Continuing my arthropod era with this moth drawing I just did

I'm always amazed at #bird ID pages: birders see a dozen pixels and are like 'yep, it's a juvenile of this species'. Meanwhile, on the #arthropod ID pages it's 'with that picture we can't reliably narrow it down to order'.

I guess three orders of magnitude difference in species count will do that!

Our 1st ever Monarch Butterfly eclosed! Here’s my Perpetual Journal art of it & a Kingsnake from the same day + a Lucy’s Warbler & moths! Read more on my latest blog post https://paulaborchardt.substack.com/p/butterfly-excitement-part-3

Our 1st ever Monarch larva pupated ; here’s my Perpetual Journal art of it & Sonoran Desert wildflowers from ‘25, ‘24 & ‘23! Read more on my latest blog post https://paulaborchardt.substack.com/p/butterfly-excitement-part-2

To follow up on my recent Monarch larva art, here are my to scale photos comparing Monarch & Queen larvae showing their different sizes, patterns & number of tubercles! Read more on my latest blog post https://paulaborchardt.substack.com/p/butterfly-excitement-part-1

For the 1st time EVER we had a Monarch Butterfly larva on 1 of our Milkweeds!!! So exciting!!! Here’s my Perpetual Journal art of it; read more on my latest blog post https://paulaborchardt.substack.com/p/butterfly-excitement-part-1

This beautiful lady is Solenopsis invicta. Measuring barely over 2 mm long, she is a member of an incredibly successful species.

Unfortunately, she is far outside her native range, and doing incredible damage to her local ecosystem.

It isn't her fault that she's a fire ant.

In my latest blog post/email newsletter I continued my All About Birds mini-series. Here’s Part 3 featuring my natural history art & info:

https://paulaborchardt.substack.com/p/all-about-birds-part-3

Sometimes I stray away from my nature art to create comics (like this) more about current events. Read more on my latest blog post https://paulaborchardt.substack.com/p/its-time-for-another-comic

Yellow-legged Pachyiulus (Pachyiulus flavipes)

Muscleman tree ant (Podomyrma gratiosa), so called because the large femur makes her looks like she lifts!

today's confusing taxonomic terms:

Saturnaliidae , a clade of early branching saurpodomorph dinosaurs
Saturnalidae , a clade of radiolarians
Saturniidae , a clade of moths

#dinosaurs
#radiolarians
#moths
#insects
#arthropod
#protists
#reptile

come on, 4 inches is quite large for a scorpion. You didn't expect something the size of Xingjangtitan, did you?

https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/125-million-year-old-fossil-of-giant-venomous-scorpion-that-lived-alongside-dinosaurs-discovered-in-china

#fossils
#scorpions
#arthropod
#mesozoic

Now Bug of the Year is over, normal service can resume!

Here's an incredibly feathery velvet mite (Chyzeriidae) from New Zealand. These active predators wander the forest floor, looking for springtails to ambush and drink dry using their piercing mouthparts! Beautiful but deadly.