This specimen was collected by W.S. Blatchley —his brief label says “R.P.P. Fla. ... 3-25-24”—but in an unpublished manuscript, “Winter & Spring Insects of Royal Palm Park,” he included more details (under the synonym N. viridimicans)—beetles were “beaten from dead limbs” #PERCBugs #TenebTuesday

A dorsal view of a pinned, metallic blue-purple beetle

It’s #TenebTuesday! Outshining the name “darkling beetle” this is Nautes azurescens (Jacquelin du Val, 1857) [Tenebrioninae: Helopini] from USA: Florida, Cuba, & the Bahamas. Adults “taken at lights … [but] habits of this species are unknown” (Steiner 2005) [scale = 1mm] #Coleoptera #PERCBugs

A pinned specimen of a fly with red eyes, yellow-brown legs and mouthparts, body covered in tufts of grey and black setae, and striking brown-patterned wings.

This striking, fuzzy fly (Eudasys ophrys Whittington [Platystomatidae]) caught my attention when sorting a box of (largely unidentified) Diptera from Nigeria—never know what you'll in a collection! #PERCBugs #FlyFriday

The off-white body, brown head, and yellow-brown prolegs of an inflated silk moth caterpillar

A delicate, time-consuming method (perhaps more of an art!) to preserve caterpillars is inflation — but it can produce stunningly life-like specimens, like this over 100-year-old silkworm (Bombyx mori)! #PERCBugs #Lepidoptera

On the left a dorsal view of a green beetle with four orange spots on its elytra and on the right a ventral view of the red-orange underside and legs of the same beetle

An unreasonably photogenic cucujoid (Helota vigorsii MacLeay, 1825) from East Java with tiny hitchhikers (phoretic mites)! #Helotidae #Coleoptera #PERCBugs

A pinned specimen of a fuzzy white and tan weevil with green blooms of corrosion spreading outwards from the pin where it meets the weevil.

An unidentified weevil from California collected in 1888—on the pin you see a type of vivid green corrosion called verdigris—a reaction between the metals used in very old pins + drawer microclimate & can be a serious problem in some, often historic collections #WeevilWednesday #PERCBugs

A dorsal and ventral view of a preserved butterfly with white and orange-tipped wings and its label

From our collection—a Falcate Orangetip (Anthocharis midea) collected 124 years ago by Constantine Troxler, a “Veteran Shoe Dealer And An Entomologist of Reputation—A Native of Germany” (from an obituary in The Courier Journal 1904) #PERCBugs #Lepidoptera