Honestly shocked at the lack of outrage from the scientific community at the murder of Iranian nuclear scientists. Aside from the fact that these killings are absolutely atrocious and unjustifiable, we also live in a time where we desperately need MORE nuclear scientists, not less!
Close-up photo of a small parasitic wasp mounted on a white triangular platform. The wasp has a shiny black body with a large, bulbous, and glossy abdomen featuring translucent golden-brown areas. Its wings are transparent with visible venation and are folded over its back. The legs are yellowish-brown, and the antennae are long, segmented, and appear in the inset for detailed view. A scale bar in the lower right corner indicates 250 micrometers.
A new ceraphronid wasp species is described in a review of the subgenus Larsoceraphron. Find out more about it here: doi.org/10.3897/jhr....
#taxonomy #wasps #Hymenoptera @leibnizlib.bsky.social
The humanitarian ship Freedom Flotilla is braving danger to deliver urgent aid to Gaza. Those aboard the ship are braver than any one of us here in the west.
🔴 I demand safe passage for the ship
🔴 I demand an end to the blockade and justice for Gaza
#FreedomFlotilla #SafePassageNow #BreakTheSiege
New article on Sapygidae finally splits the common and widely distributed species Sapyga quinquepunctata into three (possibly four) distinct species, based on morphological and molecular data.
doi.org/10.1080/0939...
What happens when you put a dryinid wasp and a leafhopper together in a collecting tube? Well, let's just say it doesn't end very well for the leafhopper
We had an assignment at our practical today and it was honestly pretty depressing to see how many students would blindly rely on ChatGPT to answer the questions, despite the fact that it was (very obviously!) feeding them wrong information.
#NewSpecies!
New wasp from #thailand just stung us:
Chelonastichus hanssoni
Treatment: treatment.plazi.org/id/06098C96-...
Publication: doi.org/10.3897/jhr....
#JournalOfHymenopteraResearch #ChelonastichusHanssoni
#FAIRdata
#biology #ecology #biodiversity #nature #conservation #entomology #wasps
For me it's kind of a neutral thing ig. It has its downsides for sure, but at the same time I can't imagine how boring my life would be if I didn't have my hyperfixations.
Laatst nog een goed artikel uitgekomen over de (negatieve) invloed die honingbijen hebben op wilde bijen: www.cell.com/current-biol...
En natuurlijk is het ook nooit een ecoloog of entomoloog die aan het woord komt, maar een imker 🫤
I recently reared Platycleis albopunctata from very similar looking eggs, so my guess would also be Orthoptera.
"Но ни одна планета не ждет нас так, как эта, планета дорогая по имени Земля."
"But not one of the planets is waiting for us, as this precious planet named the Earth."
From the Soviet space song "14 Minutes Until Start".
A small, figitid wasp on the window of the doors of a train.
The same wasp, now caught in a collecting tube.
Unexpected passenger in the train today. Fortunately I never leave home without my collecting tubes!
An all metallic wasp with protruding ovipositor. The ground color of the head and mesosoma is (dark) blue, with greenish and reddish highlights, especially dorsally. The legs have a purple sheen to them. The metasoma is flattened and generally reddish.
Chrysis germari, a widely distributed European species but very rare in the Netherlands, restricted only to South Limburg. The host is probably Miscophus bicolor, though the very large vespid wasp Euodynerus dantici has also been reported as a possible host.
Macro image of a metallic blue jumping bristletail on sand in Joshua Tree National Park
Jumping bristletails (order Archaeognatha) are small, wingless insects, covered in fine scales, like butterfly wings. They often live in damp places, but also in the desert, usually under rocks. Most are tan or grey, often with subtle metallic colors - but this is the most beautiful one I've seen.
Pretty sure it's Lagynodes acuticornis.
Anachrysis arabica, a cuckoo wasp from the Arabian Peninsula. I described this beautiful wasp in 2023, together with Prof. Ahmed Soliman.
Specimen deposited in the collection of Naturalis.
Pleasantly surprised to have found Microterys nederlandicus, a species described from the Netherlands in 2022, in a park close to where I live! So far, this species is known only from three collecting localities, all within the Netherlands.
A lateral image of a pinned wasp in the family Plumariidae.
I've been on Bluesky for a while now, but this is my first post! Here's an image of an uncommon family of wasps from South America, Plumariidae. This is a Plumaris malaris male. Science knows NOTHING about the biology of this group and only a few females have ever been found!
I was featured in the documentary "Natuurlijk Kapitaal - Drinkwater", a film which discusses the duality of the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen as part of the water purification process and as a nature reserve. I had the opportunity to show some of the cool wasps in the area!
As other people have said before, a scelionid. You can get it to subfamily/genus with Masner (1980) doi.org/10.4039/entm...
Not only did @jilloberski.bsky.social correctly guess mutillid, she provided a link to an image of the species!
Here's an image of my specimen. It is a male of the aptly named Psammotherma flabellata, collected in South Africa.
#NaturalHistoryCollections
#FocusStacking
#MutillidMonday
Another devastating wildfire is raging, this time in the US. What will be the response from the Western governments? More subsidies for fossil fuels, of course!
Was feeling very tired yesterday and went to bed early, at 8 PM, thinking I could get a good night's rest.
...so anyway I woke up at 2:30 AM and could not get any sleep after that.
Found a flat wasp (presumably Laelius pedatus) in the home we are staying at during Christmas. I was very eager to see if I could rear it, but unfortunately it managed to escape the cup I temporarily put it in within minutes :(.
A macro photo of a brilliantly metallic green wasp with black eyes, atop a rock. The wasp's armored exoskeleton is textured all over with small pits.
Cuckoo wasp (family Chrysididae), Mojave Desert. These small (this one was 7-9 mm) wasps don't sting, and parasitize ground-nesting bees or wasps. If they're caught invading a burrow, they curl up like pillbugs; the host's sting can't pierce their armor, so they get thrown out and fly off safely. 🐙🌿
Ocelli (simple eyes) of a small wasp (approx. 2-2.5mm) probably from the family Pteromalidae, a superfamily of chalcid wasps. In many flying insects, the ocelli are usually located between the two compound eyes.
Reached 40.000 identifications on iNaturalist before the year's end 🥳
Had a great time at the first session of this year's Hymathon! Lot's of interesting talks and fun activities, thank you very much @parasitoidrex.bsky.social for hosting! I look forward to attending some of the upcoming sessions.
If you don't have access, please feel free to DM me your email address and I will send you a pdf copy of the paper.