Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
@derekhennen.bsky.social
Entomologist & Myriapodologist: leaf litter critter enthusiast.
Author of Ohio Millipede Field Guide.
"Scientist & avowed Swiftie" -Rolling Stone
Richmond, VA
www.derekhennen.com
Author of Ohio Millipede Field Guide.
"Scientist & avowed Swiftie" -Rolling Stone
Richmond, VA
www.derekhennen.com
POSSIBLY THE FIRST BOOK EVER WITH A SYMPHYLAN ON THE COVER AND THERE ARE TWO OF THEM!!
The cover art is finished for my new book and I LOVE IT!
This safari tour of the life in soil and what is means to us, is now available for pre-order as ebook, soft and hardcover in the UK and Commonwealth. Published in August next year (US date soon), I hope it'll entice everyone to love soil! 🧪🪱
This safari tour of the life in soil and what is means to us, is now available for pre-order as ebook, soft and hardcover in the UK and Commonwealth. Published in August next year (US date soon), I hope it'll entice everyone to love soil! 🧪🪱
January 6, 2026 at 6:23 AM
POSSIBLY THE FIRST BOOK EVER WITH A SYMPHYLAN ON THE COVER AND THERE ARE TWO OF THEM!!
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
What Kelly said, that service members are not supposed to follow illegal orders, is objectively true and correct
The Pentagon will cut the military retirement pay of Sen. Mark Kelly for what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the Arizona Democrat’s “seditious” statements on a video telling service members they have the right to refuse to execute illegal orders.
Read more: cnb.cx/495FHLo
Read more: cnb.cx/495FHLo
January 5, 2026 at 3:52 PM
What Kelly said, that service members are not supposed to follow illegal orders, is objectively true and correct
Very cool study! Anecdotally, I've used iNat to track where an introduced centipede now occurs in North America. First reported from NY in the 50s, now in 4 states and 3 Canadian provinces.
Some big diffs between citizen science observations (from iNaturalist) and specimen records (from digitised museum collections) - cit. sci records biased towards large inverts & exotic spp. Great MSc project with recommendations 🌏🧪@nzhymenoptera.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
January 5, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Very cool study! Anecdotally, I've used iNat to track where an introduced centipede now occurs in North America. First reported from NY in the 50s, now in 4 states and 3 Canadian provinces.
Recently read through this nice post about millipede parasite flies in the genus Myriophora by @the-episiarch.bsky.social and highly recommend it! I see these flies sometimes and they're so interesting. The millipedes hate them. dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2017/07/myri...
<i>Myriophora alexandrae</i>
Millipedes are known for secreting some really noxious chemicals to ward off its enemies. So much so that other animals are also known to co...
dailyparasite.blogspot.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Recently read through this nice post about millipede parasite flies in the genus Myriophora by @the-episiarch.bsky.social and highly recommend it! I see these flies sometimes and they're so interesting. The millipedes hate them. dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2017/07/myri...
@12tone.nebula.tv hey I enjoyed your video on 99 Luftballons! I love Nena and I listened to that song a ton in my car this past year.
January 5, 2026 at 1:43 AM
@12tone.nebula.tv hey I enjoyed your video on 99 Luftballons! I love Nena and I listened to that song a ton in my car this past year.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Biologist kidnapped in Mexico news.mongabay.com/short-articl... 🧪🌎
Biologist kidnapped in Mexico
In the mountains of central Veracruz, scientific work is rarely abstract. It means walking narrow paths through cloud forest, speaking patiently with communities, and learning to read landscapes that…
news.mongabay.com
January 4, 2026 at 9:16 PM
Biologist kidnapped in Mexico news.mongabay.com/short-articl... 🧪🌎
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Chris Murphy: "Clearly this is wildly illegal. This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn in -- stealing from the American people, seizing spending power, now dragging America into a war overseas ... Donald Trump's entire foreign policy is corrupt."
January 4, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Chris Murphy: "Clearly this is wildly illegal. This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn in -- stealing from the American people, seizing spending power, now dragging America into a war overseas ... Donald Trump's entire foreign policy is corrupt."
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Instead of whatever this is, we should have a government getting lots of new homes and apartments built, lots of clean energy built, lots of high speed rail and transit and bike lanes built, human rights for everyone, economic & healthcare opportunities for all, & innovation that leads the world.
January 4, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Instead of whatever this is, we should have a government getting lots of new homes and apartments built, lots of clean energy built, lots of high speed rail and transit and bike lanes built, human rights for everyone, economic & healthcare opportunities for all, & innovation that leads the world.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
The same editorial board described Seattle’s mayor raising taxes to pay for childcare as a totalitarian power grab
The Washington Post editorial board comes out in favor of the Venezuela attack/operation to capture Maduro
January 3, 2026 at 5:51 PM
The same editorial board described Seattle’s mayor raising taxes to pay for childcare as a totalitarian power grab
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
It’s almost like green energy is the only way forward and a handful of oil barons are doing everything in their power to keep that from happening so they can get even richer at the cost of literally everything else in the world.
