Welcome to Monday… Welcome to Expiscor! Weekly links about entomology, nature, and a dash of the curious. Here’s what I came across this past week:

• Outreach activities – they are so worth it. Just have a scroll through Sean’s photos and look at everyone’s expressions. Awesome.

• New species are everywhere: at a (very urban) University campus in Manila, a new aquatic beetle species!

• Want more convincing of all the new species described each week?…. here are some new species of Harvestmen from Australia.

• Speaking of Harvestmen, as Derek Hennen points out, this one is like a Christmas tree (adorned with shiny mites)

• Teaching Entomology this term (I am!)? Here’s a very valuable resource on Entomological Competencies [PDF]. (huge thanks to Bug Girl for this one)

• The Call of Cthulhu being answered by spiders. (thanks again Bug Girl)

• Meow… the cat mantis.

• The Attack of the Giant Water Bug. These beasts are just so impressive!

• Beetles drinking wine and so much more: Insect dioramas. Go look. PLEASE go look.

• Insect experts on the radio! Congrats to Morgan Jackson for hitting the airwaves, the BBC airwaves! (at 1:39:30 of this), and Sean McCann for his time on CBC. Great work! This kind of outreach is important.

• High speed insect “action” photography. Stunning dipterans (and a wasp in there for good measure, too)

• Finding wilderness in a sidewalk crack. Yes, I too stare at pockets of nature everywhere I go.

• Tiny songbirds, traversing the world.  A story over at BBC about the northern wheater.

• Wild eyes: I was reminded of RadioLab’s story of a boy and a jaguar reserve. It’s worth a listen. (Thanks Daniel Gruner)

• We all rejoice because the GEEK IS BACK! Here’s her post about a stunning caterpillar which just happened to fall upon us during a field lab at McGill last week. (thanks, Crystal, for letting me post the image, here)

• Ask a grown-up: Why such small front legs, T-Rex? (thanks Jon Tennant for that link)

• I really enjoyed Dynamic Ecology‘s post about google searches with “Ecology”. You might be surprised!

• More female LEGO scientists, please. 

• Teach it: Here’s an amazing resource with heaps of content, including lots on ecology and evolution (Thanks Germán Orizaola for that link)

• A moving story: Life and death, handled with care. (by the way, this is a story of a family I know well, and love dearly. We were all touched by this)

• I see this on my own kids: those that walk to school have better concentration. (Thanks Barbara Frei, for that link)

• Tweet of the week goes to…Marc Ozon. It’s just so true.

• Perspectives on time, and questions about how to spend it, from the perspectives of an entomologist.

• Speaking of graduate students, acknowledging & addressing mental health issues is critically important, writes Nash Turley.

• Interesting perspectives on Academia, using the concept of reviewing papers as an example:… should we “give up our archaic notions of unpaid craft labor and insist on professional compensation for our expertise”

• The students are back! A thoughtful piece (thanks to Sue Bertram for the link)

• Here’s another thought: Universities should educate, employers should train.

• Men wanted: Shackleton’s ad was, well, just a bit intimidating!

• Letting a four-year old finish drawings... the results are amazing.

• How about soccer without balls. This satirical story fooled more than a few people!

• I was at a Science Communication workshop last week, and was introduced to this: