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Taxon Expeditions @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The latest discovery from our Borneo expeditions. As always, this new beetle species was collected, curated, studied, described, and published in a process of co-creation among local and international lay people and scientists -- 'cause "You can be Darwin, too!" bdj.pensoft.net/articles.php...

bdj.pensoft.net

A new Dermatohomoeus from the Ulu Temburong forest, Brunei (Coleoptera, Leiodidae)

‘Taxon expeditions’ are field courses/expeditions for mixed teams of scientists, students and lay people with the aim to do biodiversity inventories, particularly of cryptobiota and to discover and de...

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Dr. Danny Haelewaters 🏳️‍🌈🍄🪰🦇🔬🧬 @dhaelewa.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Congratulations to my student Fatima El Madani, who defended her bachelor thesis today on screening insects in the @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social collection for the presence of #Laboulbeniales. She reported some new host records and at least one possible #newspecies of Laboulbenia! #TeamLaboul

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Dr. Danny Haelewaters 🏳️‍🌈🍄🪰🦇🔬🧬 @dhaelewa.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

I am working with #citizenscientists this weekend in the @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social entomological collection, to screen insects for the presence of ectoparasitic microfungi. This project is supported by @msafungi.bsky.social. #TeamLaboul #Laboulbeniales

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Dr. Danny Haelewaters 🏳️‍🌈🍄🪰🦇🔬🧬 @dhaelewa.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

So far, we found 16 insects with #Laboulbeniales ectoparasitic microfungi, out of 361 screened ones — marking a prevalence of 4.4%. Not bad at all! Go #TeamLaboul! @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social

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Hesters rariteitenkabinet @hetwonderkabinet.nl · 15/02/2026

‘Gruismonsters’ is wetenschappelijk materiaal (van bijv bosbodem) wat verzameld is tijdens de @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social (iedereen kan mee op expeditie, wel zelf reis en verblijf bekostigen) waarin kleine slakkenhuisjes en insectjes zitten die ik eruit vis voor verder onderzoek etc.

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Last month, we hosted Yeliz Ergöl on an Erasmus+ scholarship. She devoted herself to creating a collection of mollusc specimens from our project in the Komarnica Canyon in Montenegro, to be deposited in the Natural History Museum of Montenegro (Prirodnjački Muzej Crne Gore).

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Dr. Danny Haelewaters 🏳️‍🌈🍄🪰🦇🔬🧬 @dhaelewa.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Time to celebrate! Dinner with invited speaker Menno Schilhuizen and Iva Njunjíc of @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social and members #TeamLaboul. Proud PI!

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Dr. Danny Haelewaters 🏳️‍🌈🍄🪰🦇🔬🧬 @dhaelewa.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

My colleague Dr. Iva Njunjíc from @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social visited my lab past week with cave beetles collected this summer during her #NationalGeographic funded project. They turned out to be infected with undescribed parasitic microfungi! ✨ #newspecies #Laboulbeniales #TeamLaboul

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Taxon Expeditions @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

A new generation of acarologists! Gaby Schutte en Stijn Kroon (students of applied biology at Aeres Hogeschool) are working on our soil mite collection and yesterday were visited by the eminence grise of Dutch acarology, Henk Siepel. They had a mitey old time!

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Just returned from a 10-day expedition in Kuala Belalong, Brunei, with @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social. We found many stalk-eyed flies, mostly Diopsidae, but also these Themara true fruit flies (Tephritidae). Not sure which species: both T. ampla and T. hirsuta have been found there before.

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Taxon Expeditions @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Today, Sunday June 7th, from 10.00 AM until 15.30 PM, you can find us again in the upstairs exhibit of the Boswinkel in the Amsterdamse Bos, with our special microscopy lab. Bring your mini finds and dive into the wonderful world of the small and tiny.

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Taxon Expeditions @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

If you're ready to trade comfort for curiosity and dive headfirst into one of Europe's last true wildernesses, join us. Together, we'll explore a hidden world and leave with stories to last a lifetime. #travel #citizenscience #researchtravel #conservation #uniquetravel #wilderness #biodiversity

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Dr. Danny Haelewaters 🏳️‍🌈🍄🪰🦇🔬🧬 @dhaelewa.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I am humbled to receive the @msafungi.bsky.social Martin-Baker Research Award this year, in support of a taxonomy project with #citizenscientists and volunteers in collaboration with @schilthuizen.bsky.social and @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social! #TeamLaboul #MSAfungi25

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de Volkskrant @volkskrant.nl · 12/04/2025

Zelf een nieuwe diersoort ontdekken? Dat kan gewoon in je achtertuin, zegt deze hoogleraar

volkskrant.nl

Zelf een nieuwe diersoort ontdekken? Dat kan gewoon in je achtertuin, zegt deze hoogleraar

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

And again @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social uploaded the first-ever observation of a species on @inaturalist.bsky.social. Happens all the time when you're working on staphylinids.

