Endless Seals, Logos, and Emblems

If there’s one thing that entomological, arachnological, and other invertebrate societies have in common, it’s a tendency to put obscure organisms front and center on their official seals. This post will be first in a series of these gloriously earnest invert society logos. No cutesy fonts or modern graphics here!

I’ll just keep adding these as I find them, and hope other folks contribute ones they know, or help ID the strange critters emblazoned on these ebullient emblems, and their histories.

But let’s start with two of my all-time favorites:

The American Entomological Society! Just the style alone gives it some serious historical weight, making it look like one of those embossing seals you pound into paper. And double bonus, a bad-ass eastern Hercules beetle unabashedly unfurls a timeless Latin motto “Festina Lente”, (advance deliberately). I love this logo so much I swiped its style for my Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group logo. It’s the standard-bearer of all entomological society logos, in my view.

My second favorite logo has got to be that of  SOLA: Just bask in the beetle-themed glory of this outstanding coat-of-arms! From the legs forming the outer edge to the crossed scarab antennae and locking horns. I earnestly hope somewhere this exists as a brass plaque. Or is tattooed on somebody’s elytra.

I love that the International Society of Hymenopterists  has outfitted the vespid on their logo with a planetary thorax. A very classy design, sadly this is the largest image I could find.

The Maine Entomological Society also is decorated by a hymenopteran. Dipogon sayi Banks looks like it’s about to chew up Maine’s border to make a colossal northeastern wasp-nest.

The Royal Entomological Society provides no concrete reason why its logo features a stylopid strepsipteran, but I forgive them because their logo features a stylopid strepsipteran.

The Society of Southwestern Entomologists rocks out with the ironclad beetle, one of my favorite desert beetles. This particular species was apparently described by one of their first society presidents.

I love how the The Arachnological Society of Japan logo has a spare set of pedipalps at the bottom, because you never know when you’ll need them.

The Entomological Society of Canada not only is in Latin, but proudly displays a grylloblattid, also known as an ice crawler, which lives on snowy mountaintops. A bold and colorful design for such an obscure and furtive creature!

What other society can boast that their logo is an animated firefly gif? None, other than the Entomological Society of Pennsylvania. Do they sell glow-in-the-dark blinking t-shirts? If so, I am wanting one.

The mecopteran Boreus elegans gets star treatment on the Entomological Society of British Columbia‘s logo, a perfect fit for snow-covered BC. They even have a detailed write-up on their distinctive Official Insect.

There are so many other geopolitical regions with their own invert-themed logos, and I have barely touched on spiders, mites, and other inverts. Any good ones I’ve missed?