Matt Bertone
@bertonemyia.bsky.social
Entomologist passionate about flies, beetles, spiders, mites... Also macro photography. Director & diagnostician at NC State Plant Disease and Insect Clinic. Opinions are my own. He/him
Raleigh, NC, USA
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76790273@N07/
Raleigh, NC, USA
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76790273@N07/
Pinned
Matt Bertone
@bertonemyia.bsky.social
· Nov 11
I guess I should introduce myself: my name is Matt & I ❤️ insects + other arthropods, nature in general, & macro photography (among other things).
I'm not a big-eyed robber fly, despite my profile pic 😂
I look forward to being here! Feel free to check out my photos: www.flickr.com/photos/76790...
I'm not a big-eyed robber fly, despite my profile pic 😂
I look forward to being here! Feel free to check out my photos: www.flickr.com/photos/76790...
Reposted by Matt Bertone
If you attended the @entcollnet.bsky.social meeting last year in Phoenix, you may have met some of our youngest attendees, Connor Hsu & Cole Crammer. Here they are with @drfirefly.bsky.social!
They’re now in 11th grade and this year they’re back to deliver their first ever ECN talk! [1/3]
They’re now in 11th grade and this year they’re back to deliver their first ever ECN talk! [1/3]
November 9, 2025 at 1:34 AM
If you attended the @entcollnet.bsky.social meeting last year in Phoenix, you may have met some of our youngest attendees, Connor Hsu & Cole Crammer. Here they are with @drfirefly.bsky.social!
They’re now in 11th grade and this year they’re back to deliver their first ever ECN talk! [1/3]
They’re now in 11th grade and this year they’re back to deliver their first ever ECN talk! [1/3]
It's almost the weekend! 🥳
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
November 9, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by Matt Bertone
🧡 @americanbeetles.bsky.social has really delivered again, with stickers for our meeting.
Behold… the most adorable Rain beetle you have ever seen! 😍
#ECN2025
Behold… the most adorable Rain beetle you have ever seen! 😍
#ECN2025
November 8, 2025 at 10:44 PM
🧡 @americanbeetles.bsky.social has really delivered again, with stickers for our meeting.
Behold… the most adorable Rain beetle you have ever seen! 😍
#ECN2025
Behold… the most adorable Rain beetle you have ever seen! 😍
#ECN2025
Reposted by Matt Bertone
A well-loved bunchberry plant (Cornus canadensis) with leaf mines of Phytomyza agromyzina (lower left), Antispila cornifoliella (other linear mines), Antispila freemani (big blotches), and a Caloptilia sp. (narrow blotch and leaf roll at right), as well as stippling from leafhopper feeding.
November 8, 2025 at 11:31 AM
A well-loved bunchberry plant (Cornus canadensis) with leaf mines of Phytomyza agromyzina (lower left), Antispila cornifoliella (other linear mines), Antispila freemani (big blotches), and a Caloptilia sp. (narrow blotch and leaf roll at right), as well as stippling from leafhopper feeding.
It's almost the weekend! 🥳
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
November 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
It's almost the weekend! 🥳
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
Reposted by Matt Bertone
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
Reposted by Matt Bertone
*Niche critter profile*
November 5, 2025 at 7:39 PM
*Niche critter profile*
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Holy cow, check out this trilobite-mimic isopod!
📷: Jialing Cai/The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census/Schmidt Ocean Institute
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
📷: Jialing Cai/The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census/Schmidt Ocean Institute
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
November 6, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Holy cow, check out this trilobite-mimic isopod!
📷: Jialing Cai/The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census/Schmidt Ocean Institute
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
📷: Jialing Cai/The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census/Schmidt Ocean Institute
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Reposted by Matt Bertone
We’ll have an announcement about Fly School 2026, which will be shared here as well, but join in person or virtually if you can!
@flygirlnhm.bsky.social
@bertonemyia.bsky.social
@flygirlnhm.bsky.social
@bertonemyia.bsky.social
Please join us for our 34th General Meeting on November 11th [7:00-9:00pm PST (UTC-08:00)] at the Annual Meeting of @entsocamerica.bsky.social. If you won't be at the meeting in person, please see the flyer below for info regarding the Zoom link. The meeting is open to all - hope to see you there! 🦟
November 4, 2025 at 11:57 PM
We’ll have an announcement about Fly School 2026, which will be shared here as well, but join in person or virtually if you can!
