Lily Deeter works on scale insects, tiny creatures that many people aren’t familiar with, or only see as a pest. But once you get to know them, you’ll be hooked. Not only do they have fascinating morphology, physical characteristics that at times can seem otherworldly, but with a little practice you’ll be looking for them everywhere. “I don't think that the insect is just hanging out where entomologists tend to hang out,” Lily explains; the locations she found her new species include her neighborhood park, a brewery, at an entomology conference, and right outside her office. “You just kind of had to look somewhere just a little bit outside of the box.”

Lily’s fascination with scale insects is apparent as she shares their amazing biology, including some unexpected genetics, and lots more about these tiny creatures. And of course she introduces us to her new species “Acanthococcus orzo,” named after the pasta.

Lily Deeter’s paper “A new species of grass-infesting felt scale (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha:

Eriococcidae), with descriptions of all life stages and a key to the adult female

Acanthococcus Signoret of Florida, U.S.A.” is in volume 5717 of Zootaxa.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5717.2.3

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Lily Deeter - Transcript

New Species: Acanthococcus orzo

Episode image credit: Erin Powell

Browse ScaleNet: https://scalenet.info/

Scale insects and gecko conservation: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26198719

Beneficial scale insects: https://doi.org/10.1079/9781800620643.0001

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

If you want to be a scientist, you enroll in 4-10 years of higher education. If you want to be an artist, you go to art school and learn a classic technique. Two choices; a binary. Right?

Or, could it be that there’s an entire spectrum of choices in between? In this episode, we explore the places where art and science connect with three talented people who have a foot in both worlds. Aissa Domingo is an artist, photographer, and illustrator, Nicole Parish is an artist and naturalist, and Kathleen Baraan is a nature-based art educator. All three have unique perspectives on the shared practice of art and science, and our discussion reveals how important art is to telling scientific stories.

See more of Aissa’s work on her website: https://aissadomingo.com/wp/

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aissa_domingo/

And more of Nicole’s work on hers: https://www.soundoftheforest.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_soundoftheforest_/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/soundoftheforest.bsky.social

Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soundoftheforest

And follow Kathleen’s work on her website: https://beacons.ai/deartoourhearts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deartoourhearts/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deartoourhearts/

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Aissa Domingo, Kathleen Baraan, and Nicole Parish - Transcript

Other resources and people mentioned in this episode:

Leonard Co: https://www.philippineplants.org/General/AboutLeonard.html

Baba Dioum: https://biographycentral.com/biography/baba_dioum

Wild Wonder Foundation’s prompts for nature journaling: https://www.wildwonder.org/store/p/nj-zine

The Philippine Taxonomic Initiative: https://phtaxa.org/

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy free bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod