Michael Caterino
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mcaterino.bsky.social
Michael Caterino
@mcaterino.bsky.social
1.3K followers 580 following 520 posts
Coleopterist, documenting patterns of beetle diversity (especially histerids & staphylinoids); University prof sharing systematics with the next generation; aspiring popular science writer; would rather be in the field.
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mcaterino.bsky.social
Here is the paper I am referencing:

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Screenshot of title page from "Mallorquí, M.V., Vincent, J., Liston, A., Blagoderov, V. and Desmulliez, M.P. 2025. A novel passive selective cutting mechanism inspired by the ovipositors of sawflies. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ae0aa4"
November 15, 2025 at 1:32 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Euphoria! This is both the proper genus name and the feeling associated with finding one (on a walk over to the library). Late in the year for this guy.

Euphoria sepulchralis, I believe.
Photo of a brown scarab beetle on a white background. The wing covers have subtle ivory-yellow bands across the far ends. Actual size is about 1 cm, though there is nothing for scale in the photo.
November 3, 2025 at 7:31 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Would you like your acorns in small, medium, or Xtra Large?

The giants are from Clemson's Centennial Bur Oak (the well-named Quercus macrocarpa), a spectacular tree.

Medium is white oak (Q. alba) and small is willow oak (Q. phellos).
Photo of three acorns lined up next to a US penny. A very small one, about half penny-size on the left, dark brown, with darker strips, and a petite cap. In the middle is a medium one, chestnut brown. On the left is the giant bur oak acorn, nearly covered by its densely fimbriate cap. Side view of Clemson's Centennial Bur Oak, with a sign beneath: "The largest Bur Oak in South Carolina, Clemson University's Centennial oak, Quercus macrocarpa; Height 63 ft, circumference 16 feet 1 inch, Spread 141 feet, Trunk diameter (abh) 60 inches (in 2009).
November 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Clemson peeps - next Thursday night (October 30 @ 6:30) I'll be leading an 'Explain it like I'm drinking' session at Kite Hill Brewing Co. on our leaf litter research in the southern Appalachians. Quench your thirst for knowledge of microarthropods!
Flyer with an orange background, a hoisted pint, and a smiling me at the lower left. Text of flyer: Kite Hill Brewing Co. presents Explain it like I'm drinking - Mike Caterino - "Life Underfoot: Insects in Southern Appalachian Leaf Litter - thursday evening (October 30) @ 6:30 PM.
October 23, 2025 at 10:32 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Histerid beetles are renowned for their extremely conserved (some would say 'boring', but we don't talk to those people) appearance. Here's a spicy one from French Guiana and Brazil - Phelister sanguinipennis.
dorsal photo of a point-mounted beetle. Beetle is elongate oval, rounded in front, kind of pointy in back. The head, thorax, and abdomen are dark reddish-brown, and the wing covers are a brightish red-orange. The head is projecting with two small fuzzy antennae at the sides, and the mandibles, while small, are pointy and slightly open.
October 16, 2025 at 2:02 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
A few bug sightings on a family trip (Devil's Fork SP at Lake Jocassee). The stink bugs were helpfully partly labeled in situ. The termite masses were fleeing a log that we had in the fire. Didn't know there was a colony inside! Sorry! Don't know the millipede, @derekhennen.bsky.social ?
Flattish black millipede with pale yellow lining each segment. Background is leaves and sand. The side of an orange tent with two bugs, the 'Marm' from the tent brand Marmot is showing. I added the notation 'Brown [Marm]-orated stink bug. Termites massed on the end of a log. other end is in the fire pit. Lakeview with sunset on the clouds, rocks in the foreground, trees in the back.
October 14, 2025 at 10:45 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Entomology-herpetology solidarity!
October 10, 2025 at 9:23 AM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Found a Lampyrid larva today neck-deep in a snail.
An elongate, flat, brown larva on a log with its head in the opening of a snail shell, eating the occupant.
October 10, 2025 at 1:49 AM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Please check out my new blog: 'Value in nature'. I plan to feature the innumerable ways biodiversity benefits us - ecosystem services in the widest sense.

The punchline to nearly every post: our future flourishing depends on preserving as much biodiversity as we possibly can.

mscaterino.pika.page
Banner image from mscaterino.pika.page. The background image is a pineapple growing at the tip of a bromeliad against a tropical forest backdrop. In the lower left is the caption 'Value in nature'.
October 8, 2025 at 12:56 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
In her dissertation, @smunoztobar.bsky.social showed that there was a diverse radiation of Panabachia in high-elevation Andean páramo habitats (doi.org/10.3390/inse...).

