A groundbreaking discovery from the Hollín formation in the province of Napo- Ecuador, gives an insight into Amazonian plant and arthropods biodiversity during the Cretaceous #Biodiversity #Ecuador www.nature.com/articles/s43...

How Did Hands Evolve? The Answer Is Behind You. (My story of some surprising evo-devo!) nyti.ms/42Cg8xH

Assistant Professor of Microbiology position available at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga apply.interfolio.com/172734

A Liverpool and a Man city fan (me and my daughter) are going to a Man United vs Everton game in a few hours. Who do we boo more?

Generating new names is not the same thing as understanding biodiversity. I appreciate the #NewSpecies hype, but a single-minded fixation on novelty devalues revisionary work, which is more difficult and often a lot more useful. #TaxonomyTuesday

Just submitted my first (single-spaced) 300 page manuscript. It took ~2 years of writing and I do hope a journal will publish it, despite its length. If you are one of the reviewers reading this, thank you.

Found myself in the Natural History Museum in St. Galen where they had fossil Eurypterids

Found a friend today in the Swiss Alps.

Found insect art at the Kunsthaus Zürich

I am here to report that it is a extremely easy to ignore all USA doom news the moment you leave the country

In the 1980s, many thought tuberculosis was on the path to elimination. In reality, more were dying from the disease than ever. The second article in our series on Tuberculosis: ourworldindata.org/the-end-of-t...

#LiteratureNotice Chatzimanolis & Brunke. Revisiting Phanolinopsis Scheerpeltz ( #Coleoptera: #Staphylinidae: #Xanthopygina), with an Updated Key and a #NewSpecies from Guatemala doi.org/10.1649/0010... #TheColeopteristsBulletin #Beetle #Beetles #RoveBeetles

New paper with Adam Brunke describing a new species of Phanolinopsis from Guatemala. Paper here: drive.google.com/file/d/1V20P...

I find #caterpillars more interesting than adult #moths and #butterflies. What do you think? Waved sphinx (Ceratomia undulosa) #entomology #insect #nature #photography

Thankful to the College of Arts and Sciences at UTC that hosted a writing retreat this week: providing a place to write away from your office, serving lunch and offering a modest stipend.

Finally officially published with page numbers and everything -- fun work with Adam Brunke during my sabbatical in Ottawa resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Let’s worry about the knots on the malaise trap next year he said. Well, next year is here and FML.

It must be the “sort all the specimens that accumulated over the academic year” season

Finding your resistance! www.cornellsun.com/article/2025...

I'm thrilled to announce that the Entomology department at the NHMLAC is hiring a full-time collections manager! 🪰🐜🕸️🦋 I'm biased, but the museum is a great place to work, and our department is full of fun, thoughtful people. Job description and information for applying are here: shorturl.at/iRqOB

I hope you love something beautiful and meaningless. For me, it's football. I don't care what it is for you, but I wish you a deep love for something that means nothing until you give it meaning through your attention.

That feeling (outrage?) when you pick up a book to help you navigate the increased divisions among people but by chapter 1 you realize you will have to update your fall lectures on Human Evolution.

A little over a month left of my time in Quito, and things are coming together. Here's one of my working drawers, freshly supplied with type labels. This is about a quarter of the new species I'll end up describing. Nice to see it reaching this stage!

I know the world is shit now, but the sage and thyme are blooming, I spent an hour pulling, and Liverpool won the PL, so I won’t complain today.

Spent last night doing an outreach black light event at the Wildflower Pilgrimage

As dismissals and program closures mount at agencies like the USDA-ARS, ripple effects will include more pests in fields, fewer pollinators, rising food costs, and more invasive species. Learn more in part one of a new series on impacts of cuts to federal funding for insect science. buff.ly/tzR2Ta7

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Great to see this published #rovebeetles #Staphylinidae link.springer.com/article/10.1...

This is a really lovely insect book. I can see someone designing a non majors insect class based on this. Very fun read.

National Science Foundation "is planning to lay off between a quarter and a half of its staff in the next two months," Politico reports. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

My department (Biology, Geology and Environmental Science) is searching for an Assistant Professor of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. Ad here: apply.interfolio.com/162625

The amount of time to make a figure like this -- just for sorting out species-- is ridiculous, yet the process is oddly satisfying.

Relative humidity 16% in the insect collection today. You feel your skin cracking as you enter the room…

I have been doing this professor thing for 16 years now and still, I cannot sleep well the night before the first day of classes.

It took some getting used to but now I find extremely comforting the plains of Nebraska

New paper with Adam Brunke on a phylogenomic analysis of Xanthopygina rove beetles with description of a new genus resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A cute little Phengodes beetle collected with a Malaise trap in town

This year I decided to give prizes for the two best collections for my undergraduate Entomology class. The first prize is the attached poster by the very talented Andi Kur, a graduate of our department.

Can’t wait to put this up in the lab. Not sure if Caitlin has a Bsky account — this is a poster I got at @entsocamerica.bsky.social from the Clemson student organization

Not a bad day to spend in the field, trying to help Lula Lake Lund Trust assess the survival of their Laricobius beetles

Coming back from @entsocamerica.bsky.social with a jar full of rove beetles from Panama! Celebrating the small things in life, I guess.

Want to hear the latest in xanthopygina rove beetle research? Come by my talk tomorrow, Tuesday at 2:20pm at 127A #entsoc24

Don’t know who is writing the ALT text description this morning at @entcollnet.bsky.social but they are killing it! Keep going!

I love how this app came to life the last week or so.