#NaturalHistoryCollections
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mutillidae.bsky.social
For fresh, minty curation on the go.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#ReduceReuseRecycle
#3DPrinting
#BetterThanDoomScrolling
February 10, 2025 at 6:45 PM
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
I made a thing.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrintingFTW
#Education&Outreach

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


How do I hold small insect specimens and diffuse the camera flash(es) when I capture image stacks in the collection?

I'm glad you asked! 🙂

I use this:

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#FocusStacking
#3DPrinting
#DidIMentionMagnets ?!
January 7, 2025 at 7:49 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Reposting another image for #WorldRobberFlyDay, because who doesn’t love a nice Gnat Ogre?!

(Holcocephala sp., and yes, that is their common name)

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#FocusStacking
#AsiloidFlies
A frontal view of a tiny, ferocious robber fly against a light grey background. It’s humpbacked pronotum is yellow with brown maculations, the wings are dusky, and the legs are orange. The ginormous globular eyes dwarf the rest of the head.
May 1, 2026 at 2:09 AM
mutillidae.bsky.social
.

Happy Dasymutilla sicheliana day to those who celebrate.

.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Macrophotography
#FocusStacking
#Mutillidae
#IHeartYou
Dorsal view of a female velvet-ant (family Mutillidae) on a grey background. It's reddish brown, with dense, large patches of appressed yellow and black setae. The thorax has a large, heart-shaped patch of black appressed setae on a background of yellow.
February 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
I wanted to see if I could design and 3D print an insert for Le Parfait bail jars that makes it easier to see the contents and labels in the smaller vials. What do you think?

#CuratorsCorner
#NaturalHistoryCollections
#3DPrinting
#SpiritCollections
#WetCollections
December 1, 2025 at 7:09 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social


Our planet is full of natural jewels.

Most Natural History Collections, archives of the planet's biological diversity, are under-resourced—some direly so.

Support #NaturalHistoryCollections !

That is all.

Another early #BlueMonday post
#MacroPhotography
#FocusStacking
Upper quarter left frontolateral view of a jewel beetle (family Buprestidae) on a white background. The entire body is metallic: the head, legs, and elytra are bluish-purple and the pronotum is a yellowish green. The large eyes are reddish brown on this specimen.
January 15, 2025 at 5:14 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
I've been working on a better setup for capturing focus-stacked images of immature insects in alcohol...and it's working well. 🙂

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Macrophotography
#FocusStacking
#Psephenidae

#APennyForYourThoughts
Ventral view of a water penny larva (Psephenidae) against a black background. The six legs, antennae, and the feathery gills are all clearly visible—and would be well protected from above when the larva is clinging to a rock underneath the water.
July 30, 2026 at 1:57 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
mutillidae.bsky.social
Rainbow triceratops*

*scarab. Phanaeus difformis collected in Texas, in 2002.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CollectionCorner
#FocusStacking
#Scarabaeidae
#Coleoptera
#WIRC
Quarter-profile (-ish) view of a rainbow scarab (Phanaeus difformis) against a black background. The elytra are metallic purplish, the pronotum is metallic greeenish, and the head and horn are black with subtle purplish tints. The back corners of the pronotum are produced into small dorsals extensions, giving it a decidedly three horned appearance. The lamellate antennal clubs are orangish-brown. It is a lovely beetle (as far as beetles go).
March 29, 2026 at 5:30 PM
kaplipa.bsky.social
Happy to see our Comment out in @natrevgenet.nature.com ! Species-dense genomics can unlock much richer biological inference, but requires a systematic approach. NHCs hold the material and expertise to play a catalytic role in that direction. #BiodiversityGenomics #NaturalHistoryCollections
September 3, 2026 at 5:31 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social


Anyone else ever experience Eupholus Euphoria?

#WeevilWednesday
#NaturalHistoryCollections
#FeelingBlue
A dorsal view of a brightly colored weevil. The weevil is facing left; it's on a white background. It is almost entirely covered in beautiful metallic shades of blue, most notably on the abdomen, where transverse bands of different shades of blue are separated by a few bands of black. If I remember correctly, this specimen in our collection was collected in Papua New Guinea.
December 4, 2024 at 12:59 PM
siputairtawar.bsky.social
The value of #NaturalHistoryCollections lies in the provenance data, which can reveal the hundreds of thousands of hidden hands behind the prominent few who are attributed as the 'collectors'. This paper provides data that can be applied across so many different disciplines #CollectionsMatter 🌏🧪
February 19, 2025 at 12:45 AM
mutillidae.bsky.social


I self-identify as a hymenopterist, but so I also love beetles...warts and all.

