a beetle glued to a point. Its head points left, with sausage-like antennae attached to large shielding scapes. The body is punctate, dark brown, and the elytra have gigantic, ear-like rounded bulges, with a golden fringe of setae along their inner edge (handles, we believe, for the ants to grab).

It is a unique pleasure to have someone send you pictures of a species you described. It's like a report that one of your kids is doing all right. This beauty is Orectoscelis westwoodi, a myrmecophile (probably with Pheidole) described back in 2005 from Queensland, AU. (photo by Jan Pražák)

The collections at @nhm-london.bsky.social are full of glorious specimens esp the Flies. But they also come with lots of extra information

Roger Crosskey wrote down his feelings 50 years ago about this species complex - his frustration evident

@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Hong Kong

Historical illustration titled "Histoire naturelle des fourmis," depicting detailed, labeled anatomical drawings of various ant species and body parts. The image shows ants in different postures, with some winged, highlighting segmented bodies, antennae, legs, and mandibles. Close-up views of specific head and mouthparts emphasize structural features. The insect drawings are arranged in figures 56 to 60, each with multiple components marked by letters for study. The illustration combines detailed coloration and line work typical of 19th-century natural history documentation, focusing on the morphology and taxonomy of ants, an arthropod group related to Arachnida by classification context.

🕸️ Histoire naturelle des fourmis, .
Paris, De l'impr. de Crapelet, 1802..

[Source]

Ishakidris ascitaspis

Pleased to share our latest contribution to knowledge on West Indian Staphylinidae in The Coleopterists Bulletin!
The first modern revision of West Indian Belonuchus in 82 years — 7 new species, 2 synonymies, lectotypes, illustrated keys + maps. 🌴 🪲
Read more & find paper here: tinyurl.com/3f646nnu

Recent fieldwork in Sayap Substation, Sabah, Malaysia

A revision of the rare Strumigenys mnemosyne (Formicidae; Myrmicinae) group using micro-CT scanning, with the description of three new species, and the virtual repair of a broken paratype The ant genus Strumigenys is both species rich, with over 800 species described, and morphologically diverse. The Strumigenys mnemosyne species group, a collection of small and infrequently collected ...

My newest paper, we used traditional microscopy combined with micro-CT scanning to revise the Strumigeny mnemosyne group. Three new Strumigenys species are described from Asia as well as virtually repair a broken paratype specimen using micro-CT derived 3D models.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Photograph of a metallic blue/green beetle with a very spider-like body, a huge fake "abdomen" that is swollen and dented with even pits over its bulbous surface. It is otherwise ant-like, standing on a pure white stylized background.

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.

New publication! Review of Tetramopria (Diapriidae) of E Palaearctic - mating behaviour and interactions with host ants. with Ryoji Kawai and Seonwoo Yoon. Free download:
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Mushizuka at Kan'ei-ji Temple A Buddhist temple to honor insects that died for science.

Only today I learned about the shrine in Tokyo to insects killed for science.

More photos from South Korea fieldwork, lovely to be back in a temperate environment collecting ants

Sampling ants in South Korea this month

A chronogram of the ant tribe Myrmicini, showing the disparity of divergence dates between alternate placements of the fossil species †Manica andrannae

🐜🐜🐜Fans of Myrmicinae! New paper in Syst Biol in collaboration with C. Rabeling🐜🐜🐜

doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

Black and red ant-like beetle with long sweeping antennae

Shot of the creature's elytra from the side, showing two fin-like spines where an ant's thorax would be

The creature and spines in silhouette

A creature which would like to be perceived as a Crematogaster ant, complete with "thorax" spines (it longhorn beetle).

The Monks Wood Wilderness is now in its 64th year of natural colonisation, eg. natural woodland creation. In 1961 this was a 4 ha barley field next to a larger wood, left to see what happened. No management, no planting. The wood expanded by itself, with the help of birds dispersing seeds.

Screenshot from the cover page of the paper

A map of the world showing fly migration study locations and estimated routes

A close up photo of Eristalinus taeniops the stripey eyed hoverfly on a yellow flower in Cyprus

A close up photo of the locust blowfly Stomorhina lunata on a rock. My favourite fly

It's published!
The largest research work I've ever undertaken:

Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important

Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz
1/x

A pinned specimen of an unidentified Ecuadorian fly with patterned wings, brown/golden body, and its signature feature, a curved ovipositor? (I think) that's twice as long as the body!

Going through accessions at QCAZ/Católica, and this crazy fly caught my eye! What the hell, fly-people?!

Our followers may be aware of the recent passing of Richard Fortey, a great palaeontologist and user of the Museum’s Library and Archives. A brilliant science communicator with a penchant for fungi and fungus gnats, his Dry Store Room No.1 was a classic. To us and many others, Richard was too.

A montage of images, including carrion beetles, attendees at an ID workshop and a close up of the ID keys.

Hey BlueSky 👋 Please excuse the lateness, but we have arrived!

We’re here to promote the recording of #CarrionBeetles in the UK and help with any of your ID queries. Please join the #CarrionClub and help us spread the word! 💀 🪲

We don't know much about these odd-looking Zasphinctus ants, except they seem to raid other ant nests, steal their larvae and eat them... Their narrow elongated bodies probably help them enter small galleries.

#ants #myrmecology non #armyants #fourmis #science

Large-tailed Nightjar fast asleep in the carpark to Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre of all places

Sorry, I wasn't looking out for them but I'm sure we had some. I have kept all beetles and other inverts from our Winklers.

Three and a half weeks collecting ants in Borneo rainforests for my PhD is now complete ✅️