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beetles

Titchy ptilids

[featured image] Looking through some specimens from a recent expedition to Burma I found some of these little chaps, featherwing beetles (ptilidae) to be exact. Now, saying “little” is a bit of an understatement as this one was just shy of 0.5mm long. Featherwing beetles are actually among the smallest …

Strepsiptera

Lift off…

[featured image] Insect wings are right up there with metamorphosis in the adaptations that have allowed these animals to become as successful as they are.  Insects are pioneers of the sky and they took to the wing at least 350 million years ago in the steamy forests of the Carboniferous …