Normalize quote-posting your own post because you think more people should see a nice image of a cool insect.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#FocusStacking

Left latero-frontal view of a metallic yellowish-green scarab on a white background. This species, Phanaeus demon, has a large backward curving horn coming off the top of its head. It also has a pair of large, inwardly curving, apically truncate processes extending dorsally from the back of its pronotum. It's pretty badass.

I finished my mini curation project on the tribe Phanaeini in our collection. We have specimens representing five genera and ~40 species.

This is a male of Phanaeus demon, from Nicaragua.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CollectionCorner
#FocusStacking
#Scarabaeidae
#NotAWaspButStillCool

Frontal view of a dark scarab beetle against a dark grey background. The beetle's integument is shiny black, with deep metallic purple color on the sides of the pronotum. The pronotum is expanded at the back corners and there are four additional short, stout spine like protuberances. This male has a large, backwardly curving horn extending from the front of its face.

The last thing you see...if you are a pile of 💩💩.

[Probably, if you are on the ground in s. AZ or Mexico]

I've been curating our Phanaeus dung beetles the past couple of days. This is P. quadridens. Because of its four dens.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CuratorsCorner
#FocusStacking
#Scarabaeidae

Two pictures: the left shows a tray with foam holding a rainbow scarab (Phanaeus difformis), a square image stage with black background, a dome diffuser, a rectangular yellow base piece, and optional white or grey backgrounds for the stage. All the pieces snap together with small neodymium magnets. The image on the right shows the same stuff except the foam tray and specimen. The stage, base piece, and diffuser are all rotated to show the magnets on their undersides. The yellow base piece has a brass bushing so it can be easily attached to a standard 1/4" bolt on a tripod or a copy stand for imaging. Both images have a textured white background.

FYI, here's the specimen & my staging equipment (not incl. the tray with foam).

• can use a white, grey, or black background as needed
• 3D printed diffuser
• stage snaps on yellow base w/magnets
• base has 1/4 20 bushing

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CollectionCorner
#FocusStacking
#3DPrinting

Quarter-profile (-ish) view of a rainbow scarab (Phanaeus difformis) against a black background. The elytra are metallic purplish, the pronotum is metallic greeenish, and the head and horn are black with subtle purplish tints. The back corners of the pronotum are produced into small dorsals extensions, giving it a decidedly three horned appearance. The lamellate antennal clubs are orangish-brown. It is a lovely beetle (as far as beetles go).

Rainbow triceratops*

*scarab. Phanaeus difformis collected in Texas, in 2002.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CollectionCorner
#FocusStacking
#Scarabaeidae
#Coleoptera
#WIRC

Image of a 3D printed curation kit card, printed in red filament and sitting on a textured white background. The kit includes a larval forceps, pinning block, and the parts to assemble a box to hold insect pins and a specimen manipulator, to hold and maneuver a specimen on a microscope stage.

Whelp, Everything is Fine™️ in the world...

...but at least I was able to successfully print this model. It just needs a few tweaks to the sprues and it's done.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CurationCorner
#CurationForKids
#3DPrinting

Image is of a 3D file rendering, showing several pieces of curation equipment laid out as a kit card. The kit includes larval forceps, a box to hold #2 pins, a pinning block, and a insect manipulator. The box pieces are deep blue, the block is yellow, the knobs of the manipulator are metallic red. The remaining manipulator pieces, the kit card frame, and the sprues are light grey.

I've been working on something. 🙂

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrinting
#CurationCorner

As a huge fan of the @jessicalwarelab.bsky.social AND of @asavage.bsky.social AND @tested.com AND as a taxonomist AND as the curator of an insect collection...to say I immensely enjoyed this video would be an understatement.

🐉🪰 🤓

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Taxonomy
@entcollnet.bsky.social

From Cabinets to the Cloud: Unlocking the Research Potential of Natural History Collections — Science on Tap Philadelphia Did you know that behind the scenes of many natural history museums are millions of specimens representing life on earth, from fossils to insects to plants? Museums worldwide, including the Academy of...

