The work reports on abiotic factors influencing the parasite-host interactions of a microfungus & the invasive harlequin ladybird (#Harmonia axyridis). @michieldegroot.bsky.social @adriaenstim.bsky.social @dhaelewa.bsky.social @teamlaboul.bsky.social @inbo.be Photo credit: Trey Wardlaw (CC-BY-NC)

New paper! Featuring state-of-the-art technology!

@fundive-fungi.bsky.social is a Europe-wide project to better understand & protect fungi. Find, photograph & document fungi and join us to help reveal Europe's fungal diversity! Follow @fundive-fungi.bsky.social and check https://fun-dive.eu/en/get-involved/ for more information!

🍄Microfungi on insects🍄 Fungi in the genus Hesperomyces are associated exclusively with ladybirds, visible as yellowish-greenish elongated balloons. We aim to map them in Europe and describe #newspecies. Join the #FunDive campaign! #Biodiversa fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol...

The only known extinct species of the beetle subfamily Catopocerinae (Leiodidae), Archaeocerus uenoi Perreau, 2019, is redescribed. Learn more here: doi.org/10.3897/subt... #extinction #fossils #taxonomy ‪@dhaelewa.bsky.social @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social @michieldegroot.bsky.social

Gentse Feesten

We made a few terabytes of images, which were reconstructed to create 3D images over the past couple of years by Michel back in Paris, resulting in this paper! Doesn't it still look like he has the ~99 million year old wind blowing through his antennae?

Also, the synchrotron makes you look like the most sciency scientist ever. (Pictured: a guy who pretends he understands what all this machinery is for, exactly.)

The technique to create 3D image out of the microscopy is called micro-tomography, which was what we spent most our time doing. It is useful if you want to look at fragile fossil beetles trapped in amber! Michel Perreau, a French beetle and fossil expert, asked us to image them for him.

It's a massive complex with a big particle accelerator, which takes a long time to get around - many people had little mopeds or bikes. Particle accelerators produce extremely bright, focused, and tunable X-ray beams, which can be used to "see through" objects and reconstruct the details inside.

Back in 2022, @dhaelewa.bsky.social, Iva Njunjić (@taxonexpeditions.bsky.social), Warre van Caenegem and I went to the Synchrotron in Grenoble to image very small fossil beetles in very small pieces of amber. The resulting paper is now out! (With more to come) subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/1542...

Back in 2022, @dhaelewa.bsky.social, Iva Njunjić (@taxonexpeditions.bsky.social), Warre van Caenegem and I went to the Synchrotron in Grenoble to image very small fossil beetles in very small pieces of amber. The resulting paper is now out! (With more to come) subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/1542...

Leie at dusk

Practice pool

The great escape

Practice pool

The great escape

Two- and seven-spot ladybirds, cinnabar moth caterpillar (munching on poisonous ragwort to make itself inedible), and a funky long-necked small snakefly

Harlequin ladybird pupas *everywhere* at the moment, with some stray seven- and two-spots.

Mark Vellend has a new book, available for pre-order: "Everything Evolves: Why Evolution Explains More Than We Think, From Proteins to Politics". It looks interesting and VERY ambitious. Here's Mark's pitch for why you should read it: dynamicecology.wordp... 1/2

Very pretty horseshoe ladybirds in the malaise trap in the botanical garden. Look at their little horseshoe patterns! Small ladybirds are often hairy, as you can see. Their real size is around the size of a dot --> .

Thank you so much @ukladybirds.bsky.social, for joining us in České Budějovice🙏 These were such inspiring three days. Looking forward to write the perspective on priorities for fungal #citizenscience!

Our first #C4inV4 workshop on citizen science ended today! The last day was full of discussions on motivation factors and priorities for citizen science in mycology. So happy with the outcomes of the past three days! #TeamLaboul #VisegradFund

The first permanent slide at @teamlaboul.bsky.social at the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences was made! This likely is a #newspecies of Artgrorhynchus from Papua New Guinea.

Found some more again!

Ladybird lab at the Cryptic Fungi workshop going swimmingly! We were looking for Hesperomyces, a small fungus on ladybirds we caught yesterday. #VisegradFund #TeamLaboul

Ladybird lab at the Cryptic Fungi workshop going swimmingly! We were looking for Hesperomyces, a small fungus on ladybirds we caught yesterday. #VisegradFund #TeamLaboul

Touring in the insect laboratory of Prof. Dr. Oldřich Nedvěd at the University of South Bohemia. From left to right: my PhD student @michieldegroot.bsky.social, Olda, me, and @ukladybirds.bsky.social. #C4inV4 #TeamLaboul #VisegradFund

It is such a pleasure to be with you all - I am having a wonderful time immersed in the worlds of entomology and mycology (a perfect pair) during this fabulous workshop on cryptic fungi - thank you so much for inviting me @ukceh.bsky.social @exeter.ac.uk

Such an exquisite fungus - I find them fascinating and great learning more about them from you all - thank you

Now for talks by @dhaelewa.bsky.social, @ukladybirds.bsky.social and @robin-hutchinson.bsky.social on knowledge and knowledge gaps of citizen science and @pomscheme.bsky.social

A very successful ladybird gathering with the #VisegradFund citizen science workshop here in Ceske Budejovice - fridged for now, checking them for miceofungi tomorrow!

Our workshop on #citizenscience started today, supported by a #VisegradFund grant! First off, @michieldegroot.bsky.social is talking about next-level citizen science on Hesperomyces harmoniae, a microfungus parasitizing the invasive Harmonia axyridis, and our #Beetlehangers database.

Time to look for Marienkäfer (🐞) in Marienbad (🇨🇿)

Time to look for Marienkäfer (🐞) in Marienbad (🇨🇿)

Arrived in the ghost hotel 👻 Let's see if I get haunted

quadruples

Trying to make plants work on the balcony which finally is bearing fruit (flowers?)

We are inviting you for a public lecture by the wonderful Dr. Helen E. Roy, titled "Increasing Understanding of Biological Invasions Together". Supported by a Visegrad Fund grant. 📅19 May 2025, 19:00-20:00 📍České Budějovice, University of South Bohemia 🔗Registration: forms.gle/5kfREkMBpyjV...

Little ecosystem: a beetlehanger fungus on a harlequin ladybird eating an aphid that was eating a rose, all on the side of the river on a sunny day in Ghent (Hesperomyces harmonise, Harmonia axyridis, Macrophisum rosae, Rosa sp.)

As part of FunDive, a Europe-wide collaboration project targeting understudied fungi, we’re looking for more data on Hesperomyces, a parasite on ladybirds – and you can help! I made a video together with @inbo.bsky.social explaining everything you need to know. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXfh...

Little ecosystem: a beetlehanger fungus on a harlequin ladybird eating an aphid that was eating a rose, all on the side of the river on a sunny day in Ghent (Hesperomyces harmonise, Harmonia axyridis, Macrophisum rosae, Rosa sp.)

🍄 🧪🌍 #CitizenScienceMonth ends today, so I thought I'd share our review published last year in @consletters.bsky.social "The Power of Citizen Science to Advance Fungal Conservation" #citizenscience #conservationscience #conservation #ICYMI conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Sshh... make your nest quietly

Bluebells in bloom!

Bluebells in bloom!

Sshh... make your nest quietly