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This Halloween season, learn how the National Museum of Natural History’s dermestid beetle colony transforms decaying animal carcasses into spotless skeletons.
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Boo! 👻
No, this little cutie isn't a ghost, but it's definitely spookier than you might think.
This 1947 illustration depicts a Synthesiomyia nudiseta larva. This fly is part of the order Diptera, which is known for causing myiasis, an infestation of larvae in and under the skin. Found in tropical and subtropical zones around the world, this species is particularly useful to forensic entomology and has been involved in forensic investigations in different countries.
October 1 is National Hair Day! When you think of hairy insects, you might think of flies, bumblebees, or other arthropods like tarantulas, but there are actually fuzzy folks across many different insect groups. Let's meet some of them!
There has been an increase in sightings of spotted lanternflies across the DMV and the nation -- but how unusual it is to see one inside your home?
Collections manager Floyd Shockley talks to Atlas Obscura about maquech beetles!
The live, jewel-encrusted beetles called maquechs are tied to an ancient legend, but some worry for their future.
Busy Bees
Busy with back-to-school planning? August and September are busy months for honeybees, too. 🐝 Preparations for winter are in full swing and as nectar and pollen grow scarcer, honeybees become more defensive of their colony's resources. During this time, strong colonies may begin robbing smaller or weaker colonies and some drone bees – male bees who mate with the queen - are removed from the hive and not allowed to return, causing them to starve to death.
Around the same time, colonies begin producing winter bees. Physiologically distinct from summer bees, these workers have larger fat bodies, specialized organs located in the abdomen that provide bees with the nutritional reserves needed to survive winter. These winter bees also live up to six months, much longer than the average six weeks of summer bees. These hardier bees are put to work on the crucial task of regulating in-hive temperatures during harsh winter conditions.
Floyd Shockley, Ph.D., the Collections Manager for the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Entomology, explains tips to avoiding mosquitoes.
Four of the cases were found in Florida, while the fifth was logged in Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Happy ! If you look carefully, the bulbous thorax of this Spotted Tylosis longhorn beetle (Tylosis maculatus) looks a bit like a smiling jack-o-lantern. Jack Skellington's got nothing on our very own Exo-Skellington.
The Spotted Tylosis is native to the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico and the larvae feed on plants in the mallow family. This specimen was collected in New Mexico and is over 100 years old.
All deserve the spotlight. Especially pelican spiders.
Yes, we said . And yes they are bizarre looking, with a long "neck" and chelicerae ("jaws"), which they use to prey on other spiders from a distance.
In 2017, Smithsonian research entomologist and curator Hannah Wood described 18 new species of pelican spiders in Madagascar. While most pelican spiders there have very narrow distributions, for example, living only on top of one mountain, the species shown here, Eriauchenius workmani, is the most widespread, occurring throughout most of the eastern rain forests. This species is also the largest known pelican spider, measuring around 1 centimeter in body length and height making it slightly larger than a grain of rice.
Research entomologist Matt Buffington monitors new insect arrivals in North America to see if they cause trouble for native species
Celebrate Pollinator Week with the National Museum of Natural History by joining the conversation with NMNH conservation biologist Gary Krupnick, University of Maryland Extension professor of entomology and climate extension specialist Sara Via, and pollinator garden experts from DC Natives. In this...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/science/moth-species-discovery-detroit.html
Customs officials said they had warded off a threat to the nation’s agriculture and natural habitats by intercepting the moth before it could take hold in the wild.
Celebrate Earth Day by revisiting stories about the museum’s research on a bevy of bizarre and wonderful creatures
In case you need time to mentally prepare, the critters probably won’t be here for a while. Plus, data so far shows they are harmless - but still a sight to see.
It's Invasive Species Week! Invasive species are species introduced into a new environment, where they disrupt and harm the existing ecosystem. Because insects are small, they are often able to sneak into new areas unnoticed, hitching a ride on imported goods or through other human activities. The entomologists at the Smithsonian Institution and its affiliated agencies play an important part in identifying and controlling potential and established invasive species in the United States.
The Hope Diamond 💎 isn't the only shiny blue gem in the museum!
These brilliant beauties are members of the tribe Euglossini, commonly known as orchid bees. These bees are native to Central and South America, most are solitary and pollinate orchids.
The males collect fragrance compounds from the orchids and store them in grooves on their enlarged hind legs; these fragrances are believed to demonstrate genetic fitness to female bees.
While some are a nuisance, others working as nighttime pollinators may be critically important to a functioning ecosystem
After a long day of pollinating 🌷🌸🌹🌺🌼🌻 , even the busiest bees need to rest. Long-horned bees usually prepare for the night by securely hanging onto stems with their mouth parts, like the female in this photo. Male bees usually aggregate in clusters when the sun is coming down; you can see them jostling around for sleeping spots in the video in the comments, which was taken recently in Florida!
