To commemorate my trip to #EntSoc2025 my sister made this for me

--species are parasitoids of beetle, bee, or wasp larvae. Others seek out spider egg sacs, or hop aboard female spiders with the intent to parasitize the egg sacs when the spiders construct them. Mantispid larvae then chew through the silk and live inside, eating spider eggs. #inverts #insects

Best way I can think of putting it: You know the start to Stand by Me? www.youtube.com/watch?v=einn... 🎶"When the night has come And the land is dark And the moon is the only light we'll see"🎶 That's kinda the vibes here. Pretty fitting, "moon mili" was always there, just waiting for us to find!❤️

Dang, A+ name! 🤩 Extra context (as they are underselling it): A 霽月/Jìyuè moon, as in the idiom 光風霽月, has this great sense of tranquility & hope to it, a sign that the intense storm is finally gone & the night is calm again, where you let out that breath you didn't know you were holding in. [🧵]

Hell yeah, bless us, moon millipede.

I HAVE to highlight the most poetic etymology section I've ever read for a millipede: "Jiyue (Chinese spelling) alludes to the bright white appearance when the animal emerges from the leaf mold, like the moon appearing from behind a dark rain cloud." Source: zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1280...

Hey I started a new section of my website called Derek's Tech Corner, come check it out: www.derekhennen.com/derekstechco.... It's where I'll share various software and other tech tools for cool kids that will save you time--so that you can go look for more bugs.

I've seen a lot of truly beautiful photos of chalcids in my day, but these ones of Metapelma westwoodi (Metapelmatidae) might just be my favorite www.flickr.com/photos/dhobe...

Not only did I get to see a gorgeous old friend roaming the familiar boardwalk again this afternoon, but I saw her ovipositing into something in the wood, for the first time! Hope to see her next generation, next year 🖤 Uropelma formosum, eupelmid wasp. Mope. 🧪

Urodid moth cocoon, Costa Rica. The basket hangs by a thread (possibly to discourage ants) and the structure may allow rain to drain and/or prevent mold. But it doesn't stop parasites - I think the seed-like ovals are cocoons of parasitic flies or wasps, indicating the moth pupa's likely fate. 🐙🌿

Graduate student @kylethieringer.com and I wrote a dispatch about a new @currentbiology.bsky.social paper (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) describing a proprioceptive neural circuit that helps the fly visual system identify (and ignore) its own legs. authors.elsevier.com/a/1lYLj3QW8S...

I enjoy recognizing behaviors supposedly typical of bees in some of their ancestors, the wasps. A digger or thread-waisted wasp, Ammophila heydeni (Sphecidae), still sleeping shortly after dawn clinging to a twig with its mandibles, as commonly done by many solitary bees sporting strong mandibles.

Neat little wasp with muscular hind legs :) Although I see Chalcidoidea almost daily, this was only my second Chalcididae. IV.2024 Haltichella rufipes, 4mm, a larval parasite of a diverse set of hosts: Tortricidae-moths, death-watch and darkling beetles #hymenoptera #parasitoidwasp #macrophotography

The sheer elegance of wasps! Here’s a Spathius that arrived to a blacklight sheet in west Texas.

Tree crickets build megaphones, called "baffles", by chewing holes in leaves to attract mates. For my PhD, I am studying the evolution of baffling. Lil bit of phylogenetics, lil bit of citizen science. Follow the link to my new project on @inaturalist.bsky.social www.inaturalist.org/projects/baf...

A beautiful Dusmetia pulex parasitoid wasp of the Encyrtidae found in meadow at Great Dixter this morning. #UKWildlife #wasps #HighWeald #Encyrtidae

#NewSpecies New parasitoid wasp from #southkorea just flew in: Lipolexis longipetiolata Treatment: treatment.plazi.org/id/9A82AD3B-... Publication: doi.org/10.3897/zook... #ZooKeys #LipolexisLongipetiolata #FAIRdata #OA #biology #taxonomy #nature #entomology #insects #hymenoptera #wasps #parasite

Pheidole militicida desert big-headed ant sisters. Major workers (left) and minor workers are set on different developmental trajectories by environmental stimuli as larvae, and mature to perform different roles in the colony. Arizona.

Keep stories like this in mind before you publicize locations of sought-after invertebrates on social media and sites like iNaturalist.

Our false head work is out! By analysing ~1000 #butterflies, we found many traits at posterior end of hindwings evolved correlatedly, likely forming a trait complex w/adaptive function to dupe predators into thinking these traits together are actual head!! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

It Beetle

Cotton ball with legs glued onto it morphology

If you plant a mountain mint/Pycnanthemum in an area where they are native, you will get the weirdest bees and wasps you have ever seen, and they will ignore you.

