Socrates Letana

An historic black and white illustration of a paper nautilus floating on the ocean. There are boats, a city and hills in the background.

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪

📢🪰 Don’t let the cut fly:

Ichneumonids of North America:
#Hymenoptera 🐝

This is a devastating blow to Canadian dipterology, entomology, ecology, and beyond. Please share.
#diptera

@dipterists.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social @canentomologist.bsky.social @entsocamerica.bsky.social @entsocontario.bsky.social @entsocbc.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social

Distinguishing species boundaries from geographic variation | PNAS In an era of unprecedented biodiversity loss, the need for standardized practices to describe biological variation is becoming increasingly importa...

The question of how to distinguish species boundaries from intraspecific geographic variation is now more of an issue than ever in the genomic age. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Pinned specimen of an adult Dermatobia hominis (Linnaeus, 1758); lateral view.

The infamous human bot fly (Dermatobia hominis). This specimen is from a rainforest in Honduras, deposited at the Biological Museum, Lund University.
[MZLU 00131504]
#Diptera #Oestridae 🪰

Species Yet to Be Discovered Are More Threatened and Have Smaller Ranges Aim To assess whether newly described species are more likely to be threatened and have smaller ranges than known species. Location Global. Methods In this study, we focus on the timing of speci...

Many species not yet formally recognised may already be at risk of extinction. The findings underscore the urgent need for more fieldwork in understudied areas 📉
New paper out @consbiog.bsky.social by Farooq, Geldmann & Faurby👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#conservation #biodiversity

Seasonal monopolization of small carrion by a scarab beetle in terra firme Amazonian rainforests - Scientific Reports Small vertebrate carcasses represent an abundant resource in tropical rainforests, where scavengers play a key role in nutrient recycling, enhancing productivity in nutrient-poor habitats such as Amaz...

📢 A beetle outcompeting jaguars and vultures for carrion?

In this #carrionecology study we recently published in Scientific Reports, we show that Coprphanaeus lancifer 🪲 buried >90% of the 🐹 carcasses deployed in terra firme Amazonian forests during the wet season!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tracking Mosquito-Borne Viruses at the Top of the World As the Arctic warms, mosquitoes—and the diseases they carry—float north. A recent study finds Jamestown Canyon virus and snowshoe hare virus present in mosquitoes in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of…

As the Arctic warms, mosquitoes—and the diseases they carry—float north. A recent study finds Jamestown Canyon virus and snowshoe hare virus present in mosquitoes in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of North America.

The cover of Vol. 8 (3), featuring an outline of the island of Singapore and the striking, newly-described fungus gnat Integricypta fergusondavie gen. et sp. nov.

An integrative taxonomic treatment of the Mycetophilidae of Singapore, describing 98 new species of fungus gnat

Now also with a brand new cover, featuring Integricypta fergusondavie gen. et sp. nov.

Free download: doi.org/10.18476/202...

@rudolf-meier.bsky.social @derschwingfliegen.bsky.social

World Muscidae catalogue cover

Just out. Lots of muscid info packed into 1,341 pp.
archive.org/details/be18...

Neoempheria merlio Amorim & Oliveira sp. n. from Singapore

Happy New Fungus Gnats! 🥂🦟🦟

Prof. Dalton Amorim and co-authors name 98 new species of Mycetophilidae from Singapore in a monograph just published in @integsyst.bsky.social

The paper can be downloaded for free from the following link: tinyurl.com/342cs43t

Enjoy!

@rudolf-meier.bsky.social

All Systematic Zoology/Biology research articles published over past 75 years, clustered by topic and represented in 2d space.

Reflections on the evolving practice of systematic biology, a joy to write with Michael Donoghue for the upcoming 75th volume of Systematic Biology!

academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

An adult reindeer warble fly (Hypoderma tarandi) sitting gently on top of a person's fingers. The fly is fuzzy, with a black head, a thorax of alternating black and pale yellow bands, and a reddish-brown abdomen. On the whole, the fly resembles a bumblebee. There is green moss in the background. Credit: Matthew Zappa, iNaturalist, https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/23197023

An first-instar (L1) larva of the nematode Elaphostrongylus rangiferi. It is loosely coiled and appears to have a black midline and green spots across its body. The upper-left hand corner has the letter "M", identifying this as part of a larger figure of nematodes. A 50-µm vertical scale bar is present at the bottom right. Credit: Loginova et al. (2023), https://doi.org/10.3390/d15050672

A reindeer nose botfly (Cephenemyia trompe) rested on a rock. It has a large yellow head with black eyes, a yellow-and-black thorax, and a yellow-red abdomen. Credit: karainio, iNaturalist, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/303416691

A lone caribou (Rangifer tarandus) photographed in Denali National Park, Alaska, United States. It has a brown head and body, with a white tail and a brown-white neck. It carries large antlers at the top of its head. Credit: Diego Delso, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caribú_(Rangifer_tarandus),_Parque_nacional_y_reserva_Denali,_Alaska,_Estados_Unidos,_2017-08-30,_DD_40.jpg

With the coming of the holiday season and the beginning of #InverteFest, we wanted to wish our followers Happy Holidays and highlight some reindeer parasites in the process!