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Put a bright light and a white sheet up in the rainforest and you get a glimpse of the incomprehensible diversity of insects that make the forest their home at night. Consider joining me on expedition in Borneo this year? Visit www.taxonexpeditions.com or drop me a line! Photos: René Krekels

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Thomas Shahan @tshahan.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

💙a metallic blue rove beetle for your Monday morning💙 fantastic Plochionocerus sp seen during a 2019 trip to Ecuador - which produced some of the wildest Staphylinids I've seen 🙇 www.inaturalist.org/observations...

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Small is beautiful! In a new pre-print in @elife.bsky.social, a team led by Alexey Polilov do the first-ever 3d electron-microscopic analysis of a miniaturized eye: the 29-lens compound eye of a 0.2-mm-long parasitic wasp! elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre... (whole wasp image by Andrew Polaszek.)

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Shazzoir @shazzoir.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

These are not jewels, but the backs of Tefflus carinatus beetles. Tefflus violaceus is purple, but there's also a green one, Tefflus viridanus if you like variety in your beetles, but if not, you can also have it in basic black... Images ©DamasterCarabus (on the hellsite) #beetles #insects #colour

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Gil Wizen @wizentrop.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

One of my favorite insects to find when I visit the neotropics is leaf-mimicking katydids from the Pterochrozinae subfamily. Not only they are convincing in their leaf mimicry, but many species like this Cycloptera also reveal beautiful fluorescent patterns in UV light!

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Jen C Mars @jencmars.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Jazz hands! Commission by @franzanth.bsky.social of a very flashy arachnid Acrylic ink, pencil, and iridescent watercolors on hotpress paper

Painted illustration of a somewhat stylized, symmetrically displayed brightly colored jumping spider on a light green background. The spider has an aqua face with red-orange markings, black chelicerae, and bottle green eyes. It has an abdomen that's red-orange with aqua circles and an iridescent rear end. The legs are a pale gold, with the front pair raised up straight displaying fluffy black segments. The spider has white pedipalps held near its face.

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Bernard Van Elegem @bernardvanelegem.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Drinking Giant. First post on @bsky.app . I start with one of my favourite approaches of #beetles. With a wide-angle lens and showing them in their environment. Nice extra here: drinking sap from a tree wound Tropical Longhorn, Batocera victoriana, Luzon, The Philippines 17-07-2024. #macrowideangle

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Herbert Nickel @herbertnickel.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Wow, impressive: beaver healing landscape wounds created by timber rafting in the Bavarian Forest at 750 m, thus holding back water and preventing floods in lower altitudes.

Aerial photograph showing an old canal through forest intersected by numerous beaver dams.

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Come travel with me to the past to work on the future! Join me & @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social 2-9 June on a biodiversity expedition to Castello di Potentino in Tuscany. Its visionary owners manage the lands as a mosaic of artisanal agriculture and nature conservation, a model for the future.

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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 07/02/2025

Botany valentine. Another from years past. New one on Monday!

Beautiful red roses on a pink background with flowing script saying "Roses are red," Violets budding and blooming. "Violets are blue," Hydnora plants opening up looking like terrifying red mouths bursting from the hard sandy soil. "Hydnora are leafless, bizarrely fleshy, and incapable of producing chlorophyll," A splash of cute red and pink hearts. "And so are you. Happy Valentine's Day."

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 07/02/2025

Real birds sitting on their plastic twins 👯‍♀️ Meet artist Bart Eysink Smeets, who created this amazing series. He placed the plastic birds outside and patiently waited until a real one of the same kind landed on top. And let’s be honest—our real bird friends are unbeatable. 🐦✨ #birds

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 07/02/2025

I can highly recommend @schilthuizen.bsky.social and his legendary scientific travel agency @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social, which everyone can join to discover and name new species!

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

This cute beetle is one of several species of tiny, tropical, leaf-litter inhabiting flea beetles that we have discovered and published with our @TaxonExped in Borneo. Sign up for our 2025 trip (7-16 Oct.) and experience the thrill of discovering completely new species of wildlife!

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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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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

One of the more innovative ways in which I communicate science is by taking people on real scientific expeditions. Everybody -- whether young or old, experienced or novice, with or without a science background can join! Check out this year's portfolio: www.taxonexpeditions.com

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

No matter how the usage of "common" names is growing, old-fashioned "Latin" names are still the only official naming of species, so we cannot do without. But they are hard to remember and pronounce. My friend, Belgian insect advocate Bart Van Camp, makes these lovely mnemonics to help us out.

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Nature Desks • #OutdoorOfficeDay • #UrbanNature @naturedesks.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Please save this date: #OutdoorOfficeDay 2025 will take place on June 12th. (Re)connect with the surrounding nature and stay active each workday. 🌱 www.outdoorofficeday.nl/2025en Until then don't forget to take work outdoors EVERY SINGLE DAY! 🚶🏽‍♂️🚶‍♀️🌳☕️📚🎧 #outdooroffice #urbannature #outdoorofficework

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Taxon Expeditions @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

We create real scientific expeditions for everybody! Sign up & help the discovery of new species of wildlife! This year: 2-9 Jun: Castle Expedition - Tuscany 7-15 Jul: Secret Canyon Expedition - Montenegro 7-16 Oct: Rainforest Expedition - Brunei (Borneo) 1-8 Nov: Fungi Exped. - Mt Olympus, Greece

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