Matt Bertone 🪰🕷️🪲さんのイラストまとめ

Not surprisingly, @WiBugGuy was correct! The fibers are part of the bag of a casemaking clothes #moth larva (#Tineidae: #Tinea pellionella). They incorporate these fibers w/silk to make a cozy sleeping bag. This one also had a shed larval head capsule!

https://t.co/hfDPgc2PbO

Perhaps most difficult photos I've taken. No harsh conditions, nor emotional challenge, just THIS LITTLE LADY WAS ON A WEIRD PLACE ON MY LEG TO PHOTOGRAPH! Never experienced black #flies (#Simuliidae) in my yard let alone photographed the family. Bites bled a bit, but worth it!

And now my contribution, a #beetle with a human job, inspired by @vexedmuddler and @AshWhiffin. "This is what we in the business call a "dungarita." Enjoy!"

While at @ncsuinsects looking up #Cerambycidae specimens for someone, I saw this crazy thing: Tapeina transversifrons (from Panama). Look at that hammerhead! It's ♂️ & I think they're sexually dimorphic. I know of a few other beetles like this...they must butt heads?

So what was that crazy creature? First instar of a spider fly (#Acroceridae)! Found by @NCSU_DEPP grad student Christina Mitchell during a diversity/biomass study. Luckily the spider was clear so you can see the parasitoid on its book lung. They may remain there for years!

....and here's the wasp. Have to ID the genus/sp. still, but perhaps @cmtribull can help?

Just like #whitefly pupae, I can never pass up photographing #thrips! Thankfully my colleague Dr. Brian Whipker brought me some nice #Neohydatothrips from #hemp. Look at these cuties! @Thrips_iD do you recognize this species? From NC USA.

I DID IT! For the first time ever I have ever dissected and cleared the genitalia of an acalyptrate fly. #verysatisfying Anyone care to guess the family, genus, or species?

OK one more fly photo (for now): a striking flesh fly (Sarcophagidae) from Turks & Caicos, [collected on vacation #asentomologistsdo]