@ageofarthropods
Photographer & PhD entomologist—inordinately fond of beetles! Research focus on darkling beetle (Tenebrionidae) systematics & biogeography, #TenebTuesday +Natural history collections/insect conservation/old (entomological) books & cameras www.ccwirth.com
The oldest synagogue in Indiana is for sale! Please help us at AACC save this lovely piece of history!
Our goal is to raise $325,000 -- our fundraiser can be found here: givebutter.com/PreserveAACC
We would be so grateful if you could check out our website (preserveaac.org) and share this post!
infographic for an insect macrophotography workshop featuring photo of a wasp
Interested in insect macrophotography? If you are in the midwest, think about attending this workshop put on by @ageofarthropods.bsky.social and myself, 2-3 May 2026 cvent.me/qK5bOo
A perfect beetle indeed-would love to photograph a live one!
That's no dull teneb, that is the uncommonly-collected Prateus fusculus, a weird lagriine!
A heap of small beetles with green elytra and red pronota partly hidden under a piece of bark
On this #tenebtuesday — a favorite teneb (& favorite photo of a heap of 'em), Neomida bicornis (Fabricius, 1777) [Diaperinae: Diaperini]? Their pronotal coloration is variable, from shining metallic green in some beetles to red in others, & the males have two tiny horns!
I’m really coming around on tenebs, you never know what they’re going to come up with next
If you’re at #EntSoc25 stop by Portland Ballroom 253 now (2-5pm) for some (great) entomological collections talks, including mine!
As a follow-up to my talk at #ECN2025 — here is a parts list for a budget (~$1,500) focus stacking system: www.ccwirth.com/Z-stacking
Got to maximize the time photographing specimens-so many bugs, so little time!
Harrowing photos of rubber bands that have failed in their archival duty
used rubber bands in the alcohol collection? ONE THOUSAND YEARS DUNGEON
Thinking about buying a macro lens for insect photography? Along with @ageofarthropods.bsky.social we have been testing many options! Our results are summarized in 2 blog posts in the field www.insectid.org/post/macro-l... and in the lab www.insectid.org/post/lab-tes...
Program cover for the 2025 Entomological Collections Network meeting, feature a beautifully fluffy Pleocoma specimen. Meeting taking place November 8-9, in Portland, Oregon.
Just ONE WEEK until #ECN2025! 🪲
Head to the website to check out the full program:
ecnweb.net/welcome/meet...
This year’s program cover features a beautiful Rain beetle (Pleocoma sp.). Photograph courtesy of @ageofarthropods.bsky.social & the Purdue Entomological Research Collection.
Always is!
And this #TenebTuesday an answer (at last!)—this is the rarely collected Prateus fusculus LeConte, 1862, a member of the subfamily Lagriinae & type genus of the recently-established tribe Prateini (Aalbu et al. 2023)
![A reddish-brown beetle specimen with moderately long antennae and two labels reading "Cin. O. / V-28-[?]" and "'Tenebrionidae / unknown' teste Horn"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:otjq5ndsne7q2nwyyh3bpjf4/bafkreigogjqflnoqg7gjrqogwigcgze7e5nkil54m5f67qkwxrghnk5iny)
A reddish-brown beetle specimen with moderately long antennae and two labels reading "Cin. O. / V-28-[?]" and "'Tenebrionidae / unknown' teste Horn"
A mystery teneb for this #TenebTuesday — specimen collected by Charles Dury in Cincinnati &, until last month, was only identified as "'Tenebrionidae unknown' teste [George Henry] Horn" — any guesses?
Six flies minuten-pinned in an uneven row on the edge of a piece of card stock!
Found this cartoonish monstrosity of a specimen preparation while sorting through drawers of unidentified flies in @purdueentcoll.bsky.social !
Want to set up your own photo-stacking imaging system for under $3000? This post which outlines all the off-the-shelf items I used this year along with some recommendations for how to use it. Planning to talk about this at @entcollnet.bsky.social this November, too! www.insectid.org/post/focus-s...
