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Reposted by Michael Caterino

Jake Withee @witheelabs.bsky.social · 1d

My latest for @bizarrebeastsshow.bsky.social concerns these li’l cuties that live in our homes and ride around on other bugs.

The Tiny Scorpions* In Your House

YouTube video by Bizarre Beasts

youtu.be

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 5h

Value in nature FAQ:

Q. Will all the posts be about bugs?

A. No! An entomologist I may be, so for the first post I had to go with my strength. But I plan to cover valuable species across the spectrum of life. Posts-in-planning include wild grapes and bacterial antibiotics.

Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 5h

My first official post:

mscaterino.pika.page/posts/stoppi...

Stopping a mean, green, tree-killing machine - Value in nature

Dateline: Detroit, Michigan, 2002 – Metallic green bullet of a beetle threatens native ash trees. When the Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis, or EAB) was first detected in the US...

mscaterino.pika.page

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 5h

Please check out my new blog: 'Value in nature'. I plan to feature the innumerable ways biodiversity benefits us - ecosystem services in the widest sense.

The punchline to nearly every post: our future flourishing depends on preserving as much biodiversity as we possibly can.

mscaterino.pika.page

Banner image from mscaterino.pika.page. The background image is a pineapple growing at the tip of a bromeliad against a tropical forest backdrop. In the lower left is the caption 'Value in nature'.

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Reposted by Michael Caterino

Eric R. Eaton @bugeric.bsky.social · 1d

bugeric.blogspot.com/2025/10/what... #JaneGoodall #blogpost

What Would Jane Do?

If there was ever a person whom I wanted to remain immortal, it would probably be Dr. Jane Goodall. It was therefore devastating to learn of...

bugeric.blogspot.com

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 1d

Real nice blog post, Eric.

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 2d

I agree this is worth more consideration. My working rationale is that humanity inflicts so much destruction on insects (we should also aim to reduce!) that the relatively small number taken intentionally for research is a drop in the bucket. But that's not to say that their lives don't have value.

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Reposted by Michael Caterino

Richard Conniff @richardconniff.bsky.social · 4d

Stop buying wildlife pets—turtles, parrots, lizards, ferrets, even tropical fish—until the global pet industry gets serious about protecting and rebuilding species and habitats. richardconniff.substack.com/p/the-wildli...

The Wildlife Pet Trade is a Global Disaster

And it's going to keep wrecking the natural world--till we stop paying for it.

richardconniff.substack.com

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 4d

sounds interesting AND looks good!

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Reposted by Michael Caterino

Sofía Muñoz-Tobar @smunoztobar.bsky.social · 5d

Twenty two new species of beetles from Ecuador’s páramo and cloud forest offer a rare glimpse into ecosystems that remain largely unexplored. Species names pay tribute to sites, communities and cultural traits of the Ecuadorian Andes zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1583... #Biodiversity #Ecuador #bugs

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Reposted by Michael Caterino

IUCN SSC Parasite Specialist Group @iucnparasites.bsky.social · 19d

Hello, Bluesky! We're the IUCN SSC Parasite Specialist Group, a part of the Species Survival Commission! We're just starting to understand the important roles parasites play in their ecosystems, and our goal is to determine the threats wildlife parasites face and to conserve rare and unique species!

Rhinoceros Stomach Bot Fly (Gyrostigma rhinocerontis), a black-and-orange bot fly specializing in White Rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) and Black Rhinos (Diceros bicornis) in Africa. Credit: Bernard Dupont, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gyrostigma_rhinocerontis_(Owen,_1830)_1(a)_-_iNaturalist.org.jpg

A Ryukyu Rabbit Tick (Haemaphysalis pentalagi), a brown tick that specializes on the Amami Rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi) on Amami Ōshima, one of the southern islands of Japan. Credit: Takamasa Nemoto

The Manx Shearwater Flea (Ceratophyllus (Emmareus) fionnus), a flea known only from the Isle of Rùm off the west coast of Scotland, where it specializes on nesting colonies of the Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus). Credit: Olha Schedrina / The Natural History Museum

Rhinoceros Tick (Dermacentor rhinocerinus), a spotted orange-and-black tick species that specializes on White Rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) and Black Rhinos (Diceros bicornis) in Africa. Credit: Moira Fitzpatrick

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 6d

There's a krakken the fuselage.

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 6d

We aren't sure where the heck they came from. But several species have distinct parameres as well as the spiral accessory sclerites. So they're not those.

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 6d

In her dissertation, @smunoztobar.bsky.social showed that there was a diverse radiation of Panabachia in high-elevation Andean páramo habitats (doi.org/10.3390/inse...).

Now most of these have proper names, with 22 species described in our latest paper, in ZooKeys: doi.org/10.3897/zook...

Plate of 10 dorsal photographs of new Panabachia species, with scale bars showing each to be roughly 1mm in length. They are somewhat typical pselaphine rove beetles, short-bodied, brownish-orange, with short elytra and clubbed antennae. The species are as follows: A. Panabachia pahuma; B. P. pastazae; C. P. romeroi; D. P. salebrosa; E. P. urbana; F. P. carltoni; G. P. patera; H. P. vigilans; I. P. perdita; J. P. ambulans.

