Oops! All Bugs!

This isn't true and is one of the misconceptions this post is about. Please think, for five entire seconds, about how absolutely batshit insane the claim "3,500 species of fly and 850 species of arachnid have no impact on the food web whatsoever" is. Nature doesn't evolve life for shits and giggles. Mosquitos are vital pollinators. Ticks, like many parasites, balance resources throughout the ecosystem.

Spreading this kind of misinformation uncritically is how you end up with corporations spraying pesticides like its going out of style and causing mass biodiversity death.

Basically every time humans have decided to play god, it leads to a bunch of academic papers in the next decade title "Why Did Anyone Think Playing God Was A Good Idea: The Horrific Impacts"

Is a healthy ecosystem one that is rich in parasites?

From prey to pollinator: Unmasking the diverse ecological roles of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)

Parasites boosts biodiversity and changes animal community structure by trait-mediated indirect effects

Parasites, disease and the structure of ecological communities

When parasites become prey: ecological and epidemiological significance of eating parasites

A world without mosquitoes? It's not as great an idea as it may seem

What Purpose do Mosquitoes Serve?

What Purpose Do Ticks Serve in the Ecosystem?

From bug to drug—tick saliva could be key to treating heart disease

Wasps hunting the aphids off of a pea plant like pros!! Thank you little wauces!! There was a sizable colony on this plant when the day started and by the next day it was basically gone. Wasps = highly efficient garden pest control. RIP to the aphids, they never stood a chance.

I believe these are in the family Pemphredonidae (prev, Pemphredoninae), the aphid wasps, but I’m not an expert so feel free to correct me if you have an ID.

DON’T LIKE WASPS? DON’T TALK TO ME!

he's right at home with the rest of my little guys <3 def the heftiest of all of them

some wip shots!

this guy's based on: Graphocephala coccinea

Wasp Leafhoppers (Lissoscarta spp.)

[©Aron Bellersheim, ©danielblanco521, ©danielblanco521]

The reblog chain is one of the things that makes Tumblr unlike anywhere else. All the notes on reblogs are attributed to the original post, no matter which branch people actually liked or reblogged. We want to keep encouraging conversations, and give contributors the recognition they deserve. 

Soon, you'll be able to like, reblog, or reply to any part of a reblog chain, and that note will go to that reblog's author. Each reblog will have its own counts, instead of one aggregated number from every version of the post. And yes, you’ll be able to like multiple posts in one chain.

If a reblog doesn't add anything, the love flows up to the last person in the chain who did. Your post doesn't lose notes just because people spread it quietly.

Past notes will stay on the original post — we're only changing what happens from here on out. Retroactively re-attributing all of them would be... a lot.

EXTREMELY BAD HOLY FUCK.

But this. This changes the data architecture. This changes the SINGLE THING that makes tumblr the "... yes and" website. This KILLS THE COLLABORATIVE POSTING THAT MAKES THIS SITE DIFFERENT FROM ALL THE OTHER MEDIA PLATFORMS.