iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

#WorldRobberFlyDay Australasian Asilidae: male Chrysopogon albopunctatus (Macquart, 1846) (Brachyrhopalinae, USNMENT00832795) from Western Australia, Australia - an amazing wasp mimic - more info at n2t.net/ark:/65665/3... #asiloidflies

assassin fly mounted on pin in lateral view

assassin fly mounted on pin in dorsal view

assassin fly mounted on pin in frontal view

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Ichneumonids aren't common in the desert but I'm sure I'll get a few gems. Big thanks to some locals who are helping with servicing the traps! These are all Claridge Traps malaise traps BTW: claridgetraps.com

claridgetraps.com

Claridge Traps | Advancing Entomological Supplies

Claridge Traps

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

First round of malaise trap setups from this past weekend. The vastly under-collected Colorado Plateau (at least for ichneumonids) is one of my main focal areas this year. This first spot is near Kanab, Utah. #ichneumonidae #entomology #malaisetrap #insect #hymenoptera #diptera #trackerwasps

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

The species lists can now be can now be filtered by state or country to help narrow down options for identification. #ichneumonidae #entomology #trackerwasps #insect #taxonomy

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

It is a unique pleasure to have someone send you pictures of a species you described. It's like a report that one of your kids is doing all right. This beauty is Orectoscelis westwoodi, a myrmecophile (probably with Pheidole) described back in 2005 from Queensland, AU. (photo by Jan Pražák)

a beetle glued to a point. Its head points left, with sausage-like antennae attached to large shielding scapes. The body is punctate, dark brown, and the elytra have gigantic, ear-like rounded bulges, with a golden fringe of setae along their inner edge (handles, we believe, for the ants to grab).

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I've never found it very useful either.

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Tapani Hopkins @tapani-hopkins.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

I'm just finishing interpreting the DNA barcodes on my wasps, and now it turns out you can regularly have different barcodes in the same (sawfly) wasp! 😅 Nice work, and something to keep in mind when splitting wasps into species based on DNA.🧪

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Might have to change the website name to reflect the broader coverage now.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

My goal is for IONA to be a one stop shop platform for Ichneumonid identification and taxonomy. I'd really appreciate all the help I can get with imaging species and writing up the subfamily/ genus guides, especially if you're an ichneumonid taxonomist!

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

- non-Nearctic genera pages available by selecting worldwide in genera side bar

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Lots of new features on ichsofna.org: - species lists now provide complete synonym history - hover over a species name to see a popup with images (if available), a distribution map, and a list of recorded hosts - toggle species between Nearctic and worldwide #ichneumonidae #insects #entomology

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Michael Caterino @mcaterino.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

A long time in preparation, the 'big monograph' from my sabbatical last year is finally submitted. These beauties (and about ~350 more) will soon be known to the world!

Photographs, Harmomima spp. A–C, J, K H. glabra (body: dorsal, ventral, frontal; aedeagus: dorsal, lateral) D–F, L, M H. prominens (body: dorsal, ventral, lateral; aedeagus: dorsal, lateral) G–I, N, O H. sulcata (body: dorsal, ventral, lateral; aedeagus: dorsal, lateral).

Photographs, Thesium spp. A–C, J, K T. apicalis (body: dorsal, ventral, lateral; aedeagus: dorsal, lateral) D–F, L, M T. crenulatum (body: dorsal, ventral, lateral; aedeagus: dorsal, lateral) G–H, N, O T. magnaclavus (body: dorsal, ventral, lateral; aedeagus: dorsal, lateral)

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

I've added country species distribution data from Taxapad (still need to get data for a few subfamilies) to ichsofna.org. By clicking on a country/state you will get a list of all ichneumonids that occur there (up to 2016). #trackerwasps #ichneumonidae #insect #taxonomy #biodiversity #entomology

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

New #IONA feature! The choropleths on the genus page now not only show diversity per state/province, but when you click on one, it will show you the list of recorded species. ichsofna.org/Ichneumonina... #wasps #JS #ichneumonidae #entomology #biodiversity #taxonomy

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Then again, what is a Malaise trap but a field ichneumonid slot machine.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

I would go broke at the slot machine if the wasps in question were the nice ichneumonid kind.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Been adding a lot of new species to ichsofna.org. Here's a stunning species of as yet unidentified Glypta from Wyoming. It's no trivial task to ID these since there are 316 Glypta species in North America! #insect #entomology #ichneumonidae #parasitoid

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Tapani Hopkins @tapani-hopkins.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Two interesting things in this paper: Idiobionts* were caught more in the dry season, koinobionts not, which is what I'm starting to see in the Ugandan data too. 40 trap years of collecting gave only 10,000 wasps, wonder why so much less than in Uganda? 🤔

scielo.sa.cr

Seasonal Variation of Idiobiont and Koinobiont Parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) on Barro Colorado Island, Panamá

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

A good mystery is always fun. I can't imagine the work some of those old timers did back in the day. I've been trying to figure out (at least sort of morphospecies) some of the MANY nearctic Ophion in my personal collection. I'll have to try and use that scutellar caraine character.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

What other interesting bits do you have?

