Chris Wirth
@ageofarthropods.bsky.social
Photographer & PhD entomologist—inordinately fond of beetles! Research focus on darkling beetle (Tenebrionidae) systematics & biogeography, #TenebTuesday +Natural history collections/insect conservation/old (entomological) books & cameras
www.ccwirth.com
www.ccwirth.com
As a follow-up to my talk at #ECN2025 — here is a parts list for a budget (~$1,500) focus stacking system: www.ccwirth.com/Z-stacking
Focus Stacking Systems
www.ccwirth.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:23 AM
As a follow-up to my talk at #ECN2025 — here is a parts list for a budget (~$1,500) focus stacking system: www.ccwirth.com/Z-stacking
Got to maximize the time photographing specimens-so many bugs, so little time!
Next year we will have speed trials for assembling Chris Wirth’s portable focus stacking camera system
November 8, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Got to maximize the time photographing specimens-so many bugs, so little time!
Reposted by Chris Wirth
used rubber bands in the alcohol collection? ONE THOUSAND YEARS DUNGEON
November 8, 2025 at 5:14 PM
used rubber bands in the alcohol collection? ONE THOUSAND YEARS DUNGEON
Reposted by Chris Wirth
Thinking about buying a macro lens for insect photography? Along with @ageofarthropods.bsky.social we have been testing many options! Our results are summarized in 2 blog posts in the field www.insectid.org/post/macro-l... and in the lab www.insectid.org/post/lab-tes...
Macro Lens Comparison in the Field
As I continue to dive deeper into insect macrophotography, I have been exploring lens options and fallen down many YouTube rabbit holes and read probably hundreds of photography blogs and customer rev...
www.insectid.org
November 3, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Thinking about buying a macro lens for insect photography? Along with @ageofarthropods.bsky.social we have been testing many options! Our results are summarized in 2 blog posts in the field www.insectid.org/post/macro-l... and in the lab www.insectid.org/post/lab-tes...
Reposted by Chris Wirth
Just ONE WEEK until #ECN2025! 🪲
Head to the website to check out the full program:
ecnweb.net/welcome/meet...
This year’s program cover features a beautiful Rain beetle (Pleocoma sp.). Photograph courtesy of @ageofarthropods.bsky.social & the Purdue Entomological Research Collection.
Head to the website to check out the full program:
ecnweb.net/welcome/meet...
This year’s program cover features a beautiful Rain beetle (Pleocoma sp.). Photograph courtesy of @ageofarthropods.bsky.social & the Purdue Entomological Research Collection.
November 1, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Just ONE WEEK until #ECN2025! 🪲
Head to the website to check out the full program:
ecnweb.net/welcome/meet...
This year’s program cover features a beautiful Rain beetle (Pleocoma sp.). Photograph courtesy of @ageofarthropods.bsky.social & the Purdue Entomological Research Collection.
Head to the website to check out the full program:
ecnweb.net/welcome/meet...
This year’s program cover features a beautiful Rain beetle (Pleocoma sp.). Photograph courtesy of @ageofarthropods.bsky.social & the Purdue Entomological Research Collection.
Always is!
IT’S TENEBRIONIDS AGAIN??
#LiteratureNotice Maruyama et al. The second species of the enigmatic genus Microblattellus Ferrer, 2006 ( #Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) from Cambodia: A possibility of termitophily in the genus doi.org/10.11646/zoo... #Beetle #Beetles #NewSpecies #DarklingBeetles .
September 17, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Always is!
And this #TenebTuesday an answer (at last!)—this is the rarely collected Prateus fusculus LeConte, 1862, a member of the subfamily Lagriinae & type genus of the recently-established tribe Prateini (Aalbu et al. 2023)
A mystery teneb for this #TenebTuesday — specimen collected by Charles Dury in Cincinnati &, until last month, was only identified as "'Tenebrionidae unknown' teste [George Henry] Horn" — any guesses?
![A reddish-brown beetle specimen with moderately long antennae and two labels reading "Cin. O. / V-28-[?]" and "'Tenebrionidae / unknown' teste Horn"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:otjq5ndsne7q2nwyyh3bpjf4/bafkreigogjqflnoqg7gjrqogwigcgze7e5nkil54m5f67qkwxrghnk5iny@jpeg)
July 22, 2025 at 6:25 PM
And this #TenebTuesday an answer (at last!)—this is the rarely collected Prateus fusculus LeConte, 1862, a member of the subfamily Lagriinae & type genus of the recently-established tribe Prateini (Aalbu et al. 2023)
A mystery teneb for this #TenebTuesday — specimen collected by Charles Dury in Cincinnati &, until last month, was only identified as "'Tenebrionidae unknown' teste [George Henry] Horn" — any guesses?
