iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The name “Pheretima darnleiensis” gained some attention due to a giant blue form that is included in the concept of the species (and filmed in a BBC doc), but I suspect that it is a different creature endemic to Mt. Kinabalu. www.inaturalist.org/observations...

inaturalist.org

Kinabalu Giant Earthworm (Pheretima darnleiensis)

Kinabalu Giant Earthworm from Kinabalu Park, Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia on May 13, 2009 at 10:19 AM by Chien Lee

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Geoff Read @annelidsci.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Unusual for taxonomy. Retraction for fake citations. doi.org/10.11646/zoo...

Retraction notice because of fake citations from the taxonomy journal Zootaxa for a review article on Phylum Annelida by Hasan, Reynolds, et al

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Some Eurypauropus for your viewing pleasure. They are small armored loaves a few millimeters long that scoot around eating something under logs.

Two five-segmented loaf shaped brown bugs on a log amidst some fungus

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Prof. Jeff Ollerton @jeffollerton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Want to conserve #birds, #mammals and other vertebrates? Then don’t forget their #insects. Our new Nature Reviews Biodiversity paper explores the many ways vertebrates depend on insects — for food, shelter, protection and much more. I’ve written about it here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2026/09/30/w...

jeffollerton.co.uk

Want to conserve birds and mammals? Then conserve their insects – our new paper in Nature Reviews Biodiversity sets out the details

It’s sometimes easy to forget quite how much of the living world depends upon insects. That might seem an odd thing for someone who has spent much of his career studying insects and their relations…

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

humans evolved hands for holding and cherishing the Cleidogona

My left hand holds a Cleidogona millipede which is speeding from the palm towards my thumb

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#SaveTheAcademy Our position in regard to the resolution about the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. This issue deeply affects our community, with many members having visited or worked closely with the academy over the years. We stand with @savetheacademy.bsky.social

The Entomological Collections Network is a society dedicated to uplifting natural history collections around the globe. We are deeply affected by the sudden announcement to close the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Museum, which is the oldest natural history museum in all the Americas. We stand behind the critical importance of not only safeguarding research collections for scientific use but also making outreach and educational displays that are available to all. At its core, a museum is a bridge to the community connection with the collections. And this connection is perhaps more important now than ever because of the continual threats to biodiversity around the globe and rising documented disconnect between the public and nature. It is through this institution and so many like it that we all can spark wonder and cultivate joy in the natural world, for an untold number of people of all ages and walks of life.

Shuttering a museum that provides a tangible connection to the natural world sends a shocking statement about what priorities are being set with regards to education and caring for the community in which we live. Although Drexel has expressed its intention to retain the research collection, it has presented no plan for the monumental task of safely moving their more than 19 million specimens and establishing a suitable facility to house it. As a Society we urge the City of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University to do what is best for the Academy of Natural Sciences’ collections, research, and public museum by exploring any creative avenue to ensure that this center of education and exploration can continue to inspire for generations.

From the Governing Board of the Entomological Collections Network
Isa Betancourt
Patrick Gorring
Adam Haberski
Andrew Johnston
Oliver Keller
Pete Oboyski
Ashleigh Whiffin
Jack Whisenant
Chris Wirth

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Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I became a biologist because of a museum exhibit. Real artifacts tell stories that are more powerful than anything we can get from scrolling. They are part of our engine for training the next generation of scientists. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/the-awesomen...

scienceforeveryone.science

The awesomeness of museums

Genuine artifacts tell the richest stories that fill our souls. And they fuel the scientific enterprise.

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

a different angle on Oriulus venustus

same structure as image 2, but in ventral view both of the pair of gonopods are seen. the upper blade has an s-shaped wave and a groove along the underside

the posterior gonopods, same structure as photo 4 of quoted, look like a U with the tips thickened and twisted forwards

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DB @arnoldtortoise.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A beautiful 0.22mm long female Megaphragma noyesi wasp of the Trichogrammatidae found at Castle Water of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve in July. This wasp is a parasitoid of the eggs of thrips, but we don't yet know which species of thrips. #wasps #RyeHarbour

Side view of a tiny wasp. Its oar-shaped wings have long fringe hairs. Its hewad and antennae are to the right of picture.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

it's getting a little colder at night now, so Narceus giant millipedes have been intentionally entering the house. unfortunately there are not a lot of wet leaves in here, otherwise I wouldn't even need to put them back. their calming presence improves every scenario

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

this grim mask is what a cockroach’s head looks like after a large centipede has fed on it. although centipedes chew their food instead of liquefying and pulping it like spiders, they still avoid eating hard shell when possible and can rasp meat out from surprisingly tiny crevices

an empty cockroach head, eyes pale and jaws splayed

back end of head—totally hollow, just thin structural struts remain where the flesh has been sucked out

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

a little angelic being I met this past spring

a plump white moth with folded triangular wings lies belly up on my hand. her eyes are black and the base of the first legs are bright orange

same moth peeking at the camera from behind a twig. her fluffy back rises past her tiny head

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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Kind of amazing, and vaguely disappointing, that the brilliantly-marked young Aztec spur-throat matures into the most drab mid grasshopper you’ve ever seen. (Texas)

Macro photo of a brightly marked black, yellow, and orange grasshopper on a green leaf.

Side view macro photograph of a brown grasshopper with large eyes standing on a prickly pear bud.

