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ater

@[email protected]

#blind #artist, #ecologist, and occasional #author. reformed physicist. defender of lost causes.

mostly #bugs

Jetzt in Deutschland!

header: a sleeping bee, curled up inside a yellow flower.
profile pic: drawing of a person with an octopus wrapped around their head, covering their eyes.

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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

My books are now on bookshop.org! Support your local bookstore today!

Here's roach: a love story

A cockroach awakes one morning to find themselves transformed into a monstrous human. This is only the first in a series of increasingly disconcerting events for the now human teenager. It will not be long before Roach has firsthand knowledge of many aspects of the human experience, including: broken bones, broken hearts, bigotry and sadness; but also: Love, which in humans comes in many forms. So, that's nice, but will love be enough to make it all worth it?

https://bookshop.org/p/books/roach-liz-boysha/95cd771dd3ce0e4a?ean=9798224675418

(you can also get it free elsewhere, including on my website (https://ater.neocities.org/books/mybooks), it's all the same to me)

@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

For this last day of , I have what are probably the most important goblinsects of all time: Dung beetles. Because I skipped yesterday (fuck ICE), I'm giving you two different drawings, plus a picture from my old yard!

All dung beetles are in the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, but represent several different families. They serve many vital ecological functions, including waste disposal and sanitation, nutrient recycling, and seed dispersal. Adults bury waste in the soil to create nests for their brood, which eat the poop, breaking down the nutrients to recycle back into the soil. By removing the waste from the surface, they are crucial for preventing disease spread, and while forming the dung balls they move around any undigested seeds located in the waste.

Gel pen drawing of male and female rainbow dung beetles (Phanaeus vindex). Both are shiny green beetles. The male has a large horn and shield like a triceratops.
Photograph of three unidentified black dung beetles arguing over a ball of poo.

Photograph of three unidentified black dung beetles arguing over a ball of poo.
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

Hmm... The termite mimic creature I shared yesterday for was not popular ... Can't imagine why. To make it up to you I have two creatures today, each named "goblin."

Goblin spiders (family Oonopidae) are tiny little guys with somewhere between 0 and 6 eyes, depending on the species. They are frequently found in fossilized amber.

Goblin roaches (Paratemnopteryx couloniana) seem to have been named that by the people who raise them as feeder insects. Like most feeder bugs, they're pretty easy going and cannot fly, though they might get a little jumpy.

Watercolor of a dark red cockroach and a bright orange spider.
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

Oh no, it's ! To celebrate I like sharing some of the more goblin-y insects out there. Here are two paintings I did last year.

Junk bugs are the larvae of the pretty and delicate green lacewings (family Chrysopidae). They are known for collecting debris and the dead bodies of their victims on their backs.

The gum leaf skeletonizer (Uraba lugens) is the caterpillar of a small brown moth. As it grows and sheds old exoskeletons, it keeps the old head caps, wearing them like a silly hat.

Painting of a brown bug with a chaotic collection of crap piled on its back, and a white fluffy caterpillar with a silly hat made of skulls.
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

I painted this wasp solely because of its scientific name - Astata boops. I didn't even do a particularly good job of it, but it doesn't matter, because... Astata boops.

These solitary wasps are predators of shield bug larvae, which they paralyze then stuff into underground cells where they lay their eggs.

This painting is a female; males are about 98% eyes.

Watercolor of a black wasp with red top half of the abdomen. Its eyes are quite large.
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random
@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

Today for ... I love learning about insect symbionts.

Like the guardian wasp (Parachartergus apicalis), which tends to treehopper nymphs, protecting them from predators in exchange for honeydew excretions.

Or Attaphila cockroaches, which are known to infest leaf-cutting ant's fungus farms. They mimic the scent of their hosts, making the pests indistinguishable from worker ants.

Watercolor of an ant surrounded by little brown blobs similar to tribbles, including one perched on the ant's head. It says, "The Trouble with Attaphila..."