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Here are the figures for the two new Ctenichneumon species. How many differences can you spot?? #entomology #Ichneumonidae #parasitoid #insects #taxonomy #newspecies

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

While this is a somewhat trivial example, the LLM approach would be much more useful for someone who initially didn't a genus identification and needed to sift through of the ~730 Nearctic ichneumonine species. For fun, here is the species in question: Cratichneumon fossorius.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

The overview of the paper was spot on, too. As the author, I can confirm there aren't any hallucinations, at least for this small example. This could be a game changer for non-experts to get useful information from taxonomic papers. #entomology

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

From website development to image classification apps, I've been interested in improving ID resources for a long time. I've been exploring using NotebookLM as an ID tool and am extremely impressed. Here's a test based on one of my publications: #entomology #taxonomy #ichneumonidae #insects #ai

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Working on describing this couple of new Ctenichneumon species from the Huachuca Mountains in #Arizona. Too bad they are both singletons! Hopefully someone can find the males eventually. #insect #newspecies #entomology #nature #photography #ichneumonidae #trackerwasp #wasp

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Due to the massive diversity of Ichneumon (and other Ichneumonini), it's practically impossible to tell most species apart, like all of these brownish-red females.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Added a few newly collected Ichneumon species to Ichneumonids of North America. Amazingly, I've found 31 different species based on females when records only show 4 for the state! Compare that with 57 species in Main, which is probably a fairly complete inventory. #entomology #newspecies #taxonomy

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

I can't believe no one called me out on this one! It's really just an incredibly obscure species called Pseudoamblyteles homocerus. I had overlooked the small propodeal apophyses. Well, still a new Utah state record!

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

My first pseudoscorpion observation was pure luck. Happen to see this wasp and took a shot. It was only later did I see what was hanging on the antenna. On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ]

A brown pseudoscopion hanging on to the antenna of a wasp. The wasp is yellow with black stripes and transparent wings.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

The crucial character is the pectinate tarsal claws which is very unusual among #Nearctic #ichneumonines.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Very preliminary but below should be a #newspecies and the first record of the #ichneumonid genus Patroclus in the US! This newly collected singleton specimen is from central Utah but Patroclus is neotropical, getting as far north as Mexico. #taxonomy #insects #wasps #Hymenoptera #parasitoid

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I've only sorted and pinned a very small fraction of the ichneumonds collected by the 6-meter Malaise I have in central Utah. Among other discoveries is a new species of Tricholabus! #Ichneumonidae #newpsecies #entomology #insects #Utah #taxonomy #wasps

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

#FlyFriday one of my favorite assassin flies - Sisyrnodytes subater Oldroyd, 1957 (Asilidae: Willistonininae, USNMENT00870084) - collected in north-western South Africa near Pella - more info here n2t.net/ark:/65665/3... #asiloidflies

fly specimen double-mounted on insect pin, frontal

fly specimen double-mounted on insect pin, dorsal

fly specimen double-mounted on insect pin, lateral

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Lee Dyer @gusanero.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

So many undescribed species, too many unknown interactions, no time. www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/17...

New species of wasp. Images of head and wings.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

I don't currently but could try out some pans at the bottom. Even better, I have a friend who runs a lot of VFITs in Utah who would probably be happy to trade. I'll dm you his email.

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

My friend Cameron Ramsey (chrysomelid taxonomist) and I have a 6-meter Malaise trap set up in a wash in central Utah right now. Between the large trap size and the location, it's collecting an insane amount. There's going to be a lot of bycatch for anyone looking to trade!

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Jakob Jilg @weevil-see.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

I started a blog and my first post is online! The posts will try to explore topics which are not typically covered by introductory literature and textbooks, e.g. because they are considered to be "too basic". Let me know what you think! weevil-see.github.io/taxonomy/Ide...

weevil-see.github.io

Species Identifications: Common Pitfalls

Some thoughts about Identifications. How do we identify properly? How do we avoid mistakes?

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

For all the lep enthusiasts out there celebrating #NationalMothWeek, please check out #ClaridgeTraps for a great light sheet setup! Let me know if you have any questions!

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

studying #asiloidflies at @amnh.org today - one of the best collections of apiocerid flies (Apioceridae) with almost every of the 65 North American species present - often with primary + secondary type material

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Andrew Johnston @andrewjohnston.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

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...

insectid.org

Focus-stacking photography: Building your own system

Ten years ago, Alex Wild published a guide on Scientific American on how to make your own focus-stacking system for under $6000. I can't seem to find that post any more, just some secondary posts with...

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Reposted by Brandon Claridge

Karl Magnacca @kmagnacca.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

The corollary to this is, with some basic knowledge of insect taxonomy, you too can become the world expert on a group! Just spend a few years obsessively reading about and looking at them and you'll know more than anyone else. The downside is you'll then be asked to review every paper on them...

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Brandon Claridge @ichsofna.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Big thanks to my undergrad coauthor Kyri Forman and her lepidopterist mentor for rearing the A. coloradensis specimens from their lycaenid butterfly hosts. Goes to show how easy it is to figure out new ichneumonid hosts in NA with some fun rearing work.

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