Jess Awad

@parasitoidrex.bsky.social

1527 Followers 622 Following

Entomologist specializing in parasitoid wasps and dark taxa. Leiden, Netherlands.

Cover of the album "Wet Land" by Hiroshi Yoshimura. The artwork is minimalist, mostly white with dark blue, giving the impression of water and land together. In the top left corner it reads: "Music for Your Mind Relaxation Music Vol. 1".
A photograph of a journal, opened to a 2 page article by Henk Vlug reviewing (in Dutch) a doctoral thesis entitled "Integrative Taxonomy of Platygastrine Wasps of Germany". There is a picture of the cover and a couple of photographs of pinned parasitoid wasps. The review is very complementary.
Screenshot from an online presentation, titled "Ecdysis: Perisphaerus sp.". A vibrant photograph of two cockroaches on a green leaf fills the screen. One cockroach, a metallic bronze color, is getting ready to molt, and the cuticle can be seen beginning to split. The other has recently molted and is a bright red color. The speaker, Nicky Bay, can be seen in a small circle in the bottom right corner.
Insects, Butterflies, and a Dragonfly. Illustration by Jan van Kessel, ca. 1660. Black chalk, watercolor and gouache on parchment. Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET, 2004.129).
A black cat sits in the arrow loop of an ancient stone fort. A gray sky and bare tree branches are visible behind the cat. A single coin lies at its feet.
Entrance to the Padua Botanical Garden, the oldest scientific botanical garden in the world! With a sign for "Complex objects, different perspectives: Studying and digitising cecidological collections". The sign has a picture of preserved historical plant galls.
"Dark Linnaeus" - a portrait of the famous biologist with scary glowing red eyes
Lateral habitus of a small wasp with ventral pronotal pit crudely circled
A replica of a small Paleolithic figurine, cast from the original, mounted on a wooden block. It stands on a shelf next to a shadowbox containing a model of a leaf with galls, with the legend "Dinner is served".
Stone facade of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, with arched windows, pillars, and decorative carvings
Hotel TV showing several large sausages. They are priced at 18€ for 900g and there are only 120 left.
Various aspects of Synopeas ruficoxum.
Holotype of Synopeas ruficoxum, lateral habitus.
A screenshot of specimen BIOUG26568-F09 from BOLD systems, showing a wasp in silhouette very similar to the wasp reared from soybean gall midge.
Type specimen of Synopeas craterum (Walker), glued to a card in the the early 19th century. National Museum of Ireland Natural History.
An insect drawer from the mid to late 19th century full of Arnold Foerster's Platygastridae types. Natural History Museum Vienna.
A small black platygastrid wasp, around 1.5 mm long, with an elevated mesoscutum, veinless wings, and clavate antennae. Lateral habitus.
A small black platygastrid wasp, around 1.5 mm long, with an elongate metasoma, veinless wings, and a small spine on the mesoscutellum. Lateral view.
Wasps in Mayan stucco monumental masks in Kohunlich, Quintana Roo
Duolingo owl on fire, with glowing white eyes and text reading "I'm on a 200 day learning streak!"
Harnessing biodiversity for pest control Biological control - a best bet crop protection solution since 300 AD Active conservation of resident farm biota Predators alone sustain crop yields by 25% Field release of laboratory-grown biota Private-sector led: new product development with 1:10 success rate vs 1:160000 for chemical pesticides Translocation of non-native organisms Restoring ecological balance of invaded agro-ecosystems Core constituent of the agro-ecology and IPM toolboxes Integrated with smart soil, crop, farm, and agro-landscape management Complemented with behavior-modifying chemicals, botanicals or microbial metabolites
Waterway in Leiden, surrounded by houses and outdoor cafes which have not yet opened for the day. There is a big church in the background, and a green metal railing in the foreground. The sky is very blue with fluffy white clouds.
Lateral habitus of Platygaster demades, a black wasp around 2 mm in length. Its mesopleuron is shiny and its metasoma is somewhat elongate.
Lateral habitus of Synopeas rhanis, a black wasp around 1.5 mm in length. It has a deep scuto-scutellar sulcus, causing the mesoscutum to be elevated relative to the mesoscutellum and giving it a somewhat hunched appearance.
