entomologists are the most fucking wild people ive ever met
i pointed out a cool wasp to one and she just picked it up with her bare hands and started showing me different features she was using to identify the species
on a walk with another one he just paused, turned, violently shoved his hand into some rotting wood and offered me a tunnel web spider like oh okay i guess-
when i was in college i did larp shit and one of the guys in the group was an entomology student and i once watched him drop directly to a plank position in the middle of a swordfight to look at a moth on the ground
True story: Once, when I was doing field work in Warren County, I had my head down looking for bugs in leaf litter and came within a dozen paces of stepping on a sleeping bear.
This has not in any way deterred me from looking for bugs in leaf litter.
My copy of The Social Wasps of North America came in today and it's such a gorgeous book, I've spent the past hour just flipping through it. Absolutely beautiful!! x
I’m so glad you like it! Thank you for writing to me. 😊🐝
My latest for Australian Geographic’s November/December 2022 edition:
Billabong of ancient life - a scene depicting the lush environment of McGraths Flat, a newly discovered 15 million years old fossil site in NSW, Australia.
The article is free to read here, but the image (and many other photographs) are only available in the physical/digital magazine.
Explore the wonders of the Mesozoic with these National Park posters!
I will be giving a FREE introductory-level virtual wasp presentation on JAN 16 2023 at 8:00 PM EST for the Washington Crossing Audubon Society. All are welcome to attend!
Note: This is different from the WaspID course, which is an in-depth exploration of Hymenopteran taxonomy, has an admission fee, and has already closed registration. Rest assured I will be giving a lecture for that too!
Being a Trans woman in science is wild. Like, I knew this would happen, but experiencing academia first appearing as a man and later as a woman really drives home how much subconscious bias there is in the field.
What gets to me is not so much that my male colleagues over-explain basic things to me (I knew that would happen, it happens to all women), but that the men don’t even realize it’s happening. I feel like I’m going crazy whenever I point it out, especially when they immediately get defensive… and then over-explain why what they did was warranted.
Like, no, buddy, I’m not saying you’re a bad person, I just want you to realize that you’re spending an awful lot of energy telling me things I already know (probably better than you do). This is dull and unhelpful for both of us!
At least being Trans means I have way less patience for this sort of stuff, so I can step in to support other female colleagues when it happens to them. 😅
Has your appearance affected your experiences in your field of study? I’d love to know! Please feel free to share below.
My biggest gender presentation issue was right as I was getting into environmental ed. I love the outdoors and I know how to rough it, but I am also a very feminine presenting woman when not working. When i interviewed for my first internship in the field I dressed for a sit-down interview because that’s what it was. I wore business casual, makeup, did my hair. The woman I interviewed with (who was not very feminine presenting) expressed concern that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and/or wouldn’t be up to the outdoor demands of the internship.
Thankfully she gave me a chance and was rather surprised when I showed up more than appropriately attired and equipped for the job. She all but apologized for her earlier assumptions.
I have the interesting experience of being judged ‘too polished’ and 'too rugged’ for my field at varying times in my career.
