Global insect diversity may comprise 14–20 million species, with roughly 90% still unnamed. Even in Germany 2/3rd of species detected with metabarcoding cannot be matched to names. CIBD connects DNA, specimens, images to names so that detected biodiversity becomes interpretable knowledge.

Five years ago this month, after 19 years in Singapore, I moved back to Berlin. The photo shows me with my advisor, Professor Walter Sudhaus, at what is now my workplace: the Museum für Naturkunde, which stood behind the Wall when I studied in West Berlin. Life has a taste for unlikely plots.

Species descriptions should not be confined to "summary" PDFs only providing access to a fraction of the data underlying the conclusions. We here argue for "digitally native species" built around structured, specimen-linked, machine-actionable evidence from day one. rdcu.be/fcbwh

Digitally native species are a necessary shift in taxonomic practice

Nature Reviews Biodiversity - Biodiversity science laments how little is known about the planet’s biodiversity, yet routinely discards much of the taxonomic evidence generated during species...

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New #OpenAccess work in #RESSystematicEnt reports on automated specimen triage, finding #DeepLearning enables orientation, sex ID & anatomical segmentation from robotic #imaging doi.org/10.1111/syen.70039 #Taxonomy @gkergoat.bsky.social @rudolf-meier.bsky.social @flyliceresearch.bsky.social

Happy New Fungus Gnats! 🥂🦟🦟 Prof. Dalton Amorim and co-authors name 98 new species of Mycetophilidae from Singapore in a monograph just published in @integsyst.bsky.social The paper can be downloaded for free from the following link: tinyurl.com/342cs43t Enjoy! @rudolf-meier.bsky.social

An integrative taxonomic treatment of the Mycetophilidae of Singapore, describing 98 new species of fungus gnat Now also with a brand new cover, featuring Integricypta fergusondavie gen. et sp. nov. Free download: doi.org/10.18476/202... @rudolf-meier.bsky.social @derschwingfliegen.bsky.social

Delegation of @leibnizlib.bsky.social #Bonn visiting @mfnberlin.bsky.social the lab of @rudolf-meier.bsky.social sneaking in rapid #biodiversity methods... 😎

Halloween News: Meet a new vampire fly (Hippoboscidae) 🧛‍♂🪰 1 of 10 species found on citizen-reported bird carcasses in Singapore: Even dead birds can have productive afterlives! See host records, annotated images, pictorial keys & DNA diagnostics here: doi.org/10.1155/jzs/...

Fresh preprint on how to optimize quality of voucher DNA remaining in insect specimen after barcoding; from @rudolf-meier.bsky.social and our lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I'm having fun exploring ways to visualise the history of BINs in @boldsystems.bsky.social using #graphviz Below is the history of BOLD:AAH8697 which is a BIN highlighted by @rudolf-meier.bsky.social in doi.org/10.1111/cla..... Columns are time-slices and the coloured boxes are bins.

The top 10 flying insect clades rule the skies—but defy the rules. Weak or inverted latitudinal diversity gradients leave biogeographers puzzled. Entomologists? Mildly amused. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚫 Farewell to species descriptions with consensus barcodes. ✨ Hello to Diagnostic Molecular Combinations (DMCs) for your taxonomic research ✅ State-specific ✅ Contrastive ✅ Publication-ready Now even easier with the latest UITOTO, our updated user-friendly software; Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

UITOTO for taxonomy. Get your molecular diagnoses right without coding or breaking a sweat! Use state-specific, contrastive DMCs instead of fuzzy consensus barcodes! 🪰🦋🪱🦎🦀🐌🦉 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🚨 EntoSieve is now published in Molecular Ecology Resources: Fast and accurate size-sorting of bulk insect samples! Perfect for boosting DNA megabarcoding & metabarcoding projects. 🧬🔬 DIY low-cost device, gentle on specimens and yet efficient 🦋🐞 here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Species- versus specimen-level congruence between DNA barcodes and morphology. Species-level dominates papers but specimen-level matters more for sample evaluation. Read more in "Illuminating Entomological Dark Matter with DNA Barcodes..." in Ann Rev Ent: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Dark Taxonomy: From unknown to ready for biomonitoring in 5 steps. By describing 120 species, most species of fungus gnats routinely caught in Malaise traps in Singapore now have names. Bees, butterflies and birds, make room for your new friends. Read here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Malaise Trap Polka Dots vs. Biodiversity Smudge: Similar latitudinal data deficiency gradients for DNA barcodes and all data. Read more in "Illuminating Entomological Dark Matter with DNA Barcodes in an Era of Insect Decline, Deep Learning, and Genomics" Ann. Rev. Entomol.: doi.org/10.1146/annu...

"Illuminating Entomological Dark Matter with DNA Barcodes in an Era of Insect Decline, Deep Learning, and Genomics" Who uses insect DNA barcodes for which taxa? The usual suspects dominate... Now in Annual Review of Entomology: doi.org/10.1146/annu...

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...

Episode 3 (imaging): Don't just sort. Also image! No money for a robot? Try the Entomoscope! 🦟🔬 DIY microscope for imaging tiny insects in ethanol: 3D-print case, order parts, assemble, image! 📸Perfect for entomologists www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEoZ... ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/104...

DIY Photomicroscope

YouTube video by Integrative Biodiversity Discovery

youtube.com

Episode 3 (imaging): Don't just sort. Also image! Meet “DiversityScanner”, the robot that images, measures, identifies, and moves specimens into microplates; a good companion of “MinION barcodes by everyone, for everyone (see episode 2). tinyurl.com/mwx5k5s7 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

DiversityScanner: Robotic discovery of small invertebrates with machine learning methods

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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More on Episode 2 (sorting triage): 🧬Express barcoding: How to barcode 250 specimens in 6 hrs with equipment that fits on a lab bench. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fwd... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

How We Barcoded 250 Flies in 6 Hours

YouTube video by Integrative Biodiversity Discovery

youtube.com

Episode 2 (sorting triage): From bulk samples to putative species without going bankrupt: cheap MinION barcodes obtained with user-friendly software ONTbarcoder. Now also in real-time: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFl8...

ONTbarcoder 2.0: rapid species discovery and identification with real‐time barcoding facilitated by Oxford Nanopore R10.4

Most arthropod species are undescribed and hidden in specimen-rich samples that are difficult to sort to species using morphological characters. For such samples, sorting to putative species with DNA...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Episode 1 (taxon triage): Identify the biggest knowledge gaps (in insects): Same 20 insect families contribute >50% of species and specimens in Malaise samples; regardless of continent, climate, or habitat. Most are neglected dark taxa. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUMa... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Top 20 most dominant flying insect families

YouTube video by Integrative Biodiversity Discovery

youtube.com

Switching from X to Bluesky: Good opportunity to review my 3 years in Berlin at the Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery: We fight taxon neglect in biodiversity research through scientific discovery, a giant exercise in triaging given how little we know. scholar.google.com/citations?hl...

Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery

‪Museum für Naturkunde‬ - ‪‪Cited by 5,039‬‬

scholar.google.com