Shakira🧛♀️🦇
@shakiguani.bsky.social
She/her | Mom | P.Rican in Slovenia | bi-ologist 🐬🕷
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
Osmooka aphana: new spider genus and species discovered in Madagascar
YouTube video by EZ lab
www.youtube.com
December 6, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
Check out our new paper! Not only do we describe a cool spider (new genus) from Madagascar, related to an Australian one, but we also make a deep dive into orb weaver morphology to better understand family relationships and synapomorhpies. Proud of this one!
1/8
A new spider genus from Madagascar!
Researchers led by Matjaž Kuntner (National Institute of Biology, Slovenia) have described Osmooka aphana, discovered in the montane forests of Marojejy National Park.
A new spider genus from Madagascar!
Researchers led by Matjaž Kuntner (National Institute of Biology, Slovenia) have described Osmooka aphana, discovered in the montane forests of Marojejy National Park.
December 6, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Check out our new paper! Not only do we describe a cool spider (new genus) from Madagascar, related to an Australian one, but we also make a deep dive into orb weaver morphology to better understand family relationships and synapomorhpies. Proud of this one!
📢 NEW SPIDER GENUS JUST DROPPED
1/8
A new spider genus from Madagascar!
Researchers led by Matjaž Kuntner (National Institute of Biology, Slovenia) have described Osmooka aphana, discovered in the montane forests of Marojejy National Park.
A new spider genus from Madagascar!
Researchers led by Matjaž Kuntner (National Institute of Biology, Slovenia) have described Osmooka aphana, discovered in the montane forests of Marojejy National Park.
December 6, 2025 at 9:21 AM
📢 NEW SPIDER GENUS JUST DROPPED
Científico del CONICET 🇦🇷
We're excited to announce the finalists of the #RSPPhotoComp 2025! 🎉 Starting with #microimaging and overall winner, 'Mesmerizing spider threads' by Dr Martin Ramirez, capturing two exceptional silk threads of the Australian net-caster spider (sample obtained by Dr Jonas Wolff @evoimec.bsky.social).
December 6, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Científico del CONICET 🇦🇷
It's been 7 days since surgery. The pain is still a good 6/10 and I would definitely wish this on my worst enemies 😈
Wisdom teeth removal at this age is brutal. 0/10. Do not recommend.
December 2, 2025 at 7:42 PM
It's been 7 days since surgery. The pain is still a good 6/10 and I would definitely wish this on my worst enemies 😈
I really enjoyed the songwriting too. Not a single line was wasted on meaningless rhyme.
Over on Whatever, I'm doing a series on movies I consider "Comfort Watches" - not the greatest movies of all time, necessarily, but some of the most rewatchable. I'm starting the series with easily the most rewatchable movie of 2025: K-Pop Demon Hunters!
whatever.scalzi.com/2025/12/01/t...
whatever.scalzi.com/2025/12/01/t...
The December Comfort Watches 2025, Day One: K-Pop Demon Hunters
A couple of years ago I did a series of movie reviews about the movies I enjoy rewatching — not the best movies of all time, or the most important movies, but the ones I’m happy to spen…
whatever.scalzi.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I really enjoyed the songwriting too. Not a single line was wasted on meaningless rhyme.
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
New paper on bark spiders, who build the largest webs made out of the toughest silk. We show that their extremely tough silk, which is potentially metabolically costly, is limited to large females. Juveniles and males use inferior silk.
New publication!
Orb weavers evolved some of the toughest silk, reaching extremes in bark spiders, genus Caerostris. We investigate sex and stage specific patterns in silk properties and find that extremely tough silk is limited to adult females.
www.ezlab.si/post/extreme...
Orb weavers evolved some of the toughest silk, reaching extremes in bark spiders, genus Caerostris. We investigate sex and stage specific patterns in silk properties and find that extremely tough silk is limited to adult females.
www.ezlab.si/post/extreme...
Extreme silk toughness in Caerostris spiders is limited to adult females
Spider silks are protein fibers, renowned for their remarkable intrinsic mechanical properties. Dragline or major ampullate (MA) silk is particularly noteworthy for its combination of high tensile str...
www.ezlab.si
November 30, 2025 at 7:05 PM
New paper on bark spiders, who build the largest webs made out of the toughest silk. We show that their extremely tough silk, which is potentially metabolically costly, is limited to large females. Juveniles and males use inferior silk.
Wisdom teeth removal at this age is brutal. 0/10. Do not recommend.
November 26, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Wisdom teeth removal at this age is brutal. 0/10. Do not recommend.
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
Our study of time processing in bumblebees 🐝 covered by @cnn.com here edition.cnn.com/2025/11/12/s... . Our summary is here youtu.be/hsGxU65OMQk and the original paper royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.... @royalsocietypublishing.org
Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects | CNN
Bumblebees can process the duration of flashes of light and use the information to decide where to look for food, a new study has found.
edition.cnn.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Our study of time processing in bumblebees 🐝 covered by @cnn.com here edition.cnn.com/2025/11/12/s... . Our summary is here youtu.be/hsGxU65OMQk and the original paper royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.... @royalsocietypublishing.org
Some indoor fun for the cold days
November 23, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Some indoor fun for the cold days
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
I personally dislike doing merch myself so thank you to @nervousjessica.bsky.social for doing all the hard work for me! You won't find these anywhere else. #Art #SciArt
Two new puzzles featuring art by @franzanth.bsky.social
blog: n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/blog/?p=9940
shop: n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/shop/search_...
blog: n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/blog/?p=9940
shop: n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/shop/search_...
