Craig B
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mutillidae.bsky.social
Craig B
@mutillidae.bsky.social
900 followers 340 following 160 posts
Principal Investigator of impedimental temporal phenomena. Hymenopterist. Keeper of secrets. he/him

Curator of a university insect collection located in the Midwest (USA).

I am passionate about velvet-ants.
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mutillidae.bsky.social
My two cents' worth...
Focus-stacked close up of two water pennies, one in dorsal and one in ventral view. These are larvae of beetles in the family Psephenidae. The thoracic nota and abdominal terga have laterally expanded flanges that create an oval shield above the body. This likely provides some camouflage and protection against predation as the larvae crawl across submerged rocks. Anyhoo, they are mostly mottled in yellows and browns. White filaments/gills can be seen laterally on the abdominal segments in ventral view.
October 26, 2025 at 8:01 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
I'll never not be amazed at how transformative 3D printing has been for insect collecting & curation.

I can make just about anything (that fits inside the printer) out of virtually nothing (i.e., a spool of inexpensive thermoplastic).

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#MakeItYourOwnDamnSelf
Photo inside the open door of an enclosed 3D printer. Attached to the print bed is an angled chute, printed out of fluorescent orange ABS filament. Good times.
September 29, 2025 at 1:54 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
I mean...

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CurationSunday
#Madagascar
#Buprestidae
Metallic blue jewel beetle (family Buprestidae) on an insect pin. The specimen is resting on top of a 3D printed, rainbow colored pinning block. The beetle has yellowish/orange/red maculations on the pronotum and the elytra have scattered tufts of pale setae. The background is a neutral grey bench top.
September 28, 2025 at 6:28 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Sure, let's burn down the planet using AI to generate fantastical imaginary creatures

...because the natural world isn't fantastic enough?

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#MacroPhotography
#FocusStacking
#NoAIUsedHere
#Tanzania
#JewelBeetle
#Buprestidae
Mostly lateral, slightly front-ish view of a jewel beetle on a neutral grey background. It's a chonky specimen, the integument is various dark metallic shades of blue, green, bronze, purple, and black. Pale ivory/yellowish tufts of hair (setae) are regularly covering the pronotum and elytra. The ones on the elytra are shorter and arranged in longitudinal rows. At the corner of the elytron there is a dense appressed patch of brownish orange setae.
September 27, 2025 at 3:58 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
For labeling a diverse group of insects...

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrinting
A 3D printed insect pinning block on a textured white background. The pinning block has six differently colored layers of filament: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.
September 24, 2025 at 9:14 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Pro tip:
You can use an inexpensive punch to cut out plugs of foam to use in your manipulators.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Curation
#MakeItYourOwnDamnSelf
Picture of a black self-healing cutting mat, with a grid of white lines and additional white lines marking 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° angles. There's a rectangular piece of white Plastazote foam with a series of holes punched out of it. The punched out foam plugs are next to the rectangle and there is a black and sliver punch laying in front of the mat.
September 18, 2025 at 3:15 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Here's my one-off manipulator. I like it because it is the only one in the world made like this...and I think it looks kinda steampunk-ish. 🙂

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Curation
#MakeItYourOwnDamnSelf
Insect specimen manipulator on a neutral grey background. The piece is mostly metal: the base and upright is aluminum, the specimen holder is brass/copper, the handle is bronze, and there are a couple of black machine bolts holding the bits together. There is some clear plastic tubing over the brass handle and there's a black rubber o-ring on the specimen holder.
September 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
me: Do you have any preferences for color or material?

them: Any color will work for me

Alrighty then.... 😂

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrinting
#MakeItYourOwnDamnSelf
Twenty-four 3D-printed insect specimen manipulators sitting on a neutral grey bench top. The manipulators were made with a variety of filament colors, including yellow, blue, metallic red, metallic purple, lime green, brass, and matte grey. They are arranged in a somewhat pleasing set of concentric circles.
September 17, 2025 at 9:59 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
The 2025 Bee Course wrapped up on Sunday after 10 amazing days of lab & field work in the Chiricahua Mountains in AZ.

We collected bees representing about 42 genera of bees! This is Holcopasites (prob. H. minimus) I collected during the course. 🐝 👀 ♥️

#Apidae
#Nomadinae
#NaturalHistoryCollections
Small, point-mounted red and black bee on a grey background. The first three metasomal segments are reddish and the rest of the integument is black. Though quite small, the bee appears stout and robust. The body is densely punctate and there are dense patches of white appressed setae, mostly on the sides of the mesosoma and on the apical fringes of the tergites.
August 28, 2025 at 6:24 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
I got nuthin' new to offer anyone today so I'm reposting this composite image of a velvet-ant and a true ant (or, as I like to call them, false velvet-ants... 😀 ).

I like the convergent metallic color pattern.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#FocusStacking
#Mutillidae
#Formicidae
#Australia
A composite image of two small insects against a neutral gray background. A velvet-ant (Mutillidae) is above a true ant (Formicidae). Both are dark metallic, with shades ranging from purplish on the head and mesosoma, to shades of dark green on the metasoma. The velvet-ant also has dense apical fringes of appressed setae on the abdominal tergites.
July 30, 2025 at 3:27 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
When three rows of seating still isn't enough...

