Anurag Agrawal
Evolutionary ecologist studying species interactions, plant chemistry, community ecology, and comparative biology. Author of Monarchs & Milkweed and Professor at Cornell University. Proud parent and friend.
- Flatbacked #millipede I think, cruising unmolested amidst this #ant colonynon the move in Costa Rica. A #parasite, I guess?
- Watch the Extraordinary Caterpillar film trailer! homegrownnationalpark.org/extraordinar...
- Milkweed seeds, still dispersing
- Cardenolide toxin diversity impacts monarch butterfly growth and sequestration doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
- Oak Galls Exhibit Ant Dispersal Convergentwith Myrmecochorous Seeds par.nsf.gov/servlets/pur...
- Reposted by Anurag AgrawalEarlier on the expedition we found the most beautiful flower, and here, my friends, is the biggest: Rafflesia arnoldi seen in full bloom today in the Sumatran jungle. This is the largest flower on earth and one of the greatest wonders of the natural world.
- #Monarch #butterfly tagging advances in the NY Times, they are arriving in #Mexico www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/s...
- A mentor, Spencer Barrett, and mentee, Marc Johnson - 20 years apart
- Reposted by Anurag AgrawalPart of a large patch of Devil's Fingers fungus (aka Octopus Stinkhorn) in Rye, East Sussex. I smelt them before I saw them. An intense bouquet of rotting flesh to attract insects that then help spread spores. Brilliant! @sussexwildlife.bsky.social #fungi #mycology #UKwildlife
- A theory of life: www.cornellsun.com/article/2025...
- The wooly bear, or #Isabella tiger #moth #caterpillar, Pyrrharctia isabella, still looking for overwintering spots on warm days. I'm still collecting them for research. Many years ago I became allergic to the hairs, a painful reminder of my love gone sour: agrawal.eeb.cornell.edu/2018/11/24/c...
- By popular demand, I'm offering "More #MONARCHS - No #Monarchy!" shirts and mugs at cost (no profit, just joy). Spread the word, decent quality for <$20 monarchs.printful.me #NoKings #butterfly #peace #naturalhistory #plantinsect
- Reposted by Anurag Agrawal🕷️ Britain’s craziest creature? Meet Megabunus diadema — a harvestman with eyes on a spiky turret! Not a spider, but part of its own Order: Opiliones. Learn more in our UK Harvestmen webinar on 5 Feb 2026: 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1720584467... @britishspiders.bsky.social @megabunus.bsky.social
- Reposted by Anurag AgrawalI am an author being overwhelmed by emails from people offering their services to promote my new book. This is a brand new problem, and I do not have an agent or publicist to sift through the offers. Help? #writingcommunity #authors
- Red oak fall colors
- Witch hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, Hamamelidaceae in the Saxifragales, now in #flower around #Ithaca
- My monkey slug getting ready to transform to hag moth, Phobetron pithecium Limacodidae
- Pear rust's spore-dispersing bodies... This #fungus, Gymnosporangium sabinae, is an obligate host - alternating #parasite (like many fungi and aphids) - alternate host = juniper
- New biology: stink bugs inoculate their eggs with a fungus that protects them from parasitoids www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
- Reposted by Anurag AgrawalMelampyrum pratense has a huge distribution across Europe to central Siberia thanks to ants. It has myrmecochorus seeds—seeds carried by ants—unlike most holo- and hemiparasitic species, which have wind-dispersed seeds. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
- Monkey slug caterpillar, or "hag #moth" Phobetron pithecium. A late season Limacodidae of eastern forests, A generalized feeder of mostly blue plants Courtesy of Sam Jaffe and the amazing #caterpillar lab in New Hampshire! www.thecaterpillarlab.org
- Woody plants!
- Matelea cyclophylla, a vining succulent #milkweed vine with a corky #caudex from western Mexico, hairy burgundy #flowers
- Two more Asclepiadoideae (among 3000 #milkweed species), a Hoya and Cynanchum - every thing comes in fives #flower #oldworld
- Hoodia and Huernia, two Ascleps flowering in my house
- Southern Africa
- Two pairs of wild turkeys in Cambridge, Mass
- Why I tried whale meat www.cornellsun.com/article/2025...