July 1, 2025 at 10:52 PM
A mystery teneb for this #TenebTuesday — specimen collected by Charles Dury in Cincinnati &, until last month, was only identified as "'Tenebrionidae unknown' teste [George Henry] Horn" — any guesses?
Found this cartoonish monstrosity of a specimen preparation while sorting through drawers of unidentified flies in @purdueentcoll.bsky.social !
June 26, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Found this cartoonish monstrosity of a specimen preparation while sorting through drawers of unidentified flies in @purdueentcoll.bsky.social !
Reposted by Chris Wirth
Want to set up your own photo-stacking imaging system for under $3000? This post which outlines all the off-the-shelf items I used this year along with some recommendations for how to use it. Planning to talk about this at @entcollnet.bsky.social this November, too! www.insectid.org/post/focus-s...
Focus-stacking photography: Building your own system
Ten years ago, Alex Wild published a guide on Scientific American on how to make your own focus-stacking system for under $6000. I can't seem to find that post any more, just some secondary posts with...
www.insectid.org
June 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Want to set up your own photo-stacking imaging system for under $3000? This post which outlines all the off-the-shelf items I used this year along with some recommendations for how to use it. Planning to talk about this at @entcollnet.bsky.social this November, too! www.insectid.org/post/focus-s...
Reposted by Chris Wirth
But this is going to be yet another area where the taxonomists who did all the work to set up the species and the traits to identify them don't get paid. Even as many are retiring or losing their jobs, the resources get diverted away from expertise to the tech sector instead.
June 10, 2025 at 3:56 PM
But this is going to be yet another area where the taxonomists who did all the work to set up the species and the traits to identify them don't get paid. Even as many are retiring or losing their jobs, the resources get diverted away from expertise to the tech sector instead.
Spotted this “stack” of specimens collected by Charles Dury in 1904 at the Cincinnati Museum Center-upon turning over, I was surprised gold-colored corrosion(?) on the underside
![A pin bearing several strips of paper with beetles neatly glued to them and text reading “Cin. O. 6-12-[190]4”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:otjq5ndsne7q2nwyyh3bpjf4/bafkreibdwrft5hr6z5txvpm5xrassd6eo6ivwtgdvpehbrsdgcmre7lpmm@jpeg)
June 7, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Spotted this “stack” of specimens collected by Charles Dury in 1904 at the Cincinnati Museum Center-upon turning over, I was surprised gold-colored corrosion(?) on the underside
And for #TenebTuesday here’s Strongylium crenatum Mäklin, 1867—this species is widespread in the southeastern US, but can separated from the other co-occurring Strongylium by its iridescent green coloration, punctate elytral striae, & indistinct, crenate pronotal margins
June 4, 2025 at 12:25 AM
And for #TenebTuesday here’s Strongylium crenatum Mäklin, 1867—this species is widespread in the southeastern US, but can separated from the other co-occurring Strongylium by its iridescent green coloration, punctate elytral striae, & indistinct, crenate pronotal margins
For #WeevilWednesday — a 106-year-old specimen of an anthribid, Toxonotus fascicularis (Schönherr 1833), described by its collector, Willis Blatchley, as "a prettily marked medium sized anthribid frequent on the dead branches" of saffron plum, Sideroxylon celastrinum.
May 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM
For #WeevilWednesday — a 106-year-old specimen of an anthribid, Toxonotus fascicularis (Schönherr 1833), described by its collector, Willis Blatchley, as "a prettily marked medium sized anthribid frequent on the dead branches" of saffron plum, Sideroxylon celastrinum.
Doyen & Lawrence (1979) note “Edrotes [Pimeliinae: Edrotini] (North America) & Epiphysa [Pimeliinae: Adesmiini] (southern Africa) are strikingly similar in external appearance [but] major differences in endoskeletal features, mouthparts & genitalia refute a close relationship" #TenebrionidTricky
May 14, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Doyen & Lawrence (1979) note “Edrotes [Pimeliinae: Edrotini] (North America) & Epiphysa [Pimeliinae: Adesmiini] (southern Africa) are strikingly similar in external appearance [but] major differences in endoskeletal features, mouthparts & genitalia refute a close relationship" #TenebrionidTricky
Back from an end-of-semester-hiatus here's Epiphysa ciliata Bates, 1872 (Pimeliinae: Adesmiini) for this #TenebTuesday —1 of 9 distinctively globose spp found across arid southern Africa. They are “crepuscular to nocturnal,” retreating to “rocky crevices or mammal burrows” in the day (Penrith 1978)
May 14, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Back from an end-of-semester-hiatus here's Epiphysa ciliata Bates, 1872 (Pimeliinae: Adesmiini) for this #TenebTuesday —1 of 9 distinctively globose spp found across arid southern Africa. They are “crepuscular to nocturnal,” retreating to “rocky crevices or mammal burrows” in the day (Penrith 1978)
This specimen has been in @purdueentcoll.bsky.social for nearly 130 years — but has only two minute labels reading "Marquette, Michigan" & "H.G.H." [Henry Guernsey Hubbard] — Hubbard collected extensively in the Lake Superior region in 1876 (Mallis 1971), making this specimens over 149 years old!
