Marianne Alleyne

@cotesia.bsky.social

1270 Followers 1314 Following

Entomologist. Assistant Prof. University of Illinois C-U. Bioinspired Design is my jam, parasitoids my love. #Insect #SciPol #SciCom #Bioinspiration Dutch too.

Picture of a small sandy beach with high rises in the background (canary wharf) and an old pier with bolts sticking out on the left, and some apartments. The beach is along the Thames (between Limehouse and Wapping). On the beach are lots of pigeons and at least 6 swans.
Picture of oil refinery on outskirts of Moscow emitting dark smoke plumes after drone attack (in the distance). In foreground women looking at the smoke. She is holding two dog leashes attached two dogs sitting on walkway, with backs to the smoke, looking at each other. Probably doing the dog variety of a shoulder shrug.
Hand with nails painted bright orange. One nail also has black tiger stripes.
Image of two screens associated with a scanning electron microscope (not shown). The screens show images in black and white of brochosomes, which are hollow spheres with evenly spaced holes that are shaped as pentagons or hexagons.
Same roach on different structure now holding a sign that states: “Humans are Disgusting, Roaches”
Wall art showing black and green and cockroach (ventral side) on blue background with white clouds. Cockroach is holding brown sign that reads: “making the best of a super bad situation, cockroaches.”
Rather than linking to the article, I took a screenshot of the article thumbnail. It says: Tech - Backyard leafhoppers inspire next-generation cloacking tech. By Pragathi Ravi. 11 hours ago. And shows a picture of agreen and red leafhopper on a green leaf.
Lab clean out. Glass oven pan containing 4 metal mystery objects in the shape of….I dunno. An object is part metal pipe of 5-6 inches in length. 1 inch in diameter (but size doesn’t matter here). Each pipe is topped on one side with acorn shaped perforated metal head. Oh, jeez, I can’t believe I’m typing all this. I should just type a quartet of metal penises in a glass bowl and be done with it.
Picture of the Chicago sky line at night from the south. Against a cloudy sky. The Sears tower’s spires are lit up in blue and orange - the colors of the University of Illinois.
Man holding a sign at no kings protest. Man is dressed as one of the Blues Brothers in black suit, white shirt, and hat. The sign (white board, black letters) reads: Trump is not on a mission from god!
Unfolded and folded zines on a black table. Two pairs of folding them.
Norway Total medals per person: 41 ÷ 5.6 M ≈ 7.3 medals per million people Gold medals per person: 18 ÷ 5.6 M ≈ 3.2 golds per million people United States Total medals per person: 33 ÷ 349 M ≈ 0.095 medals per million people Gold medals per person: 12 ÷ 349 M ≈ 0.034 golds per million people Netherlands Total medals per person: 20 ÷ 18 M ≈ 1.1 medals per million people Gold medals per person: 10 ÷ 18 M ≈ 0.56 golds per million people Key Takeaways Norway far outperformed both the U.S. and the Netherlands on a per-capita basis — both for total medals and for gold medals — thanks to a relatively small population with a strong winter sports culture. The Netherlands also performs strongly per capita, especially in gold medals, due largely to its dominance in speed skating. The U.S. won more medals overall than the Netherlands, but its much larger population lowers the per-person medal figures significantly.
Author wearing a rebel loon shirt, next to a poster of a click beetle. In front of science march sign that says: whether you are left wing or right wing, you need entomologists. (the sign has pictures of cicada wings)
Statue of Lincoln in snowy park where evergreen trees and ground are covered in snow. Sunset peaks through in the background.
Picture taken at night within the background mountains, covered with snow, and the sky is lit up by the northern lights’ green color. The tour company provided these pictures..
Picture of a complete rainbow over a Jamaican bay and beach. Dark clouds in the sky.
4 hatchling turtles making their way across the beach into the Caribbean Ocean. Blue sky and white clouds in the background.
Fragment of a figure showing on the left a picture of a click beetle - the head and prothorax and clicking mechanism, and some legs, are shown. On the right is part of graphic detailing the clicking mechanisms main components (i=peg, ii=soft cuticle, iii=cavity, iv=mesosternal lip).
Picture of the actor Omar Sy walking away from the Louvre's pyramid at night. This image was used to promote the series Lupin. The picture was altered using drawing software by adding a chainsaw, high viz vest, and some of the jewels taken. One of the tiaras is on the ground.
