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uchimoptera.bsky.social
@uchimoptera.bsky.social
24 followers 170 following 5 posts
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americanbeetles.bsky.social
🚨🪲 COOL JOB ALERT 🪲🚨
3-year position at the Western Australian Museum working on an awesome beetle phylogenetics project, starting at $105k dollarydoos per annum: search.jobs.wa.gov.au/page.php?pag...
October 15, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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xkcd.com
Biology Department

xkcd.com/3140/
Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality
September 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
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natureportfolio.nature.com
Why are some species widespread while others are found only in small, isolated areas? A study in Nature Communications shows that species with narrow ranges, and thus higher extinction risk, are often island-restricted, poor dispersers, and have evolved relatively recently. #evosky 🧪
Evolutionary age correlates with range size across plants and animals - Nature Communications
Why are some species widespread while others are found only in small, isolated areas? This study shows that species with narrow ranges, and thus higher extinction risk, are often island-restricted, poor dispersers, and have evolved relatively recently.
go.nature.com
September 8, 2025 at 10:43 PM
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americanbeetles.bsky.social
Looking for something unrelated, found what might be the only beetle collected by master flea taxonomist Robert Traub. He mounted it exactly like a flea, of course
Old microscope slide of something collected by Robert Traub from a Neotoma nest in Kansas It’s a tiny beetle! Histerid, maybe Euspilotus?
September 4, 2025 at 8:39 PM
uchimoptera.bsky.social
I wish i could be a Bibrax. It would have its advantages.
mcaterino.bsky.social Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · Aug 26
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 28, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted
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
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bertonemyia.bsky.social
Behold! The gnarly-but-neat nasal bot (snot?) fly maggot! This sp. lives in the sinuses/throats of deer feeding on mucous etc. The larva is from a taxidermist & was shared by Ezra Bailey ☺️ Adults look like bees & shoot larvae into noses: bugguide.net/node/view/26...
#Diptera #Oestridae #Cephenemyia
A cream colored maggot on a white background. It is blunt at both ends and the body is covered in various sized, dark thorny spines arranged in bands and scattered among the integument. The anterior region or head and thorax of a cream colored maggot on a white background, laying on its back. It is covered in various sized, dark thorny spines arranged in bands and scattered among the integument, and you can see a pair of sharp, fang-like mouthhooks poking out near the front of the face. Looking into the rear end of a cream colored maggot on a white background. It is covered in splotches and various sized, dark thorny spines arranged in bands and scattered among the integument. The center has a shallow cavity with two large spiracles next to each other, looking like eyes.
July 26, 2025 at 2:32 PM
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tyuge.bsky.social
#FlyWeek seems like a good time to share this... ?phorid I got in a buried pitfall trap back in 2016, in the northern Blue Ridge Mtns in Virginia, USA. Seems to completely lack eyes.
May 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted
natureportfolio.nature.com
A Data Descriptor in Scientific Data presents an annotated, haplotype-phased, chromosome-level genome assembly for the spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula, which could help with the development and optimization of management practices. https://go.nature.com/42aRyEC 🧪 🧬
This is figure 2, which is a multi-paneled figure showing the Hi-C contact map for haplotype 1 of the spotted lanternfly.
April 13, 2025 at 7:29 PM
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blacksmoke1033.bsky.social
Hi
March 14, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted
entiminae.bsky.social
We are organizing a #WeevilCourse:
When: July 24 – August 2, 2025
Where: Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Arizona, USA
Info: www.curculionoidea.org/weevil-cours...
Applications are open: www.amnh.org/research/sou...
Flier promoting the Weevil Course and Rounddup. July 24 – August 2, 2025 Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Arizona, USA Scope: Global, with emphasis on identification, specially of the US and Canadian fauna. Cost: Sponsored tuition: 750 USD (room and board; course fees waived) Full tuition: 1200 USD (room and board plus course fees) Application: email swrs@amnh.org to request an application. https://www.amnh.org/research/southwestern-research-station/courses#4-weevil Organized by the Weevil Workers Community Info: https://www.curculionoidea.org/weevil-course-roundup-arizona email: weevilworkers@gmail.com Sponsored by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and The Coleopterists Society.
February 16, 2025 at 2:50 AM
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parasitoidrex.bsky.social
Gall midges and their parasitoids are abundant, megadiverse, and very hard to identify! Such "double dark taxa" systems present special challenges for ecology and agriculture. 🧵🧪🐙 @smnstuttgart.bsky.social @marinamoser.bsky.social @krogmann.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/aesa...
Untangling host specialization in a “double dark taxa” system
Abstract. Platygastrine wasps (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) are parasitoids of gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae). They and their hosts are exceptionally
doi.org
February 12, 2025 at 11:01 PM
uchimoptera.bsky.social
All glory to our Ciidae lords. <3
There is also this ancestral-state reconstruction of fungi use:
sci-hub.se/https://www....
January 24, 2025 at 7:58 AM
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gawki.bsky.social
Coffee and Grub
A painting of a grub holding a cup of coffee.
January 21, 2025 at 7:18 AM
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bertonemyia.bsky.social
⭐ 2024 Top Finds/Pics ⭐

