Harpalinae, one of the largest subfamilies of beetles in the world with ~19,000 species, but not as you know it! #taxonomy #systematics #entomology #MuseumCollections resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@pjie2.bsky.social @georgemcgavin.bsky.social @beetlequeen.bsky.social @adamrutherford.bsky.social @rdawkins.bsky.social @jimalkhalili.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/chri... Perhaps of interest, the biophysics of insect gigantism:

INSECT GIGANTISM IN THE CARBONIFEROUS: Why NATURE paper (Snelling et al, 2026) is wrong based on thermodynamics:

With the Spring Equinox comes an ecological shift in behaviour geared toward reproduction, a bountiful season of plenty. The temperate weather, insects returning from diapause make an attractive prospect. I'm looking forward to observing the elusive Song Thrush, Turdus philomelos in the coming days.

"The inference that ancient Metazoa were even more developmentally plastic than modern ones implies that the general correspondence of a given genotype to one morphological phenotype is a product rather than a precondition of evolution." - Before Programs, Newman pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16479496/

One of the beautiful ways Prof Suo's thermodynamics lectures may be applied, is to aspects geological. Take crystal formation in igneous rocks for instance. Whilst I always understood the process well, now much deeper in relation to marginal entropy per joule increase. The probabilistic quantum

Professor Zhigang Suo's excellent lectures on Carnot Cycles made me revisit the efficiency limit of my original reciprocal design. Carnot Cycles (and Stirling Engine modifications) match both the adiabatic work done to the system (power stroke) and entropy removed by expansion of working fluid from

A gift reading through Prigogine's 'Order out of Chaos' is his processual framing of science. From the Ancients, through to Newton, Hamiltonian, the complex thermodynamics of Maxwell, thereafter quantum mechanics. Accompanying this then, not only the historicity of processual science but philosophy

Fast signalling, thus associated complexity, is only made possible by dissipative structures incurring extreme entropy production. Of these at every level, autocatalytic reactions being most effective. Without high coupled entropy -TxΔSi to irreversible calcium signals in fertilisation for instance,

1/8: Thermodynamics influenced my viewing open biological systems similarly. My workings how I use Gibbs as primary metric, calculating 'human dissipative structure Fitness' against 'net biodiversity dissipative structure Fitness' over 'closed Earth system': H=U+pV ΔU = q + w

Neotropical Cassida sp. from top right I think. Precisely why Coleoptera are so speciose, and formidably adaptive as an order. Their sclerotised elytra/pronota unlocked diverse habitats, denied to most other Insects. The physiological quirk (via mRNA) for quinones repurposed then sent to the

Phenotypic plasticity is all the rage when defining convergent evolution at the macroscale. Very seldom do nucleotide bases randomly assort, thereafter selected by convergent evolution at the microscale. Here's one such example, however: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Aeshna cyanea, Aeshnidae, 12/9/25, Denham Lock Wood, UK:

Tropical rainforests in the SW Pacifics. Dr Novotný took us on an epic adventure featuring Terry Erwin! On the arms race between plants and insects in the tropics, and the army of people it takes at a local scale to provide the raw data for these interactional insights over decades. #Ento25

Eriocampa ovata, Tenthredinidae, 24/8/25, Denham Lock Wood, UK:

Carabus nemoralis, Carabidae, 22/8/25, Brush Hill Woods, Chilterns, UK:

Sermylassus halensis, Chrysomelidae, 22/8/25, Brush Hill Woods, Chilterns, UK:

Euplagia quadripunctaria, Erebidae, 17/8/25, Brush Hill Woods, Chilterns, UK:

I explored #Ancient Hodgemoor Woods late last night (#Chilterns, UK) and came upon this #rare #Symphytan:

Very pleased my two Dolerus sp. are healthy and thriving, currently morphed from eonymphs to prepupae. I found this small pop. of rare Tenthredinidae larvae in an ancient woods (Northmoor Hill Wood, Denham UK). Interesting too whether they overwinter as pupae or emerge this year:

A twitter post today made me unexpectantly sad. The last known recording of a male Kauaʻi ʻōʻō (1987), calling out for a mate that would never come. He died alone, and the species went extinct. So I wrote a poem:

Platystomos albinus, Anthribidae, 16/7/25, Denham Lock Wood, UK. I found this specimen climbing an ancient alder tree, it engages in thanatosis when startled. Quite a scarce species.

Ichneumon suspiciosus, Ichneumonidae, 9/7/25, Denham Lock Wood, UK. A tentative ID, would appreciate any suggestions please @gavinbroad.bsky.social?

Melanostoma scalare, Syrphidae, 3/7/25, Denham Lock Wood:

Dorcus parallelipipedus, Lucanidae, 3/7/25, Denham Country Park, UK:

But also reduces associative fixation with cereals like switchgrass. See this great paper from Michael Udvardi, for instance: apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/...

