tweet sequence of a not-quite-friend and artist i admire that i find myself thinking of constantly

Day 92 of posting a kitten until I can foster again

Charles contemplates her presence on social media

another one of my all-time favourite foster kitten pics

Today I saw a yellow ladybeetle with no spots! 💛

Wait ladybeetle and not ladybird or ladybug? Is that because it's a different colour or is it a different kinda beetle entirely?

I never heard ladybeetle before I'm very charmed

Great question! Many-Colored Asian Lady Beetles are a different species entirely! :D They come in all shades from a pale yellow to deep blood red and can have many spots or none at all, and can be identified by the "M" shape in black that you can see on this one's first segment!

They're incredibly invasive, too- you know how some places in the US complain of massive "ladybug swarms" in their windows in the summer? Well those are usually actually Lady Beetles! :D

Though the can look quite similar, ladybugs have no "M" marking, have fewer spots, are usually symmetrical, and don't invade houses- they are predatory and mostly just eat aphids.

And on top of being rather smelly and invading houses, Lady Beetles are very agressive and can bite!

They aren't venomous, though, and their mouths are too tiny to do significant damage :)

Hi! Ladybug and ladybeetle are in fact synonymous terms. The Asian Lady Beetle is a type of ladybug, and whichever species you think of when you say "ladybug" is also a lady beetle. The different terms are largely regional, with the UK using "ladybird" and the US using "ladybug" (I don't remember about other English speaking countries off the top of my head) and the scientific community mostly using "lady beetle" as it's the most specific and accurate.

The M-shaped markings can help identify the Asian Lady Beetle, but other ladybug species also have them, such as the Two Spotted Ladybug or the Painted Lady Beetle, both of which are native to North America and not invasive anywhere else as far as I know. Also, some Asian Lady Beetles don't have the M-shaped mark at all.

All ladybugs are capable of biting* and smelling bad. In fact, personally I've only ever been bitten** or swarmed or had my house invaded by Convergent Lady Beetles, another native North American species. (They're extremely numerous in my hometown, while the Asian Lady Beetle doesn't seem to show up at all!)

As a final note, it's very likely that when you think "ladybug" you think of the Seven Spotted Ladybug, which is kind of the most iconic well-known platonic ideal of a ladybeetle. It's worth knowing that those are ALSO INVASIVE in North America--to a lesser extent than the Asian Lady Beetle, but I'd argue more insidiously, because they are now inextricably tied to this "ladybug vs lady beetle" misinformation. I've seen so many people who believe that Seven Spots are the only "real" ladybug, or even that they're endangered. They're doing fine; the famously endangered "lost ladybug" species is the Nine Spotted Ladybug,*** whom the invasive Seven Spot and Asian ladybugs have largely outcompeted.

your cat was an honor to see in the window

Day 91 of posting a kitten until I can foster again

POV: you're a cat toy

lmaooo people know they're wrong when they post vegan hate and turn off replies/comments

Vegans as a whole forgot one very important detail: I have never even casually researched this topic in my life and have no interest in learning anything about it from someone who has.

#reblogs off because vegans may genuinely share any one of the hundreds of peer reviewed papers proving that I am wrong

Vegans are illogical for understanding that even if we were to grant the premise that plants are alive and feel pain too, that would still make veganism the ethical choice, because it would cause the least harm - what what?

Day 90 of posting a kitten until I can foster again

When there were still four of them 🧡

Juno and Judith were my first losses 💔 Thankfully Jaxx and Jane survived ❤️

Anytime I see someone hating on s7 Buffy, istg this is what it sounds like:

"Oh no, this woman is suddenly confident and unapologetic about her area of expertise and no longer bases her personal life on others' approval!"

S7 Buffy, they could never make me hate you.

in light of billie eilish’s “hot take” about veganism, I’d just like to say I am so sick and tired of non-indigenous people using our communities and practices as an excuse, to hide behind their own shame when really they don’t give a shit about indigenous peoples. they don’t talk about us in any other aspect besides this one and it’s only to cover their own backs. indigenous communities that have to hunt for their own food for survival is very different than going into a supermarket and buying packaged meat. these communities have quotas, they use every part of the animal, and they are responsible for taking care of most of our ecosystem. any good, intersectional vegan knows this and understands that it would be very colonial of them to go into these spaces and try and change that. saying this, there are a lot of indigenous people who are vegans and they are largely ignored because it doesn’t fit their narrative of the “noble savage” which is also a racist view of indigenous people.

Day 89 of posting a kitten until I can foster again

Beans 🫘🫘🫘

You can absolutely love animals while choosing to eat them… So long as you define love as just a vaguely positive feeling towards someone that doesn’t require you to act in their best interests or even care if they live or die.