Back from an unintended break — for this #TenebTuesday here's very typical (looking) #tenebrionid — Bouchardandrus concolor (LeConte, 1866), only species in the genus & only known to from the Great Lakes region of Canada (MB ON QC) & US (MI MN OH WI) (Steiner 2016, Bousquet et al. 2018)
April 15, 2025 at 7:21 PM
This specimen has been in @purdueentcoll.bsky.social for nearly 130 years — but has only two minute labels reading "Marquette, Michigan" & "H.G.H." [Henry Guernsey Hubbard] — Hubbard collected extensively in the Lake Superior region in 1876 (Mallis 1971), making this specimens over 149 years old!
Back from an unintended break — for this #TenebTuesday here's very typical (looking) #tenebrionid — Bouchardandrus concolor (LeConte, 1866), only species in the genus & only known to from the Great Lakes region of Canada (MB ON QC) & US (MI MN OH WI) (Steiner 2016, Bousquet et al. 2018)
April 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Back from an unintended break — for this #TenebTuesday here's very typical (looking) #tenebrionid — Bouchardandrus concolor (LeConte, 1866), only species in the genus & only known to from the Great Lakes region of Canada (MB ON QC) & US (MI MN OH WI) (Steiner 2016, Bousquet et al. 2018)
On this #TenebTuesday an excellent #tenebrionid — a species of Trogloderus (Blaptinae: Amphidorini) — the nine distinctively sculptured species are restricted to sandy areas & dunes in the western United States.
March 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
On this #TenebTuesday an excellent #tenebrionid — a species of Trogloderus (Blaptinae: Amphidorini) — the nine distinctively sculptured species are restricted to sandy areas & dunes in the western United States.
From a warm night last fall—several Marbled Fungus Weevils, Euparius marmoreus (Olivier, 1795), at fungus on a fallen tree—these individuals show some of the variation in size & color common in this species!
March 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
From a warm night last fall—several Marbled Fungus Weevils, Euparius marmoreus (Olivier, 1795), at fungus on a fallen tree—these individuals show some of the variation in size & color common in this species!
For this #TenebTuesday a deceptive #tenebrionid — Nilio (Linio) lanatus Germar, 1824 from Bahia, Brazil. Nilio adults & larvae (& sometimes aggregations of either or both stages!) can be found on trunks & branches of trees, where they have been observed feeding on fungus & lichens #Coletopera
March 18, 2025 at 6:52 PM
For this #TenebTuesday a deceptive #tenebrionid — Nilio (Linio) lanatus Germar, 1824 from Bahia, Brazil. Nilio adults & larvae (& sometimes aggregations of either or both stages!) can be found on trunks & branches of trees, where they have been observed feeding on fungus & lichens #Coletopera
A pair of myrmecophilus crickets, Myrmecophilus pergandei Bruner, 1884, collected September 6, 1902 in Crawford County, Indiana by W.S. Blatchley—such cool insects! #Orthoptera
March 14, 2025 at 5:54 PM
A pair of myrmecophilus crickets, Myrmecophilus pergandei Bruner, 1884, collected September 6, 1902 in Crawford County, Indiana by W.S. Blatchley—such cool insects! #Orthoptera
And for this #TenebTuesday here's the distinctively diminutive, setose Eleodes barbata Wickham, 1918 (Blaptinae: Amphidorini)—the species is found in the Four-Corners region of the Colorado Plateau (AZ, CO, NM, & UT)—this beetle was voraciously nibbling on a dry blade of grass!
March 12, 2025 at 2:22 AM
And for this #TenebTuesday here's the distinctively diminutive, setose Eleodes barbata Wickham, 1918 (Blaptinae: Amphidorini)—the species is found in the Four-Corners region of the Colorado Plateau (AZ, CO, NM, & UT)—this beetle was voraciously nibbling on a dry blade of grass!
It's #TenebTuesday! This large (>2 cm), intricately sculptured #tenebrionid from Malawi is Catamerus revoili Fairmaire, 1887 (Lagriinae: Pycnocerini)—the 19 Pycnocerini genera are largely found in tropical Africa, w/ 3 in the Philippines, Indonesia, & Malaysia (Schawaller 2003)
February 26, 2025 at 3:15 AM
It's #TenebTuesday! This large (>2 cm), intricately sculptured #tenebrionid from Malawi is Catamerus revoili Fairmaire, 1887 (Lagriinae: Pycnocerini)—the 19 Pycnocerini genera are largely found in tropical Africa, w/ 3 in the Philippines, Indonesia, & Malaysia (Schawaller 2003)