Underside of a raspberry leaf, with small patches of fungus scattered about. A small yellow fly larva is sitting by one of the fungal patches. Photo by Ronja Reinisch.
Photo of the anterior head of Platygaster demades, a black wasp around 1 mm long with distinctive, finely striate sculpture on the face. The antennae, mandibles, and legs are brown.
tall trees draped with Spanish moss, seen through a heavy fog
A Zeiss stereo microscope with gooseneck lamp, light diffuser, and a unit tray of tiny point-mounted parasitoid wasps.
Screenshot of the DuoLingo app, announcing a 100 day streak, illustrated with a picture of Duo the Owl on fire and wearing sunglasses
Lateral habitus photograph of holotype specimen of Synopeas maximum, a parasitoid wasp around 1.5 mm long.
Screenshot of a video conference, listing the winners of the student competition: Cristina Vasilita, Mollie-Rosae Slater-Baker, Tobias Salden, and Tareva-Chine Atkin-Zaldivar.
Screenshot of a video conference. A diagram of a plant is divided into its parts and compared to the groups of Hymenoptera that use those parts.
Screenshot of a video conference, showing two tiny wasps mating in a petri dish.
Screenshot of a video conference, showing photos of various insect specimens, habitats, and collecting methods.
Screenshot of a video conference, showing multiple images of scelionid wasps in alcohol.
Screenshot of a video conference, representing a workflow for integrative taxonomy of ceraphronid wasps, with a photo of a wasp by Arnstein Staverlokk.
Screenshot of a video conference. A photo of an ant is surrounded by bullet points describing its importance to biodiversity, economy, and health.
Screenshot of a video conference. Title slide reads "Evolving perspectives in Hymenoptera systematics" accompanied by a graphic representing ants, bees, wasps, and DNA.
Screenshot of a video conference. Title slide reads "The trouble with parasitoids? Pattern and process in the global evolution of oak gall phenotypes", with a photo of a wasp and an elaborate plant gall.
Screenshot of a video conference, showing a diagram of how taxonomy is central to understanding ant agriculture, ecology, and behavior.
The head of a parasitoid wasp in the genus Torymus. Photo by Robert Luke Kresslein.
Screenshot of a video conference. Slide with diagram of honey bee stinger separated into muscular, glandular, cuticular, and neural components, plus text describing these functions.
Screenshot of a video conference. Slide title "Primitively eusocial paper wasps are optimal models for reproductive plasticity", accompanied by a photo of Polistes exclamans wasps on a nest, and an image comparing queen ovaries (large) to worker ovaries (small).
Screenshot of a video conference, showing a plate of insect illustrations from a late 18th or early 19th century German manuscript.
Screenshot of a video conference listing several research questions regarding the phylogeny of the Dolichoderinae subfamily of ants
Screenshot of a video conference, showing a workflow for creating a DNA barcode dataset for parasitoid wasps.
Screenshot of a video conference, showing that only 0.2% of the estimated 1-6 billion species on Earth have been described.
Screenshot of a video conference, describing an integrative approach to bee evolution research, and illustrated by a photo of a man in a time machine.
Screenshot from a video conference, showing differences between the Neotropical belytine genera Tropidopsilus and Masnerolyta.
Screenshot from a video conference, showing a picture of a wasp and its caterpillar host along with some conclusions about parasitoid host specialization in the braconid genus Aleiodes.
Screenshot of a video conference. Title slide reading "130 million year old wasps and the evolution of the telescopic ovipositor", with a photo of amber pieces.
Screenshot of a video conference, showing an experimental set-up for killing fungal spores using a beaker, ramekin, and pressure cooker.
Screenshot of a video conference, title slide reading "Parasitoid wasp avoids sick caterpillars: A key insight for better pest control", with a watercolor illustration of parasitoid wasps emerging from a dead caterpillar.
Screenshot of a video conference presentation, with several photos of bizarre parasitoid wasps.
A small dark wasp on a pin, anterior view
An anterior view of the head of a small black parasitic wasp with striate patterns on the frons.