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Roberto A. Keller

@rkellerp.bsky.social
676 followers 388 following 10 posts

Entomologist. Ant specialist. Born Mexico City. Curator of Entomology at Nacional Museum of Natural History and Science, & Researcher at Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes. www.mnhnc.ulisboa.pt

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Reposted by Roberto A. Keller
Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Finally got some photos of Australia’s “blue ant”, Diamma bicolor, which is not an ant at all but a shockingly large metallic blue thynnid wasp, wingless and solitary, that hunts mole crickets. Been meaning to shoot this thing for years.
Macro photo in side view of a large antlike insect that is shiny metallic blue with bright orange legs and large eyes, standing on a pure white background. The body segments are quite clearly demarcated, giving a slightly wormlike appearance.Macro photo in top view of the same insect running through the bark litter on a forest floor.
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Adrian Smith @dradriansmith.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
New Ant Lab video today about pincer wasps and a new research project. This one has some really cool, newly-filmed insect behavior in it! youtu.be/9osTBzQ0zbk
youtu.be
Spring-Loaded Claws on a Wasp – Parasitoid Pincer Wasps
YouTube video by Ant Lab
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CIÊNCIAS ULisboa @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Uma “nuvem” de agúdias “invadiu” a Feira do Livro de Lisboa. Estes insetos saem com o objetivo de se reproduzirem com insetos de diferentes ninhos e são inofensivos. “As formigas em si não fazem absolutamente nada", esclarece Roberto Keller, investigador de Ciências. 🔗https://t.ly/APRwR
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CETAF - Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities @eurotaxonomy.cetaf.org · 23/06/2025
One of the strong points of #TETTRIsEU is the Cascade-grant mechanism. We managed to give 1.8 million € to 12 amazing Satellites projects that are now producing great results and pushing the reach of the project to new limits. Enjoy L.U.C.E. and the italian #fireflies 👏 #taxonomy
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Tatiana Moreira-Pinhal @moreirapinhaltc.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
I have been worried on the field, and it is not just in Portugal. It has been decreasing immensely since 2013. I have never seen such low numbers as I have last month's field work. Nor such low numbers of species. :/ Everyone is saying the same. Especially whoever goes to the southern areas.
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Roberto A. Keller @rkellerp.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
(re)Follow Tatiana for everything bug related, especially butterflies, and more!
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Tatiana Moreira-Pinhal @moreirapinhaltc.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Oh hi! :D My old account was hacked, so I kinda am rediscovering BlueSky and also wanted to share this awesome new account about the work @rkellerp.bsky.social has been doing at our National Natural History and Science Museum (Lisbon, PT), so follow us & have fun! www.instagram.com/p/DI541lts8n6
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Led By Donkeys @ledbydonkeys.org · 07/05/2025
TANK vs TESLA "We've crushed fascism before and we'll crush it again" - ⁠WW2 veteran Ken, 98, in the tank
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TETTRIX @tettrix.eu · 07/05/2025
🌍 #TETTRIsEU Taxonomy Recognition Day – May 23! 🌿 Let’s celebrate the vital role of #taxonomy in protecting #biodiversity on Earth! 📸 Snap a photo of your favourite animal, plant, or mineral 🔤 Identify it with its taxonomic name (we’re happy to help!) 📱 Share it on social media using #NameItToSaveIt
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TETTRIX @tettrix.eu · 05/05/2025
#TETTRIsEU Satellite ARCADE is getting famous in Portugal! 🇵🇹 Muitos Parabems! wilder.pt/naturalistas...
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Smugglers busted trying to take thousands of queen ants out of Kenya, destined for the exotic pet trade.
edition.cnn.com
Belgian teens arrested with 5,000 smuggled ants as Kenya warns of changing trafficking trends | CNN
Two Belgian teenagers were charged Tuesday with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking sma...
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Discover Magazine @discovermag.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Learn about the extinct species of "dirt ant" that was found in 16-million-year-old Dominican amber, adding an important piece to an evolutionary puzzle.
buff.ly
Ancient Amber Has Kept a Dirt Ant Frozen in Time For 16 Million Years
Learn about the extinct species of "dirt ant" that was found in 16-million-year-old Dominican amber, adding an important piece to an evolutionary puzzle.