@flygirlnhm.bsky.social
@bertonemyia.bsky.social
@flygirlnhm.bsky.social
@bertonemyia.bsky.social
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Please join us for our 34th General Meeting on November 11th [7:00-9:00pm PST (UTC-08:00)] at the Annual Meeting of @entsocamerica.bsky.social. If you won't be at the meeting in person, please see the flyer below for info regarding the Zoom link. The meeting is open to all - hope to see you there! 🦟
November 4, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Please join us for our 34th General Meeting on November 11th [7:00-9:00pm PST (UTC-08:00)] at the Annual Meeting of @entsocamerica.bsky.social. If you won't be at the meeting in person, please see the flyer below for info regarding the Zoom link. The meeting is open to all - hope to see you there! 🦟
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Still looking for horror now that Halloween's over? Fortunately/unfortunately it's all around! 💀
A parasitoid laid a few eggs in a moth egg. As the caterpillar hatched & grew, wasp embryos multiplied inside to 100s of larvae that ate the entire host, eventually killing & turning it into a husk 😳 🤢
A parasitoid laid a few eggs in a moth egg. As the caterpillar hatched & grew, wasp embryos multiplied inside to 100s of larvae that ate the entire host, eventually killing & turning it into a husk 😳 🤢
November 1, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Still looking for horror now that Halloween's over? Fortunately/unfortunately it's all around! 💀
A parasitoid laid a few eggs in a moth egg. As the caterpillar hatched & grew, wasp embryos multiplied inside to 100s of larvae that ate the entire host, eventually killing & turning it into a husk 😳 🤢
A parasitoid laid a few eggs in a moth egg. As the caterpillar hatched & grew, wasp embryos multiplied inside to 100s of larvae that ate the entire host, eventually killing & turning it into a husk 😳 🤢
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Tarantula foot-pad. Who knew they could be so pretty?
November 1, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Tarantula foot-pad. Who knew they could be so pretty?
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! 🎃👻
Is that a pumpkin or a spider butt? The marbled #orbweaver is all decked out for fall and the spooky season (though, really, this lovely lady was very shy and harmless)!
#Araneidae: #Araneus marmoreus
#Arachtober
Is that a pumpkin or a spider butt? The marbled #orbweaver is all decked out for fall and the spooky season (though, really, this lovely lady was very shy and harmless)!
#Araneidae: #Araneus marmoreus
#Arachtober
October 31, 2025 at 2:31 PM
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! 🎃👻
Is that a pumpkin or a spider butt? The marbled #orbweaver is all decked out for fall and the spooky season (though, really, this lovely lady was very shy and harmless)!
#Araneidae: #Araneus marmoreus
#Arachtober
Is that a pumpkin or a spider butt? The marbled #orbweaver is all decked out for fall and the spooky season (though, really, this lovely lady was very shy and harmless)!
#Araneidae: #Araneus marmoreus
#Arachtober
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Been looking for a fresh specimen of Leucauge sarawakensis for a long time! Each time we found one, someone walked into its web. Hence, the ex situ shots.
October 30, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Been looking for a fresh specimen of Leucauge sarawakensis for a long time! Each time we found one, someone walked into its web. Hence, the ex situ shots.
Reposted by Matt Bertone
October 30, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Nanotyrannus is real.
For years I’ve considered many mid-sized gracile tyrannosaurs to be juvenile T. rex.
But I was wrong. This stunning new skeleton of a mature long-armed small tyrannosaur is clearly a different species.
Isn’t science fun?!
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
For years I’ve considered many mid-sized gracile tyrannosaurs to be juvenile T. rex.
But I was wrong. This stunning new skeleton of a mature long-armed small tyrannosaur is clearly a different species.
Isn’t science fun?!
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Researchers discover new tyrannosaur species in ‘duelling dinosaurs’ fossil
Analysis of Montana fossils shows the battling predator was a fully grown Nanotyrannus, not a young T rex
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Nanotyrannus is real.
For years I’ve considered many mid-sized gracile tyrannosaurs to be juvenile T. rex.
But I was wrong. This stunning new skeleton of a mature long-armed small tyrannosaur is clearly a different species.
Isn’t science fun?!
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
For years I’ve considered many mid-sized gracile tyrannosaurs to be juvenile T. rex.
But I was wrong. This stunning new skeleton of a mature long-armed small tyrannosaur is clearly a different species.
Isn’t science fun?!
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Reposted by Matt Bertone
🌿Life in the Undergrowth🌿
My new spooky autumn design that celebrates the tiny overlooked organisms who live amongst the soil, moss, and mushrooms.
Prints, soft unisex tees, & more at:
LindZeamays.com/printshop
~~~
Where no crawly is creepy!
Lindzeamays Illustration
Lindzeamays.com
~~~
🐡🪳🪲🎨🌿
My new spooky autumn design that celebrates the tiny overlooked organisms who live amongst the soil, moss, and mushrooms.
