Entomological Collections Network

@entcollnet.bsky.social

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Nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of entomology collections & taxonomy via preservation, management, use & development. ➡️ https://ecnweb.net/

Some of Malcolm’s many impeccably organized and sputter coated SEM stubs covered with beetles and beetle parts
Cumulative Malcolm Furniss publication graph, indicating (as always!!) that productivity only increases after you get to retire
Photos of some big bitey stag beetles from India
Very tiny 19th century wasp specimens
New Naturalis campus in Leiden. It’s very bold and modern.
Clarence Riker himself, whose original cotton-based insect cabinets are now in the Denver Museum.
Helpful infographic showing the non-typhoon threats to Guam, which are invasive species, invasive species, invasive species, and invasive species
Gary’s collection represented butterflies and moths equally, with ~1800 species each and 18,000+ total specimens
Lubo Masner’s “message to the young” (anyone under 70): “Less computer, more collecting”
Ingredients for building a powerful bespoke insect net, Masner style
Slide showing Lubo Masner looking exactly the same for 20+ years, as well as a graph of his publications over time
Photos of perfectly good specimens trapped inside old glass ethanol vials with fully melted stoppers
Brachyceran fly from the Essig museum absolutely bespackled with hideous mites
Summary of FMNH scydmaenine holdings
There are also more sophisticated workflows, like confocal microscopy of slide-mounted specimens in Canada balsam)
Summary of the UNH collection holdings, featuring Don and one of his beloved pselaphines
Rolling lightweight racks designed to hold trays of food, moving drawers into a walk-in freezer. This is why it pays to have food service experience!
Photos of the collection space and DNA workspace, including a pleasant bouquet of flowers
Slide from Luciane’s talk showing the geographic distribution of insect collections in Brazil (and the fact that insects are found in 108 of the country’s 339 zoological collections)
A young woman in the 1920s (?) peers through a very old-fashioned microscope
Some century-old dead leaves with small whitish boogers stuck to them
Gladys’s original handmade scale cabinet: over 4000 glass slides
A photo of Mary Gladys Hoke Lobdell, an early entomologist and professor in the Deep South
Slide on slide digitization workflow, showing a volunteer filling a simply massive tray with individual slides of inconceivably tiny wasps
Still photo of a video of some slowly rotating 3-d opilionids
Harvard’s huge, ominous steel tanks, smoking gently as they await cryovials full of precious tissues
Gen’s slide outlining the flow from collection manager to volunteer/intern
Label handling remains the most slow and labor-intensive part of the job
Slide showing part of the FMNH workflow of whole-drawer image capture
Satisfying but intimidating layout of disassembled imaging system. It’s Linux for photography
Some options for macro lenses, including an enlarger lens that sometimes grows fungus inside. No word on whether this also attracts fungus beetles, which frankly sounds like a feature.
Photo of an old ass DSLR and list of exciting problems it could have
Chris’s slide summarizing the history and technology behind trying to get a complex 3-d structure in focus
Will this slightly distorted photo of a slide serve to convey a functional QR code? Let’s find out!!
Slide showing the Gigamacro imaging system, used at AMNH to simultaneously image specimens and their labels
Harrowing photos of rubber bands that have failed in their archival duty
Stunning examples of handwriting that we struggle to digitize
IChatBio’s response claiming that it is impossible to count the one bear species in Florida
The chatbot in this case is iChatBio
An example of Deb’s prompt for extracting association data from a PDF
Slide of the early workflow for transcribing and parsing audio to digitize label data
A sea of ECN attendees taking their seats.
Entomological Collections Network Code of Conduct. The ECN seeks to promote a welcoming environment that is safe, collaborative, supportive, and productive for all participants. We expect all ECN members to adhere to this code, which applies to all forums hosted by the society including but not limited to: conferences (in-person or virtual), social media, and the Listserv. The ECN values the diversity of views and backgrounds reflected among all attendees; as such we are committed to providing a positive environment for all, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ability, religion, socioeconomic status, career status, or ethnicity. Our respectful dialogue policy asks that participants make every effort to maintain constructive discourse with other conference attendees at all times. This includes speakers honoring designated time limits, attendees being aware of balancing speaking and listening time, and welcoming newer members into conversation.
Program cover for the 2025 Entomological Collections Network meeting, feature a beautifully fluffy Pleocoma specimen. Meeting taking place November 8-9, in Portland, Oregon.
A pinned Rain beetle specimen (Pleocoma oregonensis) from the Cornell University Insect Collection. This chestnut coloured beetle is blessed with an exceptionally fuzzy undercarriage.
Advert for the up coming Entomological Collections Network meeting, in Portland Oregon, 8-9 November 2025.
Advert for the up coming Entomological Collections Network meeting, in Portland Oregon, 8-9 November 2025.
Neat rows of preserved Pleocomidae specimens from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Big brown round beetles with ridiculously fluffy undercarriages.
Meeting advert featuring Pleocomid specimens arranged in unit trays, the ECN logo and meeting information: Annual meeting Portland, OR November 8-9, 2025.
Infographic made to spread the word about these ant antagonistic interactions. It says: Call for data! Hunting for hidden ant(agonistic) interactions. Have you seen an ant biting other animal? They can be anywhere? Collaboration is needed to gather sufficient data! Data describing this species interactions is hard to get! Posible sources are: (1) specimens held at Natural History Museums, (2) Photographs of live interactions and (3) Unknow bibliographic reports. Contact me to sanchezalbertadrian@gmail.com in case you can help!
ADVERT: ECN Annual Meeting 2025. Call for symposia. Contact us at: program@ecnweb.org. Portland, Oregon, USA. November 8-9.
Pinned Blue Death-Feigning Beetle specimens (Asbolus verrucosus), in various shades of blue.
Slide from Polaszek’s lightning talk (delivered by Matt Buffington): microwasps with mysterious horns, prongs, and teeth on their tiny heads
Photo of nitrogen storage tanks in the UMich Pathogen Biorepository