No, I’m not on Desert Island Discs! Recording session for BBC RADIO 4 Rare Earth on animal #migration with @willleohawkes.bsky.social @tomheap.bsky.social and @helenczerski.bsky.social Airs on Friday 19 September at 1200 GMT

Very happy to be asked on Radio 4's Rare Earth today to talk all about animal (especially insect) migration alongside such great people. The episode airs 19th September! @tomheap.bsky.social @helenczerski.bsky.social @cuttlefisher.bsky.social

Some beautiful moths from our moth trap on the Roseland Cornwall last week 1) a male Black Arches, he uses his antennae to sniff out females 2) Dusky thorn 3) Frosted orange 4) the eye of a scarce bordered straw

Went to my local park to check red bartsia (bottom right) for its associate bee. No joy but plenty of other treasure about - common blue, small copper, green veined white, gatekeeper, small bath and speckled wood butterflies, emperor and common darter dragonflies + more. @willleohawkes.bsky.social

Last week I found 3 bee species I'd never seen before! 1) v rare Red Bartsia Bee, Melitta tricincta which has returned to sites in North Cornwall due to the work Buglife have been doing. 📸1,2 2) Blunthorn nomad, Nomad flavopicta 📸3 3) white zoned furrow bee, Lasioglossum leucozonium 📸4

Some dreamy insects (and a spider) from home in the Ceiriog Valley, North Wales last weekend. 1) Chrysotoxum arcuatum hoverfly 2) male red tailed bumblebee 3) marmalade hoverfly 4) a beautiful Garden cross spider

Perhaps the most beautiful rove beetle I have ever seen, Rhyncocheilus aureus, from the jungles of Trus Madi Entomology Camp in Borneo.

A very beautiful Onocera semirubella in our moth trap near Falmouth, Cornwall yesterday. @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @davegrundy.bsky.social

In April 1926 there were so many painted lady butterflies migrating through Palestine that cars had to stop to remove them from their radiators to prevent overheating. From C. B. Williams' records. Free Palestine always. What Israel is doing is truly evil. 🇵🇸🍉🦋

A very fluffy buff tailed bumblebee on knapweed. The Roseland, Cornwall

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

A green eyed flower bee female - Anthophora bimaculata - found on the Roseland, Cornwall, this week. Look at those green eyes!! These bees also have a much higher pitched buzz than other species.

A blue bee! This is the blue carpenter bee, Xylocopa tumida. I was SO excited to find this animal just before dawn at Trus Madi Entomology Camp in Borneo. So full of beauty.

A meadow brown butterfly amongst the knapweeds on Roseland, Cornwall yesterday.

The beautiful moth diversity from Trus Madi Entomology Camp in Borneo. Look at those Malaysian moon moths!

As an insect conservationist, these are my absolute favourite messages to receive!

The mantises of Trus Madi jungle in Borneo were gorgeous. Here is a little Pachymantis species. When boxer mantises encounter one another, they wave their forearms displaying the patterned interior faces to each other. This is believed to be a way of preventing the same species eating each other!

So small!!

Revisando en detalle unas fotos, descubro a una diminutísima polinizadora 😍 cuya obsesión por las flores de / Limonium / era inversamente proporcional a su tamaño 😅 ¿Alguna posibilidad de identificación @txaverius.bsky.social @cmhmaliani.bsky.social @curromolina.bsky.social @nermonper.bsky.social ?

Pigeons are so great. Here is one nesting in a drainage grate in Falmouth (there's a hole to the outside they can crawl through)!

If you look carefully, you will see that not all leaves are as they seem... The incredible camouflage of Xantia borneensis, the sickle bearing katydid, deep in the Trus Madi jungles of Borneo.

The incredible camouflage of an Olcinia species of Katydid, found deep in the jungles of Borneo at Trus Madi entomology camp

This is cool! A cinnabar moth caterpillar is on the left and the big parasitic wasp is Barylypa propugnator who will lay her eggs inside the caterpillar!! The little wasp larvae are clever cos they eat the least vital organs of the caterpillar first, so they remain fresh for longer!

Just finished my most favourite radio show so far! Played lots of music (incl. by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social) told stories about termite mimicking beetles, flies that fly in caves ~1km below the surface, & heard Malaysian folktales! Would love you to listen www.thesourcefm.co.uk/show/music/w...

It was so great teaching years 7s and 8s about insects today. But what was interesting was that compared to the year 5s, the initial enthusiasm for insects and nature had decreased hugely! It was easy enough to unearth again, but I do wonder what happens to make children change! Societal pressures?

!! A very playful stoat on my run today in Cornwall! If you turn the sound on you'll hear me confidently misidentify her as a weasel 🤦 I'll stick to insects... So slinky!