@jeanmichelane.bsky.social So similarly would infusion of fixed nitrogen inhibit enzymic nitrogen fixation within rhizomes (& associated bacteria)? Or as the chloroplasts (formerly cyanobacteria) are well endosymbiosed, whereas the symbiotic root bacteria nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Worrying development, and another cause of human ecological disturbance. The ‘triboelectric effect’ is well known in slightly ionising cuticular surface of insects (friction by rapid wing movement etc). Yet now the coadapted electrostatic attraction to partially negatively charged angiosperm plants

@georgemcgavin.bsky.social @steveormerod.bsky.social @rdawkins.bsky.social @danielkronauer.bsky.social @mcaterino.bsky.social @pjie2.bsky.social @bertonemyia.bsky.social @beetlequeen.bsky.social @coleopsoc.bsky.social‬ Hope you enjoy the journey through deep evolutionary time!....

THE COLEOPTERISTS EVOLUTIONARY TOOLKIT: HOW TO ASSEMBLE YOUR BEETLE FROM A PRIMORDIAL CHEMISTRY

An old photo I took during my first field season with a macro lens - checks notes - ahem, 20 years ago, in May 2005. I hadn’t discovered flash diffusion yet. But it’s a rarely witnessed scene: Eciton burchellii army ant workers collective carry a massive male larva. Henri Pittier NP, 🇻🇪.

I reckon alderflies (Sialis lutaria) would be great at playing Twister.

Staphylinidae, Othius punctulatus, Hodgemoor Woods, United Kingdom, 3/7/23: Hodgemoor Woods is an ancient old-growth forest in the heart of the Chilterns. Fungal growth between ventrites and dorsal tergites, exposed thanks to Staph. abbreviated elytra, as previously identified.

A #bee was roaming the sidewalk aimlessly so I caught it for pics. It died 😭 but upon closer inspection there were live hitchhikers: #triungulins! Prob. blister beetles (Meloidae), they were tightly gripping hairs to ride the bee back to its nest, where they become grubs feeding on pollen & larvae.

I ended up spending six weeks with this colony, following its nightly emigrations through the Venezuelan cloud forest and documenting its behavior. At the end it took us almost an hour each way to just get to the colony. The resulting report is here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

When they emigrate, army ants move their entire colony, including the workers and queen (diploid) and, in cases where haploid males are present, the males as well. In “phasic” army ants, like Eciton, colonies relocate almost every night during the nomadic phase.

Instantly I can see metalloporphyrins shares similar features of four covalent ligands donated by delocalised nitrogen atoms - to a central magnesium ion. The same electronic properties as chlorophyl molecules. What are they trying to emulate? Will be interesting reading @jeanmichelane.bsky.social:

Beauty in the compound eye of the beholder. Calopteryx splendens (male), Calopterygidae, 30/4/23, Denham Lock Wood, UK:

I wrote a post (9/4/25) suggesting Manticora species (Cicindelidae, Manticora tyrranus) as successful Batesian mimics of certain desert Tenebrionids. This upon viewing a recent twitter post, depicting images of supposed Namibian Tenebrionid, with starkly similar morphology. I was informed by the

I was thinking today about the successful Batesian mimicry of Manticora species (Cicindelidae) in relation to desert Tenebrionids (in particular Pimelia sp.), across the shared hostile, arid environment of Namibia. There was a twitter post on Manticora morphology and immediately

This #Neochlamisus larva wears armor made from its own frass, yes, it builds a protective case from excrement. These camouflaged tanks belong to the #Chrysomelidae family and blend into foliage with surprising success. 🌿 #macrophotography #entomology #coleoptera #bugsky #invertebrates

Our most recent paper - led by #AnkitaSinha and assessing spatio-temporal patterns among specialist river birds in the Indian Himalaya - has made the cover of @biotropica.bsky.social Free to air here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... and here www.researchgate.net/publication/...

@mcaterino.bsky.social I sent you this on twitter for an interesting find for your take "Is this a Cicindelid Manticorini species or the potential Tenebrionid they seek to mimic? This species is also from Namibia, so overlapping territory and spatial/temporal stage for Natural Selection to exploit."

Happy π day!! The most important π in chemistry, the π bond. The non-localised π electron cloud in the porphyrin ring of chlorophyll, not only frees up lone electron pairs in the 4 nitrogen atoms, producing 4 ligand coordinated sigma bonds donated to the central Mg2+ ion. Fine tuning their combined

Rhagionidae, Chrysopilus laetus, Denham Lock Wood, United Kingdom, 2024. I reared these rare Dipterans I collected from this unventured wet woodland, and shows the holometabolous life stages intimately. The puparium is exquisite, and I challenge anyone to a more handsome Dipteran! #Diptera #Insects

@wkcosmo.bsky.social Anisotropic birefringence of this Scarab's cuticle is biophysics in action! Organic nanostructures cause a π/2 phase shift (~90°) between two components of the electric field, and r/l elliptical photon polarisation. Scrambling the visual stimulus of predators. Details here:

@jimalkhalili.bsky.social Anisotropic birefringence of this Scarab's cuticle is biophysics in action! Organic nanostructures cause a π/2 phase shift (~90°) between two components of the electric field, and r/l elliptical photon polarisation. Scrambling the visual stimulus of predators. Details here: