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Aron Bellersheim

@coleomaniac.bsky.social

220 followers 110 following 33 posts

24 & totally obsessed with the tiniest insects :) Photographing hidden biodiversity from leaf litter, deadwood & soil alive @ up to 10x +other habitats & museum specimens Preparator of beetles @smnstuttgart.bsky.social inaturalist.org/people/coleomaniac

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 21

Hello, Bluesky!
I'm an insect person and choose to spend my time searching, collecting, photographing and identifying mostly tiny beetles.
I will share pictures of obscure little critters like this blind, soil dwelling ground beetle and wingless parasitoid wasp.
#macrophoto #macro #insects #beetle

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Aug 9

bsky.app/profile/apsc... 👀

Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · Jul 8

Do you like my Leg Day Bae Display Chalcididae? 🧡

(conura sp wasp)

7/8/23. N. Florida 🧪

Bright orange chalcid wasp, with very thick, toothed femurs on her 3rd leg pair

Close-up of the femur, showing the teeth

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Aug 9

But yes, while there are other groups with such legs, Chalcididae wasps, being 1460 know species, are probably the biggest group of wasps with buff hind legs and it would be a difference between them and the 74 species of yellow jackets and hornets in case you were thinking of those

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Aug 9

Thanks!

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Aug 9

Which other species do you mean?
There are huge differences among the over 150.000 different Hymenoptera species known so far. Most of them are wasps in the broader sence, such as this one.
As an example for their huge diversity here is a great overview of African Hymenoptera: waspweb.org/index.htm

WaspWeb - World wasps, bees & ants

waspweb.org

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Aug 9

Neat little wasp with muscular hind legs :)
Although I see Chalcidoidea almost daily, this was only my second Chalcididae. IV.2024
Haltichella rufipes, 4mm, a larval parasite of a diverse set of hosts: Tortricidae-moths, death-watch and darkling beetles
#hymenoptera #parasitoidwasp #macrophotography

side view of a 4mm black wasp with muscular hind legs sitting on young flower buds of a Galium plant. it's slurping up a tiny drop of sugar-water that I put there to keep it busy so it's easier to take a picture

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Aug 5

mainly side but slightly top partial view of the front half of a turquoise-blue metallic semi-elongate beetle that narrows at the front end, has orange legs, mouthparts and antennae. It sits on a stone.

top view of a turquoise-blue metallic semi-elongate beetle that narrows at the front end, has orange legs, mouthparts and antennae. It sits on a stone.

mainly side but slightly top and front view of a turquoise-blue metallic semi-elongate beetle that narrows at the front end, has orange legs, mouthparts and antennae. It sits on a stone.

side-top-front view of a turquoise-blue metallic semi-elongate beetle that narrows at the front end, has orange legs, mouthparts and antennae. It sits on a stone.

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Aug 5

Gorgeous Drypta dentata 🤩

One of the coolest and most unique German ground beetles.
It lives in a huge variety of different habitats but is not too common overall.
I was happy to find it on the amazing insect-friendly area of IG: @artenschutz_salzmann
#coleoptera #carabidae #macrophotography

mainly front view of a turquoise-blue metallic semi-elongate beetle that narrows at the front end, has orange legs, mouthparts and antennae. It sits on a stone.

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Mar 27

Thanks for this amazing taxonomy 😂👍

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Mar 15

Thanks, you too!

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Mar 14

Thanks, Bernard!
The light is diffused by a Guage diffusor shining onto half a white plastic cup above and white paper below

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Mar 6

These crystals are almost as soft as wax and usually easy to break off without damaging the specimen.
The greater problem is that they form mostly inside the specimen and can break it apart

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Mar 5

It's #weevilwedneday again :)
So here is a pretty little fungus weevil: Dissoleucas niveirostris
Sitting on some grass near deadwood in a mixed (mainly beech) forest. It sat still enough for me to combine two pictures handheld for extra DOF
Wetzlar May 2023
#coleoptera #anthribidae #macrophotography

side-front-top view of a slightly colorful little beetle. Its surface is dark grey but it is almost completely covered in a pattern of black, white and orange scales which are quite long and thin so they appear like short hair. Its head is slightly elongated downwards and mostly covered in white scale-hairs and has quite big black compound eyes. It sits on green flowers of grass and the background is the blue sky with blurry green branches.

