#barklouse

[transparentfossil]

Fossil True Midge and Barklouse in Baltic Amber

[onenicebugperday]

@crashxofxworlds submitted: No IDs necessary. Just a few bug friends I've made over the past week.

I shouldn't play favorites, but the weevil is my favorite.

Sorry to the other fellas but my favorite is the horsefly :) Such beautiful eyes!

[every-day-creechur]

Psocus leidyi

A barklouse found in North America.

image by Leanne Guay

[northerlyy]

Tree Cattle (Cerastipsocus venosus), adults with one nymph, taken August 20, 2025, in Georgia, US

A large herd of tree cattle clustered together, fittingly, on the trunk of a tree! This was the largest group I've seen yet, with what looked like over 50 individuals. It was either a clutch with very high survivorship or two herds that combined, though I don't know what the chances of that happening are. As you can see in the image, only one nymph remains in the herd. Once it molts into an adult, the cattle will leave the safety of the herd and split up in search of a mate. I found it kind of endearing that all these adults were waiting on one nymph to molt, but no man left behind!

[mothmansfather]

Metylophorus novaescotiae - speckled barklouse

Tiny lil baby, about half a cm long :) love the facepaint on these dudes. Spotted evading lady beetles on the side of a garage

iNaturalist link

Oops I posted before adding pics

[bryoinformatics]

Had a fun blacklighting session last night with the amateur entomologist group, here are a few of my observation pics In order: - A cute, lichen-looking Epinotia I wasn't able to ID to species - Ligyrus (formerly Tomerus) relictus, one of the only dynastinae (rhinoceros beetles) found where I live - Catocala sp., photo wasn't great unfortunately so I'm not sure which out of 2 possible species it is - Habrosyne scripta, fairly common but a beautiful drepanid that's always fun to see - Cisseps fulvicollis, smaller lookalike of the virginia ctenucha - Ischnura verticalis - very common species but I don't often see odonates at light traps - Tropisternus lateralis, a hydrophilid, this species in particular looks a lot like some dytiscids to me but the clubbed antennae are a surefire giveaway for hydrophilidae - Corixidae sp. - Parapoynx badiusalis, good example of how cute crambids are - A really cute ichneumonid, but probably not identifiable from photo - Argyresthia calliphanes - pay attention to micromoths! So many of them are absolutely stunning - Nemapogon sp. (maybe granella?) - Ennomos magnaria - Elophila icciusalis - Cerastipsocus venosus - new species for me, their common name is "tree cattle" and the clusters they form on trees get called herds. Felt really big for a psocodean The area had a lot of habitat variety, with multiple light traps being set near a wetland, forested areas (mainly yellow birch with some other hardwoods, and conifers- mostly balsam fir) and a sandpit. I have a lot more but I also have specimens to get around to pinning so I won't spend too long on posts haha, here's some uncropped photos of the sheets though

[jenfoundabug]

That time when a barklouse photobombed the giant floof

(likely Trichopsocus clarus. Floof is Icerya purchasi, aka cottony cushion scale)

[drhoz]

#1982 - Nimbopsocus australis - New Zealand Barklouse

Photo by @purrdence, in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the Great Harbour of Tara), which is also known as Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Wellington is the southernmost capital city in the world, as well as the windiest, so having such a fantastic harbour was probably very fortunate.

AKA Psocus australis, Myopsocus australis, Myopsocus novaezealandiae, and Psocus zelandicus

Most psocids, like the Booklouse, live in damp environments, but the larger and often intricately marked barklice may be found living in groups on treetrunks and branches, grazing on lichen, fungi, pollen and algae. They have a soft body, long thin antennae, broad heads, biting jaws and bulbous eyes. Large species may be 1cm in length. Some species live in organized communities beneath a fine net spun from glands in their mouths.

Nimbopsocus australis also occurs in Australia, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, the Kermadec Islands and the Solomons. They are large for psocids - around 6.0mm head to wingtip. Males are much smaller and darker than the females, who have a coarsely mottled wing pattern with a greater proportion of pale areas.