Now most of these have proper names, with 22 species described in our latest paper, in ZooKeys: doi.org/10.3897/zook...
Plate of 10 dorsal photographs of new Panabachia species, with scale bars showing each to be roughly 1mm in length. They are somewhat typical pselaphine rove beetles, short-bodied, brownish-orange, with short elytra and clubbed antennae. The species are as follows: A. Panabachia pahuma; B. P. pastazae; C. P. romeroi; D. P. salebrosa; E. P. urbana; F. P. carltoni; G. P. patera; H. P. vigilans; I. P. perdita; J. P. ambulans. Male genitalia photos of nine new Panabachia species. Most have a thin and curved median lobe with coiled lateral accessory sclerites. Two on the bottom are more rounded with fimbriate apices, while a third at bottom right is asymmetrical with a coiled lateral plate. The species are as follows: A. Panabachia papallacta; B. P. ananay; C. P. cayambi; D. P. cryptica; E. P. caranqui; F. P. patera; G. P. vigilans; H. P. perdita; I. P. ambulans.
October 2, 2025 at 2:11 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Taking a few pictures for a science pub night in a few weeks. I want to share with that audience the thing that tipped me over into entomology. It was staring down the scope at a tiger beetle. I never recovered. Join the club!!
Close-up of the head of a tiger beetle. Huge, angry looking eyes flank an iridescent rainbow of a face, with wiggly parallel ridges between the eyes converging in front. The beetle has a black, multispined labrum (upper lip) projecting out over strong, closed mandibles.
October 1, 2025 at 2:03 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
High elevation litter spiders of southern Appalachia show less local endemism than other arthropods - ballooning by spiderlings apparently overcomes geographic isolation. A great collaboration with @forthespiders.bsky.social & Ernesto Recuero

doi.org/10.1636/JoA-... (if paywalled write me for pdf)
One fourth of a phylogenetic tree of southern Appalachian spiders, with photos of three representative taxa along the right side, Wadotes hybridus (reddish brown cephalothorax with zig-zag stripey gray and white abdomen), Neon nelli (large-eyed gray jumping spider), and Antrodiaetus sp. (a large-jawed mygalomorph trapdoor spider, light tan with a reddish abdomen. One fourth of a phylogenetic tree of southern Appalachian spiders, with photos of four representative taxa along the right side, Centromerus denticulatus and Centromerus tennapax (both mostly golden brown with gray abdomen, both males with enlarged palps), Bathyphantes bishopi (dark brown cephalothorax, long legs, dark gray abdomen), Tenuiphantes sabulosus (golden cephalothorax, long legs, pale dark-striped abdomen). One fourth of a phylogenetic tree of southern Appalachian spiders, with photos of four representative taxa along the right side, Collinsia sp. and Collinsia oxypaederotipus (both with light brown cephalothorax, pale legs, gray-green abdomen, both males with enlarged palps), Ceraticelus laetabilis (stout, with brown cephalothorax and lighter brown abdomen, palps slightly enlarged), Ceraticelus fissiceps (orange cephalothorax with distinctly enlarged dark snout, lighter abdomen). One fourth of a phylogenetic tree of southern Appalachian spiders, with photos of four representative taxa along the right side, Sisicus n. sp (not yet described, light brown round cephalothorax, with pale abdomen and legs, large male palps), Floricomus praedesignatus (dark tuberculate male cephalothorax, gray-green abdomen, pale legs), Blestia sarcocuon (anteriorly pointed cephalothorax, dark with long yellowish legs, impressive male palps), and Ceratinops carolinus (prolonged elevated, brown male cephalothorax, gray-green abdomen).
September 30, 2025 at 9:14 AM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Here's another nice beetle larva we found today, this one a chonky (almost 2 inches) cerambycid. I guess it's probably Orthosoma brunneum, but am not really sure. We left it in its log.
Long white grub on a rotting log, with orange-brown gallery behind, mostly of chewed up wood fragments. The larva has a little of its head sticking out, and each abdominal segment has a slightly swollen ring.
September 30, 2025 at 12:47 AM
mcaterino.bsky.social
This will appeal to like 4 of my friends out there. But this is a live Nosodendron (beetle) larva. Nosodendron means 'sick tree', and true to its name these were found in a black, moldy wet area around an injured beech root. Enjoy!
September 29, 2025 at 8:50 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
A colleague brought me a beautiful batch of Polyphemus moth larvae this week. They were feeding on some experimental American Chestnut, a rarely documented association, for obvious reasons. They've been released back to my yard, hoping they'll take to beech. They're big, and may just pupate.
Two fat, almost translucently green caterpillars in a plastic bin. They have vertical yellow stripes running down the sides, and light brown heads. There are chestnut leaves around them. Polyphemus caterpillar hunched up on a beech stem. Larva is light bright green with yellow strips running down from white spiracles. There are fine white hairs on the back and prolegs, which are clinging to the stem. One leaf is immediately behind the caterpillar with the out-of-focus ground in the background.
September 13, 2025 at 12:24 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Li et al. describe Fantosmium, a new and bizarre Cretaceous fossil histerid beetle. It has been placed in the subfamily Onthophilinae, but that subfamily is harder to define by the day. A nice paper nonetheless!

doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
Dorsal (left) and ventral (right) photographs from the publication - a flattened beetle in light colored amber. The sides of the beetle are explanate, broadly rounded, and the dorsum is sculptured, with elevated ridges on the wing covers. The right side of the ventral view is obscured by bubbles in the amber matrix.
September 10, 2025 at 12:51 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
A few more....
Mating pair of milkweek bugs, boldly red and black-banded insects perched on a leaf tail-to-tail. Brown, marmorated stink bug on a legume leaf. Bug is actually brownish-gray, with prominent white spots along the sides of the abdomen, at the corners of the scutellum, and white banding on the legs and antennae. Monarch caterpillar munching on a milkweed stem, a white, black, and yellow banded larva with two threadlike projections on the top of the thorax. Elongate red-orange beetle with black spots on the shoulders and two pairs of black spots more posteriorly on the wing covers, hence, the 'six-spotted Neolema' (Neolema sexpuncata), a leaf beetle in the subfamily Criocerinae. Beetle is centered in the frame sitting on the edge of a leaf, with black antennae outstretched.
September 7, 2025 at 2:50 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
A nice, buggy morning walk at the South Carolina Botanical Garden. Nothing too rare, but life practically everywhere you looked!
Black, thread-waisted wasp, with white blotches on the thorax, sitting on a leaf. Mottled white, black, and pink grasshopper perched vertically on a red stem. Green, wrinkly caterpillar (larva of cloudless sulphur) on legume leaves. Long green preying mantis climbing along fine-leaved plant.
September 7, 2025 at 2:41 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
The exciting catch, under the scope. Zoraptera!

Among the more obscure and peculiar of the orthopteroid orders, the 'angel insects' have long been considered very rare. But we find them fairly regularly here (Clemson, SC) under pine bark.
A dish of 11 small white insects in ethanol. They are eyeless and wingless. The antennae are about two-thirds the body length, with about 9 distinct segments. The head is downturned with distinct mandibles. There are short, one-segmented cerci at the end of the abdomen. Two individuals in the center of the dish are slightly more mature, a little darker and more distinctly setose.
September 5, 2025 at 12:18 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Had a great afternoon in the field yesterday with the immature insects course. Can anyone guess what these two lucky students were collecting?
Two entomologists hunched over a pine log in a forest, using forceps to collect small insects.
September 5, 2025 at 12:09 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Identifying histerids in the Purdue Entomology Research Collection (PERC) with @entoaaron.bsky.social . Great place and great collection!
Lab bench with a drawer of small beetles next to a stereoscope, laptop, and an all-important cup of campus coffee.
August 27, 2025 at 7:33 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
And yes, of course there are genitalia pictures. They are extremely variable for a group that doesn't vary all that much externally.
Photographic plate from the publication with 12 images of genitalia. There are lateral and dorsal views of each of 6 species. Most have an enlarged basal bulb, with an articulated and elongate median lobe. In some the median lobe is pretty elaborate, subdivided into multiple apices, flattened, or knobbed. Photographic plate from the publication with 10 images of genitalia. There are lateral and dorsal views of each of 5 species. Most have an enlarged basal bulb, with an articulated and elongate median lobe. In some the median lobe is pretty elaborate, subdivided into multiple apices, hooked, or with a spiny apical sac.
August 26, 2025 at 2:43 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Whoo-hoo, the first paper from my sabbatical in Ecuador has been published! A great collaboration with a couple of INaBio colleagues. Everyone, I share the wonder of Bibrax.

doi.org/10.3897/zook...
Plate of 8 photographs from the publication. A-D down the left side show dorsal, lateral, and ventral views (the last with a closeup of the abdomen) of Bibrax onorei, an elongate, fuzzy orange beetle with short wing covers and very long antennae. E-H down the right side show Bibrax aratrifer, which looks pretty similar except for the abdomen. Aratrifer has a setose patch on the 3rd ventral segment where onorei has transverse ridges on the 3rd-5th segments. Plate of 9 photographs from the publication. A-e down the left side show dorsal, lateral, and ventral views (the last with a closeup of the abdomen) of Bibrax yasuni, an elongate, fuzzy orange beetle with short wing covers and very long antennae. Fig E in the bottom middle shows a prolonged trochanter. F-H down the right side show Bibrax grandis, a chunkier species with a short antennal base. Photograph I in the bottom right shows the abdomen of Bibrax amasanga, showing depressions on the last sternites.
August 26, 2025 at 2:39 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
Identifying southeastern US Pselaphinae remains challenging. Many species have been treated in scattered revisions, but existing illustrations are hard to interpret. I'm starting to put together a photo atlas to help. What I've got so far is on Flickr.
www.flickr.com/photos/18348...
A screenshot from flickr with thumbnails of about 35 photos of Pselaphinae (small rove beetles), a mix of body shots and genitalia pictures.
August 23, 2025 at 4:15 PM
mcaterino.bsky.social
A special gift to add to the beetle paraphernalia collection - a crocheted pselaphine modelled on the neotropical genus Goniacerus. Pretty striking likeness!
Crocheted beetle, of brown yarn, with bendable legs and antennae, and the characteristic short elytra of Pselaphinae rove beetles. Lateral photograph of a pselaphine rove beetle. The beetle is globose and dark orange, with sparse long setae. The antennae are elbowed, with a long basal segment and shorter apical segments, some of which are modified, showing it to be a male. Elytra are short as in all members of this group, so that most of the segmented abdomen is exposed.
August 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM