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alexsmithants.bsky.social
🍁 Alex Smith 🍁
@alexsmithants.bsky.social
8.3K followers 5.7K following 770 posts
Assoc. Prof of #Biology at UofG, Guelph, ON, Canada. Inspired by the #Biodiversity in ACG, Costa Rica. #Ecology, #Evolution, #Entomology

Opinions my own & do not overlap with my employer.

he/him
www.malexsmith.com
www.youtube.com/@Alex_Smith_Ants
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alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Some correspondence this week in @pnas.org about assumptions underlying how many species of insect.

Here's our reply to Fattorini and Borges "Conditional CIs and sensitivity analysis characterize uncertainty in global insect richness estimates"

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
three panel image of fig tree at 1000m on Volcan Cacao at the top, on the bottom right a Malaise trap at 1300m on Volcan Cacao and on the bottom left the microgastrinae parasitoid wasp Snellenius robertoespinozai named for much missed parataxonomist Roberto Espinoza. last paragraph of the response reading: In summary, because we were aware of the problem of propagated uncertainty in multistep estimation, we designed the study to rely on the absolute minimum number of inferential steps, capped by a sensitivity analysis across upscaling reference groups where quantitative uncertainty could not be estimated. The range of our estimates of global insect richness is wide, but even the lowest estimate—14 million species—is more than twice the previous consensus estimate. Moreover, our assumptions about collection methods, DNA barcode-based species delimitation, and biogeographical comparisons were—at every turn—far more likely to bias our estimates downward than upward.
October 6, 2026 at 1:59 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
Here’s #DougTheDog loving his frisbee. A very good boy!
October 6, 2026 at 1:19 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
Fantastic weather, fantastic people and a fantastic time last week with #invertebrate students in #ZOO3700 last week in the #Guelph #DairyBush #highered 🐞🐛🐜🦟

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Three panoramas of students sampling in the dairy bush forest Infrequently cut field and frequently cut field Images four sessions of invert class around a maple tree That germinated in 1785 in the guelph dairy bush forest Photo of four insects Found in the dairy bush field
October 5, 2026 at 7:14 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
It’s #DougTheDog enjoying his frisbee!
October 3, 2026 at 10:41 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
So happy to be able to wear my newly arrived #ctenophore t-shirt in #ZOO3700 lecture today!

Check them out! @elizabethbeston.bsky.social t supporting the Plankton Project theplanktonproject.teemill.com/collection/a...
screen grab of a lecture where there is a plot of host mass against parasite size and students have annotated their expectation. top right hand corner speaker is wearing snazzy ctenophore tshirt!
September 21, 2026 at 4:57 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Preparing students to work on a project on the #DairyBush this fall (a natural woodlot on the #Guelph campus) and want introduce them (& you) to this sugar maple that is estimated to have germinated in 1785.

This 241 year old 🍁 (older than 🇨🇦 , than lithography, than …) is part of your campus.
Image looking up the trunk into the canopy of a sugar maple that germinated in the UofG Dairy Bush in 1785
September 19, 2026 at 2:16 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
So the banana bread cookies (or banana brookies as the kids have named them) recipe from today’s Globe and Mail is fantastic!

🎁 link through paywall because… 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/c231c7b...
An image of the banana brookies cooling on a drying rack
September 16, 2026 at 11:07 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
Sharing space with these wonderful species along the beautiful Bonnechere River
August 31, 2026 at 1:06 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
It's more than a year old, but a good strategy then and now by @dougsaunders.bsky.social in the @theglobeandmail.com

"Here’s how Canada can target America’s exposed backside: cut off its toilet paper"

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www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
screen grab of the article with text reading: Here’s how Canada can target America’s exposed backside: cut off its toilet paper Doug Saunders Doug Saunders Published March 6, 2025 For Subscribers This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information may no longer be current. 118 Comments Share Save for later Give this article Listen to this article Learn more about audio 04:07 1x Let me propose that we respond to President Donald Trump and his supporters in a more direct fashion: by wiping them out. No, not with violent force, or vain attempts at economic annihilation, but in a way that is more, shall we say, fundamental. It would be shockingly easy to empty America’s store shelves of toilet paper. A weeks-long bog-roll panic could be provoked, right now, with only a few words from a Canadian leader. The tissue of lies behind the trade war would be wiped away, exposing the backside of Mr. Trump’s bizarre trade claims in a way that would be far more noticeable than any retaliatory tariff. It’s a childish and, in the long term, only a symbolic proposal. But behind it is a more serious multi-ply argument about how trading nations should best respond to rising waves of protectionism and hostile nationalism without shooting themselves in the foot or triggering a global spiral of economic isolationism that would make life worse for everyone. Last month my colleague Sean Silcoff spoke to the head of Mississauga-based Kruger Products Inc., which makes leading toilet-paper brands Cashmere, White Swan and Purex, among others. He warned that a 25-per-cent tariff could provoke an American loo-roll panic all by itself. “If you have a supply disruption or unavailability because of tariffs in the U.S., you’ll have empty shelves and it will be front-page news because it will have a direct, immediate impact on the consumer,” Kruger CEO Dino Bianco said. “Whether you’re a red or blue state, you still use toilet paper, and if you can’t buy it at your local..
August 28, 2026 at 2:12 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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a new paper that looks really cool!