Wall Street’s biggest banks made more money financing green projects than they did from working with fossil fuel companies for a fourth straight year, even as they faced ongoing pressure to pull back from the business
Banks Notch Higher Fees From Green Bonds Than Fossil Fuel Debt
Wall Street’s biggest banks made more money financing green projects than they did from working with fossil fuel companies for a fourth straight year, even as they faced ongoing pressure to pull back from the business.
bloom.bg
January 3, 2026 at 3:00 AM
It’s almost like green energy is the only way forward and a handful of oil barons are doing everything in their power to keep that from happening so they can get even richer at the cost of literally everything else in the world.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
A central function of AI is to allow the ruling elite impunity for doing terrible things. The machine did it! It fired you! Not me! It apologized!
Creators and owners of A.I. tech must be held liable for the damage they cause, or the tech will further fray the threads of an already failing society.
Creators and owners of A.I. tech must be held liable for the damage they cause, or the tech will further fray the threads of an already failing society.
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
January 2, 2026 at 10:39 PM
A central function of AI is to allow the ruling elite impunity for doing terrible things. The machine did it! It fired you! Not me! It apologized!
Creators and owners of A.I. tech must be held liable for the damage they cause, or the tech will further fray the threads of an already failing society.
Creators and owners of A.I. tech must be held liable for the damage they cause, or the tech will further fray the threads of an already failing society.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
"I don’t know why my fellowship was terminated. I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary of what we expect to see in nature, with completely different males and females."
@carlzimmer.com profiles my wonderful coauthor @jjinsing.bsky.social Gift link.
@carlzimmer.com profiles my wonderful coauthor @jjinsing.bsky.social Gift link.
He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males
www.nytimes.com
January 2, 2026 at 6:10 PM
"I don’t know why my fellowship was terminated. I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary of what we expect to see in nature, with completely different males and females."
@carlzimmer.com profiles my wonderful coauthor @jjinsing.bsky.social Gift link.
@carlzimmer.com profiles my wonderful coauthor @jjinsing.bsky.social Gift link.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Corrupt tech billionaires are buying power to tilt the world in their favor.
Even the co-founder of Y Combinator is saying it. ⬇️
The radical death cult rising from Silicon Valley venture capital is metastasizing rapidly.
It's an existential threat to democracy and humanity.
Even the co-founder of Y Combinator is saying it. ⬇️
The radical death cult rising from Silicon Valley venture capital is metastasizing rapidly.
It's an existential threat to democracy and humanity.
January 2, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Corrupt tech billionaires are buying power to tilt the world in their favor.
Even the co-founder of Y Combinator is saying it. ⬇️
The radical death cult rising from Silicon Valley venture capital is metastasizing rapidly.
It's an existential threat to democracy and humanity.
Even the co-founder of Y Combinator is saying it. ⬇️
The radical death cult rising from Silicon Valley venture capital is metastasizing rapidly.
It's an existential threat to democracy and humanity.
There's just enough shell left of this snail for a novice (me) to identify it. Mesomphix cupreus from Rockbridge Co, VA. Its common name is the copper button, and is quickly becoming one of my favorite snails.
January 2, 2026 at 5:05 PM
There's just enough shell left of this snail for a novice (me) to identify it. Mesomphix cupreus from Rockbridge Co, VA. Its common name is the copper button, and is quickly becoming one of my favorite snails.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
They're up! come grab a couple shrews. I promise they look better in person than my crappy photos.
ko-fi.com/s/3696021c0e
ko-fi.com/s/3696021c0e
January 1, 2026 at 9:09 PM
They're up! come grab a couple shrews. I promise they look better in person than my crappy photos.
ko-fi.com/s/3696021c0e
ko-fi.com/s/3696021c0e
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.
'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry
In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directe...
transnews.network
January 1, 2026 at 6:32 PM
In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.
To add: @andrewjohnston.bsky.social wrote a great blog post about his photo stacking system, which you can read here: www.insectid.org/post/focus-s.... It's more expensive, but you get better results! I'll be adding this link to my post, since I forgot earlier.
January 1, 2026 at 3:57 PM
To add: @andrewjohnston.bsky.social wrote a great blog post about his photo stacking system, which you can read here: www.insectid.org/post/focus-s.... It's more expensive, but you get better results! I'll be adding this link to my post, since I forgot earlier.
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
Welcome to the year Twenty X-ty Six.
January 1, 2026 at 12:54 PM
Welcome to the year Twenty X-ty Six.
