Adrian Smith
LightNews LightNews
banner
dradriansmith.bsky.social
Adrian Smith
@dradriansmith.bsky.social
1.4K followers 420 following 24 posts
Scientist on-exhibit at NC Museum of Natural Sciences & NC State. Creator of Ant Lab on YouTube
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Adrian Smith
ksepkalab.bsky.social
Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives is officially open at the Bruce Museum! Enter the tunnel and you will meet "Buckley", our five foot long scaled-up Dinoponera ant.

Buckley is named after her creator, the great Dan Buckley.

The smaller ant is my daughter, dressed as an alate queen for the opener.
November 14, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
bertonemyia.bsky.social
Still looking for horror now that Halloween's over? Fortunately/unfortunately it's all around! 💀

A parasitoid laid a few eggs in a moth egg. As the caterpillar hatched & grew, wasp embryos multiplied inside to 100s of larvae that ate the entire host, eventually killing & turning it into a husk 😳 🤢
A pale yellow caterpillar husk, filled with rice-like wasp larvae, sits doubled on itself inside a silken cocoon. the caterpillar was almost certainly a looper (Noctuidae: Plusiinae) and the parasitoids are encyrtid wasps (Encyrtidae: Copidosoma). Brought to me by a generous and curious client. Close up of the pale yellow caterpillar husk, filled with rice-like wasp larvae. The caterpillar was almost certainly a looper (Noctuidae: Plusiinae) and the parasitoids are encyrtid wasps (Encyrtidae: Copidosoma). Brought to me by a generous and curious client. Close up of the pale yellow caterpillar husk, now filled with dark wasps waiting to emerge. The caterpillar was almost certainly a looper (Noctuidae: Plusiinae) and the parasitoids are encyrtid wasps (Encyrtidae: Copidosoma). Brought to me by a generous and curious client. A composite plate of tiny parasitoid wasps on a white background. The top has two views of the small wasp, showing the meallic green and purple body, while the bottom shows the wasp dwarfed by a US quarter coin. Brought to me by a generous and curious client.
November 1, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
aeon.co
In this video, the biologist Adrian Smith @dradriansmith.bsky.social provides close-ups of a diverse array of caterpillars and shows how they support healthy ecosystems, employ a range of strategies to protect themselves from predators and transform into seemingly entirely different creatures
Close-ups reveal how caterpillars live long enough to cocoon | Aeon Videos
From poison spikes to fake snake eyes, caterpillars employ many clever strategies to survive to their dazzling adulthoods
buff.ly
November 1, 2025 at 10:30 AM
dradriansmith.bsky.social
New video today: CATERPILLARS!!! youtu.be/aJNaDyHARNw
Why Are Caterpillars SO AWESOME!?!
YouTube video by Ant Lab
youtu.be
October 16, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
bertonemyia.bsky.social
🚨 Spicy gummy worm alert! 🚨 🐛

Though it may look delicious, the bright colors warn of its ability to sting. Kinda looks like it's wearing pajamas...

Thanks to @dradriansmith.bsky.social for hosting the specimen.

stinging rose #caterpillar
#Limacodidae: #Parasa indetermina
NC, USA
A squishy-looking caterpillar sits on a leaf. It has four thin black lines alternating with white running down its back, with alternating orangish-red and yellow stripes down the sides. Along its body are a few tentacle-like protuberances covered in stinging spines. There are smaller round, evenly spaced warts covered in spines along the body as well. A squishy-looking caterpillar sits on a leaf. It has four thin black lines alternating with white running down its back, with alternating orangish-red and yellow stripes down the sides. Along its body are a few tentacle-like protuberances covered in stinging spines. There are smaller round, evenly spaced warts covered in spines along the body as well. A squishy-looking caterpillar sits on a leaf. It has four thin black lines alternating with white running down its back, with alternating orangish-red and yellow stripes down the sides. Along its body are a few tentacle-like protuberances covered in stinging spines. There are smaller round, evenly spaced warts covered in spines along the body as well. The squishy head region of a caterpillar can be seen curling around the edge of the leaf, its spiky protuberances can also be seen cresting the edge of the leaf.
September 28, 2025 at 4:46 PM
dradriansmith.bsky.social
We put out some social science research via preprint: "Natural history museums are missing an opportunity to present research and collections on YouTube" doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Natural history museums are missing an opportunity to present research and collections on YouTube
There have been repeated calls in the US for scientists to communicate the importance of biological collections to both a general public audience and to policy makers. Natural history museums that hou...
doi.org
September 23, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
tksst.bsky.social
🐜⚡ These Indian jumping ants don't just jump for show – they use powerful leaps to pounce on prey like crickets. Researcher @dradriansmith.bsky.social 's slow-motion footage shows how these predatory ants hunt with the agility of much larger predators. #science #nature

👉 Learn more: zurl.co/kyQs1
A reddish-brown Indian jumping ant (Harpegnathos saltator) with large dark eyes grasps a pale yellow cricket with its mandibles and front legs on a white surface.
September 18, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
sciantsmedia.com
From fire ants in Florida to filming batflies in North Carolina, our latest interview is with @dradriansmith.bsky.social, who has built a career at the intersection of insect science and storytelling. 🐜🎥

#scicomm #science #sciants #stem #YouTube #twitch

youtu.be/xEXwFel5DEY
September 15, 2025 at 7:06 PM
dradriansmith.bsky.social
New video today! Megaloptera, owlflies, bioluminescent click beetles, and MORE!

youtu.be/lD8sKzA_FZU
Bizarre Bugs in Flight! Slow Motion - 14 species
YouTube video by Ant Lab
youtu.be
September 3, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
bhamlalab.bsky.social
How do tiny ripple bugs surf raging rivers? Check out our new work in @science.org

Work led by Victor Ortega-Jimenez, Dongjin Kim, Sunny Kumar, Changhwan Kim, Je-Sung Koh, and Saad Bhamla - a collaboration between UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, and Ajou University.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Ultrafast elastocapillary fans control agile maneuvering in ripple bugs and robots
Rhagovelia ripple bugs use specialized middle-leg fans with a flat-ribbon architecture to navigate the surfaces of fast-moving streams. We show that the fan’s directional stiffness enables fast, passi...
www.science.org
August 23, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
toysdream.bsky.social
I don't think I've ever posted this here on Bluesky, so have some bug-drawing tutorials... (1/3)
Let's Discuss: Bug Basics! Intro to insect body anatomy. Let's Investigate: Insect Legs! In which we detour for some reason into talking about human hands. Insect leg pattern 1: Bees, ants, and flies. Insect leg patterns 2 and 3: Beetles and dragonflies.
August 11, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
dinalab.bsky.social
Here's a super cool documentary about the Mothbox!

Learn about the development and use of this fun #openscience #opensource tool for DIY biodiversity monitoring!

youtu.be/1LGz3aWpeVE?...
Mothbox - Wildlabs Award 2024
YouTube video by Digital Naturalism Laboratories (Andrew Quitmeyer)
youtu.be
August 1, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
wizentrop.bsky.social
This is such a good video by @dradriansmith.bsky.social. Not only does it show cool Harpegnathus jumping and stinging action, but it also features Gigantiops, one of my favorite ants, for a quick comparison!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hBX...
These Are the Best Ants. Seriously. (Harpegnathos saltator)
YouTube video by Ant Lab
www.youtube.com
August 8, 2025 at 4:56 PM
dradriansmith.bsky.social
New video today on one of the coolest ants, Harpegnathos! youtu.be/-hBXOAJ7l1I
August 8, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
bertonemyia.bsky.social
Fluffy.
Sparkly.
Adorable.

These are not the things you usually say about a fly, but here we are.

Let this little creature warm your heart 🥰

#Psychodidae #Setomima nitida
North Carolina, USA (w/ @dradriansmith.bsky.social)
A small fly sits on a green leaf. It looks like a moth, with a very fluffy head and thorax to the right, and dark, fluffy wings held roof-like behind it. The wings are adorned with scattered, small, icy blue scales. A small fly sits on a green leaf. It looks like a moth, with a very fluffy head and thorax to the right, and dark, fluffy wings held roof-like behind it. The wings are adorned with scattered, small, icy blue scales.
August 5, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
alexwild.bsky.social
Adrian Smith @dradriansmith.bsky.social is at BugShot Arizona, explaining how to tell stories.
Photo of a tall guy in a white t-shirt and jeans in front of a PowerPoint slide.
June 27, 2025 at 6:13 PM
dradriansmith.bsky.social
New Ant Lab video out today: Ants mating and flying at the same time! youtu.be/bG9I9u-aM8g
June 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
sciantsmedia.com
We will be live tonight with a special SciAnts Thursday! We will be interviewing @dradriansmith.bsky.social, insect scientist and behavior expert, on his scientific journey, his incredible YT videos, and more!

9pm EDT

#scicomm #sciants #science #stem #twitch

www.twitch.tv/sciants_stre...
May 29, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
tksst.bsky.social
🪲✈️ Slow-motion footage of 23 flying #insects by @dradriansmith.bsky.social explains the wide variety of flight mechanics out there. From beetles to stoneflies, each species developed different strategies.

👉 Learn more: zurl.co/OclZV
Two insects are shown in flight against a purple background with yellow text reading "INSECT FLIGHT" and black text reading "23 SPECIES!" - one appears to be a yellow-bodied flying insect on the left and a green beetle-like insect on the right.
May 27, 2025 at 9:04 PM
dradriansmith.bsky.social
Finally checked off "rove beetle wing folding" from my need to film list. New video up now: youtu.be/uvXxiUjw-xY
May 26, 2025 at 7:25 PM
dradriansmith.bsky.social
Quote tweeting myself because I ❤️ MAKING THIS VIDEO!!!
dradriansmith.bsky.social Adrian Smith @dradriansmith.bsky.social · May 3
"What's the Point of Natural History Collections?" is out today on the YouTube/AntLab check it out and long live basic research!!!!!!!!!!
youtu.be/dxUbTn7d6Fw
What's the Point of Natural History Collections?
YouTube video by Ant Lab
youtu.be
May 4, 2025 at 1:58 AM
dradriansmith.bsky.social
"What's the Point of Natural History Collections?" is out today on the YouTube/AntLab check it out and long live basic research!!!!!!!!!!
youtu.be/dxUbTn7d6Fw
What's the Point of Natural History Collections?
YouTube video by Ant Lab
youtu.be
May 3, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
jencmars.bsky.social
My favorite 🪲 lump

Acrylic ink & pencils on 3x4" hotpress

#InverteFest
Painting of a black and very rectangular warty leaf beetle. The beetle's exoskeleton is riddled with divots and lumps, with reddish-orange tint on its legs, face, mouthparts and antennae. It's somewhat stylized, and the rendering is very soft. The background is a light wash of brown
April 27, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
ehmee.bsky.social
Losing the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) would be an act of monumental neglect.

I made a video about what’s at risk, and how orgs like @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social and the American Alliance of Museums need us to help advocate for these critical places.

youtu.be/fYLC-KWy-Ks?...
Trump is gutting museums and libraries.
YouTube video by thebrainscoop
youtu.be
April 10, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Adrian Smith
bertonemyia.bsky.social
Monkey slug? Hag moth caterpillar? Both phenomenal names.

But I ❤️ the genus name most: Phobetron. Sounds like a malevolent transformer or a giant alien space television.

These caterpillars have fleshy deciduous appendages (this one lost a few) & stinging hairs. Watch out! ☣️☠️

North Carolina, USA
A light brown caterpillar with a few random large, fuzzy, fleshy, tentacle-like projections coming out of the body, sits on a green leaf on a black background. A light brown caterpillar with a few random large, fuzzy, fleshy, tentacle-like projections coming out of the body, sits on a green leaf. A light brown caterpillar with a few random large, fuzzy, fleshy, tentacle-like projections coming out of the body, sits on a green leaf. This is a side view showing spiny tubercles containing stinging hairs. A shot of this slug moth caterpillar showing the slug-like underside. The large brown fleshy protuberances can be seen above, but the underside is bright yellow and slimy looking. You can also see the amber colored head at one end.
April 5, 2025 at 4:36 PM