A delicate, time-consuming method (perhaps more of an art!) to preserve caterpillars is inflation — but it can produce stunningly life-like specimens, like this over 100-year-old silkworm (Bombyx mori)! #PERCBugs #Lepidoptera

It’s #TenebTuesday! Outshining the name “darkling beetle” this is Nautes azurescens (Jacquelin du Val, 1857) [Tenebrioninae: Helopini] from USA: Florida, Cuba, & the Bahamas. Adults “taken at lights … [but] habits of this species are unknown” (Steiner 2005) [scale = 1mm] #Coleoptera #PERCBugs

An unidentified weevil from California collected in 1888—on the pin you see a type of vivid green corrosion called verdigris—a reaction between the metals used in very old pins + drawer microclimate & can be a serious problem in some, often historic collections #WeevilWednesday #PERCBugs

This striking, fuzzy fly (Eudasys ophrys Whittington [Platystomatidae]) caught my attention when sorting a box of (largely unidentified) Diptera from Nigeria—never know what you'll in a collection! #PERCBugs #FlyFriday

From our collection—a Falcate Orangetip (Anthocharis midea) collected 124 years ago by Constantine Troxler, a “Veteran Shoe Dealer And An Entomologist of Reputation—A Native of Germany” (from an obituary in The Courier Journal 1904) #PERCBugs #Lepidoptera

An unreasonably photogenic cucujoid (Helota vigorsii MacLeay, 1825) from East Java with tiny hitchhikers (phoretic mites)! #Helotidae #Coleoptera #PERCBugs

This specimen was collected by W.S. Blatchley —his brief label says “R.P.P. Fla. ... 3-25-24”—but in an unpublished manuscript, “Winter & Spring Insects of Royal Palm Park,” he included more details (under the synonym N. viridimicans)—beetles were “beaten from dead limbs” #PERCBugs #TenebTuesday