This is a great example of how ecosystems have myriad connections that that don't fit our binary ideas of 'friend or foe'. One species of insect regarded as a 'pest' supports another that people want to help in their gardens. Spray off scale insects and you could be impacting #bumblebees.

Osmia cornuta #SolitaryBees making the next generation. SW London 23.02.26 @ianbeavis.bsky.social @dustygedge.bsky.social

Oh hello… it’s here! The new ‘Photographic guide to flies of Britain and Ireland’. Steven Falk (not sure if he’s on BS?) @gailashton.bsky.social @rdimond.bsky.social Peter Creed Forward by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social It is an astonishing piece of work for such a diverse taxonomic group. #diptera

The Holy Flyble is being released into the wild! Thank you to everyone who preordered and great to see reviews already coming in. Can't guarantee it will be delivered by robberfly though!

Want to see a live Moss Safari? I’m excited to share I will be doing a live online session for the Linnaean Society of London on 8 April 12:30. Sign up here members.linnean.org/events/6995e...

Let it fly!! Check out this awesome fly art from jyoon_bug on instagram! 🪰❤️ #Diptera #FliesAreAwesome

It’s here! The wait is over! Thank you for your patience to all of you who pre-ordered ☺️

430(!) native tree whips planted today with Friends of Castle Park volunteers & CMS to restore a lapsed hedgerow at Grange Paddocks, Bishop's Stortford. Thanks to the brilliant Herts CC 'Your Trees Our Future' Project. We aspire to bigger changes for wildlife in this extensive amenity grassland.

Oh hey, it's my book! Due out next week!!

A Japanese Satsuma ware vase painted by the renowned artist Yabu Meizan (1853–1934) during the Meiji period. #art #sculpture #painting #vase #insects

Just a few days left to get your copy of our new guide to #FliesofBritainandIreland at the pre-pub price – offer on til 14 Feb bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @rdimond.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @britentsoc.bsky.social

My local greenspace turned temporarily into a blue space this weekend, showing the value of floodplain grasslands at times of high rainfall. Yesterday, there were ducks swimming around the path and an egret fishing for fleeing worms. Today, it has mostly soaked away into the soil and ditches.

Can’t wait for it to be like this. Spring scene with insects, from ‘Brehms Tierleben’ (Leipzig, 1892). Waddleton.b.1.146 @theul.bsky.social

SAVE £8 on our new guide to #FliesofBritainandIreland – to be delivered to our office mid-Feb 2026 – pre-pub offer extended to 14 Feb 2026 bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @rdimond.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

Our new guide to #FliesofBritainandIreland is due to be delivered to our office mid-Feb 2026 so we've extended the pre-pub offer to 14 February bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @rdimond.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @georgemcgavin.bsky.social

Caledoinian pine woodlands, 7th of 9 great places to see an amazing range of flies featured in #FliesofBritainandIreland due mid-Feb 2026. Hurry, pre-pub offer runs til 31 Jan bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @cairngormsnews.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Pleased to have been elected Conservation Lead on the committee of Friends of Castle Park. It will be great to work with the enthusiastic volunteers and the Countryside Management Service to improve the area for wildlife and engage the community on my local patch. Photo: Waytemore Castle mound

I am in love with Rosemary Mosco's latest cartoon.

Tag yourself. I live in Gymnochaeta viridis!

A selection of pages from our #FliesofBritainandIreland have just been spotted by this bee-fly - due mid-Feb 2026, the pre-pub offer runs until 31 Jan - order your copy now bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @rdimond.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Our new 416pp #FliesofBritainandIreland covering over 1300 species & with over 1500 photos is now being printed - due mid Feb 2026. You can still pre-order until 31 Jan bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @georgemcgavin.bsky.social

The reason for my radio silence on socials lately. Coauthorship on a guide to one of the most diverse orders of insects is a lot of work it turns out! This is a monumental, beautifully illustrated book and I can't wait for people to see it. There is still time to preorder your copy this month!