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

earthworms are easier to identify than gulls

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

impressive capture by this hangingthief robber fly

A gangly orange fly with a long abdomen, a short boxy thorax, huge eyes and a comically pointy set of mouthparts carries a wasp of about the same mass across my hand

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Pachybabies have molted for the first time and emerged with twice the legs. Hopefully this means growth will continue and I can rear them to adulthood!

a very tiny white millipede with a thick tubular body and six pairs of thin legs

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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 15/09/2026

Interested in how species diversity is split between major animal groups? Here is the infographic for you! 🧪⚒️🦀🦑 #evosky

An infographic showing the number of described and estimated species for major animal groups. There are more insects than anything else. Of the remaining groups, arachnids and nematodes are the most diverse.

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Subterranean Biology @subtbiol.pensoft.net · 04/09/2026

🕷️ New #millipede species Bollmanella amorensis described from Labor of Love Cave, Nevada. Study also reports new records of two other millipedes plus ecological notes on the distinctiveness of Great Basin Desert cave fauna. 👉 doi.org/10.3897/subt...

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I may have shared this before somewhere, but here’s some katydid faces from Costa Rica, a land of many fine bugs

A collage of nine colorful katydid faces. Most have tall, rectangular heads large eyes of variable color, green, red, yellow, white, bright blue. Most have “staring” pseudopupils, a trick of the light and human facial recognition. On several, the three simple eyes are quite plainly seen, two between the antennae and one below those. Most are green, but some are brown and one has a bright blue face. Several are ornamented with a “forehead” horn or crown of spikes.

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Millipede genitalia are often made of a type of exoskeleton that fluoresces under UV, so I use an ultraviolet flashlight to reveal tiny details of their gonopods. Why? Many closely related millipedes appear identical save for their reproductive structures—it’s necessary for identification.

A glass dish fluorescing yellow, with a glass microvial fluorescing blue. A pile of legs and a set of tiny gonopods just millimeters tall rest near the headless body of a Cleidogona millipede specimen. A black flashlight creates a shadow in the foreground.

Left, lateral view of gonopods. They’re shaped like two bars bent inwards towards each other, making a rectangular shape. The front-facing part (angiocoxites) is thicker with a long triangular point, and the smaller posterior parts (colpocoxites) are club-shaped with a thick spine. Right top and bottom are respectively anterior and posterior views of the gonopods. The anterior view shows the angiocoxites like a pair of thick bars tapering towards the top, where the points flare out again. The posterior view shows the points of the angiocoxites overlapping the top of the colpocoxites, which are joined at the base in a Y-shape. The whole structure is fluorescing bright green-blue.

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

thinking about that one worm with the flappies

line drawing scientific illustration of an earthworms forebody. At segment 16 huge paddle-like extensions come out

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

I think house centipedes should be considered good luck to see, even if people don’t like them I think they should be universally recognized as a bringer of fortune and prosperity.

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I understand slightly more about bugs every day

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

she crawled up my hand to keep her treat away from the male…

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I had quite the turtleful hike a few weeks ago

A yellow and black marked box turtle with large orange scales on her front legs

A male box turtle with big yellow scales on his legs is lurking directly behind a female who’s pulled inside her shell

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

I love you, Scolopendra subspinipes!!

A large reddish-brown centipede on the ground, my two hands are making a heart around it

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

bothering the cleidogonas

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Symphyla have no eyes but this one definitely knew I was there and refused to come out

Antennae of a Symphylan peeking out from behind yellow fungus

the Symphylan's pure white head is barely visible from within its mushroom house

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Take a stroll along a mossy log with this Euryurus leachii, one of eastern North America’s beautiful native millipedes.

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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

*Chariots of Fire theme*

inspiring series of grainy B/W stills from a slow-mo video of a dictyopharid planthopper launching itself majestically into the air (Burrows 2014 in JEB)

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

An unfortunate freshly stepped-on cicada I found on the street made a nice big meal for mama centipede.

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Millipede Lab @apheloria.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

For decades, a large millipede displayed in zoos has been known simply as a “giant African millipede.” But what species is it actually? Our new study provides an answer: Spiropoeus fischeri Brandt, 1833, a 14-cm-long millipede from West Africa.

Two figures from a scientific article. One shows a large black millipede, and the second shows the millipedes posterior end.

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D. Allan Drummond @dadrummond.art · 04/09/2026

Night eyes 😎 Finally got proper pictures of this amazing phenomenon! Mantises change their eye color (and light sensitivity) at night by transporting pigments from the surface of each compound eye unit toward the deeper eye region. Same female Tenodera sinensis, two different times. #bugsky

A female Tenodera sinensis mantis with dark black eyes against a light background, seen from very close up.

A female Tenodera sinensis mantis with green/brown eyes against a light background, seen from very close up to show the details of her face. The pseudopupil is clearly visible on her left eye, facing the camera.

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Gil Wizen @wizentrop.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

A couple of months ago I posted a photo of a giant whip spider snacking on something that looked like rainbow candy. It was the katydid Hyperphrona gracilis, a widespread species in South America that serves as food for many predators. This katydid is charming in its own right, so please enjoy it!

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I tried to feed my big male Phrynus an American cockroach and some cartoon chase antics ensued. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an amblypygid outmaneuvered like this. Good enrichment for the old man, and he did get it eventually, when I wasn’t looking of course

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Tam||maT @tamvmat.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

#InverteFest 2 I drew a happy millipede #inkart #insects #inverts

A black and white ink drawing of a millipede

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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I think Gumbo is about as colorful as he’ll get.

A flat millipede sits on some soil. The corners of the segments are dull pink, and the middle parts are grayish brown. Between the segments is off-white

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