[Grab of Ggl street view while researching a road trip]

#GoogleFail
Picture of a full size dark blue SUV...maybe a Suburban (?) going down the highway. This is a screen grab from Ggl maps and the SUV has six wheels and six doors. Whoops.
July 27, 2025 at 5:34 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Nightmare fuel for insect collection curators.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#ItTakesAllKinds
#HappyWeekend
Close up of a standard insect pin, stuck in a piece of white foam. There is a hand-written collection label a small distance above the foam—fairly normal—but above that is a rectangle of lined index card. The insect pin has been inserted (somehow) in between the top and bottom layers of the card, so the card is sticking out like a flag from the side of the insect pin. Opposite the end with the insect pin, there are three minutens, also inserted into the edge of the card rectangle. Two of the minutens hold small red clerid beetles. The third has just a small piece of one elytron, presumably from a third beetle, now lost.
July 25, 2025 at 9:04 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Every so often during the past couple of years, I would come across this springtail in my Malaise trap samples and think "I should really try to image this".

Well, my friends, today was the day.

#Collembola
#FocusStacking
#NaturalHistoryCollections
#NotAI
#SpottyMcSpotface
Three-quarters profile view of a springtail (Order Collembola) against a white background. The springtail is quite globular and I haven't yet tried to figure out what family it belongs to. The background color of the body is a a kind of pale orange-y red and it has many, mostly small dark spots over its body. It's moderately long antennae are strongly elbowed (geniculate).
July 10, 2025 at 8:48 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Little. Long-horned. Lepidoptera.

#Adelidae
#NorthernItaly
#NaturalHistoryCollections
A tiny moth on a green leaf. It is in the family Adelidae, commonly known as Fairy Moths. The wings are dark. The thorax and a transverse band across the folded wings are golden. It has very long antennae; they are roughly 2.5 times longer than the body. This specimen was seen in the Italian alps.
July 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Post a bug that looks like AI but is actually real.

#Strepsiptera
#NaturalHistoryCollections
#BugSky
#Inverts
Dorsal view of a male strepsipteran, a parasite of social wasps. Its large membranous wings remind me a little of ginko leaves. The front wings are reduced to small knobs, reminiscent of the halteres found in flies. The phylogenetic relationships of this small order jumped around through history, but our current understanding is that they are relatives of the beetles.
June 18, 2025 at 1:52 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
I made a thing.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrintingFTW
#Education&Outreach

@entcollnet.bsky.social
@entsocamerica.bsky.social
June 4, 2025 at 7:14 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Solitary solifugid.

#TexasHillCountry
#ArachnidsOfHersheyRanch
June 4, 2025 at 2:28 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Coreid circlet.

#HersheyRanchInsects
#TexasHillCountry
June 3, 2025 at 9:36 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Pinging @tdikow.bsky.social for this mydid from central Texas...can it be IDed from this (less than stellar) image?

It is the first mydid fly I've ever collected in a Malaise trap! I think it's in Mydas...but that's about as far as I can get. 🤓

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Taxonomy
#MydidMonday
Large, mostly black mydid fly (Mydidae) pinned on a large piece of yellow foam. The abdomen is black basally and apically, but dark orange on the middle segments. The wings are smoky/black. There are several #2 pins holding the wings and legs in position while the specimen dries out.
June 2, 2025 at 4:49 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Batnado

🦇🌪️👀❤️

#TakeABreath
May 8, 2025 at 9:55 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
If you see this, post the most recent photo of yourself from your camera roll.

Texas Hill Country after an event that included a presentation by wild bird rehabilitators.
A selfie of me in front of a wild bird rehabilitator, Ian, holding an adult female Bald Eagle. We are on ranch; in the background is a stone wall, an old split rail fence, and a metal barn. Some live oaks and mixed grasses add some nice green to the image.
May 7, 2025 at 3:34 AM
mutillidae.bsky.social
[O]Puntia Party!

I very much appreciate the opportunity to be in the field, collecting insects, particularly during these…interesting times.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#HersheyRanchInsects
May 4, 2025 at 2:49 AM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Dramatic range extension from original introduction in the PNW, or a 2nd introduction into the U.S.?!

This image was taken in the upper Midwest, and I am certain this is an Asian Giant Hornet, Vespa mandarinia.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#StayHydrated
#WaspLove
#fieldwork
#BugSky
A large yellow and black wasp, leaning against a 12-ounce beer empty beer can on a wooden deck railing, against a leafy green background. The exoskeleton is somewhat plastic-y in appearance.
April 1, 2025 at 12:50 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Not just WI...several states use(d) TRS. We have 10s (maybe 100s) of thousands of specimens with TRS coords on their labels in our collection. 😬

Fortunately there's a plugin for Google Earth that outlines the 1 sq. mi. section—it's great for georeferencing!

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Digitization
Screen grab of a Google Earth window on a laptop, showing a satellite view of a relatively small area in northern Wisconsin. A one-square-mile section is highlighted in orange. It is the result of a search using the Township, Range, and Section coordinate system.
March 23, 2025 at 11:47 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Well, this certainly was a choice.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Macrophotography
#FocusStacking
#CurationFail
#Eulophidae
#BugSky
Side view of a single insect pin, holding several tiny parasitic wasps, against a white background. Each dark wasp is attached to its own cream-colored card point; the card points are arranged radially on the pin. A white silken cocoon is underneath the stacked points and two insect labels are also visible.
March 23, 2025 at 4:24 PM