Hi? (awkwardly)

Whiskered Auklets (Aethia pygmaea), family Alcidae, order Charadriiformes, off of Adak Island in the Central Aleutians, Alaska

And since parasitism is not a popular concept in the general public and the specific nature of parasitism means they are more likely to be very diverse (and therefore difficult to ID), many parasites are quite under-recorded, especially parasitic/parasitoid inverts. So I get to have a lot of crazy rare or under-recorded stuff from randomly stumbling into a parasite. Like currently I am into plant pathogens and most plant pathogens in the world are under-recorded. You can relatively easily discover a new plant pathogen species even in somewhere typically over-recorded in terms of wildlife like UK! Reminds me that I need to send my fungus-infected invasive Buddleja leaves to a researcher so she can determine the range of the species and if it is a species new to science (it likely is).

Pink-eared Duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceus), family Anatidae, order Anseriformes, found in disconnected regions of Australia

Let me check in the back...

Spiny Weevil (Heilus freyreissi), family Curculionidae, Choco region of Ecuador

photograph by Javier Aznar González de Rueda

Filbert Weevil (Curculio occidentis), family Curculionidae, CA, USA

photograph by Ryan Kaldari

Nut Weevil (Curculio nucum), family Curculionidae, Lithuania

photograph by Lukas Jonaitis

Weevil (Cholus cinctus), family Curculionidae, Anton Valley, Panama

photograph by Charles J. Sharp

Banded Pine Weevil (Pissodes pini), family Curculionidae, found across western Europe

it's no secret that ants are constantly committing and experiencing war crimes we can barely comprehend, some more morally ambiguous than others. these two Aphaenogaster senilis, a species whose ruthlessness i've both personally witnessed and had confirmed by people with ant knowledge, caught themselves a substantial snack - a Messor barbarus queen. one one hand, they killed a pregnant woman; on the other hand, she was royalty. justified or problematic? you decide

it was hard to get a shot of her wing scars with the speed at which she was being dragged along, but there they are. with the wings already torn, she must've been very close to establishing a nest, so the interlopers had fantastic timing

Lesser vespillo burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, with a dead shrew.