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Pensoft @pensoft.net · 15/04/2025
⌛️ Deadline for the “ #Collections Reaching Out” collection at @nhcm.pensoft.net is approaching ❕ Inspired by the 2024 @entcollnet.bsky.social meeting, the collection invites anyone looking into the design & use of #entomological outreach drawers as educational tools. @entiminae.bsky.social ℹ️
nhcm.pensoft.net
Call for papers: Entomological collections in public education & outreach activities
Initiated by the symposium “Collections Reaching Out”, held as part of the 2024 annual meeting of the Entomological Collections Network (ECN) in Phoenix, Arizona, a new topical collection ...
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Roberto A. Keller @rkellerp.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Taxonomy fail: yes, Diacamma ants (pictured) occur in Asia's tropical regions, but they are not related to Colobopsis exploding ants, apart of also happening to be ants. #taxonomyFail
forbes.com
Southeast Asia’s Exploding Ant Dies So Its Colony Can Live — A Biologist Explains
Meet the exploding ant, a tiny warrior hidden deep in the forests of Borneo. Their astonishing act of self-destruction unleashes a toxic blast, stopping predators in their tracks and redefining the tr...
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Kevin Keegan @mothpotato.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Any entomologists know what these eggs? are that I found in soil in Pittsburgh?
Many of the structures described in the second photo in a chunk of soil.Tan-brown ovate insect structure with more or less regular geometric patterning to its cuticle
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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 09/04/2025
NEW PAPER, JUST OUT! 👀 Insects from the '70s and '80s were already collecting microplastic, decades before the term microplastic even existed. 🤯 A thread on the surprising history of this pollutant and the incredible insect larvae that helped us uncover it. 🐛 Let's dive in! 🧵👇 1/x
Lead author Auke-Florian Hiemstra holds the oldest known caddisfly casing containing microplastic, dating to 1971. Photo: Liselotte Rambonnet.A caddisfly casing with pieces of blue microplastic, dating 1986. Photo: Auke-Florian Hiemstra
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ZooKeys @zookeys.pensoft.net · 05/03/2025
🐜 An updated taxonomic revision of the ant genus Zasphinctus for the Afrotropical region based on the worker caste, with five newly described species: doi.org/10.3897/zook... #newspecies #taxonomy #ants #entomology
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CETAF - Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities @eurotaxonomy.cetaf.org · 03/03/2025
Our Executive Director Ana Casino in this interview in Spanish 🇪🇦, given at @mncn-csic.bsky.social: "The strong voice of scientists is crucial" #taxonomy4science #taxonomy #policymaking #worldwildlifeday #wildlife
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GBIF @gbif.org · 01/03/2025
Are you hardcore into #DarwinCore? 😎 The Darwin Core Maintenance Group are seeking public review for the accumulated set of proposed changes to Darwin Core. 👀 🐸 Interested in contributing? The review period will be open for at least 30 days. 🔗www.tdwg.org/news/20...
red orange and black nudibranch
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CETAF - Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities @eurotaxonomy.cetaf.org · 18/02/2025
#CETAF signed this letter to ask for a serious commitment to preserving #nature and insist on environmental-friendly regulations. Any step back would be critical for the planet! Read the new version of the letter here 👇 👓 zenodo.org/records/1486... #taxonomy4nature
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TETTRIX @tettrix.eu · 17/02/2025
#TETTRIs #PolicyBrief 📝 #Biological nomenclature is a cornerstone of #biodiversity #research, conservation and #taxonomy. #Policymakers, funding agencies, museums and international standards organisations should provide the necessary investment and support to secure its future. shorturl.at/H7zBD
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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 12/02/2025
As I see my colleagues at risk of job loss in the US government, I have been on the phone with people in tears over many concerns I won’t get into on this platform. I am doing my best for them behind the scenes. However, I will recall a passage from William M. Wheeler in 1970. #science #entomology
It quite saddens me to think that when I cross the Styx, I may find myself among so many professional biologists, condemned to keep on trying to solve problems, and that Pluto, or whoever is in charge down there now, may condemn me to sit forever trying to identify specimens from my own specific and generic diagnoses, while the amateur entomologists, who have not been damned professors, are permitted to roam at will among the fragrant asphodels of the Elysian meadows, netting gorgeous, ghostly butterflies until the end of time.

