It’s a good day to talk about women scientists. Let’s also remember Margaret W. Rossiter, who died in August of this year. She coined the “Matilda Effect” (named after suffragist Matilda Gage), which describes bias against acknowledging women’s achievements.

#FlyFriday new revision of assassin-fly genus Acronyches Williston, 1908 (Asilidae: Leptogastrinae) with @ento-allan.bsky.social out - 4 new species from Central + South America - flies catch spiders in their web (see www.inaturalist.org/observations... doi doi.org/10.4289/0013... #asiloidflies

An eel donated to a natural history museum in 1873 had two ticks embedded in its skin, making it the first known instance of ticks parasitizing a fish. But it was only first documented this year, when a tick specialist identified the ticks and reported the case in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

🪰🐞🐝 There are roughly 212 holotypes in 10 insect orders from the Torrevillas collection that were used to describe new species, helped improve Philippine biodiversity knowledge, and advanced careers of entomologists across the globe: 🇺🇸🇦🇺🇧🇪🇬🇧🇨🇿🇳🇱🇵🇭🇩🇪🇭🇺🇮🇳🇮🇹🇯🇵🇸🇮🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pubs-online/...

Oxford’s Rafflesia Messaging Sparks Debate Over Representation, Scientific Credit, and Global South Visibility:

Poof! Not a magic trick:

🦟🐍

Leonard L. Co

#FlyFriday beautiful dark-colored assassin fly Diogmites nigripennis (Macquart, 1847) (Asilidae: Dasypogoninae) with wasp prey - collected at La Selva, Costa Rica in 2010 - 1 of 125 species of assassin flies known from this lowland rainforest habitat - n2t.net/ark:/65665/3... #asiloidflies

The end of an era: the Tree of Life Web Project is going dark after 3 decades. Anyone interested in communicating phylogeny online should read David's account of goals, history, and future. @bembidion.bsky.social subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...

#DAMA framework since 2014:

"Talking about #biodiversity without #taxonomy is like trying to build a puzzle without the pieces" Kate Evans works at the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre. In TETTRIs, she is leading the task of writing a blueprint for building taxonomic capacity.

New paper drop! 🚨 Led by my awesome postdoc @renamschweizer.bsky.social — we used genomics + museum DNA to explore the decline of Bombus franklini, a bee not seen in the wild since 2006 🐝 Now out in @PNASNews! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🌱 Help secure the future of the Biodiversity Heritage Library! 🙏 Your donation will keep biodiversity knowledge open, connected, and growing, and fund the dedicated staff who make it all possible. 📖 👩‍💻 🌱 🌏 🧪 🔗 Donate: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

@inaturalist.bsky.social www.inaturalist.org/observations...

The reviewer crisis: data from the journal Biological Invasions: "Reviewer acceptance rates dropped steadily over the past two decades. Early-career researchers had the highest acceptance rates, while senior scholars were least likely to accept review invitations." link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Have just read this impressive paper on the impact of #iNaturalist on biodiversity research. It makes fascinating reading. H/t to @rdmpage.bsky.social for sharing. academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biaf104/8185761 #HighlyRecommended

Extinction is such a heart-breaker:

#FlyFriday Apiocera pica Norris, 1936 (Apioceridae, USNMENT00832111) from Wandoo National Park, Western Australia collected in 2011 - more info here n2t.net/ark:/65665/3... #asiloidflies #USNMDiptera

Hi! We need lice for our diversity and adaptation project. Specifically, we need lice from zebras, camelids (camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, guanacos) & aardvarks. If you or someone you know might have lice, I'm happy to discuss our inclusive collaboration plans! sites.google.com/nhm.org/anop...

Yesterday was the 130th anniversary of the #ICZN, the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature. It was founded during the zoology congress in Leiden, organized by the then director the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Frederik Jentink.

Protecting California from New World Screwworm: 🪰 #Diptera #Calliphoridae

Take a hike: #MuirWoods #HalfMoonBay #MountDiablo

International shipments and museum loans: some helpful, aggravating notes from Chris on the ECN listserv that I'm leaving here for future reference.

#FlyFriday rarely collected mydas-fly species Agaperemius hirtus Hesse, 1969 (Mydidae: Syllegomydinae; NMNW-H42889) - species is only known from 3 specimens - male from southern Namibia - more detail at @gbif.org record www.gbif.org/occurrence/1... #asiloidflies

howler monkey’s babies #myiasis #Diptera #Oestridae

“Political and biological reality checks:”

If “they were to come back like they were, it would put 90% of the cattle people out of business,” #myiasis #parasite #agriculture #Diptera

South American bot fly #types (#Diptera: #Oestridae) in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, #Brazil:

Fruit fly males of Themara lunifera face off in Mount Makiling. #Diptera #Tephritidae 🪰🪵🌳 🎥: A. Dupo

📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

🧪 “There’s just no moths on that sheet.” @tessairini.bsky.social writes in the @theguardian.com about #InsectDecline with #DanJanzen, #WinnieHallwachs and the caterpillars of the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste #ACG in #CostaRica @gdfcf.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

🌳🧫Extinction of experience among ecologists:

Human-Insect Entanglement: Past, Present, and Future

Forensic Entomology class:

Thanks for this, BioLogos folk: "We are convinced that supporting science is not just compatible with Christian faith — it is one of its modern expressions. ... Let us affirm science not out of political loyalty, but because it serves life, health, and justice." biologos.org/post/an-open...

#FlyWeek spaceship-like Namibotites argentata Barraclough, 2000 (Ulidiidae, picture-winged fly) from #Namib Desert - specimen USNMENT01518331 - this fly lives exclusively on !nara plants (www.inaturalist.org/taxa/84992-A...) that are endemic to dunes of Namib Sand Sea

#WorldRobberFlyDay I will post a bit about Jason Londt's incredible revisionary work on fauna of Afrotropical Region - specifically southern Africa - Jason just passed away at age 82 he published between 1977 and 2020 - details in doi.org/10.3897/AfrI... #FlyWeek

Should be spike-collared walrus, but it’s an elephant bot fly: #Diptera #Oestridae 🪰

BHL's "New Future" is hopeful, but uncertain. We need your help: 🌱 Spread the word, far and wide 💚 Share the love #ILoveBHL 🤝 Donate to BHL: library.si.edu/donate/bhl-d... 💡 Contact us with your ideas and support: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-...

Jason Gilbert Hayden Londt (1.iv.1943-18.iv.2025) 🪰

No, dire wolves are not back. The IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group cautions that gene-edited grey wolves are not true dire wolves, nor do they offer direct conservation value. Read the full statement prepared by the IUCN CSG Taxonomic Review Task Force here: www.canids.org/resources/CS...

Hi Bluesky, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest #OpenAccess digital library of biodiversity literature and archives. We're a global consortium of 660 contributors who've made 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely accessible online. www.biodiversitylibrary.org

Just published! A vision of human–AI collaboration for enhanced biological collection curation and research. academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

#Frog 🐸 #Flies 🪰 academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...

This case is of a rodent bot fly Cuterebra infestation, not by horse bot maggot:

If you're not familiar with the WRBU it was formed by the US Army back in the 1960s to catalog and study mosquitoes from around the world but focused on locations like SE Asia with active theaters. Since then they've published hundreds of papers and amassed a collection of over 1 million mosquitoes.

"Here, we hope to redirect attention to suture zones, bring the advances from hybrid zone research to a comparative framework, and further expand our understanding of speciation and evolution." Read the Open Access paper here: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic... #EditorsChoice

Mount Makiling Forest Reserve: