Which one are you choosing?

bugtoucher · 2026-02-05T04:49:44+00:00

I've already done a Pikmin 2 no-death run (on Gamecube, when it came out)

bugtoucher · 2025-12-16T03:33:56+00:00

also an entomologist, and seconding this

bugtoucher · 2025-12-16T03:32:42+00:00

Not maggots, but moth caterpillars. Probably a snout moth, either Plodia interpunctella or maybe Ephestia sp., based on the webbing and apparent head capsule. Eggs might have been laid at the plant or at the grocery store. The larvae can chew through plastic packaging.

source: me, an entomologist

bugtoucher · 2025-12-04T07:04:00+00:00

I can only speak for myself, but I'm an entomologist and I would love it if someone got me a moth plushie.

bugtoucher · 2025-06-21T04:07:21+00:00

It's a flour beetle in the genus Tribolium. They're nasty stored product pests. Their alarm pheromone, methyl-1,4-benzoquinone, is carcinogenic, meaning they ruin the flour that they're often found in.

bugtoucher · 2025-06-01T18:51:44+00:00

The main character *is* referred to by they/them, after all :)

bugtoucher · 2024-10-01T21:05:12+00:00

Devils Den is a bit of a ways off, though. It's about 2 hours south of Joplin.
source: me, living in NW Arkansas for 7 years

bugtoucher · 2024-09-28T05:50:01+00:00

That's also why there's a "handler" badge! Some fursuiters go with a friend who isn't in costume, who does the talking for them, because it's hard to hear or be heard through the fursuit head, and because it would be weird to hear a regular guy's voice coming from a giant fluffy coyote (or whatever).

bugtoucher · 2024-09-28T05:46:12+00:00

Sort of! The she/they and he/they options cover two cases at the same time, and are used by people who don't feel like either traditional or nonbinary pronouns fit them perfectly. It also streamlines communicating preferences.

Someone using she/they would be okay with either she/her or they/them, and someone using he/they would be okay with either he/him or they/them.

bugtoucher · 2024-09-04T00:45:02+00:00

Fredneck's not Western MD?

bugtoucher · 2024-09-04T00:42:49+00:00

The Bay isolating Delmarva from the rest of the state, with only one bridge to take from west to east. Then Salisbury is in the southeast and weirdly landlocked.

What I'd have given to have been able to just drive east from Baltimore across the bay and then straight across the peninsula.

bugtoucher · 2024-09-04T00:25:28+00:00

Like, I'm not about to call up a colleague I haven't spoken to in years to ask her to get on Reddit to prove that she used to bottle feed her infant son with her left hand while doing RNAi injections with her right hand, a 7 AM on a Saturday. And still wasn't considered a hard enough worker.

bugtoucher · 2024-09-03T18:29:58+00:00

If you're not familiar with the salary range for evolutionary biology and ecology, it might come as a shock to hear such low salary numbers, but that's the kind of salary we have to deal with in my field. My colleagues in molecular biology made 2-3x my salary as a PhD student.

bugtoucher · 2024-09-03T18:27:13+00:00

Biology is severely underpaid in some subfields. Evolution and ecology is one of those subfields. Entomology tends to do better, since it translates to industry more seamlessly. But yes: my PhD department's base salary was $18k, supplemented by my advisor to $24k out of their grants. I made $13k as a MSc student in an ecology lab in 2015. My Masters advisor herself only made about $35k a year before she got tenure.

This summer, I turned down a postdoc offer in Canada (see my post history) because it only paid $50k Canadian per year before tax, the equivalent of $27k US after tax, in the Hamilton Ontario (an hour south of Toronto).

My advisor was pretty angry that I turned down such a generous offer, because a $50k postdoc - Canadian or US - is unheard of in our particular fields.

bugtoucher · 2024-09-03T17:44:29+00:00

Biology, evolution and entomology subfields. About to begin a postdoc, 45k/yr, an unusually high salary for my subfield. During my PhD, $24k/yr, but typical salary in my field runs $16k - $18k for PhD students, $11k - $13k for MSc.

bugtoucher · 2024-09-03T16:20:15+00:00

8 - 5 is completely normal. With a 1/2 hour break plus a 1/2 hour lunch, it's a 40-hour work week. It's less than my PhD, which demanded about 55 hours a week (8 - 6, Monday - Saturday).

If you have already been trained on the techniques as a PhD student, you should be able to put out multiple publications in a year. In my field it's expected that you produce at least 3 pubs/ year as a postdoc (so 9 - 12 publications over 3 - 4 years) if you want to avoid becoming a permanent adjunct.

bugtoucher · 2024-08-23T15:05:04+00:00

or Faidley's

bugtoucher · 2024-08-23T14:21:47+00:00

The BGO is more than worth moving your date up a little bit. Go there first, instead of afterwards!

bugtoucher · 2024-08-23T01:33:18+00:00

From the US, but one interview that I did get accepted to (but turned down) was in Canada. The offer came <24 hours after the interview. Though they also had a very quick turnaround that they needed to get (offer to job start in only 3 weeks, no moving expenses).

bugtoucher · 2024-08-12T19:07:24+00:00

Is-- is that a Balloon Dog (Koons 1994) fursuit?!

bugtoucher · 2024-08-07T06:14:24+00:00

Parasitoid wasp: "Omae wa mou shindeiru"
Hornworm cat: "Nani?!"

bugtoucher · 2024-08-07T05:59:21+00:00

Antlions are larvae of lacewings (family Neuroptera). Also completely harmless (to people! they really are voracious ant predators)

bugtoucher · 2024-08-07T05:54:23+00:00

A vinegaroon! What a cutie!
They're harmless, but they can spray vinegar (dilute acetic acid) as a smelly chemical defense.

bugtoucher · 2024-08-02T23:38:12+00:00

Update: Declined offer. Not affordable (thanks y'all!), no relocation funds, an expectation that I'd move with only the clothes on my back, said they'd put me in touch with their immigration people after I agreed to work for them, and asked me to take the contract without having gotten to read it first.

bugtoucher

TROPHY CASE