— William Morton Wheeler, The Dry Rot of Academia (1970William Morton Wheeler leaning by a plant in a black and white photo.
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Gil Wizen @wizentrop.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Snap! Trap-jaw ant (Orectognathus mjobergi) from Australia just caught herself a large collembolan prey. What's interesting here is that the ant has to carry it high up in the air to prevent it from being dragged on the ground and potentially picking up mites, fungi etc'.
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AIM @aim-mirmecologia.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
🐜 Hormigas al descubierto: La nueva taxonomía de las #hormigas Zasphinctus en la región Afrotropical
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Australia has the shiniest ants. This is a worker of Rhytidoponera aspersa carrying eggs among her colony's nest sites.
A closeup view of an ant whose body is as wrinkled as a raisin, but metallic blue/green/purple iridescent, and with lightly hairy red legs and antennae, walking on brown soil and carrying several whitish oblong eggs.
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Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Episode 3 (imaging): Don't just sort. Also image, from multiple perspectives! Insect levitation with ultrasound: capturing 360° views to automate measurements and create 3D models. More here: www.techrxiv.org/users/813834...
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Dr Fevziye Hasan @fevziye.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Increasing Disconnection of Primary Biodiversity Data from Specimens: How Does It Happen and How to Handle It? academic.oup.com/sysbio/artic...
academic.oup.com
The Increasing Disconnection of Primary Biodiversity Data from Specimens: How Does It Happen and How to Handle It?
Abstract. Primary biodiversity data represent the fundamental elements of any study in systematics and evolution. They are, however, no longer gathered as
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Roberto A. Keller @rkellerp.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Brighten up #BlueMonday with this gorgeous Anthaxia dimidiata! #BlueBugs From the collection of the Nacional Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon.
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Ash Whiffin @ashwhiffin.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Next Monday, help me transform #BlueMonday into a celebration of BLUE INSECTS! Join in by sharing your photos or artwork along with the hashtag #BlueBugs 🦋🪲🔬🧪 This weevil was my 2024 offering…
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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
pulling up the original "Species-scape" by Quentin Wheeler and Frances Fawcett, showing different groups of organisms at a size proportional to their species richness. Of COURSE all insects are represented by a monstrous Agathidium
Pleasing colorful illustration of a landscape populated by variously sized life forms. Each one is of a size proportional to its clade's species richness, so you have a massive beetle (insects) and enormous mite (arachnids) and one teeeeny tiny elephant representing mammals
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Phil Barden @haidomyrmex.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Ant folks, is antweb down? Does anyone know why? Can we help?
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Théotime Colin @theotimecolin.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Epopostruma wardi, one of my favorite ant species because of the unusual triangular shape of their head. We don't know too much yet about their biology. #ants #fourmis #myrmecology #insects #bugs #nature #macro
The head of a queen of Epopostruma wardiA queen ant, Epopostruma wardi
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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
In 1897, Alfred G. Mayer created his butterfly wing projections, an attempt to gain new insights into natural patterns and laws. Vertical blocks denote individual wings, distorted and stretched mathematically to fill a tidy rectangular space. More here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/m...
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Natural History Collections and Museomics @nhcm.pensoft.net · 14/01/2025
📢 Initiated at the last @entcollnet.bsky.social annual meeting, this topical collection welcomes contributions about #specimens curated for #public #education & awareness. ⌛️ 31 March 2025 👌 No #APCs 🤗 Open to anyone, including non-members! #entomology #ento #scicomm #scholcomm #openaccess
nhcm.pensoft.net
Call for papers: Entomological collections in public education & outreach activities
Initiated by the symposium “Collections Reaching Out”, held as part of the 2024 annual meeting of the Entomological Collections Network (ECN) in Phoenix, Arizona, a new topical collection ...
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Roberto A. Keller @rkellerp.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
If you are one of those interesting people who like sausage-like ants, you are in for a treat: we just published in @zookeys.pensoft.net a taxonomic update for Afrotropical Zasphinctus describing 5 new species! You read that right FIVE! Happy 2025 for you as well zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1312...
Lateral views of eight species of the beautiful Afrotropical ants in the genus Zasphinctus.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Today in @currentbiology.bsky.social: a Quick Guide to the wondrous and fascinating biology of the clonal raider ant:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kOXg3QW8S...
