Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Per Smiseth

@persmiseth.bsky.social

Highlights from Newington Cemetery, Edinburgh, today: Sphaeriestes castaneus (Salpingidae), Striped Ladybird (Coccinellidae), Western Conifer Seed Bug (Coreidae) & Ectopsocus axillaris (Ectopsocidae). #insects #beetles #hemiptera #psocodea #CemeteryWildlifeWatch recording activity on #iRecord.

February 9, 2026 at 10:19 PM

Per Smiseth

@persmiseth.bsky.social

Rabocerus gabrieli, #Salpingidae, found today in Morningside Cemetery, #Edinburgh. Nationally scarce. Small (3-4mm) & active in winter. My 66th record from Edinburgh’s cemeteries (+1 from Perthshire). #beetles #coleoptera #CemeteryWildlifeWatch recording activity on #iRecord.

February 6, 2026 at 6:04 PM

The Coleopterists Society

@coleopsoc.bsky.social

#LiteratureNotice Haugen et al. Insight Into the Phylogeny of the Intertidal Beetle Genus #Aegialites (Coleoptera, Salpingidae) doi.org/10.1111/zsc.... #Beetle #Beetles #intertidalbeetle

Maximum likelihood (ML) tree for five species of Aegialites from this study, along with Aegialites californicus (OR168935) and two outgroup salpingds. The tree is based on a concatenated alignment of 13 protein-coding mitochondrial genes. GenBank accession numbers for the sequences are provided next to the species names. Posterior probabilities (from BI analysis) and bootstrap values are indicated near the nodes, and a scale bar representing the mean number of nucleotide substitutions per site is located at the bottom. Putative range and species names of specimens are outlined in the coloured boxes, and the colours correspond to colours from the species delimitation analyses as seen in Figure

December 22, 2025 at 12:16 AM

Ainsley S

@americanbeetles.bsky.social

Truly a family as diabolical as the Salpingidae but SO much more of them

September 14, 2025 at 11:33 PM

The Coleopterists Society

@coleopsoc.bsky.social

#LiteratureNotice Yoshitomi. Revision of the Genus Istrisia Lewis ( #Coleoptera: #Salpingidae) doi.org/10.3161/0003... #Beetle #Beetles #NarrowWaistedBarkBeetles #NewSpecies

August 18, 2025 at 2:45 AM

The Coleopterists Society

@coleopsoc.bsky.social

#LiteratureNotice Nose & Suzumura. New Country Record of Aegialites charlottae Zerche, 2004 ( #Coleoptera: #Salpingidae) in Washington, USA doi.org/10.1649/0010... #TheColeopteristsBulletin #Beetle #Beetles #NewRecords #NarrowWaistedBarkBeetles

Aegialites charlottae habitus. Specimen from an unnamed beach west of Neah Bay, Clallam County, Washington, USA [HN2303, JK288]. Photo taken using a Sony α6500 digital camera.

July 1, 2025 at 3:58 AM

Ainsley S

@americanbeetles.bsky.social

#14, Salpingidae, are among the most diabolical beetle families. They look like all of these: bsky.app/profile/amer...

Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · Jul 22

(tbf, Salpingidae is honestly one of the most life-ruining beetle families. Like they REFUSE to pick a lane, morphologically speaking)

thought you had a weevil there, huh? Nope, that's a salpingid

Wow, what a normal-looking rhysodid, WRONG it's another salpingid

What a cute little heterocerid body with cucujoid-like antennal clubs! OF COURSE IT'S A SALPINGID

Oh, a small beetle with very short elytra, obviously a staphylinid; WRONG it's a salpingid in the genus Inopeplus here to ruin your day

June 13, 2025 at 4:15 PM

GBIF Morpho 🦋

@gbifmorpho.bsky.social

New paper in The Coleopterists Bulletin using @gbif.org mediated data:

Review of the Nearctic Salpinginae (Coleoptera: Salpingidae) 🇺🇸🇨🇦

#CiteTheDOI: ✅

https://doi.org/10.1649/0010-065x-79.1.111

Review of the Nearctic Salpinginae (Coleoptera: Salpingidae)

The Nearctic species of Salpinginae have not been reviewed for the last 92 years. Inconsistent worldwide treatments of salpingine genera and discordant classification schemes between Nearctic and Pale...

bioone.org

March 31, 2025 at 11:09 AM

The Coleopterists Society

@coleopsoc.bsky.social

#LiteratureNotice Johnston & Pollock. Review of the Nearctic Salpinginae ( #Coleoptera: #Salpingidae) doi.org/10.1649/0010... #Beetle #Beetles #NarrowWaistedBarkBeetles #Taxonomy #TheColeopteristsBulletin

Sphaeriestes virescens. A) Dorsal habitus, scale bar = 1 mm, B) Head showing antenna and clypeal depressions, C) Male terminalia extruded from abdominal apex, ventral view. Abbreviations: al = accessory lobe, bp = basal piece, fp = fused parameres, sp = spicule plate, SVII, SVIII = seventh and eighth sternites.

March 21, 2025 at 4:48 AM

Per Smiseth

@persmiseth.bsky.social

Sphaeriestes castaneus on gravestone under Scots pine in Morningside Cemetery, #Edinburgh, this morning.
A small (~3mm) narrow-waisted bark beetle (Salpingidae) associated with conifers. #Coleoptera #beetles #CemeteryWildlifeWatch recording activity on #iRecord.

February 15, 2025 at 3:58 PM

Matt Bertone

@bertonemyia.bsky.social

Funny you mention that 😏 This flat fuck was found during the same sorting session and Gareth asked me to photograph it: a salpingid #beetle from an island off of NZ

#Salpingidae: Diagrypnodes

bsky.app/profile/amer...

Lateral view of an extremely flat beetle on a white background.

Dorsal view of an extremely flat beetle on a white background. It is very long with long antennae, and amber red hue, and has a constriction before the abdomen.

Ventral view of an extremely flat beetle on a white background. It is very long with long antennae, and amber red hue, and has a constriction before the abdomen.

Label info: Pitt Island Walpaua Stream 19.I.1990 C. A. Mulr under bark dead Corynocarpus laevigatus Diagrypnodes wakefieldi

February 14, 2025 at 1:59 PM

Dave Appleton

@applewildlife.bsky.social

I have just 5 records of beetles in the Salpingidae family (narrow-waisted bark beetles): 4 Salpingus planirostris (3 of which were found by looking at tree trunks by torchlight) and 1 Salpingus ruficollis (to my garden moth trap).

Salpingus planirostris, a dark beetle with a long broad orange-red rostrum. The antennae are orange at the base and have a long narrow dark club. The legs are orangey. The body is conspicuously pitted and has a slight bronzy-metallic lustre.

Salpingus ruficollis, a dark beetle with a long broad orange-red rostrum. The most obvious difference from the planirostris is the pronotum which is dark reddish, and the rostrum is longer. The elytra are also more clearly metallic green though I’m not sure that’s a consistent difference between the species.

February 14, 2025 at 9:07 AM

Per Smiseth

@persmiseth.bsky.social

Selection of #insects from visit to Warriston Cemetery, #Edinburgh on 12 Jan with @royleresearch.bsky.social. Highlight: Sphaeriestes castaneus under Scots pine. #CemeteryWildlifeWatch recording activity on #iRecord.