ater

#blind #artist, #ecologist, and occasional #author. reformed physicist. mostly #bugs. enby. she/they. defender of lost causes.

posts deleted after 1 year.

Header: a field of soft orange flowers.

Avatar: drawing of a person with an octopus wrapped around their head, covering their eyes.

free books!: https://books2read.com/ap/R5ojKB/Liz-Boysha
a website: https://ater.neocities.org/

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Last Notes

2026-09-04 08:04:55 GMT

#SeptemBee day 4: Bombus hypnorum
Unlike most bumblebees, the tree bumblebee (Baumhummel) builds its nests above ground in tree cavities. They can sometimes be found inhabiting empty bird boxes. They are frequent visitors of raspberries and blackberries.
#SciArt #SciArtSeptember #insectodon #watercolor
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/117/211/723/981/706/295/original/b1eaa105d4bc112a.jpg

2025-07-28 14:23:56 GMT

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The name Nina has half a dozen different origins that I can find, but Niña means "little girl"

2025-07-22 11:25:14 GMT

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if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, got feathers up its butt and arresting people off the streets like a duck, you're probably just calling it a duck out of anxiety.

2025-07-16 15:20:55 GMT

I actually have a friend for #WeevilWednesday!
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/114/863/577/203/690/552/original/6d90415e0c24d354.jpg

2025-07-06 15:34:02 GMT

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I quite like the phrase "Olympic leap of logic."
There are two types of studies being conflated whenever someone starts gushing about solar panels and biodiversity. The first, like you mentioned, involves wildflowers or even rewilding. So you point out that rewilding is obviously good but all these studies show is that solar panels don't *necessarily* interfere with it. Then they come in with the second type, which involves agrivoltaics, wherein someone rediscovered that some crops grow really well in partial shade! Never mind that monocultures are still bad and will continue to be bad, even if they're coated in greenwashing.

2025-03-21 12:05:26 GMT

Today for #MarshMadness I painted a swamp metalmark, Calephelis muticum. Their particularly adorable caterpillars live on marsh thistle. The species is considered endangered in Illinois due to wetland habitat loss and pesticides.
#SciArt #InsectArt #watercolor
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/114/200/327/030/866/830/original/b2550a9acc578580.jpg

2025-03-19 18:37:20 GMT

Today for #MarshMadness I painted a saltmarsh tiger beetle, Eunota severa. Or is it Habroscelimorpha severa? Cicindela severa? Someone should probably do a taxonomic review.
I'm not terribly fond of taxonomy, but I am obsessed with tiger beetles (Cicindelidae), some of the fastest predators out there. At speeds up to 125 body lengths per second, even those enormous eyes can't take in enough light to see their surroundings. Imagine being so fast you go blind!
I don't have to - my eyesight is slow af. I didn't realize there was such a temporal component to vision until I started losing it.
#SciArt #InsectArt #watercolor
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/114/190/506/018/301/010/original/13190b2307c5577f.jpg

2025-03-19 13:02:13 GMT

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Consumers are to blame? Is that why there are mountains of *unpurchased* clothing in Atacama?
https://www.space.com/mountain-discarded-clothes-chile-satellite-photo

2025-03-08 17:13:35 GMT

Today for #MarshMadness I painted a large marsh grasshopper (Stethophyma grossum). Although populations nearly disappeared, these guys are once again increasingly common in the UK thanks to rewilding and breeding efforts.
https://www.citizenzoo.org/our-work/hop-of-hope/
#SciArt #InsectArt #watercolor
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/114/127/917/412/157/765/original/067f47ca5e2cba2d.jpg

2025-03-08 00:33:37 GMT

This leggy dude is a marsh crane fly (Tipula oleracea). Crane flies have two generations per year. The first generation emerges as flying adults in the spring. Their larvae develop quickly over the summer and fly during the late summer through fall. Their larvae overwinter beneath the soil.
#MarshMadness #SciArt #InsectArt #watercolor
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/114/123/993/754/587/863/original/558b6363d154cc29.jpg

2025-02-18 13:07:12 GMT

For the past few weeks, a pediatrician's office that we haven't been to in nearly five years (we moved away) has been trying to reach me about just *one* of my three kids.
First they were trying to confirm that they were an active patient. Then, after not hearing back and getting absolutely no confirmation from me whatsoever about the status of said patient, they've started calling me to schedule a "much needed check up".
After five years.
Why is this random pediatrician's office suddenly remembering that we exist? Could there be something in my child's medical history that overnight turned into a *big red flag* for medical offices around the US?
All I'm saying is, maybe don't answer phone calls from old doctors offices.
And also, #ProtectTransKids

2025-02-12 13:36:27 GMT

I drew a scorpionfly (Panorpa nuptalis), which is neither a scorpion nor a fly. The thing on the end is not a stinger, either, but claspers males have for some kinky sex. They get laid by releasing pheromones to attract females, who they win over by offering a nuptial gift like a nice dead bug. They can be a useful species for forensics due to their love of dead bodies and predictable development times.
#SciArt #InsectArt
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/991/173/723/957/377/original/6b3283fb50b550fe.jpg

2025-02-01 13:29:18 GMT

I live on a mountain in NW Colorado and for the first week of February it is not supposed to dip below freezing.
Even at night, where lows are usually around -5°C.
Goodbye, snowpack!
#ClimateChange #ClimateDiaries

2025-01-19 13:17:20 GMT

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NW corner of Colorado lol
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/855/204/699/735/315/original/e8c39f3a3585e6b4.png

