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Michael Palmer

@cosmopterix.bsky.social

290 followers 280 following 340 posts

Retired botanist but doing #entomology on a wildfire impacted landscape in Oregon. INaturalist Ambassador. INaturalist handle @cosmopterix

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 10m

The chapter about whether a whale is a fish helped develop my views on vernacular names.

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 18h

What’s a good length of time to age vinegar?

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 18h

Sarcophagids and Silphids fit inside Carrion just fine

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 18h

All pollinators are cute

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 1d

#fermentation
We had to harvest a lot of underripe grapes due to a bear in the neighborhood.
We made as much verjuice as we can handle already, and are steam juicing the remainder. Any suggestions for what to do with it? Can it make decent vinegar?

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 1d

Or perhaps her congressional district constituents who lose their right of representation

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 1d

Brrrrr. Rainy and 54 degrees

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 1d

It is flat, and red, and lives under bark. What can it possibly be?
Oh, it is a flat red bark beetle.
#inaturalist #bugsky #coleoptera
www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Flat bark beetles (Family Cucujidae)

Flat bark beetles from Lane County, OR, USA on October 11, 2025 at 02:08 PM by Mike Palmer. gleaned from side of house. 8734

www.inaturalist.org

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 1d

Happy Staphylinid Sunday!
#inaturalist #bugsky #coleoptera
www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Rove Beetles (Family Staphylinidae)

Rove Beetles from Lane County, OR, USA on October 11, 2025 at 04:12 PM by Mike Palmer. caught in a red wine trap. 8737

www.inaturalist.org

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 2d

I found 3 species of beetle in three different families feeding on a deer carcass.

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 3d

Our Cytisus regularly gets similar trails from the broom bruchid, but unlike with Cercis it’s difficult to tell where the mines are heading nondestructively

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 3d

Even more sad to see the public transportation in front of the castle removed

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 3d

I don’t understand the “however”
Here:
“Halligan had originally planned on bringing the case to a grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia, in part because there was a belief that the grand jury there would be more supportive. The case will be heard, however, in Norfolk.”

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 3d

I have reared phytophagous Eurytoma from 3 species of Ceanothus on our property

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 3d

Definitely contact Louis Nastasi. At one point he told me he’s working on redbud bruchid associated Eurytomids.

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 3d

I was hoping to make cider or apple wine for the first time, but a bear got to the trees first.

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 5d

Pick them up and put them in your pocket

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 6d

And then there’s mimolette

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 6d

Psocomorphs have some of the best wing venation
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
#bugsky #inaturalist #insects

Suborder Psocomorpha

Psocomorpha from Lane County, OR, USA on September 26, 2025 at 05:45 PM by Mike Palmer. gleaned from the side of house

www.inaturalist.org

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 12d

I once accidentally kneeled on one in the garden, and got a blister covering my entire patella.

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 12d

This moth (reared from Salix hookeriana on the Oregon coast) looks ready for a cold snowy winter.

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 14d

They mite have coopted it from another arthropod

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 15d

Yikes, what a monstrosity! Is the little park gone?

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Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 15d

Swarthmore is getting a new bookstore?

Michael Palmer @cosmopterix.bsky.social · 15d

An NPR report just suggested that for prevention of nearsightedness, one should spend more time outdoors because you don’t focus on small things up close.

Ummm… really?