List of posts that aren't just small talk, boring (albeit occasionally useful) data entry, or complaining

This is a dynamic list I hope I will remember to update. I deliberately excluded a few posts because I didn't feel like it. A bunch of those are cryptogam fails but not in an interesting way, merely because I ran out of resources or was depressed.

Also some of these posts are from a while back when I was somewhat more socially awkward, so.

Lichens are invertebrates too (lichen culture with no petri dish; see also interesting indoor lichen offhandedly mentioned here)
How to catch really large protists (slime mold ecology)
2019 desperate spring tipulid-chase (I discover crane flies apparently use their legs as antennae in flight, sorry I think the post formatting broke somehow)
The ventral surface of (Cal)asterella can iridesce
At long last, a Coniontis recording 
Orbweaver consumes fruit
The lepidopteran malnutrition post
C's Enormous Research Literature Stash™

I can't be bothered to link the "transplant flightless and weakflying insects for habitat restoration" project commentary but suffice it to say that I've not sighted the offspring of any of them, aside from the hemipteran hoppers I've kept as free-range outdoors specimens sometimes. Well I say free-range but they hardly move at all. Cause of failure with Trirhabda seems related to hosts not being lush and wellwatered enough, no idea whether the NHMLA/Peck megadarklings/diabolicals have died off or are just secretive, and a bunch of the sunflower bush transplants at Plymouth Elementary were destroyed by their sunflower bush dying from the school improperly caring for its plants.














I also feel like mentioning the current status (last update:1/26/26) of my main personal sciprojects, I know this post is supposed to be a list of posts and not a status update but I don't care.

- Culture weedy lichens without special equipment: hypothesis formulated and ready for testing. Currently too depressed to test it, and also I can't get my hands on the lichens I most want. Hoping to resume experimentation eventually.

- Investigate ecological function of iridescence and basal senescence in Marchantiophyta and fern gametophytes: stalled from lack of resources. I do have a live Calasterella specimen right now. Hoping to resume experimentation eventually.

- Transplanting poor-dispersing invertebrates: see above. The success of my outdoor hoppers seems to be due to their being in a position where they can't fatally overheat and my watering their hosts more often than is natural, as many hoppers are known to require their hosts be lush; discovering that counts as useful experimental progress, as similar rules seem to be in effect for many non-Hemiptera here. Hoping to conduct/test additional transplants soon, perhaps with Elater lecontei if my click beetle lays any eggs. Maybe I'll make a fake tree hollow someday with damp logs in a box and put it outdoors.

- Coniontis courtship vibration project: deliberately abandoned. After having watched many non-coni bugs with complex courtship behavior, I've come to the conclusion that complex courtship behavior in bugs tends not to be complex enough to be interesting to me. I saw some Phaneroptera mate and it was boring, but don't get me wrong I'm sure that there's plenty of cool insect courtship and sexual-conflict stuff to be studying despite its relative rarity. Most of the coolest ones need expensive equipment to study though...

- Entomological outreach public campaign: deliberately abandoned, I've come to the conclusion that trying to convince the general public not to be afraid of bugs through reason is too hard because irrational people are generally unable to be convinced by valid arguments, and through emotional appeal is backfiring dangerously (via "give a man a fish without teaching him to fish" logic) despite the latter being a strategy of choice for museums and sci outreach experts. I've decided for now to only talk about bug outreach on a small scale and to people who're receptive to reason-based arguments. Also worth looking into: how the UK seems to have a weirdly healthy ento subculture (which I still don't fully understand).

- Nonflight functions of wings in Elicini: hoping to investigate this once my current hoppers reach adulthood.

- Stop Santa Fe Dam scrublands from being mulched to death by irresponsible conservationists: stalled due to irresponsible conservationists being too powerful (they're county-backed). I have, however, gotten the Invertebrate Club of Southern California on the case, although it seems not to be making any progress either. Message me if you want "blackmail" material btw.