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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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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Registration for #ECN2026 is NOW OPEN! As well as standard in-person registration, we have discounted rates for online registration, for students and for volunteers. Make the most of our early-bird rates (ending on September 14): ecnweb.net/welcome/meet...

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Do you work with insect collections? Yes?! Then we hope to see you at #ECN2026! 🪲 When: November Friday 6 - Saturday 7, 2026 Where: Columbus Hilton Downtown hotel, Ohio That’s right folks, we’re trialling something new and starting a day earlier than usual. We really hope you can join us!

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Malcolm is STILL PUBLISHING at age 99, including a new technical report based on his massive collection of SEM-prepped specimens and micrographs thereof

Some of Malcolm’s many impeccably organized and sputter coated SEM stubs covered with beetles and beetle parts

The resulting publication, featuring gorgeous images of the scutellum of assorted scolytids (and weird spores/goop potentially associated with mycangia…)

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Luc Leblanc shares some background on the Barr Museum’s forestry insect collection, drawn largely from Malcolm Furniss’s bark beetles

Cumulative Malcolm Furniss publication graph, indicating (as always!!) that productivity only increases after you get to retire

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

We have a remote talk by Devanshu Gupta if the Zoological Survey of India, summarizing the lucanid fauna of India via the ZSI’s collection.

Photos of some big bitey stag beetles from India

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

to say nothing of the extraordinary Oskar Vogt, Nazi-hating socialist and neurobiologist who maintained a suspiciously large staff of entomologists and bumblebee collectors. He is pictured here holding a slice of Lenin’s brain.

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Their historical material includes 19th-century insects from Dutch visitors to Japan and the extensive Hymenoptera collection of S. C. Snellen van Vollenhoven

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Jess Awad from Naturalis (massive Dutch biodiversity institute, formerly known as RMNH)— massive collection in a gorgeous new building (2019)

New Naturalis campus in Leiden. It’s very bold and modern.

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Gen Anderegg tells us about Clarence Riker, inventor of the Riker mount (same family as Rikers Island too)

Clarence Riker himself, whose original cotton-based insect cabinets are now in the Denver Museum.

One of his many cotton-based insect mounts, only partially labeled and mostly leps.

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Another harrowing tale, this time from Alfred Johnson and Ava Rios on the trials of biodiversity collections in Guam

Helpful infographic showing the non-typhoon threats to Guam, which are invasive species, invasive species, invasive species, and invasive species

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Bill Clark tells us about the exquisite personal lep collection assembled by Gary Gier, a retired HS teacher in Idaho

Gary’s collection represented butterflies and moths equally, with ~1800 species each and 18,000+ total specimens

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

And finally, Lubo’s message to the young: LESS COMPUTER, MORE COLLECTING

Lubo Masner’s “message to the young” (anyone under 70): “Less computer, more collecting”

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Lubo’s ultimate sweep net: fishing nets modified for durability and screening out any leaves, leps, or other debris that might mess up your sample of tiny wasps

Ingredients for building a powerful bespoke insect net, Masner style

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Istvan Miko introduces us to the phenotypically consistent and shockingly productive hymenopterist Lubomir Masner and his dedication to (among other things) tiny wasps

Slide showing Lubo Masner looking exactly the same for 20+ years, as well as a graph of his publications over time

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

The jump scares continue with Tommy Mcelrath on INHS’s successful SPNHC grant to curate and digitize Californian insects, including rehousing some absolutely disastrous wet material

Photos of perfectly good specimens trapped inside old glass ethanol vials with fully melted stoppers

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

ECN day 2 starting off strong with President-Elect Pete and the most upsetting fly I’ve ever seen

Brachyceran fly from the Essig museum absolutely bespackled with hideous mites

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Jessica Wadleigh of FMNH with the finest, tiniest beetles

Summary of FMNH pselaphine holdings. So small, so brown, so perfect…

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Now THAT’s an imaging workflow (iPhone held by clamp)

There are also more sophisticated workflows, like confocal microscopy of slide-mounted specimens in Canada balsam)

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Istvan Miko takes us on a trip to the UNH insect collection, which punches above its weight in part thanks to the superhuman collecting efforts of Don Chandler

Summary of the UNH collection holdings, featuring Don and one of his beloved pselaphines

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

FYI: catering carts are the perfect dimensions to freeze large numbers of CAS drawers…

Rolling lightweight racks designed to hold trays of food, moving drawers into a walk-in freezer. This is why it pays to have food service experience!