Picture of a clear glass decanter filled halfway with a brown liquid. In front of the deanter are two glasses with the same brown liquid on ice (what a waste!). All three pieces feature the Block I logo and "Illinois" in white letters.
Picture of the same TV screen, now showing a green soccer pitch with the final game of the women’s euros - England vs Spain - score in overtime 1:1.
Picture of two screens in a living room. Top TV screen shows first lap of F1 Belgian Grand Prix, bottom screen shows opening kilometers of final stage of 2025 Tour de France with leaders in various classifications locking arms.
Click beetle constrained. With a flashing yellow LED light and mic nearby. Light is triggered when the click beetle clicks.
Picture of the Repair Shop's Pete Woods. While speaking to someone off camera within the Repair Shop's barn. He is wearing a blue sweater.
Picture of the cover of Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler. Showing a Red Bird on a black background.
Sign at protest with following text: Know your parasites. Deer tick (+ line drawing of deer tick. Cow tick (+ line drawing of cow tick). Lunatic (+line drawing of 47)
Video of a tree line along restored prairie patch. The video is basically black but with hundreds of small light points flickering on and off.
Picture of a commercial passenger plane in flight, next to the headline: “Passenger Jet Carrying 200 Flies for 10 Minutes with No Pilot After Copilot Faints in Cockpit: Report”
Water feature that uses gravity to push water through different sized glass jars and metal tubing, which causes air to pass through and make whistling sound. It’s called “BirdWirks”.
Video of a hand turning a wheel of a wooden contraption. The movements causes a wooden frog to stick out its metal tongue, which catches on another piece of metal. Meanwhile a lightening bug (LED light) hovers above the frog)
Picture of the side of a barn with a neon sign saying “the repair shop”. The sign is flanked by two male hosts. On the left Jay wearing black pants, white button shirt, a cap, and leather apron. On the right Will wearing jeans and plaid shirt .
Screenshot of iphone news apps. Icons shown are those of De Volkskrant, BBC, Der Spiegel, the Atlantic, Wired, Apple News, NYTimes.
Collage with pictures representing nature and medicine. And the words No Science No cure.
Black and white picture of a laughing) Katharine Graham (in the 70s?) holding front page of Washington Post Source: https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/06/15/Style/Images/AP_640803011.JPG?uuid=5B2RfFHnEee3Tg0nhdMIPQ
Cover of the book featuring art portraying a black woman in a flowing red/orange dress and head covering.
I used to work on the Lakeshore at the various harbors during summer months in the 80s. And I noticed that the light-fixtures in the Burnham-harbor restrooms, and those over the exterior-walkways at the Hyde Park Hilton motor-lodge, were packed with large, glossy-black spiders living in dense communal webs. Except for the fact that they were obviously social-spiders, I would have sworn that they were female widow-spiders with 1/4 to 1/2-inch abdomens. I've been searching for an identification for the past 40-years, but as I stated earlier, I can't find any information regarding this particular species. I do know that the Burnham spiders were feeding on the plentiful carnivorous (biting humans) flies buzzing the dim, recessed, restroom light-fixtures. Please help if you can. If you don't know, I encourage you to visit Burnham in July, and find the restrooms at the Western-shore boat-launch. Perhaps it's an unclassified species!
Art installation on a frozen lake with a yellow and red banner with the words “pollinator frenzy”. Child flying a kite against blue sky on a frozen lake. Abandoned plush unicorn toy with people in the background on a frozen lake. Sunset - with clear skies- with in the foreground a frozen lake.
Picture of a lego box for the McLaren F1 car.
Part of a painting (with looming iPhone shadow) showing partly completed sections. Other sections still show the numbers but in very small font.
Picture of a book cover. Background of cover in black. Title “James” in yellow. Author name “Percival Everett” in white.”New York Times bestseller” in turquoise.
Picture of a bald eagle's head from the side with the white feathers and bright yellow hooked beak, and light yellow eye. Picture was taken from the linked website. (Raptor's Center at the University of Minnesota)
Cover of Peterson’s Backyard Birds of the Midwest. It shows colored drawings of about 50 birds.
Detailed picture of a whirligig beetle seen from above. Image from Wikipedia by U.Schmidt 2008. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gyrinus_substriatus_Stephens,_1828_(3968701087)_(2).jpg
Group picture in front of a brick wall, of nine smiling scientists.
Foggy sunset over expanse of water.