fletchpj @fletchpj@qoto.org

As an ant biologist, I think the discovery of “ant milk” might be the single biggest research finding during my lifetime.

Across ants, maturing pupae make a nutritional exudate for their nestmates:

#science #ants #biology

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04186-2

Just a small printed "s" waiting to become an illuminated initial in this 1503 print. The small "s" indicates: please include a colored big "S" after the print run. Early printed books kept this illuminating tradition from the manuscript age.

The page with the left space for the to be illuminated initial is part of the "Epistolarum D. Francisci philelphi equitis aurati..." Have a look: https://sammlungen.ulb.uni-muenster.de/hd/content/titleinfo/6526468

#BookHistory #histodons

I promise I will post half sensible, half intelligent things, eventually.

But my present concern, today, is the current lack of quolls on this platform (well… this seems on par with their virtual extinction on the Australian mainland.)

An under-appreciated and critically threatened animal.

#quolls #marsupialpost #endangered #spottedquoll #Dasyurus #easternquoll #tigerquoll

Chimimoryo is a Japanese term referring collectively to all the evil spirits of the rivers, mountains, forests, swamps & other parts of nature. These #yokai have bestial bodies with a human-ish face. They trick humans who walk through the woods or swamplands, causing them to lose their way. Chimimoryo then attack & kill their victims & feed on their corpse. They are also known to bring disease & misfortune.
#JapaneseFolklore #folklore #japodon @folklore #DailyFolklore
🎨Matthew Meyer

大阪にある提灯通り。Lantern street in Osaka. #cyberpunk #streetphotography #photography

#otd 1016 Edmund Ironside, King of the English, died. According to Henry of Huntingdon, he was murdered on the lavatory - from below. #MedievalDeath #medieval @histodons Ms.: Matthew Paris, Life of St Edward the Confessor, MS Ee.3.59, Cambridge University Library, fol. 5r

I feel like we need to bring back #Victorian Christmas cards, like this one.

There's a whiff of #StarWars to this one. 😂

#History #Histodons #Weird #WeirdHistory #FollowBack #historian

Wait. There’s #tombtuesday?! I love this place. #catacombs #paris

Another gargoyle from my trip to Wherwell over the summer for #TombTuesday. Such an unassuming little mausoleum in a tiny village and yet it had all these funny little faces on it. Must do some digging into it and find out why! #grave #graveyard #gargoyle #tomb #uk #spooky #creepy #mementomori

A decade ago, this image went mega-viral on Google+. In the ensuing years, it has been adapted and reused thousands of times.

@cra1g created this instantly viral image and tells the story of its evolution here:
https://medium.com/@CRA1G/the-evolution-of-an-accidental-meme-ddc4e139e0e4
@sociology @politicalscience

I used to photograph #lego a lot, not that much lately. I still like it a lot though.

Two of these are from earlier this year, the lighter ones are from 2011, variations of an idea. My favourite scene, a lonesome snowtrooper on Hoth. I call that guy TK-24/7 because he's always on duty. Except when he's off of course.

#starwars #theempirestrikesback #hoth #minifigure #toy #toyphotography #snow

For #TombTuesday this is Bant's Carn on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly.

It's a Neolithic or early Bronze Age "Scillonian" chambered tomb, consisting of a single passage-shaped chamber
roofed with large granite slabs, with an entrance at one end. A circular mound with a granite kerb surrounds the chamber.

It is situated on the crest of Halangey Down, above a fine Bronze Age settlement site, and was partially restored in the 1970s.

Visited June 2009.
#Neolithic #BronzeAge #IslesOfScilly

If you’re not following #mosstodon, you’re missing out.

I don’t have any wild moss to post at the moment, but here’s a #mossarium I made using native plants from my childhood home. It features a tableau of our old GI Joe action figures, who fought many a war on that soil. Made in Oregon, now living with my brother in Montana.

A new find today, the thick fungi on the top are hoof fungus, the lower brackets, I'm not sure!
#fungi #Sporespondence