Muñoz-Sánchez et al. 2026. “High-Throughput DNA Barcoding Reveals Multi-Trophic Networks of Plants, Leafminers & Parasitoids in a Tropical Dry Forest.” Molecular Ecology Resources 26, no. 6: e70183.

doi.org/10.1111/1755...
Figure 3 multipanel from paper: FIGURE 3 Open in figure viewer PowerPoint Structure and modular organization of the leafminer–host plant interaction network. (a) Bipartite network linking leafminer BINs (left) to host plant taxa (right). Leafminers are grouped by insect order (Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera; colour-coded blocks), and host plants are shown at the family or morphospecies level (Indet). Edges represent observed interactions. Coloured stars highlight host plant taxa identified as influential by Random Forest analyses. (b) Variable importance of the most influential taxa shaping network modular structure, estimated as Mean Decrease Gini from Random Forest classification of modules. Colours indicate relative importance values. (c) Module composition and interaction structure inferred from the QuanBiMo algorithm, showing the assignment of taxa to modules and the distribution of interaction strengths across modules (module numbers indicated). (d) Gini-weighted PCA biplot of the most influential taxa. Points represent taxa coloured by module membership, and arrows indicate taxa with the highest Gini importance, illustrating gradients of interaction influence structuring the plant–leafminer network.
August 27, 2026 at 5:32 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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How many insect species & why it matters.

An interview with @jonathanmccrea.bsky.social on RTE Ireland’s #Futureproof about that very topic via our recent @pnas.org paper about old estimates that need to be raised!

doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

(@ 15 min)

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/f...
Collage of three images associated with the paper : top on is a strangler fig in ACG rainforest, bottom left is a Malaise trap in ACG cloud forest and bottom right is an ACG microgasteine wasp
August 25, 2026 at 1:33 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
A young newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) (an eft) takes its first steps out and away from its natal beaver pond in the Ottawa Valley this weekend.
Photo of a young salamander (Notophthalmus viridescens) (an eft) red with circled spots on the side of its body crossing a wet dark road
August 24, 2026 at 11:01 AM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
Hardly seems possible that ten years have passed since seeing the @thetragicallyhip.bsky.social for the last time in Hamilton and then, with so much of Canada, watching together on August 20 2016 in Market Square @guelph.ca .
image of screen set up in downtown guelph to watch the final concert of the Tragically Hip on August 20, 2016 Guelph gathers to watch the final concert of the Tragically Hip on August 20, 2016 August 16 2016 - the Tragically Hip in Hamilton Ontario August 16 2016 - the Tragically Hip in Hamilton Ontario
August 20, 2026 at 9:28 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
Kind of cool to see this paper come out on the week marking the start of the 18th year of consecutive weekly GigaPan panoramic photographs in the #DairyBush.

www.gigapan.com/gigapans/239...
the 879th weekly Dairy Bush GigaPan Panorama - next week marks the start of the 18th year of consectively weekly photographs.
August 20, 2026 at 8:16 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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A piece in this week's @science.org "In Other Journals" section by Sacha Vignieri about our species number paper

"So many more"

doi.org/10.1126/scie...

@gdfcf.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
text reads: Insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth, with recent estimates of around 6 million species. Estimating this number, however, is challenging because new species are identified so regularly that taxonomists often differentiate them with DNA barcodes rather than names. Colwell et al. used this DNA barcoding approach, in conjunction with statistical richness analyses, to estimate the total number of species globally from intensive sampling within Costa Rica, including a hyperdiverse group of parasitoid wasps. They estimated that there are at least 14 to 20 million insect species on the planet, two to three times more than currently thought. Further, they note this is a lower bound: The top end of their prediction reaches 30 million.
August 20, 2026 at 7:59 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Arthropod spp. are hidden in leaf-litter plant tissue & we needed a way to see them.

Conclusion?

DNA metabarcoding works & differences are significant!
Congrats @anibalhcastillo.bsky.social, @shoshanahjacobs.ca, @dirch3.bsky.social!

Watch Anibal's feed for more!

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

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Images associated with the paper. Starting on the right top with the lead author, Anibal Castillo. Underneath him is the leaf litter of the Dairy Bush in the Fall. In the middle top is a view from the field towards the forest in the early fall. These were the areas sampled. In the middle left is a temperature plot through several years of the different heat environments of forest and field. In the middle right is a view of within the forest near sampling areas in late summer. In the middle bottom left is a Google Earth view of the sampling areas and how close they are. In the middle bottom is an NMDS plot illustrating how different the communities are (forest and field leaf litter dozens of meters apart. On the left hand side is a view of the article pdf along with a QR code that takes you to the article.
August 20, 2026 at 7:10 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
Davey Hearn segment on Closer Look Out of the Office with @salgentile.bsky.social and Seth Meyers