Male genitalia photos of nine new Panabachia species. Most have a thin and curved median lobe with coiled lateral accessory sclerites. Two on the bottom are more rounded with fimbriate apices, while a third at bottom right is asymmetrical with a coiled lateral plate. The species are as follows: A. Panabachia papallacta; B. P. ananay; C. P. cayambi; D. P. cryptica; E. P. caranqui; F. P. patera; G. P. vigilans; H. P. perdita; I. P. ambulans.

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 6d

Good luck with the springtail work. Sounds fun!

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 7d

Taking a few pictures for a science pub night in a few weeks. I want to share with that audience the thing that tipped me over into entomology. It was staring down the scope at a tiger beetle. I never recovered. Join the club!!

Close-up of the head of a tiger beetle. Huge, angry looking eyes flank an iridescent rainbow of a face, with wiggly parallel ridges between the eyes converging in front. The beetle has a black, multispined labrum (upper lip) projecting out over strong, closed mandibles.

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 7d

Fantastic wasp!

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Reposted by Michael Caterino

Clemson University Press @cupress.bsky.social · 7d

This September, we're taking a moment to reflect on the books we've had the privilege of publishing so far in 2025! Preferred Plants and Nectar Collecting Times for Honey Production, South Carolina Master Gardening Manuel, and Experiments in Silence. Which one has been your favorite so far? 📚💡

Text that says "2025 favorites" with the books Preferred Plants and Nectar Collecting Times for Honey Production, South Carolina Master Gardening Manuel, and Experiments in Silence.

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Reposted by Michael Caterino

Colin Purrington @colinpurrington.bsky.social · 7d

Junebug larvae use their back hair to move. #tmi #beetles #coleoptera #entomology #melolonthinae #scarabaeidae

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 7d

I think their whole subfamily Cetoniinae does this.

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Reposted by Michael Caterino

Colin Purrington @colinpurrington.bsky.social · 8d

This is an excellent find. (And posting link to
@alexwild.bsky.social's blog for people who'd like to see an adult wounded tree beetle.) #insects #coleoptera #trees
myrmecos.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/f...

Friday Beetle Blogging: The Wounded Tree Beetle

Nosodendron californicum – Wounded Tree Beetle California, USA From the Department of Really Obscure Insects, here’s a beetle that few non-specialists will recognize. Nosodendron inhab…

myrmecos.wordpress.com

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 8d

High elevation litter spiders of southern Appalachia show less local endemism than other arthropods - ballooning by spiderlings apparently overcomes geographic isolation. A great collaboration with @forthespiders.bsky.social & Ernesto Recuero

doi.org/10.1636/JoA-... (if paywalled write me for pdf)

One fourth of a phylogenetic tree of southern Appalachian spiders, with photos of three representative taxa along the right side, Wadotes hybridus (reddish brown cephalothorax with zig-zag stripey gray and white abdomen), Neon nelli (large-eyed gray jumping spider), and Antrodiaetus sp. (a large-jawed mygalomorph trapdoor spider, light tan with a reddish abdomen.

One fourth of a phylogenetic tree of southern Appalachian spiders, with photos of four representative taxa along the right side, Centromerus denticulatus and Centromerus tennapax (both mostly golden brown with gray abdomen, both males with enlarged palps), Bathyphantes bishopi (dark brown cephalothorax, long legs, dark gray abdomen), Tenuiphantes sabulosus (golden cephalothorax, long legs, pale dark-striped abdomen).

One fourth of a phylogenetic tree of southern Appalachian spiders, with photos of four representative taxa along the right side, Collinsia sp. and Collinsia oxypaederotipus (both with light brown cephalothorax, pale legs, gray-green abdomen, both males with enlarged palps), Ceraticelus laetabilis (stout, with brown cephalothorax and lighter brown abdomen, palps slightly enlarged), Ceraticelus fissiceps (orange cephalothorax with distinctly enlarged dark snout, lighter abdomen).

One fourth of a phylogenetic tree of southern Appalachian spiders, with photos of four representative taxa along the right side, Sisicus n. sp (not yet described, light brown round cephalothorax, with pale abdomen and legs, large male palps), Floricomus praedesignatus (dark tuberculate male cephalothorax, gray-green abdomen, pale legs), Blestia sarcocuon (anteriorly pointed cephalothorax, dark with long yellowish legs, impressive male palps), and Ceratinops carolinus (prolonged elevated, brown male cephalothorax, gray-green abdomen).

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 8d

Here's another nice beetle larva we found today, this one a chonky (almost 2 inches) cerambycid. I guess it's probably Orthosoma brunneum, but am not really sure. We left it in its log.

Long white grub on a rotting log, with orange-brown gallery behind, mostly of chewed up wood fragments. The larva has a little of its head sticking out, and each abdominal segment has a slightly swollen ring.

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 8d

This will appeal to like 4 of my friends out there. But this is a live Nosodendron (beetle) larva. Nosodendron means 'sick tree', and true to its name these were found in a black, moldy wet area around an injured beech root. Enjoy!

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Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 9d

Congrats!

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