Looking forward to tonight's Science on Tap Philly 🔬🍻

#Scienceontap #Philadelphia #Philly #NaturalHistoryCollections
#DrexelUniversity
#AcademyofNaturalSciences

www.scienceontapphilly.com/events/from-...

Close up view of a 3D-printed insect specimen manipulator on a white background. The manipulator is all black except the two rotating knobs and the foam filled socket for holding the insect are yellow. There is a pinned queen of the rusty patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis in stuck in the foam.

I decided to print a dedicated tool for holding bees while viewing through a microscope.

A bee-spoke manipulator, if you will...

#3DprintingFTW
#NaturalHistoryCollections
#MakeItYourself

#GBIF #BiodiversityInformatics #NaturalHistoryCollections
#OpenData #FAIRdata #OpenScience

Right quarter profile view of a small, pinned robber fly (Asilidae) on a white background. The body is black with thick pale yellow setae on the face, thorax, and forming apical bands on the abdominal segments. The legs are very bristly and are mostly orange. The large eyes are dark with a faint purplish tinge.

Perfect. Predaceous. Puppy.

Bycatch* collected this summer in Arizona.

(*bycatch because it was caught during Bee Course and bees were the primary target, I guess)

#Asilidae
#FlyFriday
#FlydayFriday
#FocusStacking
#NaturalHistoryCollections

Even the lowly aspirator (or for those who prefer, pooter) hasn't escaped my attention!

Along with the 3D printed top, there's an attachment for the business end and a mouthpiece to make it easier to hold in one's mouth while in use.

#CuratorsCorner
#3DPrinting
#NaturalHistoryCollections

I wanted to see if I could design and 3D print an insert for Le Parfait bail jars that makes it easier to see the contents and labels in the smaller vials. What do you think?

#CuratorsCorner
#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrinting
#SpiritCollections
#WetCollections

Some snippets of the displays we created for our Spook-tober Tours!

Look forward to more events to come! We are so grateful for your eagerness and enthusiasm with this debut!

#asubiocollections #spooktobertours #biocollections #naturalhistorycollections #spooktober #insects #vertebrates #lichens

Some snippets of the displays we created for our Spook-tober Tours!

Look forward to more events to come! We are so grateful for your eagerness and enthusiasm with this debut!

#asubiocollections #spooktobertours #biocollections #naturalhistorycollections #spooktober #insects #vertebrates #lichens

Photo inside the open door of an enclosed 3D printer. Attached to the print bed is an angled chute, printed out of fluorescent orange ABS filament. Good times.

I'll never not be amazed at how transformative 3D printing has been for insect collecting & curation.

I can make just about anything (that fits inside the printer) out of virtually nothing (i.e., a spool of inexpensive thermoplastic).

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#MakeItYourOwnDamnSelf

I mean...

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CurationSunday
#Madagascar
#Buprestidae

Mostly lateral, slightly front-ish view of a jewel beetle on a neutral grey background. It's a chonky specimen, the integument is various dark metallic shades of blue, green, bronze, purple, and black. Pale ivory/yellowish tufts of hair (setae) are regularly covering the pronotum and elytra. The ones on the elytra are shorter and arranged in longitudinal rows. At the corner of the elytron there is a dense appressed patch of brownish orange setae.

Sure, let's burn down the planet using AI to generate fantastical imaginary creatures

...because the natural world isn't fantastic enough?

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#MacroPhotography
#FocusStacking
#NoAIUsedHere
#Tanzania
#JewelBeetle
#Buprestidae

A 3D printed insect pinning block on a textured white background. The pinning block has six differently colored layers of filament: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.

For labeling a diverse group of insects...

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrinting

Taxonomic status of Chaetodipus lineatus and phylogeography of the Chaetodipus nelsoni species group The taxonomic status of the lined coarse-haired pocket mouse Chaetodipus lineatus (Rodentia: Heteromyidae) has frequently been questioned but never resolve

🧬 New Publication Alert!

Is the lined pocket mouse (Chaetodipus lineatus) really its own species?

After decades of uncertainty, our research says: nope.

🔗 academic.oup.com/jmammal/adva...