I've been asked recently about my microscope & photography set up, so I finally wrote it up! Learn more here, or just enjoy some nice photos of animals I've found in the leaf litter of Appalachia: www.derekhennen.com/blog/2025/12/31/photography-of-millipedes-centipedes-and-other-leaf-litter-critters
Photography of millipedes, centipedes, and other leaf litter critters — Derek Hennen
I get questions about my microscope and photography setup every so often, and it’s about time I centralize this information. It took me a while to figure out a system that works for me, and now I have...
www.derekhennen.com
January 1, 2026 at 2:15 AM
I've been asked recently about my microscope & photography set up, so I finally wrote it up! Learn more here, or just enjoy some nice photos of animals I've found in the leaf litter of Appalachia: www.derekhennen.com/blog/2025/12/31/photography-of-millipedes-centipedes-and-other-leaf-litter-critters
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
They're going to *throw out* one-of-a-kind NASA archives?!
Not even a year since the Inauguration & we're already at the 2nd-time-as-farce version of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
Not even a year since the Inauguration & we're already at the 2nd-time-as-farce version of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
December 31, 2025 at 7:55 PM
They're going to *throw out* one-of-a-kind NASA archives?!
Not even a year since the Inauguration & we're already at the 2nd-time-as-farce version of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
Not even a year since the Inauguration & we're already at the 2nd-time-as-farce version of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
Here I got you another photo collage of a Tanaupodid mite! I even added a scale bar! Minute little bulborbs crawling around the wintertime leaf litter. I collected this one from leaf litter in the woods behind my old elementary school in southeast Ohio.
December 31, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Here I got you another photo collage of a Tanaupodid mite! I even added a scale bar! Minute little bulborbs crawling around the wintertime leaf litter. I collected this one from leaf litter in the woods behind my old elementary school in southeast Ohio.
Check it out, I found a sandworm from Arrakis in my leaf litter from southern Virginia. (It's a snipe fly larva in the family Rhagionidae.) Check out those beautiful silver tracheal tubes!
December 31, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Check it out, I found a sandworm from Arrakis in my leaf litter from southern Virginia. (It's a snipe fly larva in the family Rhagionidae.) Check out those beautiful silver tracheal tubes!
Now is a great time to buy Helicon Focus if you need image-stacking software! I use it all the time for my bug photos taken through a microscope and it's the best. They're having a sale now and you can buy a lifetime license! www.heliconsoft.com/helicon-focu...
Helicon Focus Licenses - Helicon SoftHelicon Focus Licenses - Helicon Soft
www.heliconsoft.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Now is a great time to buy Helicon Focus if you need image-stacking software! I use it all the time for my bug photos taken through a microscope and it's the best. They're having a sale now and you can buy a lifetime license! www.heliconsoft.com/helicon-focu...
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
THE DAY CARES ARE LOCKED BECAUSE YOU MADE A GENERATION-LONG EFFORT TO MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE TO KILL THE CHILDREN INSIDE THEM YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKING GHOULS
these fucking people. they pass laws to make sure every person with a screw loose who wants an Armalite can show up to the day care armed & ready to kill, then complain that the day cares are locked to protect the children inside
CNN: “Surely you don’t think a daycare should be unlocked.”
SHIRLEY: “There should be a reception area.”
CNN: “No, every day care is locked.”
SHIRLEY: “Fair point.” 🤔
He shows up to a day care with masked men and wonders why they don’t let him in.
SHIRLEY: “There should be a reception area.”
CNN: “No, every day care is locked.”
SHIRLEY: “Fair point.” 🤔
He shows up to a day care with masked men and wonders why they don’t let him in.
December 31, 2025 at 7:30 PM
THE DAY CARES ARE LOCKED BECAUSE YOU MADE A GENERATION-LONG EFFORT TO MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE TO KILL THE CHILDREN INSIDE THEM YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKING GHOULS
Reposted by Derek Hennen, Ph.D.
We cannot succeed at providing effective science-based conservation without you! We hope that, if you are able, you will make a year-end gift to help protect wildlife in 2026.
THANK YOU for your support! 💖 xerces.org/give
(for a 2025 tax deduction, get your donation in before midnight ET!)
THANK YOU for your support! 💖 xerces.org/give
(for a 2025 tax deduction, get your donation in before midnight ET!)
December 31, 2025 at 5:04 PM
We cannot succeed at providing effective science-based conservation without you! We hope that, if you are able, you will make a year-end gift to help protect wildlife in 2026.
THANK YOU for your support! 💖 xerces.org/give
(for a 2025 tax deduction, get your donation in before midnight ET!)
THANK YOU for your support! 💖 xerces.org/give
(for a 2025 tax deduction, get your donation in before midnight ET!)