VT Insect Collection

🐜 NEW entomologist position just announced! 🦋 🪲 — The Virginia Tech Department of Entomology is seeking an Insect Identification Laboratory Manager. See this link for more information [please repost]: careers.pageuppeople.com/968/cw/en-us/j…

A hammerhead flatworm that I found on my driveway yesterday (Bipalium sp.). An introduced species but fascinating to see all its little eyes and learn about its ability to produce tetrodotoxin (Stokes et al. 2014, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100718)

Feather millipedes Brachycybe petasata and Brachycybe lecontii co-occur but are evolutionary sisters with different species. They also produce different chemical defenses: B. petasata bicyclic alkaloids and B. lecontii tricyclic. Read more rdcu.be/dUK0u #MillipedeMonday

A fascinating study by @Montilla_aotus and colleagues at @Uniquindio and @CienBiolAndes shows night monkeys in Colombia biting millipedes to disturb them into secreting their chemical secretions, and rubbing them all over their fur and elsewhere. CC BY-NC doi.org/10.31687/Sarem…

The pill millipede, Rhopalomeris sauda Nguyen, Sierwald & Marek, 2019, from Vĩnh Phúc Province, Vietnam. Pill millipedes roll into a ball and secrete quinazolinone alkaloids for defense against predators. doi: 10.26107/RBZ-2019-0020 #MillipedeMonday

The heathland twisted-claw millipede, Nannaria ericacea Hoffman, 1949, from Craig Co., Virginia, named because it is commonly encountered in ericaceous habitats of rhododendron. For more about the genus see: 10.3897/zookeys.1096.73485 | 10.3897/zookeys.1030.62544 #MillipedeMonday

@TreesNewYork ♥️ Perhaps a dot-lined white caterpillar, Artace cribrarius

While pruning, we found a caterpillar that we accidentally trimmed from the #tree! We put it back and it was very cool to see it slinking its way back up the trunk. Get out under the #treecanopy this weekend and see what you can find while exploring our great city’s #urbanforest!

@BugCatcherG Images of the arthropods can be viewed at Ecdysis. Check 'em out, and feel free to leave a comment in Ecdysis if you'd like to refine identifications, or borrow material. ecdysis.org/collections/li…

@BugCatcherG Data from the project is online at data repositories (e.g. Ecdysis, NCBI, Virginia Tech Data Repository, and GBIF) and follows FAIR standards that data be free and accessible, and interoperable and reusable. The data is under a CC0 license. ecdysis.org/collections/li…

Published today: Arthropod diversity in shallow subterranean habitats of the Appalachian Mountains 🧵 doi.org/10.3897/subtbi…

2,260 arthropod specimens were collected constituting 345 morphospecies from 8 classes, 33 orders, and 94 families. Each morphospecies was identified to at least the family level using literature.

@BugCatcherG @HowardDunleavy @lejodelpozo @NSF @apheloria @asrivath Kudos to @HowardDunleavy and @FernandaV12 for help in the field wielding a post hole digger and the 9 kg digging bar for installation of these traps.