#NaturalHistoryCollections

#Taxonomy

#AFewBumpsIntheRoad

#DoesAnybodyReadAllTheHashtags?
Quarter profile (-ish) image of a large, black weevil (family Curculionidae) from Western Australia. The background is light grey. This specimen, in the genus Gagatophorus, has very large conical bumps arranged in longitudinal rows on its thorax and abdomen. Its snout is short and broad, and the characteristic geniculate (elbowed) antennae seen on the true weevils are visible.
November 23, 2024 at 2:50 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
—

On #FlyDay Friday, eying the weekend like:

—

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#MacroPhotography
#FocusStacking
#Holcocephala
#RobberFly
#Asilidae

👀
A frontal view of a tiny, ferocious, point-mounted robber fly against a light grey background. It’s humpbacked pronotum is yellow with brown maculations, the wings are dusky, and the legs are orange. The ginormous globular eyes dwarf the rest of the head.
August 28, 2026 at 2:42 PM
dlfwiley.bsky.social
In all the gloom, a ray of happiness.

My 1st, first-authored paper was published today in @peerj.bsky.social. 🎉
Started during my post-bacc (2022), this project involved >1,000 #frogs from #NaturalHistoryCollections, 3 #pathogens, & spanned 32 states!
🐸🦠

#womeninSTEM
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
Me (Dani Wiley) presenting my poster on this project at World Congress of Herpetology, 2024.
January 29, 2025 at 3:33 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
Built for Burrowing (really small burrows)

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#MacroPhotography
#FocusStacking
#Cydnidae
#Amnestus (?)
Dorsal view of a point-mounted, orange-ish brown burrowing bug (Cydnidae) against a white background. The body is distinctly punctate and short spine-like projections are sticking out from the front of the head.
August 17, 2026 at 8:06 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
Normalize quote-posting your own post because you think more people should see a nice image of a cool insect.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#FocusStacking
mutillidae.bsky.social Craig B @mutillidae.bsky.social · Apr 1
I finished my mini curation project on the tribe Phanaeini in our collection. We have specimens representing five genera and ~40 species.

This is a male of Phanaeus demon, from Nicaragua.

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#CollectionCorner
#FocusStacking
#Scarabaeidae
#NotAWaspButStillCool
Left latero-frontal view of a metallic yellowish-green scarab on a white background. This species, Phanaeus demon, has a large backward curving horn coming off the top of its head. It also has a pair of large, inwardly curving, apically truncate processes extending dorsally from the back of its pronotum. It's pretty badass.
April 3, 2026 at 12:04 PM
crazychipkali.bsky.social
A really well written piece about an exciting recent work from Vijay Ramesh et al! india.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-... #scicomm #naturalhistorycollections #nhm
Old maps and dead birds reveal the story of grassland and bird decline in the Nilgiris
Since the mid-1800s, the Nilgiris have lost 80% of their grasslands, a new study finds by comparing a colonial-era map with satellite images.
india.mongabay.com
August 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM
mutillidae.bsky.social
—

"Crazy antennal modifications you say? Yeah, we got those. Tell you what, I'll throw in some slightly deflated eversible organs for free."

—

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#MacroPhotography
#FocusStacking
#Melyridae
Dorsal view of the head and thorax of a soft-winged flower beetle (Melyridae) against a black background. The first two antennal segments have crazy modifications. The head, pronotum, and legs are reddish; the humeral angles of the the elytra are metallic green. The body is quite pubescent with lots of appressed pale setae visible.
August 20, 2026 at 7:38 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

Some people consider Lepidoptera to be more charismatic than other groups of insects—apparently their bright colors and patterns are eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing?

So, to appeal to a wider audience, I'm sharing a picture of this pretty specimen!

#NaturalHistoryCollections
#Lepidoptera
A left lateral view of a pinned female moth specimen on a grey background. It's very likely a species in the superfamily Noctuoidea (but I'm a hymenopterist, so take that with a grain of salt). Although this specimen is wingless, the body is covered with the scales that are usually found on the wings of butterflies and moths. Underneath, it is primarily tan; it is mottled brown and black above.
January 13, 2025 at 7:40 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