About Me

My Story

My name Is Josiah Kilburn, and when I started this thing I was a high school student in Colorado, USA. I was the president LHS Entomology Club, and I aspired to become a myrmecologist (ant scientist) when I graduated and wanted to photograph insects around the world. I  am was avid ant keeper and am constantly collecting ants everywhere I go and have been collecting insects since I was 5 years old. I have designed most of my insect-related macro gear, including my diffuser and bounce flash...

As an amateur myrmecologist, I followed many avenues to familiarize myself with the science and was one of the youngest active members of the Entomological Society of America. I have visited entomology collections around the united states, and have met many experts in myrmecology. I also was given an ant wiki contributor account and I sometimes contributed to pages there.

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One of my capstone research projects in high school was to research the stinging ants of Colorado. For the project, I wrote a lot, in a book that I titled The Stinging Ants of Colorado. It was never officially published, but it is now being used at CSU and other Colorado universities and colleges to identify ants within the state.

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After I graduated high school, I went to work at Discover Life in America as a summer intern. During the course of that summer I learned a lot about researching insects and also about national parks and nonprofits. While I was there, I also found the first record of Strumigenys louisianae in the park, and I found some Proceratium males (a personal favorite of mine). I also revised the ant taxonomy in the park ant collection.

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Shortly after my Internship, I moved into my dorm at Morehead State University and started doing my research there. I am currently working on creating ant identification resources for Kentucky, which currently lacks even a species checklist.