@anurag-asclepias
Evolutionary ecologist studying species interactions, plant chemistry, community ecology, and comparative biology. Author of Monarchs & Milkweed and Professor at Cornell University. Proud parent and friend.
Prof. Juan Núñez Farfán and I are co-editing a special issue in the journal Insects, titled 🔴Evolutionary and Ecological Mechanisms of Plant Defense against Insects🔴.
We are looking for original work that explores the links between plant defense and insect herbivory!
Please see more details below!
Flatbacked #millipede I think, cruising unmolested amidst this #ant colonynon the move in Costa Rica. A #parasite, I guess?
I'm herbivorous
Really fabulous book! Lots on some of the D/W coincidences - like them living a mile apart, separated by 20 years of age, after and before each of their giant expeditions. Also super interesting analysis of W's modesty - he wrote Darwinism in 1889!
Watch the Extraordinary Caterpillar film trailer! homegrownnationalpark.org/extraordinar...
Milkweed seeds, still dispersing
Cardenolide toxin diversity impacts monarch butterfly growth and sequestration
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Oak Galls Exhibit Ant Dispersal Convergentwith Myrmecochorous Seeds
par.nsf.gov/servlets/pur...
Earlier on the expedition we found the most beautiful flower, and here, my friends, is the biggest: Rafflesia arnoldi seen in full bloom today in the Sumatran jungle. This is the largest flower on earth and one of the greatest wonders of the natural world.
#Monarch #butterfly tagging advances in the NY Times, they are arriving in #Mexico
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/s...
The 3 guys in 2006 and 2025
A mentor, Spencer Barrett, and mentee, Marc Johnson - 20 years apart
A patch of bright red fungi that look like clawed-hands reaching out of the ground.
Part of a large patch of Devil's Fingers fungus (aka Octopus Stinkhorn) in Rye, East Sussex. I smelt them before I saw them. An intense bouquet of rotting flesh to attract insects that then help spread spores. Brilliant!
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
#fungi
#mycology
#UKwildlife
A collection of 15 wooly bear caterpillars, orange and black, all curled up
The wooly bear, or #Isabella tiger #moth #caterpillar, Pyrrharctia isabella, still looking for overwintering spots on warm days. I'm still collecting them for research. Many years ago I became allergic to the hairs, a painful reminder of my love gone sour: agrawal.eeb.cornell.edu/2018/11/24/c...
T-shirt design with monarch butterflies and Statue of Liberty
By popular demand, I'm offering "More #MONARCHS - No #Monarchy!" shirts and mugs at cost (no profit, just joy). Spread the word, decent quality for <$20
monarchs.printful.me
#NoKings #butterfly #peace #naturalhistory #plantinsect
🕷️ Britain’s craziest creature? Meet Megabunus diadema — a harvestman with eyes on a spiky turret! Not a spider, but part of its own Order: Opiliones.
Learn more in our UK Harvestmen webinar on 5 Feb 2026:
🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1720584467...
@britishspiders.bsky.social @megabunus.bsky.social
Older White man standing behind a chair, and a table featuring four of my book titles. A large poster representing the cover of my newest book, Bugwatching: The Art, Joy, and Importance of Observing Insects, is on the floor to the right of the table. All of this is inside a public library.
I am an author being overwhelmed by emails from people offering their services to promote my new book. This is a brand new problem, and I do not have an agent or publicist to sift through the offers. Help? #writingcommunity #authors
I have tasted them too... I cannot tell if it is Taxus canadensis, but maybe? Plants are dioceous, deer prefer males. The genus is the source of taxol, a compound used in chemotherapy, which targets tubulin (cell division)
Red oak fall colors
Witch hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, Hamamelidaceae in the Saxifragales, now in #flower around #Ithaca
The maple leaf #Viburnum, when not eaten by deer #ithaca #fruit #naturalhistory
My monkey slug getting ready to transform to hag moth, Phobetron pithecium Limacodidae
Pear rust's spore-dispersing bodies... This #fungus, Gymnosporangium sabinae, is an obligate host - alternating #parasite (like many fungi and aphids) - alternate host = juniper
New biology: stink bugs inoculate their eggs with a fungus that protects them from parasitoids
www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
Photo of green and leafy herbaceous plant bearing narrow leaves and yellow, tubular flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.
Melampyrum pratense has a huge distribution across Europe to central Siberia thanks to ants. It has myrmecochorus seeds—seeds carried by ants—unlike most holo- and hemiparasitic species, which have wind-dispersed seeds. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Woody plants!
Monkey slug caterpillar, or "hag #moth" Phobetron pithecium. A late season Limacodidae of eastern forests, A generalized feeder of mostly blue plants
Courtesy of Sam Jaffe and the amazing #caterpillar lab in New Hampshire!
www.thecaterpillarlab.org
Matelea cyclophylla, a vining succulent #milkweed vine with a corky #caudex from western Mexico, hairy burgundy #flowers