The best summer solstice. Cornish beach, many friends, and finding Britain's most magic filled animal - the glowworm.

Ocean going midges (📸Danwei Huang), Stag beetles and underground flowers this week on my radio show! Featuring stories inspired by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social and music by @cosmosheldrake.bsky.social & @spellsongs.bsky.social Listen here: www.thesourcefm.co.uk/show/music/w...

Here is a very sweet little Bornean Forest Dragon (Gonocephalus borneensis) having a snooze on a branch deep in the jungle.

A tiny but incredibly fearsome apex predator from the Bornean jungle. This is probably an Ommatius species of robberfly eating a tinier beetle snack. These flies have unbelievable vision and are incredible hunters. They're just really quite small and sweet.

Insect hunts at @heligangardens.bsky.social for their Homecoming Festival with @flygirlnhm.bsky.social and @derekgow1965.bsky.social this weekend. Moth traps tonight if you're coming along!

At the #HomecomingFestival at @heligangardens.bsky.social Just giving a talk on the majesty of flies and now listening to this pair. @derekgow1965.bsky.social and Hugh are talking landscapes and food.. …I will bring up maggots in the questions…

Samoa has legally adopted a plan that designates 30% of its 120,000 km² ocean territory as fully protected. The nine new MPAs are the first Samoa has created beyond its reefs, and ban activities that could harm marine life or damage marine habitat. buff.ly/z9B9BTP #ShareGoodNewsToo

Yesterday while helping run a workshop on insect ID at Gwithian Green in North Cornwall, I found this amazing emperor moth caterpillar! They will develop into a beautiful emperor moth who can sniff out the scent of a female moth up to 5 miles away! Amazing things.

A beautiful Ruby tail Wasp spotted on Saturday's Buglife & Budding Nature workshop walk led by @willleohawkes.bsky.social - a new species for me and a tick on my bucket list. #wasp #conservation #cornwall -

Male Spiny-legged Mason Wasp (Odynerus spinipes ) spotted on Saturday's Buglife & Budding Nature workshop walk led by @willleohawkes.bsky.social - a new species for me.

Bornean hawkmoths! 1) Marumba sperchius, this beautiful thing only appeared just before dawn 2) Mango hawkmoth (Amblypterus panopus) 3) species in alt text 4) a handful of Jade Hawkmoths (Daphnis hypothous) These were all found in Trus Madi Entomology camp, Sabah

www.thesourcefm.co.uk/show/music/w... live in 20 minutes! Talking vampiric aphids, bumblebee playing, and lots of music! Would love you to tune in or catch up later!

Did you know that, in orchards, "a thriving earwig population can dispose of as many aphids in a year as 3 rounds of insecticide"? Worth a read... #pesticides #gardening hartley-botanic.co.uk/magazine/ins...

Listen back to last week's show here. We chat about loads of cool things including @kjhockings.bsky.social boozy chimps research from Guinea Bissau! Going live again at 5pm today - Source FM 96.1 and online here: www.thesourcefm.co.uk/show/music/w...

I have a new radio show! Going live in 45 minutes (5pm GMT) on Source FM 96.1 Listen Here for bugs folklore and music! www.thesourcefm.co.uk/listen

Some very fluffy moths in the trap recently - a pair of Great Prominents and Pale Tussocks Such great animals Buglife are running an important light pollution campaign and asking for donations to spread awareness to protect these beautiful animals. Donation link: donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

The first events from my new job at buglife are coming up soon! If you are Cornwall-based and would like to learn how to ID pollinators and plants, then please sign up here to our free workshops (with free lunch!): Pollinators: trybooking.com/uk/ESPH Plants: trybooking.com/uk/ESPI Hope to see you!

Hi all, I'm writing about fly migration. There's an Elean Greek myth about Heracles learning how to sacrifice to Zeus at Olympia to get rid of flies. Zeus eventually banishes the flies across the Alpheus-could be an insect migration event! But I can't find any more info about it! Can anyone help?

As a scientist, I love moments when colleagues discover things that remind me of how amazing nature is and why curiosity can lead to pure magic. 🧪 #pollinators #insects #wildlife

So exciting to see our migratory fly review paper in the @washingtonpost.com!! Read here: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025... Also, I'm going to be on Source FM at 8pm GMT (50min time) talking all about migratory insects: www.thesourcefm.co.uk Full paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

It was about 0230 in the morning in the depths of the Bornean jungle at Trus Madi entomology camp. Mum (@sarahhawkes.bsky.social) and I were still out hunting for insects when we found this outrageous caterpillar! They're the caterpillar of an Archdukes butterfly, Lexias sp.

A religious theme this morning in the moth trap. Hebrew Character and Common Quakers part of a set of 16 moths of 6 species! Remembering how much I love moth traps after a while off