But this is going to be yet another area where the taxonomists who did all the work to set up the species and the traits to identify them don't get paid. Even as many are retiring or losing their jobs, the resources get diverted away from expertise to the tech sector instead.
![A pin bearing several strips of paper with beetles neatly glued to them and text reading “Cin. O. 6-12-[190]4”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:otjq5ndsne7q2nwyyh3bpjf4/bafkreibdwrft5hr6z5txvpm5xrassd6eo6ivwtgdvpehbrsdgcmre7lpmm)
A pin bearing several strips of paper with beetles neatly glued to them and text reading “Cin. O. 6-12-[190]4”
The underside of the pin and paper strips showing a patch of gold-colored corrosion
Spotted this “stack” of specimens collected by Charles Dury in 1904 at the Cincinnati Museum Center-upon turning over, I was surprised gold-colored corrosion(?) on the underside
A green and brown beetle with punctate elytra on a white background
And for #TenebTuesday here’s Strongylium crenatum Mäklin, 1867—this species is widespread in the southeastern US, but can separated from the other co-occurring Strongylium by its iridescent green coloration, punctate elytral striae, & indistinct, crenate pronotal margins
A pinned specimen of a grey-brown-and-white-mottled fungus weevil with very long antennae and tufts of setae on its pronotum and elytra
For #WeevilWednesday — a 106-year-old specimen of an anthribid, Toxonotus fascicularis (Schönherr 1833), described by its collector, Willis Blatchley, as "a prettily marked medium sized anthribid frequent on the dead branches" of saffron plum, Sideroxylon celastrinum.
Doyen & Lawrence (1979) note “Edrotes [Pimeliinae: Edrotini] (North America) & Epiphysa [Pimeliinae: Adesmiini] (southern Africa) are strikingly similar in external appearance [but] major differences in endoskeletal features, mouthparts & genitalia refute a close relationship" #TenebrionidTricky
A grey-black round beetle with yellow setae along the junction of its head and pronotum sitting on the ground
Back from an end-of-semester-hiatus here's Epiphysa ciliata Bates, 1872 (Pimeliinae: Adesmiini) for this #TenebTuesday —1 of 9 distinctively globose spp found across arid southern Africa. They are “crepuscular to nocturnal,” retreating to “rocky crevices or mammal burrows” in the day (Penrith 1978)
It is-given the small amount, leave for now-have more pressing specimens to repair!
This specimen has been in @purdueentcoll.bsky.social for nearly 130 years — but has only two minute labels reading "Marquette, Michigan" & "H.G.H." [Henry Guernsey Hubbard] — Hubbard collected extensively in the Lake Superior region in 1876 (Mallis 1971), making this specimens over 149 years old!
A dorsal view of a pinned darkling beetle specimen with black body/appendages, punctate pronotum and striate elytra
A ventral view of a pinned darkling beetle specimen with black and red-tinted body, black appendages, and tufts of golden setae on tarsi
Back from an unintended break — for this #TenebTuesday here's very typical (looking) #tenebrionid — Bouchardandrus concolor (LeConte, 1866), only species in the genus & only known to from the Great Lakes region of Canada (MB ON QC) & US (MI MN OH WI) (Steiner 2016, Bousquet et al. 2018)
Exquisite! An identical model in the Essig Museum is labeled as made by Louis Auzoux around 1850
A brown beetle with ridged elytra and tuberculate pronotum sitting on light orange sand
On this #TenebTuesday an excellent #tenebrionid — a species of Trogloderus (Blaptinae: Amphidorini) — the nine distinctively sculptured species are restricted to sandy areas & dunes in the western United States.
Three blotchily-patterned beetles on flat, white-yellow fungus
From a warm night last fall—several Marbled Fungus Weevils, Euparius marmoreus (Olivier, 1795), at fungus on a fallen tree—these individuals show some of the variation in size & color common in this species!
The setae (hair-like structures) on the elytra are soft! But the specimens are small enough that I’ve only touched with forceps when cleaning or repairing