Was just talking yesterday about greenwashing by big corporates. Google (claiming to be sustainable) are planning to build a data centre on one of Britain's rarest habitats, home to many scarce specialist invertebrates - help Buglife fight this. Sign here: 🐝🦋 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

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

Today I was blessed with the experience of sharing my lunch with a Blue Long-horned Snailkiller fly (Sepedon sphegea) . Some people feed the pigeons... #Invertefest #FliesofBritainandIreland

An extraordinary ichnuemon wasp from the Norfolk #Brecks the other day - Amblyjoppa fuscipennis aka the Small Elephant-botherer. Presumably the English name is a reference to parasitising Small Elephant Hawkmoths, rather than actual Elephants! #TeamEnto

Female mason wasp Ancistrocerus scoticus building mud cells in relief carving on gravestone in St Agnes churchyard, Scilly

Very pleased to have seen my first Yellow-faced Blowfly (Cynomyia mortorum) today on a Herts Invertebrate Project visit to Natural England's Hexton Estate. King of his chalky Hill chasing off the other less glamorous blowflies. #FliesofBritainandIreland #Entomology @naturalengland.bsky.social

Etymology of the day: spiders were once known as ‘attercops’, or ‘poison-heads’, because it was believed most spiders were venomous. The ‘cop’ element became the ‘cob’ in ‘cobweb’.

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

#InsectWeek is coming! Insect Week is your annual chance to share and celebrate the fascinating world of insects. This year, we're Standing Tall for the Small and encouraging everyone to take action for insects. #StandTallForTheSmall from 23-29 June 🐞🔽 www.insectweek.org

Went to my local country park to look for solitary bees today and my first Brown Argus of the year was a nice bonus.

New research from our Centre for Ecology and Conservation has found that the brain of a wasp is capable of remarkably sophisticated scheduling decisions. Read the full article below. news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

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

Several Box Bugs and Common Green Shieldbugs, having a drink and enjoying each others company in a Winter Honeysuckle bush yesterday #Invertefest

A quality animal today on @me🦛 Animal #632 🐻 I figured it out in 8 guesses! 🟥🟥🟥🟧🟨🟨🟨🟩 🔥 2 | Avg. Guesses: 11 metazooa.com #metazooa

Lords of the flies: the unsurpassed level of ecological diversity within dipteran migrants. Read about it here news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e... and in Biological Reviews here doi.org/10.1111/brv..... New research from @uniexecec.bsky.social with @willleohawkes.bsky.social & Myles Menz

Colorful flies 🌈 Phasia hemiptera (Tachinid fly, Wanzenfliege) Ectophasia crassipennis (Tachinid fly, Breitflügelige Raupenfliege) Lucilia sericata (Green bottle fly, Goldfliege) Myathropa florea (Batman hoverfly, Totenkopfschwebfliege)

Happy Monday everyone, some verges not in site lines or pathways were mown last week, ugly looking brown dried plant debris, on the other side this delight full of #dandelions other wild flowers and #pollinators. Please like and retweet if you prefer the flowers 🙏🐝🐞🌼

Spoiled for choice? Brimstone #butterfly at #AshlawncuttingLNR @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bcwarwickshire.bsky.social @dandelionappre1.bsky.social

Love this gorgeous new art installation local to me by Julia Fonnereau celebrating local #wildflowers , #butterflies and a #SolitaryBee! Though somewhat ironically on a carpark considering the title "You don't know what you've got til it's gone"! #WildlifeArt

Female True Bumblebee Identification Guides for Ireland (mostly). Please feel free to share, print out and use to help ID the Irish bumblebees CC BY-SA-NC 4.0

The Wildlife Garden Directory is celebrating its first anniversary! If you're a wildlife friendly gardener, why not join and connect with people who need your skills? And if you're looking for help in your garden, use the directory to find a wildlife-gardener: wildlifegardendirectory.org.uk

🚨 #InsectResearch Ethics Survey – Your Input Matters 🦗 We're gathering views on #InsectWelfare in UK research. If you're involved in UK #InsectResearch, we want to hear from you! Read more and share your thoughts 🔽 buff.ly/T3xgWvv #EthicsInScience #InsectEthics #AnimalResearch

Yes we should inspire children to value and protect wildlife, but these are false dichotomies. There's massive overlap in the venn diagram of kids who like bugs and dinosaurs (I'm one of them!) and those who like unicorns and ponies. It's not an either or. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Try making a clay hotel for hairy-footed flower bees. They are just emerging from hibernation, so now is the perfect time. youtu.be/UJSK12ArWP4

The @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social & the #RoyalHorticulturalSociety are championing hoverflies! Finally the light is shining on the Diptera, highlighting the pollinating adults, & the predatory/decomposer larvae within Syrphidae www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/wild-ab... @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

With spider activity increasing, we're looking at spider ID resources, starting today at the beginner's end of the spectrum with our 17 Factsheets on common and conspicuous species - freely available to read online or print from www.britishspiders.org.uk/factsheets. #spiders #arachnids #arachnology

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.

RIP to this iconic lad on today's bug hunt who ate a fly, had sex and got eaten in front of an audience of 4-5 year olds.