US desert, there are emphemeral pools that form during the monsoon season in summer. So if there are clam shrimp even here, I can almost guarantee there are clam shrimp where you are, too.
What the hell are you talking about?
Clam shrimp are branchiop…
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Lucky Instar
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August 27, 2026
a crazy-looking animal. source.
This is part II of a series discussing the largest monkey species, mandrills and drills. Part one covered mandrills. This post will cover drills.
Drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus) are closely related to mandrills, as they are in the same genus (Mandrillus) and the same family Cercopithecidae. Drills live in similar areas as the mandrill, being restricted to western Africa in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea. As the wikipedia points out, the e…
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Lucky Instar
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August 26, 2026
Welcome to 'random bee', a short writing series where I choose a random page in the book "Bees of the World: A Guide to Every Family" by Laurence Packer, then read up on it and do a short write up.
Today's random bee is:
Genus: Dasypoda
Family: Melittidae
Subfamily: Dasypodainae
Tribe: Dasypodaini
beautiful baggy pants. by Jeremy Early.
This family, Melittidae, I know little about. It is a small family (for bees), with 14 genera and 200 species. The genus Dasypoda is one of the m…
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Lucky Instar
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August 25, 2026
18th century illustration by Charles Reuben Ryley. source.
Everyone knows monkeys but I think most people think about cute white-faced capuchins or macaques or the langurs of India. Monkey have a lot of diversity and live in many different habitats.
The largest monkeys are especially interesting and consist of the mandrill and the drill. People may assume mandrills are baboons and they do look pretty similar (both are monkey species), but mandrills are their own group. I think mo…
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Lucky Instar
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August 24, 2026
Welcome to 'random bee', a short writing series where I choose a random page in the book "Bees of the World: A Guide to Every Family" by Laurence Packer, then research it and do a short write up.
A note on random bee:
This is the sixth genera of bees we have covered so far, and with about 425 bee genera existing total (the actual number is debatable), that means we have covered 1.4% of all bees known! Yippee!
If I cover three genera every week, then it would only take just over t…
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The Ghastly Mirror
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Remember when earlier this month I talked about frogs living in y watering tank. Well there has been some new developments
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Lucky Instar
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Welcome to Genetic Linkage, a series where I share updates and interesting links for the week.
you activated my trap card.
The university semester has started for me this week, so things have been crazy. I'm mostly upset that I had the whole campus to myself all summer and now its overrun with people! Get out of my library!
Actually I've been irritated at everything in general. I'm at a stressful time in my career, things are not good in the US for scientists right now, it's too hot, there is a…
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Lucky Instar
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August 21, 2026
I'm back with you today on another episode of "small brown mammal I've never heard of".
infinite small mammals are found in the tropics. source.
required listening for today: Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne.
Chevrotains are small mammals in the order Artiodactyla and the family Tragulidae, and are also called mouse deer. They are the smallest hooved animals that exist. Kind of funny that there are also deer mice, which are a group of mice species.
Mouse deer are restricted to Africa…
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Brennan.day
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·Brennan Kenneth Brown
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It's been a while since I allowed myself to just pour freely onto the page. I admit I've noticed myself getting rut-barrelled into the ground again—getting caught up in the formula of writing, standardized. The desire path becoming the only road taken. Has it been good? Maybe. But the sputtering is present and becoming louder. Oil leaking from the engine.
It's the 20th day of August, and the 21st day I've written consecutively. I've always taken a day or two break each week for the past year, bu…
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Lucky Instar
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August 20, 2026
Welcome to 'random bee', a short writing series where I choose a random page in the book "Bees of the World: A Guide to Every Family" by Laurence Packer, then research it and do a short write up.
Today's random bee is:
Genus: Brachymelecta
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Nomadinae
Tribe: Melectini
a little wasp-looking for a bee. source.
Good timing on this one because I recently just learned about this genus! To get any further though, we first have to discuss cuckoo bees.
People migh…
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Lucky Instar
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August 19, 2026
When a person thinks of hippos, they usually think of two things: 1) hippos are the most dangerous animal in Africa (true), and 2) Moo Deng (the baby pygmy hippo internet sensation). This is kind of hilarious considering these two concepts are in opposition to each other. But this article is instead going to argue that you should think of a more important third thing: hippos are the beavers of Africa.
the duality of hippo.
What is an ecosystem engineer? It's when a species physic…
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Lucky Instar
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August 17, 2026
armor like tenfold shields. source.
The sungazer (Smaug giganteus) is the largest (~8 inches) girdled lizard species in the family Cordylidae and lives in colonies in eastern South Africa, where it digs burrows. It is so named because it tends to bask in the sun at the burrow entrance, lifting the front half of its body up and keeping the head up, as if its gazing at the sun. Compared to the other girdled lizards, its much bigger and unique in being a burrowing species, because t…
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Inventory Full
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·Bhagpuss
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I absolutely would not be posting today if not for Blaugust so whatever this is - and I have no idea yet what it's going to be - it'll just have to do. I'm great at handing out advice about not worrying about getting your 31 posts in and being ready to stop when it's not fun but I'm not so great at taking it.
