Benefits of jumping spiders as predators, on a big screen at HK airport! How surprisingly positive 🕷️👌

New issue!🏝 The unique challenges and rewards of island conservation🦎 This theme highlights the importance of protecting island biodiversity, which is particularly vulnerable to extinction🦇🌋 You can read our new Island Conservation issue (🔓fully Open Access) here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

El Niño events are getting more extreme, and arthropods in tropical forests 🐝 🪲 🕷️ 🪳are feeling it. In a new study, researchers found long-term declines in diversity and ecological services. eos.org/articles/el-...

New #OpenAccess work by @adam-sharp.bsky.social in #RESInsectConsDiv Invasive insect colonisation shapes population distribution of island-#endemic scaly #cricket doi.org/10.1111/icad.70013 @manusaunders.bsky.social Photo: Ascension Island scaly cricket (Discophallus ascension); credit: A. Sharp

New article, open access! 📣🦗 When is habitat specialism not really habitat specialism? One weird island-endemic cricket species seems to be confined to young lava flows by invasive species, not ecological preference. This analysis informed two new protected areas 💪 doi.org/10.1111/icad...

New article out today in Nature - intensified El Niño events under climate change appear to be chipping away at tropical forest arthropod diversity. This is already leading to substantial losses in arthropod function in primary forests across the tropics. rdcu.be/ezAxP

We leashed arthropods like little dogs on leads! Why? To quantify which invasive predators are attacking arthropods, and where, on an Atlantic island 🏝️🐜🐀 doi.org/10.1111/btp....

The Daintree Rainforest Observatory in Queensland Australia is without a doubt one of the coolest research sites I’ve visited. The team there have been using the full-sized research crane to position our insect traps in the tree canopy! A peculiar/amazing sight in the middle of the rainforest 🌴🌳🏗️🌴🌳

New online! Causes and consequences of insect decline in tropical forests

Tiny habitats are important for island-endemic arthropod conservation! Especially caves, isolated pools, sea stacks and high-elevation patches of native vegetation. These "micro-refugia" from threats may be feasible targets for first steps in local management. Open access :) doi.org/10.1017/S003...

A little bit of the organised chaos of arthropod life at Chiang Mai Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders

I would sincerely love to stand before the nurses of Chicago and enthusiastically present on desert island nematodes

New open-access research! Nematodes are super cool, and we prove it on an isolated desert island. We found near perfect turnover in trophic group along a vegetation/elevation gradient. We also warn that root-parasitic nematodes seem to spread with non-native vegetation. dx.doi.org/10.1007/s105...

Some of my favourite caterpillar morphospecies descriptions from the dataset of this excellent #insect declines analysis in PNAS: backflip barfer red biting shitter grampa gothster Minifuzzywuzzy bulging turd Taxonomists take note please. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Here's an #entomology Christmas tree to start December with! 'Tis the season to Ö̴̢̯̲́B̸̰̠̈̌Ȩ̴̞̳̑Y̴̳͐͗ ̴͙̭́T̷̟͖̺͌͠Ḩ̷̩̝͛Ȩ̶̠̉̓͝ ̸̲͇̝͆̓F̴̟̜͋U̷̘̐̃̈́N̸͉̟̈́Ǧ̸̡̖̀U̵̥̾Ś̴̜̳̅͐ 🧟🎄 (A weevil succumbed to Cordyceps "zombie" fungus in Honduras, 2013)

ATBC 2025 in Oaxaca, Mexico - is anybody aiming to attend and present on #climatechange impacts (or lack of) on #insect #ecology or #biodiversity? We at the Uni of Hong Kong (‪@louiseaashton) are gauging interest outside of our usual circle to see if it's worth proposing a symposium. Pls share!

hi everyone! My first post is the excellent news that I've been give tenure! Really excited to continue to work with an excellent team of scientists in the biodiversity and environmental change lab (www.louiseashton.net) and grateful for all the support from my mentors and peers.

A highlight of living in Hong Kong is having these Critically Endangered Yellow-Crested Cockatoos diligently tearing bits off the outside of your apartment, I guess

Greetings from Hong Kong! Looking forward to chatting #entomology, #ecology and #conservation with you all. Here's a new species to science to say hello: a desert-island woodlouse known from inside turtle nests..! From recent work on remote Ascension Island 🏝️