Happy Friday 13th! This week I have another diminutive animal (it’s a little under 4mm long) for you to have a go at identifying:
I’m all too familiar with what this is and I’m sure that some of you have been unlucky enough to encounter them before, so cryptic clues as to the identity of this insect would be appreciated, for the sake of those lucky folk who avoided the attentions of this wee beastie.
Zygoma 
Will I get another QI Klaxon for saying it clearly seems to be one of the sheathe-wings?
No klaxon for that 🙂
Phew! Resident Alan Davies wipes brow and refuses to push his luck. Waits patiently, with bucolic gape, for the solution.
In a natural history museum, this small beetle is the best friend of the curator of skeletons, and the worst enemy of the curator of skins
I’m hiding my fags!
Sometimes attached to a mogg, this seems to belong to a diminutive scooter
Nice 😉
I think I just found a new name for Trump. Cryptic and slimy. 😉
Damn, insect … Again !
If its species name was a genus it would be a Wasp …
Thanks Wouter van Gestel for the hint.
May I advertise a site about unwelcome guests in Museum collections,
http://insectes-nuisibles.cicrp.fr/en
What’s that mess? Oh pe-ew.
Call the clean-up crew!
sounds like the german translation of what trump did at NATO.
Suitable for Darth Vader’s theme tune?…Derm, Derm, Derm; Derm-de-Derm, Derm-de-Derm
All very clever!
Given Paolo’s profession and his “I’m all too familiar with…” remark, I immediately thought of… the critter Wouter van Gestel suggests (and Chris seconds) though I’ve never seen one and don’t know what they actually look like. Trivia: Leigh Van Valen published a short note (with a footnote crediting his cat with providing specimens used in the research) claiming that, from the point of view of the curator of skeletons, small terrestrial isopods (slaters or woodlice or pillbugs depending on where you come from– I think he mentioned by name the marvelously named Amadillidium) are actually better: clean the bones but leave the tendons so you have a skeleton and not just a pile of bones.