Wikipedia: "The plant is rich in calcium and phosphorus and as such makes up the bulk of the diet of white-tailed deer in the northeastern United States in the spring."
I mustn't let May go by without a nod to my 2009 article on the discovery, during the 19th century, of same-sex copulation among Maybugs (also known as Maybeetles, cockchafers, doodlebugs). Do look out for them at it in your garden! 🌈🌳
Info on historical collectors & other collection agents affiliated with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin was transferred from local wikis to @wikidata to help #accessibility & #reusability of #data, for example, as a resource for transdisciplinary #provenance#research.
A post appreciating the weevil Liparus coronatus. Apparently this is not terribly common, but I seem to live in an area where it's locally frequent, as this is the second one I've seen in 2 months? Apparently it likes plants in the Apiaceae (which might explain why I keep finding it in arable/horticultural environments where Apiaceae commonly form part of the margin flora?). Need to learn more about its life-history and behaviour! #Weevil#Coleoptera#NaturalHistory#KentishInsects
New edition of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), surrounded by plants and a mineral she touted as medical treatments, her invented alphabet and model of the universe, on lovely ivory Japanese washi paper. Her writings preserve not only her own knowledge and theories but the nature of institutional medicine and folk healing of her day (which she deftly combined). 🧵1/2
No cute bunnies or lambs in my files, I'm afraid. I do, however, have a lot of queer chickens. This is a painting of a hen-cock (c. 1900), a prize fighter, by English artist Herbert Atkinson. 🥚🐥🐔
Today volunteer @WitcherClo is arranging an ichthyosaur in our fossil collection. There's a lot of tiny fragments for such a large skeleton, but enough is preserved to see the animal start to take shape.
The great auk, Pinguinus impennis, has been extinct since the mid-19th century. Humans hunted the bird for its down, which was used to fill pillows, and this was the main driver behind its extinction.
This specimen in the collections of the #NottNatHist Museum is a model rather than a taxidermy mount. It is on loan to the University of Nottingham.
Just a reminder that, following the Royal Society event in Jan, my article 'Mendel's Closet: Genetics, Eugenics and the Exceptions of Sex in Edwardian Britain' has been made freely available until the end of Feb/LGBTQ+ History Month.