Just thinking about the Amyciaea crab spider. I don't generally think of spiders as evil, but this thing is an empathy predator. It lurks alongside weaver ant colonies, pretending to be an injured ant, and when gullible ants go to help out what they think is their sister, they get eaten.

A cute little reticulated beetle, Tenomerga cinerea. This odd lineage last shared an ancestor with more typical beetles like ladybirds and scarabs nearly 300 million years ago.

BREAKING: The Sternberg Museum in Hays will be closing before the end of the year.

Sternberg Museum in Hays to close by year’s end

The president of Fort Hays State University cited a budget shortfall in the closure decision.

kwch.com

New preprint: a phylogenomic tree of Elateriformia (fireflies, click, jewel, soldier beetles and relatives). 195 taxa, 31 of 34 families, up to ~4,200 genes. The group goes back ~285 Mya, and soft bodies and neotenic females evolved independently at least 15 times. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🧬 It has been revealed that high-quality DNA can be recovered from arthropod specimens preserved in formalin for decades, opening new possibilities for evolutionary research using natural history collections. ➡️ Read the full study: doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.3.200681 @uni-kiel.de @leibnizlib.bsky.social

I became a biologist because of a museum exhibit. Real artifacts tell stories that are more powerful than anything we can get from scrolling. They are part of our engine for training the next generation of scientists. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/the-awesomen...

The awesomeness of museums

Genuine artifacts tell the richest stories that fill our souls. And they fuel the scientific enterprise.

scienceforeveryone.science

Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... From @phylieu.bsky.social @sinkingdiatom.bsky.social @omearabrian.bsky.social

Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors

Abstract. Large phylogenetic trees are often unbalanced near the root, with a species-depauperate lineage sister to a far more species-rich clade. The spec

academic.oup.com

Here's a gift article on why everyone should care: share.inquirer.com/Tt1WYq

The Academy of Natural Sciences museum is closing, but all eyes are on its specimens — all 19 million of them

"Profound concern" over the fate of the Academy and its internationally significant collection.

share.inquirer.com

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D.@sarahmackattack.bsky.social · last mo.

Hey Philly! We need your help saving the Academy of Natural Sciences! The Save the Academy Coalition needs volunteers to help hand out organizing flyers in front of the museum Sept 25-27. It’s the museum’s last weekend (for now!) Sign up here to help docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Reconstruction of an extinct soundscape reveals ultrasonic communication in the Jurassic.” Explore the article here: https://ow.ly/EeiY50ZKJ4q For more trending articles, visit https://ow.ly/VMgl50ZKJ4u.

JOB ALERT // 🔥New Permanent Research & Collection Officer position at the Geneva NHM @mhngeneve.bsky.social 🔥We are looking for an entomologist to join our team at the Museum !🦋🐜🐞🦗🦟🔬🧬🧪🇨🇭. Please RT massively ! Ad here (in French but don’t hesitate to DM for details : www.geneve.ch/administrati...

Chargé ou Chargée de recherche en entomologie à 80-100%

geneve.ch

#LiteratureNotice Figueroa et al. First record of #Rhysodinae (Coleoptera: Adephaga: Carabidae) from Peru, with description of a new species of Clinidium Kirby, 1835 doi.org/10.11646/zoo... #Beetle #Beetles #wrinkledbarkbeetles

New preprint: 338 coleopteran genomes reveal exceptional rearrangement variation compared to other insect orders. Big congrats to @arf-mln.bsky.social, for getting this giant piece together. Big collaboration of @joanameier.bsky.social's and my groups. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.64898/202...

📄Now published in Molecular Ecology: "Multi-Locus Nuclear Marker Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Swiss Orthoptera Unveils Conservation Status Limitations" by I. Carrasquer Puyal, J. Bilat, C. Pitteloud, C. Monnerat, S. Wyler, J. Gauthier & N. Alvarez 👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Multi‐Locus Nuclear Marker Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Swiss Orthoptera Unveils Conservation Status Limitations

With accelerating biodiversity loss, tracking both inter- and intraspecific diversity is critical, as within-species variation underpins population viability and adaptive potential. We developed a ne...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New #OpenAccess research in #RESSystematicEnt Evolution of the false-leaf #katydids (#Orthoptera: #Tettigoniidae: #Phaneropterinae): Molecular #phylogeny and divergence times doi.org/10.1111/syen.70064 #Phylogenetics @gkergoat.bsky.social @wileyecology.bsky.social

Vacancy for curator position at the Western Australian Herbarium, right in one of the global biodiversity hotspots! search.jobs.wa.gov.au/jobs/princip...

Siagona europaea, what a cool beetle (one of the only three genera in Siagoninae) found here in a hypersaline ecosystem of the Igroviotopos Alikis near Tigaki on Kos island! #carabidae #groundbeetlelove #fieldwork #Greece #🪲🪲🪲

Sylvester et al. studied population structure, gene flow, and demographic history of the charismatic jewel scarab, revealing strong genetic differentiation among most populations, with recent gene flow mediated by male-mediated dispersal. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag123 #genome #evolution

New approaches to detecting and characterizing introgression in large species trees https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.30.728990v1

She is made of but cardboard, so her time on this mortal coil will be brief, but I hope she entertains and educates many during her stay. Wish her luck, everyone. 🫡

New online! The fate of mountain biodiversity in a warming world

#LiteratureNotice Glynn et al. Larval Description and Chaetotaxic Analysis of the Mojave Giant Tiger Beetle, #Amblycheila schwarzi Horn (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) doi.org/10.1649/0010... #Beetle #Beetles #MojaveGiantTigerBeetle

New #OpenAccess research in #RESSystematicEnt Beetles, barcodes and big data: A deep dive into the phylogeny of #Harpalinae (#Carabidae) doi.org/10.1111/syen.70042 #Phylogenetics #Mitogenomes #Taxonomy @gkergoat.bsky.social @wileyecology.bsky.social

Another chapter of my thesis is out! We used genomic data generated from across the range of the Western Balkan highland endemic beetle Calosoma pentheri support the recognition of two distinct species. Biogeography, divergence estimates, phylo & population genetics, etc.