Category Archives: news

millipede from Blacksburg, VA

Appalachioria separanda calcaria (Blacksburg, VA) Here’s a local cyanide-producing millipede from near Virginia Tech’s campus. In 1959, William Keeton (then a student at VT) described this species based on specimens   collected from Blacksburg, Riner and Radford, Virginia. This species is … Continue reading

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Armored scale

Gloomy scale (Melanaspis tenebricosa), an armored scale in the family Diaspididae Eric Day, Insect ID Lab Manager @ Virginia Tech, kindly shared these wonderful gloomy scales with us one day during Insect Biology Lab. This picture shows two female scales … Continue reading

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Tiny scelionid wasp

Parasitic wasp in the family Scelionidae (Telenomus Gryon sp.) Thanks István!  😉 James Wilson, graduate student here in the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech working in Tom Kuhar’s Vegetable Entomology Lab, recently visited our lab with some of his … Continue reading

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Cyanide gland dissections

Cyanide gland, expertly dissected from Pachydesmus crassicutis by Tim McCoy. The large balloon shaped reservoir on the left stores the stable precursor mandelonitrile, which is squeezed into the thickened, oval-shaped reaction chamber on the right. In the reaction chamber, mandelonitrile … Continue reading

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