Saw this queen toda 💛🤍🖤 Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennechi) #HertsSpiders

It’s one of those evenings when you feel like you’ve accidentally walked onto a film set. #sunset

We're now laying out the Tachinids for #FliesofBritainandIreland bit.ly/4dqQI8Z to be published this Autumn TOP Cistogaster globosa & Gymnocheta viridis; BOTTOM Phasia hemiptera & Tachina grossa @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @georgemcgavin.bsky.social

The home run!! 😃

On the home run now for our #FliesofBritainandIreland book bit.ly/4dqQI8Z – Steven Falkhas now completed the text for the Anthomyiidae & we've started laying out the intro pages @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @tverc1.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Summer evenings don’t get much better than watching a Barn Owl hunting at sunset 💚💚💚

Summer 💙💚💛

Off to the Gower next week & hope to see the magnificent Pied-winged Robberfly (Pamponerus germanicus) at Whiteford Burrows. All of Britain's robberflies are covered in our #FliesofBritainandIreland bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @gailashton.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

I don’t know what this type of cloud is called, but it’s a cracker.

Lesser Bulb Fly (Eumerus funeralis) a small hoverfly is common in our garden & develops in Spanish Bluebells, also seen on its leaves was the Large Narcissus Fly a bumblebee mimic #FliesofBritainandIreland bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @bbowt.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social

Queen of queens 💚

Now laying out the Snail-killing flies (Sciomyzidae) pages for our new #FliesofBritainandIreland due Autumn 2025 - pre-order now bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @bbowt.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @worcswt.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social

Finding a little joy in the unexpected things.

Picture-winged Flies pages are now laid out for our NEW #FliesofBritainandIreland due Autumn 2025 - pre-order now at bit.ly/4dqQI8Z & save £££s on published price @gailashton.bsky.social @bbowt.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social

Pear blossom is the gift that keeps on giving 💚

If any naturalists would like to increase their knowledge of flies, then this is a great way to do it! But as Andy says, these workshops need a minimum number of participants to run so do consider booking a place on this, or one of the others (mosquitoes, sawflies, wasps)

What a stunning way to launch The Life Affirming Magic of Birds 🐦 A beautiful conversation with Nick Acheson to a room full of people who share our love for the natural world 🌎 #BookLaunch #Norfolk #Nature #Wildlife #Author #History #TLAMOB #MagicOfBirds #Writer 📷 @gailashton.bsky.social

This was a lovely evening. Congrats Charlie!

Just about to start laying out pages for these little gems, the picture-winged flies for our new book #FliesofBritainandIreland to be published Autumn 2025 – order now & SAVE £££s bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @gailashton.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @bbowt.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

Making sun prints in situ. #Cyanotype

CONOPIDS are fascinating flies. Females deposit an egg in the abdomen of a bee or wasp whist in flight. The larva develops inside & pupates when the host dies #FliesofBritainandIreland bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @gailashton.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

“Live in the moment, humans are often told, but snails don’t need to be told. We’re in the moment all the time, and the moment is in us.” Margaret Atwood: Old Babes in the Wood

I finished my paper today. Woo-hoo! Lots and lots of minor details to finish it off. Now back to looking at other Cyperaceae stuff.

As you know I am a very casual birder at best, but my first Great White Egret at @suffolkwildlife.bsky.social Carlton Marshes today was a bit special. Can you spot it?

A new #bee for me! A male White-faced Mason Bee (Osmia cornuta), one of several drinking from Mahonia in a pub garden in St Margarets, Herts. Never managed to spot one in London but nice to see them spreading into the home counties. As good an excuse as any to yoink myself back into social media.

Close encounters with cave spiders in the Peak District today. Meta menardi is a scarce and highly specialised spider that lives close to the entrance of caves. The egg sacs are beautiful, silken teardrops that suspend from the ceiling and ledges. #CaveSpider #MetaMenardi #spider #PeakDistrict

Marram grass appreciation post. • Stabiliser of cliffs and dune systems. • Safe harbour for invertebrates, birds, reptiles and mammals. • Harvested to make fishing nets, house roofs and even shoes. • Looks, sounds and feels amazing. #marram #grass #coast #nature

Spring spring spring spring spring spring spring. Black Oil Beetle out in the late February sunshine. #MeloeProscarabaeus #BlackOilBeetle #BeetlesOfBluesky

I’m outside. In February. Without a coat. (Yes, Northern Hemisphere.)