2025-01-01 23:52:56 GMT

It may not look like much, but this is the star of the show when it comes to #rewilding around here: big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). These amazing smelling plants are a vital winter food source and shelter for local wildlife including pronghorn, mule deer, snowshoe hares, sage grouse, and plenty of insects. They form at least two different kinds of galls, for example, but I can't find anything in the literature to identify what's inside them. This spring I plan on finding out.
Sagebrush is also tinder for wildfires and burns hot and fast, producing a fine soot that can be used in ink making. I describe the process briefly in my latest book, So Here We Are.
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/755/724/275/325/428/original/6f8557805fd90787.jpg
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/755/783/420/575/136/original/34a378142911075d.jpg
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/755/783/419/964/864/original/ffa9f6cb7c39cc23.jpg

2024-12-29 20:28:03 GMT

I painted one of the most prolific invasive wildflowers, at least where I live in NWCO: Scotch thistle. I've been watching it rapidly overtake disturbed lots and overgrazed rangeland over the past couple years, and it's kind of scary how no one is talking about it or doing anything about it. With a biennial lifecycle, it is easiest to take out in the first year, before it grows these ridiculously prickly stalks and flowers. I use a machete when it pops up in my yard, and one of my neighbors sprays it with something, but within wind blowing distance is acres and acres of the stuff. It is rather disheartening.
It can grow taller than me and form thick forests within a couple years. Cattle avoid it entirely, and even my goats aren't fond of it beyond its early leaves, which are supposedly edible to people too. Bees absolutely love the flowers. We have several species of similar looking native thistle plants that aren't nearly as prolific or pokey.
#watercolor #SciArt #wildflowers
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/737/923/119/111/720/original/37ff353c2e84357d.jpg

2024-12-28 20:20:29 GMT

Check out this power couple! Despite its name, the trilobite beetle (genus Platerodrilus) has no relation to the very extinct fossils it resembles. Females retain their larval form and just keep getting bigger before reaching maturity, whereas males undergo metamorphosis as usual and become the tiny winged guys on the left.
#SciArt #InsectArt #watercolor
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/732/284/617/292/672/original/cfc2407a982f2082.jpg

2024-12-18 00:45:29 GMT

My daughter requested a "plant cell" cake for her birthday. So, uh, here's my most unique #SciArt medium so far: frosting 😋
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/671/051/571/435/533/original/79f645cd35fcf171.jpg

2024-11-25 22:57:50 GMT

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All The World's a Stage is my absolute favorite Prodigy episode. It's a really powerful message, imo
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/546/062/387/272/454/original/26e83f7df25a2317.jpg

2024-11-03 21:17:17 GMT

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I got mine in just before the first snow!

2024-10-21 23:31:58 GMT

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Oh my. Hopefully just an interloper, if they're not supposed to be there. On the bright side they are generally non-aggressive to non-hosts, as long as you don't accidentally step on one. They also squeak when poked!

2024-10-21 16:18:42 GMT

Today for #Invertober I chose a velvet ant, Pseudomethoca propinqua. Velvet ants are actually wasps in the family Mutillidae. Females are wingless and possess a wicked sting known for its effect on cows - but they don't actually die, they just sound like they're dying.
"Fun" fact, cows outnumber humans in my county roughly 2:1.
#SciArt #Inktober
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/346/280/629/861/672/original/463aa5520f81fe47.jpg

2024-10-17 12:29:30 GMT

Today for #Invertober I chose a mountain cicada, Okanagana bella. Colorado doesn't have the big periodicals famous in the east, but we do have shorter lived cicadas to sing us through summer evenings.
#Inktober #SciArt
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/322/763/892/711/872/original/d5b940a65ce96468.jpg

2024-10-11 12:33:30 GMT

For today's Colorado #Invertober I chose the brown tarantula (Aphonopelma sp.) I put question marks on there because it seems like the number and name of tarantula species in our state is different each year. This is more due to debate over what it means to be a species than anything.
Colorado has at least two geographically distinct populations of large brown tarantulas, separated not only by mountain ranges but also temporally, since the La Junta tarantulas migrate in late August to September and the Durango tarantulas peak in October. These migrations are swarms of mature males in search of females, so it is unlikely for them to ever interbreed. This should result in speciation, but the different populations are just too genetically similar for anyone to agree.
#SciArt #Inktober #spider
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/288/805/433/651/319/original/571a60673206ff79.jpg

2024-10-10 12:59:06 GMT

Today's Colorado bug for #Invertober is the ornate checkered beetle (Trichodes ornatus). These beetles are nest parasites of Megachilid bees. They don't look much like any Megachilids I know of, but they do look an awful lot like a bicolored sweat bee (family Halictidae). Megachilids are solitary, though some species will build nests together in aggregations. Sweat bees have a complex social structure, variable even within the same species. Mostly they're solitary, but sometimes they're not, nesting in huge semi-social aggregations. Sometimes they even nest near or inside the nests of other bee species.
My guess is: These beetles evolved to look friendly, and Megachilid bees assume the foreigner is just another one of those weirdo sweat bees that's always hanging around. As you can see from my drawing, they even have a soft fuzz covering that collects tiny specks of pollen.
#Inktober #SciArt #Insectodon
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/283/237/301/321/301/original/6f17cbb938a01961.jpg

2024-09-24 13:03:33 GMT

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There's that scene in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy where the supercomputer is about to reveal the meaning of life and everyone is getting all hopped up and excited before it reveals: "The meaning of life is... 42."
AI, after burning through several country's worth of energy reserves and raising global temperatures by 5°: "The solution to climate change is... stop burning fossil fuels."

2024-09-22 15:44:25 GMT

You might be thinking, surely they're going to run out of bees to paint soon? But you'd be wrong. Colorado has over 900 species of bees, including dozens of unrelated little guys that are all referred to as "little black bees."
#watercolor #SciArt #SciArtSeptember #bees
https://sb17.space/system/media_attachments/files/113/181/966/093/328/483/original/d8fe868167399451.jpg