November 22, 2025 at 2:09 AM
I personally dislike doing merch myself so thank you to @nervousjessica.bsky.social for doing all the hard work for me! You won't find these anywhere else. #Art #SciArt
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
Folks, today (20 Nov) is Transgender Day of Remembrance and I hope everyone can take some quiet moments to reflect and acknowledge on the violence and harm that has taken many from our wonderful Trans+ communities historically.
And a reminder that it costs nothing to be kind to everyone.
🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️ 🩵💜🤍
And a reminder that it costs nothing to be kind to everyone.
🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️ 🩵💜🤍
November 20, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Folks, today (20 Nov) is Transgender Day of Remembrance and I hope everyone can take some quiet moments to reflect and acknowledge on the violence and harm that has taken many from our wonderful Trans+ communities historically.
And a reminder that it costs nothing to be kind to everyone.
🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️ 🩵💜🤍
And a reminder that it costs nothing to be kind to everyone.
🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️ 🩵💜🤍
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
I feel this is a common theme in academia. The worst shit is imposed on us, and we take it upon ourselves to solve the problem. And I think this is because we’re all huge nerds who love to solve problems and who see ourselves as people who should be able to! We accidentally weaponised our own values
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 20, 2025 at 8:53 AM
I feel this is a common theme in academia. The worst shit is imposed on us, and we take it upon ourselves to solve the problem. And I think this is because we’re all huge nerds who love to solve problems and who see ourselves as people who should be able to! We accidentally weaponised our own values
🥳
Access to abortion is a European value of solidarity.
November 13, 2025 at 3:33 PM
🥳
It was a tough ADHD/ASD parenting day. I just wish the world met us with the same understanding and compassion that we pour into our children
November 11, 2025 at 10:03 PM
It was a tough ADHD/ASD parenting day. I just wish the world met us with the same understanding and compassion that we pour into our children
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
Always here for a giant spider web story www.livescience.com/animals/spid...
World's biggest spiderweb discovered inside 'Sulfur Cave' with 111,000 arachnids living in pitch black
A giant colonial spiderweb in a sulfuric cave on the border between Greece and Albania may be the largest ever found — and it was built by spiders we didn't know liked the company of others.
www.livescience.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Always here for a giant spider web story www.livescience.com/animals/spid...
Mamdani visiting Puerto Rico first, eating mofongo, and saying "Puerto Rico no se vende" (Puerto Rico is not for sale) was not in my bingo card for 2025
November 7, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Mamdani visiting Puerto Rico first, eating mofongo, and saying "Puerto Rico no se vende" (Puerto Rico is not for sale) was not in my bingo card for 2025
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
Yes and yet several European countries are embracing a far-right worldview that would burn these policies to the ground, so let’s be not be smug or complacent here - particularly as Mamdani‘s pro-immigration stance is radical by European standards.
Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ -- Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’
Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Yes and yet several European countries are embracing a far-right worldview that would burn these policies to the ground, so let’s be not be smug or complacent here - particularly as Mamdani‘s pro-immigration stance is radical by European standards.
The last two days have brought good news in the political sphere from both sides of the pond 🥰
Thank you, thank you, thank you 🩷💓💐🌸🌺🌷💕👙🎀👛🦩🩰
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 AM
The last two days have brought good news in the political sphere from both sides of the pond 🥰
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
Happy Halloween!! Another fun but exhausting #Arachtober.
Tropical Orbweaver (Eriophora ravilla)
#Halloween #Spider #stereography #HappyHalloween
Tropical Orbweaver (Eriophora ravilla)
#Halloween #Spider #stereography #HappyHalloween
November 1, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Happy Halloween!! Another fun but exhausting #Arachtober.
Tropical Orbweaver (Eriophora ravilla)
#Halloween #Spider #stereography #HappyHalloween
Tropical Orbweaver (Eriophora ravilla)
#Halloween #Spider #stereography #HappyHalloween
For Halloween I dressed up as my severe vitamin D deficiency
a black and white photo of a vampire standing in an archway .
Alt: a black and white photo of a vampire standing in an archway turning on the lights
media.tenor.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:11 PM
For Halloween I dressed up as my severe vitamin D deficiency
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
This one is for the Children of Time fans (scale should be about right)! Enjoy this jumping spider (Pancorius sp.) Jack-O'-lantern!! Thanks to @nickybay.bsky.social for the reference image (www.flickr.com/photos/nicka...).
#halloween #jackolantern #arachtober #jumpingspiders #salticidae
#halloween #jackolantern #arachtober #jumpingspiders #salticidae
October 31, 2025 at 4:07 PM
This one is for the Children of Time fans (scale should be about right)! Enjoy this jumping spider (Pancorius sp.) Jack-O'-lantern!! Thanks to @nickybay.bsky.social for the reference image (www.flickr.com/photos/nicka...).
#halloween #jackolantern #arachtober #jumpingspiders #salticidae
#halloween #jackolantern #arachtober #jumpingspiders #salticidae
Reposted by Shakira🧛♀️🦇
"I have no responsibility for your disappoint" is my new life philosophy
October 29, 2025 at 10:49 AM
"I have no responsibility for your disappoint" is my new life philosophy