I mean, do I even need to explain why? 😂
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This is a male stalk-eyed #fly from Costa Rica. Females lack the hammerhead while males "compare sizes" for a chance to mate. Evolution is magical 🪄

#Ulidiidae: #Plagiocephalus
Collected by @flyliceresearch.bsky.social
A fly on a white background with extremely wide and narrow eye stalks, making the head as wide as the wingspan and longer than the body. It has wings with a thick, dark wavy line, and they are held out to the side of the body. A fly on a white background with extremely wide and narrow eye stalks, looking at the camera. It looks like a pencil sitting across the face of a fly with an eye at each end.
December 26, 2024 at 11:30 PM
uchimoptera.bsky.social
Behold! another reason to love mites.
animalecology.bsky.social Journal of Animal Ecology @animalecology.bsky.social · Nov 26
"Feather mites have been known to consume microbes from their host feathers, but here, for the first time, we demonstrate that they selectively consume feather-degrading microbes from feathers...."🪽
Read the full paper here: https://buff.ly/3OmCOKN 🧪 🌏
buff.ly
December 18, 2024 at 4:42 AM
Reposted
phypapers.bsky.social
A phylogenetic perspective of chromosome evolution in Formicidae https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680858/
December 18, 2024 at 3:41 AM
uchimoptera.bsky.social
This is aewasome! <3
crezaval.bsky.social Carolina Rezaval @crezaval.bsky.social · Nov 15
We're hiring! Please share!

Exciting opportunities for #PhD students, #postdocs, and #research assistants to join our team in exploring how the brain prioritizes actions in conflict.

#Neuroscience #Drosophila

Interested? Reach out! rezavallab.org
December 17, 2024 at 6:58 AM
Reposted
daxkellie.bsky.social
✅ Do you use R or Python?
✅ Are you an ecologist/biologist?

Then you might find our website ALA Labs useful!

ALA Labs is full of how-to articles to visualise or analyse biodiversity data. Some are for beginners, others are advanced/experimental 😀

labs.ala.org.au

🧪🌏 #rstats #python #quartopub
ALA Labs frontpage & text logo. ALA LABS text is in white, formatted as off-centre stacked text. Underneath is smaller text, "Experiments in code, data analysis & visualisation from the Atlas of Living Australia." The background is green grass with a Southern Brown Tree Frog in the middle, hanging onto the grass. It has a darker brown top and lighter brown underside. The frog's eye is a rich dark yellow, with a black pupil in the shape of an oval, stretching from the left to right side of the eye An animated scroll through an ALA Labs post, showing code, text and visuals to make a data visualisation in R. The article is on how to make a hexagon map of Australia, where each hexagon is an area of Australia, and each point in the hexagon is positioned and coloured to represent a species. Examples of dataviz that ALA Labs posts show how to make in R. They are colourful and fun. One of them is even 3D!
December 17, 2024 at 5:27 AM
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mcaterino.bsky.social
I helped some colleagues here shoot this photo for a paper they're revising (they've posted it to iNat, so it's already 'out there'). Anyone care to guess as to what's going on here? Hint: both these flies are parasites, of a sort.
Two flies, one exhibiting its dependence on the other. More to come after quiz time.
December 13, 2024 at 1:19 PM