Watercolor of an ant surrounded by little brown blobs similar to tribbles, including one perched on the ant's head. It says, "The Trouble with Attaphila..."
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

I don't always paint insects... sometimes I paint birds. Especially the blue ones.

Watercolor of a Steller's jay, a dark blue bird with black head and crest. It says, "Steller's Jay is indeed a very stellar jay."
Watercolor of a scrub jay, a blue bird with grey patches.

Watercolor of a scrub jay, a blue bird with grey patches.
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

Today for , a lovely mantis.

Watercolor of a silhouette of a mantis clinging to a flower in front of a setting sun.
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

Today for I have some buggy jewelry I made a few years ago.

A beetle made up of beads and wire. The head is a black bead, the abdomen a green oval with thick silver wire to outline wings. Thin silver wire makes up two curly antennae.

A beetle made up of beads and wire. The head is a black bead, the abdomen a green oval with thick silver wire to outline wings. Thin silver wire makes up two curly antennae.
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

Some more 3d art for today's , this time carved from wood scraps.

A bee, made up of various types and colors of woods, fitted together like a puzzle.
Wood art featuring octopus tentacles reaching up from below.

Wood art featuring octopus tentacles reaching up from below.
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@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

Today for , I have a 3d printed and hand painted map I made of .

A 3d printed map of Colorado with snow capped mountain ranges in the west, almost completely flat to the east.
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@gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green avatar gerrymcgovern , to random

In the 1960s, scientists and government officials told us that herbicides were "harmless" to wildlife, as wildlife died all around them as they sprayed.

They claimed that insecticides were "harmless to birds" as innumerable birds lay dead and dying.

All this was called the Green Revolution, when what it was was in fact an environmentally devastating Chemical Revolution.

Now we have the Green Transition and the same lies about solar and wind being green and clean and renewable. Propaganda.

ater ,
@ater@flipping.rocks avatar

@gerrymcgovern lol it's the same story with neonics nowadays:

"It's targeted! It only affects the bad guys!"
"It doesn't hurt the bees!"
"... okay, well it doesn't kill the bees."
"No I mean, like, honey bees, obviously. They'll be fine."
"... Well there might be some 'sublethal' effects but their impact on survivability has yet to be determined..."

It's cool, the lab that was studying it is funded by Bayer (:

ater ,
@ater@flipping.rocks avatar

@gerrymcgovern Yeah, the guy who gave me the aforementioned excuses was the same scientist who taught me how to p-hack, so, not the most trustworthy person. But Rachel Carson was a scientist, too, so maybe the issue isn't "science" - which is nothing but a process of systematic discovery through testing or observation. The problem is political. It's the people in charge choosing what science to believe and funding the science that is most profitable or says the things they want it to say. It's journalists paid to read certain abstracts (but not others) and write about the results (that they themselves can barely comprehend) with authority, all while ignoring the messy, sloppy, and inconclusive bits in between. It's the spotlight on the 1% of "skeptics" and the active suppression of everyone else. It's tech bros who legitimately think science is just a list of facts that they can feed into a machine and it will magically spew out new facts... These are absolutely problems, but they are not scientific problems, they're cultural. As scientists, we should reclaim that institution and make the scientific method great again.

@ater@flipping.rocks avatar ater , to random

Hallo flipping.rocks! I am ater, of @ater fame, and I'm very excited to be here while my home server moves (like, physically).

For an , I am a blind visual artist and author, with a master's in wildlife ecology and a special interest in bees. You've just missed my self created challenge , where I paint a different every day for the entire month alongside the prompt. Here are my four favorites.

I am also a self-published author, with an emphasis on environmental themes and disabled/neurodiverse characters. All of my books are available free, from https://books2read.com/ap/R5ojKB/Liz-Boysha or my website https://ater.neocities.org/books/mybooks

Watercolor of Megachile rotundata, a grey bee with pale yellow hairs sticking out from under its abdomen.
Watercolor of Melipona beecheii, a grey and red bee with yellow stripes.
Watercolor of Osmia xanthomelana, a rusty red bee.

Watercolor of Osmia xanthomelana, a rusty red bee.
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