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Mar 4

Wow! That's already a lot of new people seeing my pictures now :)
Thanks a lot for the shoutout!

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Mar 4

yes, it's incredibly tiny but it gets even crazier, as the tiniest wasp is only about one eight her length: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicopom... (also the smallest known insect)

Dicopomorpha echmepterygis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Mar 4

Thanks! It's even downscaled by bluesky from ~8000 pixels to only 2000 pixels wide. I had to combine two images sideways since it was too big for my lens with a minimum magnification of 2.5x 🤣

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 27

One of the great finds while we were hosting a masters module (phylogeny of insects) for students from the University of Hohenheim and doing a field trip near Stuttgart in July 2023. Petr Janšta was with us and able to identify it while it was still busy ovipositing I believe 🤯

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 27

This beautiful metallic #chalcidoidea wasp Torymus varians is drilling her super long ovipositor into a hawthorn berry
(protective sheaths stay in place)
It's one of the species, which are actually phytophagous and her larvae will feed on seeds inside
#hymenoptera #torymidae #macro #macrophotography

Side view of a metallic green to orange wasp with a black appendage at the end, the same length as the rest of her body. These are the sheaths in which the ovipositor usually rests. She currently uses it to deposit her eggs into green fruit on which she sits. The background is blurry dark green from trees and blue sky.

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 27

I think Exomella, probably Exomella merickeli.
There was a key linked for north American Bhyrrids on Bugguide:
web.archive.org/web/20151017...
Very cool! Would be the first images of this species easily visible online if I'm correct

web.archive.org

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 27

how about a Bhyrridae? The face gave me a hint here.
Exomella seems to be similar and has hairs like that but I can't find any good images of the north american species

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 27

really cool for sure!

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 27

Very pretty weevil Tapinotus sellatus :)
Found it on yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) next to an abandoned fish pond in the woods.
Wetzlar, May 2023
#weevilwednesday #weevil #insect #coleoptera #curculionidae #ceutorhynchinae #macrohoto #macrophotography

Side (slightly front) view of a little weevil with mostly white to beige but some also some orange and black scales in a pattern on the neck and elytrae. It sits on a young, not yet fully unfolded leaf of its host plant and is taking up two thirds of the image. The leaf has a lot of two different kinds of hairs - short with a droplet at the tip on the upper side and long thin on the underside. There is a second out-of focus weevil in the background.

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 26

*subterranean beetle detected*
Ptomaphagus? (top right)

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 24

Living in Europe I found out that Inopeplinae and Metaxyphloeus existed at about the same time working on those parts of the collection and was delighted by their existence.
It's still funny to me that you call salpingids narrow-waisted bark beetles and we call them false weevils in Germany

Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 24

0.8mm tiny Aphelinidae wasp (Centrodora sp.?) I found in some hay last autumn

Single shot using Mitutoyo MPlan APO10X on a tube lens with variable aperture on a mirrorless aps-c camera.
#hymenoptera #Aphelinidae #insects #insect #macrophotography #macrophoto #ultramacro #parasitoid #parasitoidwasp

Side view of a tiny translucent white, slightly orange wasp with bright yellow eyes that have a dark purple spot where you are looking straight down the ommatidia. She sits on a blade of grass where, at this magnification individual plant cells are just about visible and some blurry white spots in the foreground, which are the stomata. The wasp is licking up some sugar water which I put there so she is occupied and won't fly away. The background is a blur of shades of petrol.

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Aron Bellersheim @coleomaniac.bsky.social · Feb 24

whoops, don't mind that extra foot...