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Isa Betancourt @isabetabug.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
*Be my new work supervisor!* Arizona State University is hiring a new Director of the ASU Biocollections with a concurrent appointment as a tenured associate or full professor. *I'd really love for this person to be an entomologist so ento friends, please share!* apply.interfolio.com/159166
Photograph of an open cabinet with insect specimen drawers. One door is closed and has close up images of beetle specimens. There is a "NEON Biorepository" label on the door.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
15 years old, but still completely relevent — and if we had acted 15 years ago, the “better world” we could be creating today would be a LOT better and easier to reach. There are real consequences we’re just starting to see to not heeding this cartoon a lot sooner. Heed it now. #ClimateCrisis
At Climate Summit, presenter has long list of advantages to making more sustainable choices and addressing #ClimateChange. Audience member asks “what if it’s a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?”
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Natural History Collections and Museomics @nhcm.pensoft.net · 19/12/2024
🤩 At the #Collections Club community #scientists initiative at the #FieldMuseum, volunteers have processed over 300,000 #scientific #specimens, records & objects to make valuable #data accessible to #researchers worldwide. 👏 More about the latest paper in our #journal via the @pensoft.net blog 👇
blog.pensoft.net
Community scientists digitized over a quarter-million items and records at the Field Museum
Volunteers and members of the “Collections Club” of the Field Museum provide a blueprint for how community scientists can help researchers around the world.
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Josh Gibson, Ph.D. @drstrangeant.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
MicroCT scan of a wheel bug (Arilus cristatus).
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Ash Whiffin @ashwhiffin.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
You may find it disturbing but it is unfortunately still necessary. Identification of insects is usually far more complex than with most mammals, birds & reptiles, often requiring dissection to accurately get to species. You can’t even begin to protect something if you don’t know what it is. …
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Shloop 𓅃 @bugwizardshloop.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
I’ve found a ton of Instagram insect sellers who slap “sustainably sourced”, but never seem to elaborate what they mean by “sustainable”. Curious! So I checked their pages to see what I can find. This one didn’t even try to hide it. You can see labels stating origin country and collection date. 1/9
A bio of an insect seller. Particularly, it writes, “…sustainably sourced critters and art…”An Instagram post of the seller mentioned in the first photo. It features various specimens of beetles, stick insects and lanternflies. Some of the specimens have labels of their origin country and collection date.
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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
That's interesting, I just tried the same search (screenshotted in my previous thread) to see if google is still prioritizing AI slop for certain taxon names. It looks like they've fixed Chrysina:
Screenshot of the top image results for a standard google search for Chrysina aurigans, a golden scarab beetlethe previous result of searching for this taxon name: an unholy AI-generated frankenbug that has no resemblance at all to a Chrysina
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Roberto A. Keller @rkellerp.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
There isn't a week in which the Lisbon's tram that passes in front of my place of work is blocked by a car that is too fat for the parking spaces, delaying public transport and traffic in general There's no place for SUVs in European cities.
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Priyantha Wijesinghe @elaphrornis.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
3/n qwheeler.substack.com/p/much-ado-a...
qwheeler.substack.com
Much ado about very little
Molecular-based taxonomy is useful, but not very informative
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Natural History Collections and Museomics @nhcm.pensoft.net · 06/12/2024
This collection description highlights the zoological specimens from Portuguese oceanographic campaigns in former colonial territories, currently deposited in the Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência, Universidade de Lisboa. doi.org/10.3897/nhcm...
doi.org
The zoological collections of Portuguese oceanographic campaigns in former colonial territories
The Missão de Biologia Marítima (Lisboa, Portugal) and its successor institutions, were responsible for conducting oceanographic campaigns in former Portuguese colonies during the decades of 1950–1960...
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ZooKeys @zookeys.pensoft.net · 02/12/2024
We're ZooKeys, an open-access, peer-reviewed zoology journal published by @pensoft.bsky.social. We're very excited to share our research with you and meet fellow scientists! Submit your manuscript or find out more about us at zookeys.pensoft.net
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Roberto A. Keller @rkellerp.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
New journal just dropped! Excited to serve as subject editor for this venue promoting collection-based research and the legacy of our museums of natural history! Gives us a follow.
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