The National Museum of Natural History keeps millions of specimens, artifacts and other items for research.
Although cicadas and many other insects are not just edible but highly nutritious, it is important to note that people who have a known shellfish allergy, particularly to Crustaceans (shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc.) could potentially have an allergic reaction to eating cicadas as well. This is not necessarily true for everyone, but it is important to know before you dine!
The allergic reaction in sensitized people is due to two factors that insects share with crustaceans: 1) the chitin used to form insect exoskeletons is very similar to the chitin used in the exoskeletons of many Crustacea; and 2) insects as well as Crustacea both include the proteins tropomyosin and arginine kinase, which are both known for invoking an allergic reaction in those with shellfish allergies. Tropomyosin is a structural element in muscle tissue and arginine kinase is an enzyme involved in muscle contraction.
Research on deeply connected insect species is illuminating how interspecies relationships might evolve in response to climate change
There are 15 active geographic Broods of Periodical Cicadas, each numbered with a Roman numeral. This year's visitors go by the name Brood X, that's "ten". If you've been saying "X" like the letter, you're not alone. That does make them seem a bit mysterious and alien, like the sound that the males make. But cicadas are totally harmless!
Have you seen any in your neighborhood? If so where?
A giant wood moth, the heaviest of all known moths, appeared on the side of a school building in Queensland, Australia, enthralling students who are used to diverse wildlife.
Some of the most populated parts of the country are about to be invaded by trillions of insects called cicadas from a brood which swarms parts of 15 U.S. states every 17 years. Senior environmental correspondent Ben Tracy looks at what to expect.
A trillion cicadas expected to invade the Washington metropolitan region when the ground warms to 64 degrees.
In this Meet a SI-entist, Smithsonian Entomologist and Collections Manager Floyd Shockley reveals how insects impact our daily lives.
This spring brings the arrival of Brood X of the 17-year periodical cicada. Brood X is also called the Great Eastern Brood because of its range across the eastern United States, the most extensive of any 17-year cicada. The nymphs spend most of their 17 years underground, feeding on fluids from tree roots. When the ground gets warm enough, the cicadas emerge en masse to mate and lay eggs, before dying after 4-6 weeks. Department of Entomology, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution
It's not just the flowers that have to hide away in the cold of winter!
Robert "Bort" Edwards, a Smithsonian research associate, shared this photo with us and says one reason that there are fewer flowers when it gets cold is that many plants rely on insects to visit their flowers and carry pollen from one to the other. Most insects can't fly when the temperature gets too cold (honey bees stop foraging at 55 degrees F), and so putting out flowers in winter would be a waste of valuable energy. As the weather warms up and the insects emerge, so do the flowers, so as you enjoy the first flowers of spring, keep an eye out for the busy little pollinators going about their business and thank them for their work!
Photo: a native bee gets busy foraging on a Purple Aster (Symphyotrichum patens), Shenandoah National Park, VA.
Today we honor Margaret Collins (1922 - 1996), a pioneering scientist and civil rights activist who, at the time she earned her PhD, was the first Black female entomologist and the third Black female zoologist in the country!
One of the reigning experts on termites, Collins had a successful academic career teaching at Howard University, Florida A&M, and Federal City College (now University of District of Columbia). She made significant contributions to the Smithsonian termite collection, and materials she collected now form the Collins Collection at .
Read more about her work and life, here: https://bioone.org/journals/florida-entomologist/volume-99/issue-2/024.099.0235/Child-Prodigy-Pioneer-Scientist-and-Women-and-Civil-Rights-Advocate/10.1653/024.099.0235.full
"Hi. 👋 I’m Bob Kallal, a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Entomology 🕷 and I’ll be taking over the museum's social feeds for the week. I am an arachnologist, and my work at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History focuses on discovering and describing new species, the relationships among spider lineages, the evolution of spider shapes, and spider predatory behavior.
Over the next week, I will share aspects of my research and hopefully encourage everyone – including arachnophobes – that spiders are an important, interesting animal group." -- Bob Kallal, Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow and Arachnologist
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital invite you to a virtual screening of The Love Bugs followed by a Q&A discussion. This humorous and poignant documentary explores the love of Nature and the nature of Love—and what it means to completely devote oneself to both.
Over 60 years Charlie and Lois O'Brien traveled to more than 67 countries, quietly amassing the world’s largest private insect collection, an entomological game-changer of 1.25 million specimens. These two renowned, married entomologists now grapple with the advancement of the Parkinson’s disease that afflicts Charlie. But Charlie and Lois know they need to keep fighting for the value of scientific knowledge, so they turn to their insects for a little help.
Register to watch the film virtually at http://bit.ly/thelovebugsfilm, and then join us on January 27, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. EST for a discussion with the co-directors Allison Otto and Maria Clinton; Lois O’Brien; entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History, Floyd Shockley; and Nico Franz, director of biocollections at Arizona State University.
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