There is also a museum record, back in 1941, on Gasterophilus larvae infestation in lion:
#NaturalHistoryCollection #Diptera #Oestridae

🐝🌏
An illustrated type catalogue of bee species collected by Alfred Russel Wallace and described by Frederick Smith from Southeast Asia
@ejtaxonomy.bsky.social:

Women Scientists Were Written Out of History. It's Margaret Rossiter's Lifelong Mission to Fix That The historian has devoted her career to bringing to light the ingenious accomplishments of those who have been forgotten

It’s a good day to talk about women scientists. Let’s also remember Margaret W. Rossiter, who died in August of this year.

She coined the “Matilda Effect” (named after suffragist Matilda Gage), which describes bias against acknowledging women’s achievements.

specimen of new fly species, Acronyches gephyrus, mounted on a pin

specimen of new fly species, Acronyches gephyrus, mounted on a pin

specimen of new fly species, Acronyches gephyrus, mounted on a pin

map with distribution of Acronyches species

#FlyFriday

new revision of assassin-fly genus Acronyches Williston, 1908 (Asilidae: Leptogastrinae) with @ento-allan.bsky.social out - 4 new species from Central + South America - flies catch spiders in their web (see www.inaturalist.org/observations... doi doi.org/10.4289/0013...

#asiloidflies

Ticks on an Eel: Museum Specimen is a First of its Kind Two ticks found on an 1873 electric eel specimen mark the first recorded case of ticks parasitizing a fish—but only documented just this year.

An eel donated to a natural history museum in 1873 had two ticks embedded in its skin, making it the first known instance of ticks parasitizing a fish. But it was only first documented this year, when a tick specialist identified the ticks and reported the case in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

🪰🐞🐝
There are roughly 212 holotypes in 10 insect orders from the Torrevillas collection that were used to describe new species, helped improve Philippine biodiversity knowledge, and advanced careers of entomologists across the globe:
🇺🇸🇦🇺🇧🇪🇬🇧🇨🇿🇳🇱🇵🇭🇩🇪🇭🇺🇮🇳🇮🇹🇯🇵🇸🇮🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pubs-online/...

Oxford’s Rafflesia Messaging Sparks Debate Over Representation, Scientific Credit, and Global South Visibility A rediscovery of the rare Rafflesia hasseltii in West Sumatra has sparked an unexpected debate over how international institutions frame conservation stories, who receives scientific credit, and ho…

Oxford’s Rafflesia Messaging Sparks Debate Over Representation, Scientific Credit, and Global South Visibility:

Vanishing experts, vanishing species: The taxonomy crisis Plant taxonomy is the foundation of biodiversity science, but a global skills crisis threatens its future. Training a new generation of taxonomists is urgent and new research maps where help is most n...

Poof! Not a magic trick:

TwinsWildLens on Instagram: "Bothrops asper 🐍🦟 What better way to start our Costa Rica photo series, than with the emblematic fer-de-lance, Bothrops asper, and he's not alone! Turns out, we humans ar... 39K likes, 494 comments - twins_wild_lens on November 6, 2025: "Bothrops asper 🐍🦟 What better way to start our Costa Rica photo series, than with the emblematic fer-de-lance, Bothrops asper, and he's...

🦟🐍

Leonard L. Co

assassin fly mounted on pin with prey wasp it captured

assassin fly mounted on pin with prey wasp it captured

assassin fly mounted on pin with prey wasp it captured

locality label for assassin fly

#FlyFriday

beautiful dark-colored assassin fly Diogmites nigripennis (Macquart, 1847) (Asilidae: Dasypogoninae) with wasp prey - collected at La Selva, Costa Rica in 2010 - 1 of 125 species of assassin flies known from this lowland rainforest habitat - n2t.net/ark:/65665/3...

#asiloidflies

The Passing of the Tree of Life Web Project The Tree of Life Web Project began its journey almost 40 years ago, and was formally announced in early 1996. It has served thousands of pages of information about the evolutionary tree of life and…

The end of an era: the Tree of Life Web Project is going dark after 3 decades. Anyone interested in communicating phylogeny online should read David's account of goals, history, and future. @bembidion.bsky.social
subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...

Biodiversity conservation depends on the expansion of taxonomy and systematics research Abstract. Despite mammals constituting fewer than 0.3% of all described species, their conservation is compelling for a number of reasons. They contribute

#DAMA framework since 2014:

"Talking about #biodiversity without #taxonomy is like trying to build a puzzle without the pieces"

Kate Evans works at the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre. In TETTRIs, she is leading the task of writing a blueprint for building taxonomic capacity.

Museum genomics suggests long-term population decline in a putatively extinct bumble bee | PNAS Pollinator declines globally threaten ecosystem stability and agricultural productivity. Reconstructing pollinator historic demographies provides a...

New paper drop! 🚨
Led by my awesome postdoc @renamschweizer.bsky.social — we used genomics + museum DNA to explore the decline of Bombus franklini, a bee not seen in the wild since 2006 🐝
Now out in @PNASNews!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

An historic illustration of of two brown stripy butterflies and a caterpillar on a plant with white flowers.

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