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Chris Marshall on the history and metamorphosis of OSAC, including a beautiful combination of Delta cabinets and compactors (and homegrown dahlias)

Photos of the collection space and DNA workspace, including a pleasant bouquet of flowers

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

They are currently pursuing legislation to recognize the importance of biological collections, including a declaration of Sept. 2nd as a day of awareness (anniversary of the Museu National fire)

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Luciane Marinoni, prez of the Brazilian Zoological Society, telling us about the 300+ entomological collections in Brazil

Slide from Luciane’s talk showing the geographic distribution of insect collections in Brazil (and the fact that insects are found in 108 of the country’s 339 zoological collections)

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Her dad mailed her a letter containing leaves with promising scale-like blobs :)

Some century-old dead leaves with small whitish boogers stuck to them

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Gladys’s bespoke, card-catalogue-style slide cabinet filled with coccids

Gladys’s original handmade scale cabinet: over 4000 glass slides

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Finally, Shelby Grice of the MEM introduces us to Gladys Hoke Lobdell (b. 1895), the first female prof at Mississippi State (in 1918!) and her spectacular collection of scale insects

A photo of Mary Gladys Hoke Lobdell, an early entomologist and professor in the Deep South

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Let’s get TINY: Natalie Dale-Skey on the NHM’s mymarid slide collection. LOTS of careful data editing. Look at that slide holder for bulk scanning!

Slide on slide digitization workflow, showing a volunteer filling a simply massive tray with individual slides of inconceivably tiny wasps

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

All types got microCT scanned AND confocally imaged, which is what we mean by “next-generation morphology”

Still photo of a video of some slowly rotating 3-d opilionids

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Should every natural history museum have a few massive LN2 tanks for cryopreservation of specimen tissues? Our sources say yes

Harvard’s huge, ominous steel tanks, smoking gently as they await cryovials full of precious tissues

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

A nice workflow for updating taxonomy, labeling, and rehousing

Gen’s slide outlining the flow from collection manager to volunteer/intern

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Label handling time for their project databasing Cerambycidae types

Label handling remains the most slow and labor-intensive part of the job

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

FMNH has developed its own open source system for segmenting, annotating, and analyzing drawers of pinned insects: “DrawerDissect”

Slide showing part of the FMNH workflow of whole-drawer image capture

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Next year we will have speed trials for assembling Chris Wirth’s portable focus stacking camera system

Satisfying but intimidating layout of disassembled imaging system. It’s Linux for photography

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

How to turn your old DSLR into a focus-stacking tool: watch out for “mirror slap” and “hot pixels”

Photo of an old ass DSLR and list of exciting problems it could have

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Andrew Johnston and Chris Wirth with a double feature on highly affordable DIY focus-stacking systems! QR code here for further info…

Will this slightly distorted photo of a slide serve to convey a functional QR code? Let’s find out!!

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

And our final talk in the AI symposium, Chris Johnson of AMNH talks about her experience in automated imaging and data capture with the GIGAMACRO

Slide showing the Gigamacro imaging system, used at AMNH to simultaneously image specimens and their labels

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

used rubber bands in the alcohol collection? ONE THOUSAND YEARS DUNGEON

Harrowing photos of rubber bands that have failed in their archival duty

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Jack Whisenant on pattern recognition approaches for capturing handwritten data from labels and logbooks

Stunning examples of handwriting that we struggle to digitize

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

How many species of bears are in Florida? IMPOSSIBLE TO DETERMINE

IChatBio’s response claiming that it is impossible to count the one bear species in Florida

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Now it’s Ann Dunn with a report on how agentic AI chatbots perform in consolidating database queries, starting with a very thorough dataset of, surprise, clam shrimp

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Next up, Deb Paul talks about testing AI solutions for quickly extracting host associations and other data to grow the Universal Chalcidoidea Database.

An example of Deb’s prompt for extracting association data from a PDF

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

The speech transcription method is faster in general, but does not reduce specimen handling

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Our first AI talk comes from Nick Dowdy, discussing the performance of his workflow for capturing label data from audio transcripts!

Slide of the early workflow for transcribing and parsing audio to digitize label data

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Huge welcome to all you lovely folks joining us today, both in-person and online! Great to have so many first-timers! Let’s get to it, with a welcome from our President @drfirefly.bsky.social! #ECN2025

A sea of ECN attendees taking their seats.

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

At ECN we promote a welcoming environment that is safe, collaborative, supportive, and productive for all participants. Before our meeting kicks-off, please take a moment to read our Code of Conduct: ecnweb.net/about/code-o... #ECN2025

Entomological Collections Network Code of Conduct.
The ECN seeks to promote a welcoming environment that is safe, collaborative, supportive, and productive for all participants. We expect all ECN members to adhere to this code, which applies to all forums hosted by the society including but not limited to: conferences (in-person or virtual), social media, and the Listserv. The ECN values the diversity of views and backgrounds reflected among all attendees; as such we are committed to providing a positive environment for all, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ability, religion, socioeconomic status, career status, or ethnicity. Our respectful dialogue policy asks that participants make every effort to maintain constructive discourse with other conference attendees at all times. This includes speakers honoring designated time limits, attendees being aware of balancing speaking and listening time, and welcoming newer members into conversation.

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Entomological Collections Network @entcollnet.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

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.

Program cover for the 2025 Entomological Collections Network meeting, feature a beautifully fluffy Pleocoma specimen. Meeting taking place November 8-9, in Portland, Oregon.

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