Thread Our new paper shows aquatic insects shrink & develop faster as water warms. That weakens their role in ecosystems, hurt by global insect decline. Why shrink? Larvae can’t get enough O2. @ebdonana.bsky.social @csic.es @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social @katharinehayhoe.com 📄 doi.org/10.1111/een....

Six skin beetle species of the subfamily Attageninae were reported for the first time from Saudi Arabia. Find out more here: doi.org/10.3897/zook... #taxonomy #beetles #entomology

@galling.bsky.social Artichoke gall- very pretty! Seen today in Norfolk #galls

The Mantidfly Union™ has informed me that they have noticed a lack of my cooperation recently so I should remedy that. 🫥 Beautiful #Mantidfly, #Leptomantispa pulchella, a tiny (15mm long) friend. #fujifilm X-S10, #Laowa 65mm #Macro #MacroPhotography #photography #Invertebrates #insects

Studying single-cell biodiversity feels like going back in time 200 years. No one has any idea what's going on (in the best possible way). BASICS about life are still being discovered. If you'd like to learn more, & see more videos, check out the study here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Every so often during the past couple of years, I would come across this springtail in my Malaise trap samples and think "I should really try to image this". Well, my friends, today was the day. #Collembola #FocusStacking #NaturalHistoryCollections #NotAI #SpottyMcSpotface

Oh, yeah, adults of this species are loooooong 👀 #Invertebrates

🧪 BREAKING (good news): Senate subcommittee says NO! to Trump's proposed slashes to NASA & NSF funding. Today, the subcommittee said to keep NASA + NSF funding at $33.9 billion, the same as in FY24. See 7:15 below. Full Senate appropriations committee meets tomorrow about it. 🧵 1/3

The thing about entomology is, there are always weirder bugs than anything you could imagine on your own. Here's Cysteodemus wislizeni, a blister beetle from west Texas.

A marble oak gall getting swarmed by chalcid wasps, possibly Torymus sp. Some of them are already attempting to lay eggs in the gall. :) #wasps #entomology #insects

New fav wasp, just look at this wasp. Big head, small body, spiky brows, toddle-walk... 10/10 The 6 y/o called this a chibi wasp, I think it's genus Cratomus. Found in my bathroom.

We’ve been on a deep dive in the museum archives this week and you would not believe the letterhead game some of these gentlemen had

🚨BREAKING🚨COOL SHREW FOUND insideecology.com/2025/07/03/o...

You want to collect insects (and maybe other arthropods) for reference genome sequencing, but don't want to spend a fortune on dry ice shipping! All you gotta do is SQUISH. THAT. BUG! More details in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Belleza en estado puro...

Pseudomethoca velvet ants have such chonky bulldog heads and they're kinda my favorite (don't tell Ephuta) ♥️

Finished! I made a husband for my anglerfish model. It's air dry clay so he's a bit clunky haha but I think he's cute. #sciart #deepsea #anglerfish #fish

Found insect art at the Kunsthaus Zürich

Still a bit of work to do but my Pseudoscorpion guide is coming along. Maps are just about done (these show pre (yellow) and post (red) 2000 records) but I will need to revisit museum specimens to re-photograph or make detailed drawings.

RT for anyone who might want to know more about free flashcard software for memorizing things Such as bug names

It’s always a pleasure to be visited by Ledra aurita. An unusual looking bug, but somehow rather cute. #bugs #WildlifeGardening #ento #UKwildlife

I found this beauty dead by the road. It is Amplypterus panopus, one of the largest sphingids in HK. As a male, it only has a wingspan of 13cm, but females can reach 17cm. As it likely lived a long life, the moth is a bit battered and lost much of its striking colours. #teammoth #inverts

Found another Carabidae (Ground Beetle) and thought, might as well check it for mites. I’m trying to rear some out to see what they grow into. Did not expect to find a whole Aphaenogaster ant latched onto its leg with its mandibles. 🪲🪳 #entomology 🌿

My T. stirmi spiderling has grown up so fast. She's absolutely gorgeous with the way the setae layer all over her cuticle, and the way her eyes contrast. Taking a close look at spiders instead of seeing them as a "nebulous ball of legs and fur" can really shift your perspective. #Invert 🪲🪳

i'm going to be vulnerable here and share my most criminal curation job ever. in my defense how else would you mount the detached head capsule of a 1mm long beetle