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H...

youtu.be/bto70TRCLfo?...
image of Olympian and World Champion whitewater slalom C1 paddler Davey Hearn paddling a yellow boat near downstream gates
August 20, 2026 at 1:37 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Invertebrate of the year 2026 Winner crowned……

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….the leaf sheep, Costasiella kuroshimae

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Image of invertebrates for Invert of Year in the Guardian. Image credit Petra Korlevic Photo of the leaf sheep in the waters off Japan photo Marli Wakeling
August 20, 2026 at 1:14 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Take a second 2 participate in an auditory study of biodiversity & nature perception by @biodiful.bsky.social

Available in Spanish, French or English

You will hear short recordings from tropical forests across Costa Rica. Choose the 1 you prefer the most.

www.biodiful.org#/soundscapes...
screen grab of project website reading: Voices of the Tropical Forest Welcome, and thank you for taking part in our survey! This survey aims to evaluate people’s preference for tropical forests natural acoustic environments (soundscapes). We will present you with a series of short (5 seconds) recordings from forests across Costa Rica. For each pair, simply choose the one you prefer the most. The questionnaire will take about 5 minutes to complete. At the end, you will be asked to answer a few additional questions. - The recordings were made in tropical forests in Costa Rica (hundreds of locations!). They consist of background sounds (sometimes quite loud) and foreground sounds, including birds, insects, other animals, and occasionally human activities. - Please fill out this survey on a device with good audio quality and/or ideally wearing headphones. - The recordings may be of variable loudness, we recommend starting on a lower volume and turning up the level as appropriate. - Only adults can be included in this study (18+ years old) - The survey is open till October 30, 2026 and is also available in French and Spanish.
August 12, 2026 at 3:45 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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All the data is available here: doi.org/10.5683/SP3/...

@gdfcf.bsky.social
@rpuschen.bsky.social

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Image from ACG forests at ~1000m on Volcan Cacao - home to incredible insect diversity
August 10, 2026 at 2:07 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Thanks to all co-authors, in particular José A. Hernández Ugalde from CONAGEBio, & all associated with ACG & GDFCF – the hybrid association formed to aid with the development, protection, & sustainability of ACG.

doi.org/10.1139/gen-...

@gdfcf.bsky.social
@rpuschen.bsky.social
August 10, 2026 at 2:05 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Nearly 4 million records and 152 891 species. That’s a lot! (and there’s more to be found!)

doi.org/10.1139/gen-...

@gdfcf.bsky.social
@rpuschen.bsky.social
August 10, 2026 at 2:03 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Were there patterns in what groups we found?

🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰A LOT OF FLIES 🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰

(and also loads of Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Hemiptera).

doi.org/10.1139/gen-...

@gdfcf.bsky.social
@rpuschen.bsky.social
Figure S2. Frequency of BINs for most Orders and Families collected across in 28 localities from 2017 to 2023, using Malaise traps. Figure S2. Frequency of BINs for most Orders and Families collected across in 28 localities from 2017 to 2023, using Malaise traps. image of the parasitoid tachind fly Santarosamyia woodrum (female paratype) from Part of: Fleming AJ, Smith MA, Hallwachs W, Janzen D (2025) A new genus and a new species in the tribe Eryciini (Diptera, Tachinidae) from Area de Conservación Guanacaste in north-western Costa Rica. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e161853. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e161853
August 10, 2026 at 2:02 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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After nearly 4 million records, we found extremely high turnover. Most species were exclusive to a single region & each life zone harbors unique assemblages, strongly associated with temperature and precipitation

doi.org/10.1139/gen-...

@gdfcf.bsky.social
@rpuschen.bsky.social
Figure S9. A comparison of betadiversity decay when calculated as Bray Curtis (A, C, E) dissimilarity where points are coloured by the difference in mean annual temperature (A), precipitation (C) or elevation (E) from the 28 Costa Rican locations. Irrespective of index, the sites that are farther apart geographically and by some combination of annual temperature, precipitation or elevation are the most dissimilar. Figure S6. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination (NMDS) based on the Bray–Curtis coefficient of community dissimilarity calculated from the 28 localities by 152 891 BIN incidence matrix of Costa Rica insects. Two of the significant vectors here (mean temperature, mean annual precipitation) were derived from the 30 arc-second (1km) resolution of future bioclimatic variables from the ACCESS-ESM1-5 climate model under the SSP5-8.5 emissions scenario for the 2021-2040 period in WorldClim version 2.1. Consensus tree of localities derived from 100 bootstrap replicates, using UPGMA based on Jaccard’s distance.,
August 10, 2026 at 1:57 PM
alexsmithants.bsky.social
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Only 3.6% of species we recovered were linked to formal names and so we used DNA barcode derived ‘BINs’ as species proxies.

doi.org/10.1139/gen-...

@gdfcf.bsky.social
@rpuschen.bsky.social
image of a staphylinid beetle with a staphylinid DNA barcode behind it image of a micrograstrine wasp with a microgastrine wasp dna barcode behind it
August 10, 2026 at 1:55 PM