Prints, soft unisex tees, & more at:
LindZeamays.com/printshop
~~~
Where no crawly is creepy!
Lindzeamays Illustration
Lindzeamays.com
~~~
🐡🪳🪲🎨🌿
October 27, 2025 at 9:18 PM
🌿Life in the Undergrowth🌿
My new spooky autumn design that celebrates the tiny overlooked organisms who live amongst the soil, moss, and mushrooms.
Prints, soft unisex tees, & more at:
LindZeamays.com/printshop
~~~
Where no crawly is creepy!
Lindzeamays Illustration
Lindzeamays.com
~~~
🐡🪳🪲🎨🌿
My new spooky autumn design that celebrates the tiny overlooked organisms who live amongst the soil, moss, and mushrooms.
Prints, soft unisex tees, & more at:
LindZeamays.com/printshop
~~~
Where no crawly is creepy!
Lindzeamays Illustration
Lindzeamays.com
~~~
🐡🪳🪲🎨🌿
Reposted by Matt Bertone
October 27, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Matt Bertone
How about some spiky spiders tonight? This one is Micrathena acuta, a spiny orbweaver found in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. It is believed that the spines serve as a defense from birds and even predatory wasps.
Cuyabeno Reserve, 2024
Cuyabeno Reserve, 2024
October 28, 2025 at 12:12 AM
How about some spiky spiders tonight? This one is Micrathena acuta, a spiny orbweaver found in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. It is believed that the spines serve as a defense from birds and even predatory wasps.
Cuyabeno Reserve, 2024
Cuyabeno Reserve, 2024
Reposted by Matt Bertone
SNAP isn't about "people who don't work." It's about people who don't get paid enough to live.
Of the 40 or so million people who rely on food stamps:
* Two-thirds are children, seniors, or disabled
* Most working-age adults who receive SNAP are employed—but in jobs that pay poverty wages
Of the 40 or so million people who rely on food stamps:
* Two-thirds are children, seniors, or disabled
* Most working-age adults who receive SNAP are employed—but in jobs that pay poverty wages
October 27, 2025 at 12:48 AM
SNAP isn't about "people who don't work." It's about people who don't get paid enough to live.
Of the 40 or so million people who rely on food stamps:
* Two-thirds are children, seniors, or disabled
* Most working-age adults who receive SNAP are employed—but in jobs that pay poverty wages
Of the 40 or so million people who rely on food stamps:
* Two-thirds are children, seniors, or disabled
* Most working-age adults who receive SNAP are employed—but in jobs that pay poverty wages
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Entomologists have been saying this for a while, but new evidence published confirms: Joro spiders are not a major health risk. See original thread for link to research papers
A pair of new studies in ESA journals offer some reassuring findings about Jorō spiders:
“These spiders are easy to manage and pose a minimal health risk.”
“These spiders are easy to manage and pose a minimal health risk.”
Studies show Joro spiders are easy to kill and virtually harmless
David Coyle, associate professor of forest health and invasive species at Clemson University, recently co-authored two papers addressing some key public
news.clemson.edu
October 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Entomologists have been saying this for a while, but new evidence published confirms: Joro spiders are not a major health risk. See original thread for link to research papers
Reposted by Matt Bertone
Like an alien-looking shower head, the Cone Tooth Fungus, Auriscalpium vulgare, is a favorite mushroom of mine
📷 Canon 5D Mk III
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM
M, f/4, 1/25, ISO 800
Stack of 12 images
3/13/21
Northern California
#mushroom #fungifriends #mushrooms
🍄📷 📸🎞 🌿🌱 🟢 🍄 🍄🟫
📷 Canon 5D Mk III
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM
M, f/4, 1/25, ISO 800
Stack of 12 images
3/13/21
Northern California
#mushroom #fungifriends #mushrooms
🍄📷 📸🎞 🌿🌱 🟢 🍄 🍄🟫
October 21, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Like an alien-looking shower head, the Cone Tooth Fungus, Auriscalpium vulgare, is a favorite mushroom of mine
📷 Canon 5D Mk III
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM
M, f/4, 1/25, ISO 800
Stack of 12 images
3/13/21
Northern California
#mushroom #fungifriends #mushrooms
🍄📷 📸🎞 🌿🌱 🟢 🍄 🍄🟫
📷 Canon 5D Mk III
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM
M, f/4, 1/25, ISO 800
Stack of 12 images
3/13/21
Northern California
#mushroom #fungifriends #mushrooms
🍄📷 📸🎞 🌿🌱 🟢 🍄 🍄🟫