Then again, scrabbling to meet deadlines, especially when they're coming at me like trains down a tunnel, is fun for me. Always has been. It's like playing chicken. Which, I am going to say…
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Lucky Instar
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August 16, 2026
Welcome to 'random bee', a short writing series where I choose a random page in the book "Bees of the World: A Guide to Every Family" by Laurence Packer, then research it and do a short write up.
Today's random bee is:
Genus: Neofidelia
Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Fideliinae
look at the leggies on this male. by C. Ritner.
This genus has a very restricted distribution that is limited to the western deserts of South America. It is mostly only found in northern Chile and souther…
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Lucky Instar
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August 14, 2026
Get in, loser, we're stealing nectar.
this paper relied on iNaturalist photos for evidence of robbery on flowers. Valdivia & Orellana, 2026.
Today we are diving into the wonderful world of ecology, a field of biology that deals with the interactions between organisms and their ecosystems. It is a large field that overarches biological networks, population genetics, species interactions, and many others.
Like any science, it is full of jargon. Here I'm going to describe some terms…
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Lucky Instar
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August 13, 2026
Welcome to 'random bee', a short writing series where I choose a random page in the book "Bees of the World: A Guide to Every Family" by Laurence Packer, then research it and do a short write up.
Today's random bee is:
Genus: Dufourea
Family: Halictidae
Subfamily: Rophitidae
showing the bulging antennal segments. female on left, male on right. from Dumesh & Sheffield 2012.
This is a group I don't know anything about!
There are 160 species in the genus Dufourea. They're found all…
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Lucky Instar
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August 11, 2016
how is it blue!! source.
Animals like birds have a spectrum of colors available to them, but less so can be said for mammals. There are definitely some really striking patterns in mammals, but that tends to consist of black and white patterns - like a skunk's stripes or a ring-tailed lemur's tail.
But one of my favorite animals is the mandrill, a colorful large monkey that has distinct blue and red on its face. The red skin is not too uncommon, and can be caused by vascularizatio…
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BongoTwisty
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·Bongo Twisty
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This post is my response to the Blaugust2026 group project for August 10th. I may be a day late but with the application of my chosen super power I don’t think that matters much.
Just over a week ago I finished reading the Gone series of books by Michael Grant. The main characters in the stories develop powers. These included light-blasting hands, telekinesis, gravity cancellation, incredible strength, healing, and super speed. Each power had benefits but also magnified a flaw, exposed a vulnera…
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Notes by JCProbably
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·jedda
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Ever since Cocoa’s passing, LC and I have constantly looked for signs that, in some ways, she is still with us. Whether it’s the wind that caresses us as a symbol of her little T-rex arm hugs, the fur we find in certain places as her saying hello, or the faint whispers of her barks, we find ourselves looking for little reminders that she’s still around.
People always say that when you lose a loved one, they come back in some form, or send someone or something to say hello. We’ve gotten bees and…
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Lucky Instar
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august 10, 2026
girls only. by Randy Klabacka.
Whiptails are lizards in the family Teiidae and are found across the US and South and Central America. The are all active in the daytime and are terrestrial lizards, mostly eating insects. There are 150 species in the family, but we will be focusing on the genus Aspidoscelis, to which all whiptails belong.
Whiptails are very fast lizards, and you usually get a glimpse of them in the desert before they run away rapidly to take shelter under a plant o…
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nosrednayduj
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It was hot and sticky, as predicted. It wouldn't have been any better the following day, we determined after living through today. The rain stayed away until the very last minute and we were able to chuck some things under the canopy and no damage was done to anything.
I'd say about 30 people came, including about 6 of Jocelyn's friends. There was some sailing, but no power boating. It was not a good waterski day, because it was kind of windy. Tubing could have been had, but all my friends are g…
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What the Fran
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·francescrossley
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Truly, the garden is a chaos right now. As we all know, there have been multiple heatwaves and about five minutes of rain all summer. Which has affected the plants, obviously. But also my ability to be out in the garden.
It's like scorched earth out there. The lawn is just yellow. It hasn't needed a mow since I can't remember when. There's a massive crack in the soil through the cabbages. The leeks haven't grown a centimetre in a month. Look away for a second and the lettuces have shot up to kne…
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Lucky Instar
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August 9, 2026
Welcome to 'random bee', a short writing series where I choose a random page in the book "Bees of the World: A Guide to Every Family" by Laurence Packer, then research it and do a short write up.
Today's random bee is:
Genus: Macrotera
Family: Andrenidae
Subfamily: Panurginae
Tribe: Perditini
Goblin bees are a low-level enemy in Final Fantasy that you have to grind fighting to level up early in the game - just kidding, it's a real-ass insect that lives in the deserts of US and Mex…
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Lucky Instar
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August 8, 2026
Welcome to Genetic Linkage, a series where I share updates and interesting links for the week.
What is genetic linkage, literally? It's when two alleles that are close together on the chromosome tend to be inherited together during meiosis. It means that traits that may be completely unrelated to each other may always show up together, because they are physically close together in the DNA.
a cell undergoing meiosis (anaphase). part of Moses by Frida Kahlo, 1945.
Reading:
Beloved,…