At the Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (#SRUKCERU) we've been doing our own #Inktober (with a #scientific twist). I submitted these two drawings of #aquaticmacroinvertebrates! They are very cool bugs! Word: STING. Giant Water Bug (𝘏𝘺𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘦)

Thames Water rated the worst water company in England by the Environment Agency! after serious pollution incidents. This company goes from one scandal to another! it's time to nationalise it & stop wasting taxpayers' money #waterpollution #thameswater #sewage #pollution #freshwater

Butterflies need more lawns! More than half of UK butterfly species are in decline, and our research shows that by letting grass grow long, you can increase numbers by up to 93%. 🌱

You won't see a map like this very often on iNaturalist! the only record of 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘢 𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘢 (with its characteristic moustache) in the whole of the UK! non-biting midges (Chironomidae) are extremely underrecorded at species level! #taxonomy #chironomidae #biodiversity

Yesterday, I sampled #macroinvertebrates in the ponds in the #NHM gardens with students from #ImperialCollegeLondon We found several Water Scorpions (𝘕𝘦𝘱𝘢 𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘢), this one didn't waste the time & pierced a small damselfly larva 😅 #freshwater #taxonomy

Open Access UCL Research: Agricultural pond restoration enhances species richness in non-biting midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...

I really enjoyed #BESAG2025 at ZSL. Very interesting mix of keynote & lightning talks. From the impacts of #climatechange, #cigarettebutts & #petfleatreatments on #aquatic systems, to #biogeochemical and microbial interactions, #carbonsequestration & subterranean invertebrates! all levels covered!

Latest from the Nature Pod 🔊 Earth's deepest ecosystem discovered six miles below the sea go.nature.com/4m4iPje

Our Curator of Hemiptera, Diana, wants to show you her favourite bugs - and you’d better have some lovely things to say about them… 👁️🦗🐜 #Hemiptera #Bugs #NaturalHistory #BeNice #WeAreAlwaysWatching

Independent analysis has estimated that more than half of Thames Water's 351 sewage treatment works are currently operating without sufficient capacity to treat the volumes of sewage they receive.🧵⬇️

When #mites (𝘌𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘦) suck sap on the underneath of the leaves of Lime #trees (𝘛𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢 sp.) & release chemicals, they induce the trees to 'entrap' them inside red nail-shaped #galls, common at this time of the year Credits: 2nd pic: Marty Jopson (Youtube), 3rd pic: Sciencephotolibrary

And then we surveyed a country..... www.nature.com/articles/s41... #biodiversity #WomenInStem #AcademicSKY 🧪

If you're passionate about #ponds please check out our new Pond Restoration Training with Carl Sayer & Helen Greaves. This two-day course from 3-4 July is a perfect introduction to pond restoration science & best practice. 🐸 Interested? Find out more & book your place: www.fba.org.uk/shop/p/pond-...

Yesterday, I volunteered for @thames21.bsky.social taking #water samples at 2 locations on the #river Brent. They want to compare the analysis of samples taken by #citizenscientists (measured with Hannah checkers) with lab results. It was fun! & I met one of their volunteers who lives very close 🧪💦

Fining polluters is good, but with #ThamesWater, a company with a £20 billion financial hole, that needed a rescue loan of £3 billion, that should have been nationalised ages ago, customers will probably pay the #fine with an increase in their bills. This is just another #scandal to add to the list!

Yesterday it was a very nice day out in the New Forest, sampling aquatic #macroinvertebrates with PhD students from the NERC-NHM #freshwater course. We sampled two streams and Hatchet Pond, where some of the rarest #macrophytes in the UK thrive (like Water Purslane, 𝘓𝘶𝘥𝘸𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘴)

🎤There’s no place like London There’s no place at all The east or the West End You end up in the best end ☺️Take part in a FREE exciting walk, talk or webinar this #londonriversweek2025. Starts in Friday 30th May to Sunday 8th June 2025. 🖱️Register here: www.thames21.org.uk/events/categ... #thames

Help us gather data on water quality across the River Brent as part of London Rivers Week 2025! 📊💦 🗓️ 28th May - online training session 🗓️ 6th June - sampling at numerous locations along the Brent and its tributaries. book.plinth.org.uk/e/IVny4WFfDK... #thames21 #lrw2025

A very interesting paper about the potential of #algae & #mussels to remove #psychopharmaceuticals from freshwaters. More research on this topic is needed, because some are pervasive (e.g. ibuprofen) & can't be removed in water treatment plants pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/A...