Did u know? We mustn't all panic this season when aphids appear in our gardens. Leave these little sap suckers be, because they're re food for everything else - Ladybirds, Lacewings & Wasps AND they feed young nestlings. Don't spray, celebrate. Whoop! 🙌🌱🌿🌍🪲🐦‍⬛🐙

Flat-footed Flies might be tiny at 3 to 4 mm in length, but they're amazing little flies - the bright orange Agathomyia wankowiczii was seen #BBOWT's Bowdown Woods #FliesofBritainandIreland bit.ly/4dqQI8Z #gail_in_nature @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

Mission: Bee-fly 1. Look out for bee-flies. 2. Photograph bee-fly. 3. Identify bee-fly species observed. 4. Submit record to Bee-fly Watch. Disperse and observe biological recorders.

My first cherry plum blossom of the year, in Bedfordshire today. #wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

My colleague Sue Taylor has arranged a Women Entomologists Networking Day, in association with @britentsoc.bsky.social, taking place in Buckinghamshire on 10 May - contact Sue to find out more.

I am giving a talk this Thursday 6 February 2025 on the Secret World of the Undergrowth featuring leafcutter bees, Beachcomber Beetles, Iberian Spoonwings and Puss Moths at Buckland-in-the-Moor Village Hall near Ashburton, Devon TQ13 7HW at 7.30 pm All welcome.

Do you know Daisy Roulland-Dussoix? She is one of the discoverers of restriction enzymes, who’s findings paved the way for the development of recombinant DNA and cloning technologies. Accordingly, the finding was rewarded with a #NobelPrize. But the prize didn’t go to her. 🧵👇

Happy Imbolc you lovely people of Bluesky. In the Pagan calendar, Imbolc celebrates the halfway point between Winter solstice (Yule) and the Spring equinox (Ostara) in the Northern hemisphere, as tiny daily increments of increasing daylight pull us out of the long dark.

Pet owners accidentally poisoning garden birds. Our latest research finds pet flea treatments (fipronil and imidacloprid) in 100% of blue tit and great tit nests, with nestling mortality higher in the more contaminated nest. @SongBirdSBS @SussexUni @CannelleTassin

January artifacts. 🍂 🧊

Early morning moonset accompanying us as we journey into the west. 🌙

#FliesofBritainandIreland – You can now pre-order our A Photographic Guide to Flies of Britain & Ireland, to be published Autumn '25 from bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @stevenfalk.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @bbowt.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

‘We fetishise anything touched by famous literary hands; why do we not work harder to preserve the landmarks they wrote about?’ Excellent by @marthagill.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Jane Austen’s plates or the woods near her home? I know which I’d rather save | Martha Gill

Here are some images from my new photographic project, ‘Entomoscapes’. It is art of my MA in Photography at @falmouthuniversity.bsky.social, which aims to explore the human-insect relationship. View the full project here: www.gailashton.co.uk/entomoscapes #Masters #Photography #Insects

Fabulous #flies – a male Hairy-legged Horsefly (Hybomitra bimaculata) at Westhay Moor NNR on the Somerset Levels ... hairy eyes too Our Guide to #FliesofBritainandIreland to be published Oct 25 bit.ly/4dqQI8Z #StevenFalk1 #gailashton #Ecoentogeek #flygirlNHM #SomersetWT

New product alert! Head over to BugTees, my online store, to see the new Inverted Stag Beetle oversize tee, and new colours for the Undertaker Beetle too! bugtees.teemill.com #beetle #entoart

Ladybirds are resilient little beasts. This Seven-spot was hanging out in 3°C today. #ladybird #winter #nature

A gorgeous fly collected from @opwallscience.bsky.social trip to Honduras in 2023 Ormia sp. are very special Tachinidae as they have ‘ears’ on their prothorax that they use to listen for the hosts (Orthoptera) for their offspring to live in and consume 😎🤓 @dipterists.bsky.social

Last night’s snow is tonight’s saturated ground and the earthworms are out in force, scavenging on the surface and leaving their large, nutrient-rich casts behind.

Who knows what this year has in store, but randomly finding this little beauty on my bed this morning felt like a good sign. Happy 2025 to you all x

As usual, invertebrates are paying the ultimate price for our dissonance 😞 I have just finished writing about an alternative scenario, in which we embrace leatherjackets and chafer grubs in our #garden soils, to bolster the natural food web and help our birdlife. Magpies welcome here!