#TAMUECCB #Biodiversity #Conservation #Science #NaturalHistoryCollections

Picture of a black self-healing cutting mat, with a grid of white lines and additional white lines marking 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° angles. There's a rectangular piece of white Plastazote foam with a series of holes punched out of it. The punched out foam plugs are next to the rectangle and there is a black and sliver punch laying in front of the mat.

Pro tip:
You can use an inexpensive punch to cut out plugs of foam to use in your manipulators.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Curation
#MakeItYourOwnDamnSelf

Insect specimen manipulator on a neutral grey background. The piece is mostly metal: the base and upright is aluminum, the specimen holder is brass/copper, the handle is bronze, and there are a couple of black machine bolts holding the bits together. There is some clear plastic tubing over the brass handle and there's a black rubber o-ring on the specimen holder.

Here's my one-off manipulator. I like it because it is the only one in the world made like this...and I think it looks kinda steampunk-ish. 🙂

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Curation
#MakeItYourOwnDamnSelf

Twenty-four 3D-printed insect specimen manipulators sitting on a neutral grey bench top. The manipulators were made with a variety of filament colors, including yellow, blue, metallic red, metallic purple, lime green, brass, and matte grey. They are arranged in a somewhat pleasing set of concentric circles.

me: Do you have any preferences for color or material?

them: Any color will work for me

Alrighty then.... 😂

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrinting
#MakeItYourOwnDamnSelf

Small, point-mounted red and black bee on a grey background. The first three metasomal segments are reddish and the rest of the integument is black. Though quite small, the bee appears stout and robust. The body is densely punctate and there are dense patches of white appressed setae, mostly on the sides of the mesosoma and on the apical fringes of the tergites.

The 2025 Bee Course wrapped up on Sunday after 10 amazing days of lab & field work in the Chiricahua Mountains in AZ.

We collected bees representing about 42 genera of bees! This is Holcopasites (prob. H. minimus) I collected during the course. 🐝 👀 ♥️

#Apidae
#Nomadinae
#NaturalHistoryCollections

Old maps and dead birds reveal the story of grassland and bird decline in the Nilgiris Since the mid-1800s, the Nilgiris have lost 80% of their grasslands, a new study finds by comparing a colonial-era map with satellite images.

A really well written piece about an exciting recent work from Vijay Ramesh et al! india.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-... #scicomm #naturalhistorycollections #nhm

A composite image of two small insects against a neutral gray background. A velvet-ant (Mutillidae) is above a true ant (Formicidae). Both are dark metallic, with shades ranging from purplish on the head and mesosoma, to shades of dark green on the metasoma. The velvet-ant also has dense apical fringes of appressed setae on the abdominal tergites.

I got nuthin' new to offer anyone today so I'm reposting this composite image of a velvet-ant and a true ant (or, as I like to call them, false velvet-ants... 😀 ).

I like the convergent metallic color pattern.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#FocusStacking
#Mutillidae
#Formicidae
#Australia

Close up of a standard insect pin, stuck in a piece of white foam. There is a hand-written collection label a small distance above the foam—fairly normal—but above that is a rectangle of lined index card. The insect pin has been inserted (somehow) in between the top and bottom layers of the card, so the card is sticking out like a flag from the side of the insect pin. Opposite the end with the insect pin, there are three minutens, also inserted into the edge of the card rectangle. Two of the minutens hold small red clerid beetles. The third has just a small piece of one elytron, presumably from a third beetle, now lost.

Nightmare fuel for insect collection curators.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#ItTakesAllKinds
#HappyWeekend

Three-quarters profile view of a springtail (Order Collembola) against a white background. The springtail is quite globular and I haven't yet tried to figure out what family it belongs to. The background color of the body is a a kind of pale orange-y red and it has many, mostly small dark spots over its body. It's moderately long antennae are strongly elbowed (geniculate).

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

A tiny moth on a green leaf. It is in the family Adelidae, commonly known as Fairy Moths. The wings are dark. The thorax and a transverse band across the folded wings are golden. It has very long antennae; they are roughly 2.5 times longer than the body. This specimen was seen in the Italian alps.

Little. Long-horned. Lepidoptera.

#Adelidae
#NorthernItaly
#NaturalHistoryCollections