Two months ago, I took like 30-50 #waterfleas from a #pond and dropped them in our allotment pond. Thanks to the mild weather in the UK, the population has exploded! & they are doing a great job in clearing the water by feeding on the algae!

When you think you are about to film a Algae Case Chironomid Midge larva sticking it head out and.....you get the opposite! @flygirlnhm.bsky.social #bugsky @riverflies.bsky.social @freshwaterscience.bsky.social @freshwaterhabitats.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Alarming drops in oxygen found in 80% of 15,535 lakes examined worldwide since 2003. Such drops across waterways have increased mass wildlife asphyxiations events, including deaths of thousands of eels in NZ, Murray cod in AU & mussels in EU in just the last few years #NatureWriting #WildOz 🧪 🌏 🦑

Visiting Osterley House today (West London), I found this big #freshwater #mussel in the pond, about 18 cm long. Probably 𝘈𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢 𝘤𝘺𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘢 (Swan mussel) #taxonomy

This orange sphere is the infective larval stage (cystacanth) of an Acanthocephalan (thorny-headed worm), that has developed in the hemocoel of the Gammarus. The adult stages of these #parasites live in the intestine of the final host (fish and birds) #macroinvertebrate #taxonomy

The larva of 𝘌𝘶𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘺𝘨𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴 (Scarce Black, Stratiomyidae), a rare species associated with ancient woodland. They live in small rot-holes in broadleaved trees, such as beech, ash & oak. I found this one on the Hamble Brook, a very nice chalk stream! #taxonomy #macroinvertebrates #chalkstream

This is 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢 sp. (genitalia, tibial spur, last antennal segment) from the Okavango Delta (Botswana). I'm working on several publications about different life stages of non-biting midges in this area #diptera #chironomidae #taxonomy

EPCN - the European Pond Conservation Network just arrived to Bluesky! @epcn.bsky.social You can now also find them along with several pond researchers in the Pond Ecology starter pack! go.bsky.app/4xGTu74 Let me know if I missed you and you would like to be included in it! 🐸🐟🐚🦠🪷

Today, the USDA lost experts in Psylloidea, Thysanoptera, Cerambycidae, Hymenoptera, Pseudococcidae, and Malacology. This is a devastating loss of expertise, occuring without warning. Their union's official statement on the issue can be found here: aginspectors.org/2-14-2025-a-... #entomology 🧪

*New paper* Denialism campaigns are growing in attempts to discredit science, scientists, and the scientific process generally. Biodiversity loss denial is a new phenomenon that needs our attention. -With @alexanderlees.bsky.social + Eliza Grames! #CommSky 🧪🌏 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This is how the pearl rows in the wing sheaths look like. They are very useful to identify exuviae and pupae of some #chironomid genera (like 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘢) #taxonomy #entomology

Our review on caddisfly silk genetics is out in @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social. We’re excited about new developments in the field and we were stoked to have the chance to cover them in a review. We hope it is useful resource for people interested! www.cell.com/trends/genet...

