BLOOD WIZARD

I'M GOING TO MAKE A GOOD SHARP AXE

[epithelium]

Intro post

Any pronouns / butch lesbian / 25 / white / tme

Everything I make is public domain. Check out my photography tag!

I don't trigger tag stuff consistently, but I will if someone asks

Love you!!

[catball]

eating him

[catball]

the rule of eating him is whenever you see it you have to say eating him

[fon-master-ion]

eating him

[catball]

thank you eating him

[beeswaxcandle-deactivated202111]

eating him

[pennaraptor]

emotional responses are deeply evolutionarily advantageous in any animals that are making complex decisions and behaviors (in many vertebrates, say) because they act as a reinforcer for a behavior. a bird taking a vigorous bath in a puddle is probably happy because if that behavior didnt elicit a positive feeling they wouldn't do it (it is dangerous to be on the ground and wet!). if an animal can feel fear, which i think is a less contested assertion to make, then it can certainly feel the opposite, that is, happy.

[pennaraptor]

Bernd Heinrich in his book Nesting Season

[bunnycuriosity]

[dogpuppy]

[nnjrwpu]

oh goodness! oh dear!! oh no!!!

[plantnerderyallday]

Today's super fun hobbyist activity:

I want to know which native plants have specialist bee species that depend on them. I have wanted to know this for a while. A year ago, I found this massive list of all the pollen specialist bees of the western US:

I am going through this list, first identifying which ones actually have record in Washington (and removing the rest), then which have a record in western Washington, or at least west of the Cascades but in B.C. or Oregon, and then copying the list from their specific page about the plants that they use.

I kinda have a suspicion that this has already been done somewhere by someone, but I wasn't able to find it.

The step after determining which species are native to west of the Cascades and which species they use is then to make a sheet, organized by plant, of which bee species use what plants.

Then, I'm gonna take that list to my bosses and be like, yo, we should plant all of these and make little educational signs about native plants and native bees and native peoples and how they were traditionally cared for pre-colonization and how settlers came in and took over and changed how the land was treated and how we can help the plants, bees, and peoples survive and thrive going into the future.

I think I might need to make a club. Dedicated to creating native pollinator friendly gardens and educational signs and getting people re-engaged with the world around them.

[plantnerderyallday]

So, there's 133 specialist bee species found in Washington state according to that site. That's a lot.

Going down to figuring out the ones found west of the Cascades now.

[plantnerderyallday]

Does it still count as a specialist with that many host species?

Though this species list also brings up a concern of mine. It lists Helianthus gracilentus put into the cashew family, while properly listing the other Helianthus species in the Asteraceae family. I also saw a bee named after Berberis, aka the genus Oregon grape was moved into, but the host genus was listed as Vitis, aka, actual grapes. Which I'm pretty sure don't grow anywhere throughout that bee's range. I'm not actually stopping and reading all the plant species at this point, but still, definitely some errors in this data set.

The list of sources is long:

Records of native pollen specialist bees captured or observed foraging flowers of host plants were compiled from Discover Life (Ascher & Pickering 2020), peer reviewed articles (Bouseman & LaBerge 1978; Brooks & Griswold 1988; Cane 2018; Cockerell 1916, 1919; Cresson 1878; Daly 1973; Danforth 1994; Donovan 1977; Griswold 1993; Griswold & Miller 2010; Hurd et al. 1980; LaBerge 1963, 1967, 1969, 1971a, 1971b, 1973, 1977, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1989; LaBerge & Bouseman 1970; LaBerge & Ribble 1972, 1975; Lanham, 1981; Linsley & MacSwain 1958; McGinley 2003; Michener 1939; Michez & Eardley 2007; Minckley et al. 1994, 2000; Moldenke 1976, 1979; Parys et al. 2018; Portman, Neff, & Griswold 2016; Pow 2019; Provancher, 1895; Ribble 1974; Robertson 1926, 1928, 1929; Rozen 1958, 1992; Snelling 1983; Thorp 1969; Timberlake 1951, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1975, 1980; Wright 2018), technical bulletins (Danforth 1996; Grigarick & Stange 1968; Hurd & Michener 1955; Krombein et al. 1979; LaBerge 1967; Mitchell 1960, 1962; Ribble 1968; Stephen 1954; Thorp & LaBerge 2005; Timberlake 1953), and personal communications.

So I will not personally be going through and vetting every paper. What I am going to do is only going to list the species that actually are native here. And when it's an obvious mistake like mixing up Oregon Grape with Grape-grapes, fixing it.

[plantnerderyallday]

Ok, so I've gone through all of the bees, now I'm at the step where I sort through the plant species that the bees use. There are 55 specialist bee species that appear west of the cascades. I am undecided about the bees that have like, a bunch of host species. Should I cut them out if they have like, more than 20 plant species and include common non-natives like white clovers?

Because I think my goal with this is to identify the bees that are the most specialist, that have the narrowest range of host plants and thus, to my mind, are at greatest risk of decline/extinction.

One the other hand, just because a bee uses white clover, doesn't mean that that is a great choice nutritionally speaking, for that bee. It may be something it's been forced to do because other plants have become unavailable.

I have decided though, that if the plant doesn't occur west of the Cascades, I will not include it. I'm gonna use iNaturalist to determine that (I mean, if it's one I don't recognize), and double check with the Washington Wildflower Search map.

... Also if it's only in high alpine conditions, I'm not including it. Mostly because those plants have a hard time growing in the lowlands. Like, if it's growing about the tree line on the Olympics, I'm just gonna go ahead and assume it's not gonna survive at sea level.

[plantnerderyallday]

I kinda think if a bees host species are all either species that aren't west of the cascades or just listed as Genus sp., I think I might not count it. Or double check where it's been spotted.

[plantnerderyallday]

I'm halfway through the bee list, and a bee species that only listed hosts by the genus has changed my mind on that last point. It very well could be that whoever is taking the observations is confident enough of the genus, but not confident enough to say that it's a particular species. Maybe that Malus sp. is pacific crabapple. Maybe it's the domestic apple. Don't know, can't say, plant a pacific crabapple anyway.

Goodness knows that while I can tell a bunch of plant apart at the species, I kinda just throw my hands up at bees once you get more specific than genus. They're tiny! They move fast!

[plantnerderyallday]

Me: Ah, Melissodes lupina? Probably uses lupines, right?

List of hosts: Nope, not even one.

Me: Ah. Well at least you're cute

[plantnerderyallday]

I think it's fair to assume that if a bee that's restricted to the continent of North America has Rubus idaeus (red raspberry, native to Eurasia) listed as a host plant, that it actually likes and will use native Rubus species as well.

[iiumz]

[cottaqecore]

source: motherthemountain

[whip-cream-and-fruit]

[epithelium]

Almonds and cherry tomatoes for breakfast I feel like starjasmines

[pacogabby]

Mourning dove at Red Rock State Park, Arizona.

[111111111yeah]

[111111111yeah]

[kimiko24]

I fucking love this video

[carmelcup2]

[despazito]

[rhinestoneintherough]

 Opened the parade with Dykes on Bikes, riding through thousands of people flying our own  little fuck you to  the military recruiters at SF pride this year.