- Echinopsis tubiflora an Argentinian endemic Cactaceae, night blooming, open <18 hours (120x = 2 hours) #timelapse #cactus #flower #sweetsmell
- Scaldweed, Cuscuta gronovii, a native annual non-photosynthetic #parasitic #plant - haustoria instead of roots; shares #herbivores with its host plants (you are what you eat) - but a #flowering plant nonetheless. Most plant communities have several distantly related species of parasitic angiosperms
- Galling #aphids on staghorn sumac make plump succulent galls full of aphids and predators - near Watertown, NY
- I've been seeing more of the Jerusalem artichoke Helianthus tuberosus around the great lakes region. This is from the sandy east shores of Lake Ontario. Said to be native, I wonder if it's being planted more and spreading?
- The American searocket, Cakile edentula, a sand loving semi-succulent #Brassicaceae. I knew this plant from the west coast; here on the shores of lake Ontario. Fruits have two-parts, one that breaks off and floats for water dispersal. immature silliques are edible, like radish pods
- A leaf mining #moth on a quaking Aspen, caterpillar apparently secretes cytokinins which suppress senescence in leaf sectors. Adaptive for the moth? #fallcolors
- Important new paper: www.frontiersin.org/journals/eco...
- Reposted by Anurag AgrawalA baby sidewinder's tracks tell the story of the last few minutes. First, an elegant change in direction and in sidewinding handedness, like the jibe of a sailboat. Then a startled squiggle as it realizes it's being followed. Mojave Desert Sidewinder - Crotalus cerastes cerastes #herps
- And next to the #orchid, pondside, abundant greater fringed gentians, Gentianopsis crinita, a spectacular biennial; reproductive parts heavily attacked by a plume moth. After 3 years of trial & error, we finally have a means to germinate seeds and study them in natural populations and common gardens
- Nodding lady's tresses (Spiranthes cernua), a late summer flowering #orchid, abundant at pond's edge in #Ithaca, said to be fragrant, but I forgot to smell
- Kleinia pendula (formerly in #Senecio) - the inchworm plant from NE Africa. A rayless creeping #succulent #aster (w/ red flowers)... here with the aphid, #Aphis nerrii, in Ithaca; I usually think of A. nerrii as a specialist on #Apocynaceae (but there are several reports on asters) #herbivory
- A male large tolype #moth (or velleda lappet moth), Tolype velleda, an eastern north american tree leaf feeder (as caterpillar). Adults do not have mouth parts - no feeding, just flying and mating. Note one feathery antenna: high surface area to pick up on female-produced pheromones
- Beech drops, Epifagus virginiana (Orobanchaceae), non-photosynthetic & #parasitic, feeds from beech tree roots. Flowering in an old-growth pine forest. Has a ridiculous life-cycle, including both cleistogamous & chasmogamous #flowers, possible #ant #pollination, etc. wikipedia.org/wiki/Epifagus
- The smokey-winged aspen #aphid, Chaitophorus populicola, seen on eastern #cottonwood streamside in Ithaca, NY, tended by #ants. After a summer of clonal reproduction, sexually produced eggs over winter, often in crevices on their host trees #mutualism
- Tachinid #parasitoid emerging from #monarch #butterfly chrysalis... The larva was never exposed, but field collected leaves were fed to the caterpillar. Many tachinids lay their eggs on leaves, only to be consumed by caterpillars, later consuming the caterpillars from the inside out
- Reposted by Anurag AgrawalSay's mantidfly (Dicromantispa sayi), a lacewing relative that looks as its name suggests like a chimera between a fly and a praying mantis, here clinging to the storm door with the garden in reflection behind it. Downers Grove this morning, sighted by @art_bumble.
- Reposted by Anurag Agrawal[This post could not be retrieved]
- A female pigeon horntail (Tremex columba, Hymenoptera), larva eat wood of declining trees. Note ovipositor next to the horntail. Seen here in an #Ithaca old growth forest. Aposematic but not stinging
- Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana -- A perennial favorite of late summer. I don't love it less now that I know that the declaration of Independence was not written in its ink. It's berries were used in the colonial era for ink and dyes, we should get back to that!
- Ecology and sexual conflict drive the macroevolutionary dynamics of female-limited color polymorphisms in damselflies doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
- Reposted by Anurag AgrawalThinking about this tonight, from 20 years ago: "Senator McConnell spoke on the Senate floor on the 50th anniversary of the polio vaccine and his childhood experience with polio." www.c-span.org/clip/senate-...