1st record in the south of England since the 1970s! 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘴. Very similar to 𝘙𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘶𝘴. Differences: pecten epipharyngis with 5 teeth, premandibles with wider inner tooth, mentum with dark median tooth, no fine striae on VPs #macroinvertebrates #chironomidae #taxonomy 🧪🌍

This is the larva of 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘢 Kieffer (Diptera: Chironomidae) from the River Ash. The postmentum is the same colour as the rest of the head capsule & the outer laterals are long & well separated. This last feature isn't described in the guide by Cranston (1982) #chironomidae #entomology 🧪🌍

ID trick: 𝐸𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑎 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎 larvae lack dark marks on tergites 3 to 5 (between the gills), some even on 6. Underneath they have either 2 lines on every segment (males), or on all but segment 1 (females) (2nd pic). Caution! marks aren't fully developed in specimens <15 mm #taxonomy #macroinvertebrates

as LA is burning, a swath of the country is recovering from an ice storm, Alabama is preparing for up to 6” of snow and I’m praying for the TX power grid, a reminder: we don’t need climate action just for future generations, we need it now. the climate crisis is here, all around us

Here is some truth! I’ve been living in Southern California for 46 years and the climate and weather have changed drastically while I’ve lived here. There were wildfires before, one of my friends lost her house in 2003, but the magnitude of destruction has increased exponentially.

Nasty bug had to be the first Twonks comic on here.

Well said! "Biodiversity loss is a crisis that affects us all. Every unknown species we lose could've been a potential new food or new medicine that we never even knew existed. We urgently need more funding, training & public awareness of plant & fungal #taxonomy" www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A very cool find! a larva of 𝐼𝑡ℎ𝑦𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑎 sp. (#trichoptera Hydroptilidae) from the River Mimram. People have always assumed that these were 𝐼. 𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠 but it's indistinguishable from the other British species (𝐼. 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑎). This specimen will be barcoded #GeneFlow24 #NHM #taxonomy #chalkstream

When I was identifying macroinvertebrates from the River Chess I found this tiny insect print (<1 cm) on a very thin layer of chalk! #insect #chalkstream

Yesterday I attended the SRUK/CERU Emergent Talent Award ceremony in the Spanish Embassy. This year the awardee is Emilio Martínez-Pañeda, Professor at the University of Oxford investigating material deformation & fracture #science #SRUK/CERU

7th #entomology #StarterPack is filling up! go.bsky.app/8CxxyZ6 & 6 that are already filled! bsky.app/starter-pack... go.bsky.app/JVRwhS1 go.bsky.app/2nEuqKX go.bsky.app/Fq2CQNw go.bsky.app/VDorcVS go.bsky.app/TJKHRnH or pin the list of them all: bsky.app/profile/did:... Nominate widely! 🐜🦋🪲🪰

I've just checked the feature 'A year in review' on iNaturalist & is pretty cool! very well summarised & visual. Not bad at all for plants & insects, but more records of Fungi, Protista & Bacteria are needed! also more records from the global south #inaturalist #biodiversity #taxonomy

Science takes time - a lot of time. Time that is more and more difficult to make available because of increased workloads. Time that exceeds the temporary contracts of postdocs and PhDs. I'll illustrate this using our paper published in Nature yesterday. 🧵 (1/x) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Let me show you these beautiful moths from the NHM collection! on the left Kentish glory (𝐸𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑎), presumed extinct in the UK. On the right 𝐷𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑎, collected in Tibet, only 1 specimen in the museum! #moth #entomology #lepidoptera

I was deeply disappointed by the lack of nature/science/climate/enviro on many major end-of-year book lists—so I decided to make my own! Introducing: ✨🎁📚 The 2024 Holiday Gift Guide to Nature & Science Books ✨🎁📚 Please share: Let's make this go viral in time for Black Friday / holiday shopping!

Not all collaborations are equally successful

Starter Packs are great, but they favor well established individuals (understandably so). To help prop up new voices, here is a set of early career ecologists (self defined) who are, or would like to become, active on BlueSky Please reply if you would like to be included! go.bsky.app/Di74bDy

Why do insects fly around artificial lights? They don't actually want to fly towards them, they just can't really get away from them. Insects naturally tilt their dorsum towards a light source, and as a result end up flying around it in circles, trapped. 🧪 🦋 www.nature.com/articles/s41...