My insect highlight of the day is this absolutely adorable 1mm long parasitic wasp

Happy Birthday to Charles Darwin! 🎉 Thank you for creating the field of evolutionary biology.

This week, I have mostly been thinking about flies 🪰

Good to know that Martin Nowak was keeping Jeffrey Epstein abreast of developments in our field www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

Strange discovery that an email about inclusive fitness was forwarded to Jeffrey Epstein, with the emailer quoting Jerusalem and comparing themself to Einstein. Are you one of the >100 evolutionary biologists now in the Epstein files? www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

I realised that wherever I go, whatever I’m doing, there’s a very high chance that I will find a giant mantis to hold 4 photos from 4 countries: Italy, Uganda, South Africa, PNG

My photos from a 2023 visit to Enga in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. I had the privilege of meeting many amazing and unusual people; some had walked for seven days through the forest just to reach their nearest road.

Very happy to share that I just published a new paper from my thesis! 🎉 We analysed 546 species of ant to understand how extreme specialisation into reproductive and non-reproductive roles evolved.  Key discoveries in thread🧵 👇 Full paper here: academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Now with convenient chapters for easy navigation through the topics, just in case anyone doesn’t have a full hour spare to listen to me and @statedclearly.bsky.social talking about social insects 🐜

Throwback to 2023 Papua New Guinea fieldwork: these are Dracula ants (Mystrium sp.) named for the unusual habit of feeding on the blood of their own children 🧛‍♂️ They’re also famous for snapping their jaws shut at lightning speed- currently the fastest known animal movement ever recorded.

I was interviewed about my research and my experience with the viral response to my DPhil viva! Video here 👇 youtu.be/v_46GqZDZCk?...

If you are a masters or early stage PhD student interested in evolutionary biology, consider applying for a place on Guarda Summer School. Based in the Swiss alps, this was one of the best experiences of my PhD! Application deadline: 20 Jan 2026 tb.ethz.ch/education/gu...

I was just interviewed about by work for a video podcast on Stated Casually! 🎉 While the episode is on its way, check out this great Stated Clearly animation on major evolutionary transitions and why you can think of yourself as nested levels of cooperating lifeforms 🧬👇 youtu.be/VUfNEHl44hc

Have a look through this gallery to see one of the coolest examples of role specialisation in the insect world 🐜 They live inside twigs with small circular entrances & these workers have evolved heads the perfect shape to block those entrances - effectively, they are living doors!

I’m very excited to be soon featuring on one of the best channels on YouTube! 🐜 🐝 If you like the sound of scientific concepts explained accessibly and engagingly, check out Stated Clearly and Stated Casually

I was interviewed by Newsweek about the backlash to my DPhil announcement. You can read it here: www.newsweek.com/gen-z-woman-...

Strong response to the pathetic trolling of Juliet. www.thepoke.com/2025/11/19/t...

Amazing to have so much attention brought to the wonderful topic of social insect evolution! 🐜 www.thepoke.com/2025/11/20/a...

POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success

I passed my viva! 🎊 I’m very happy to share that yesterday, after ~4 years of research, I successfully defended my DPhil thesis and will be awarded the title of doctor 😎 Thank you to my examiners, supervisors, and collaborators for all the advice and support given along the way.

Back at the microscope! Identifying & recording tiny insects (<2 mm), mostly aphids at the moment. Not quite as glamorous as my work on large pollinators but it’s part of our research on biodiversity & organic farming, so still very interesting🦋

Here‘s a #blog about pollinators & #biodiversity @juliet-turner.bsky.social

I recently saw this amazing ichneumon wasp - she is a parasitoid, so the long ovipositor allows her to reach insects hiding deep in the wood Even cooler, their ovipositors are apparently reinforced with metals! 📍 Oxford, UK

PLEASE READ! No more #BeeWashing. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

If you pass by an ivy plant any time soon, stop and take a closer look 🔍 If you are lucky, you might see an unusual autumnal pollinator - the lovely Ivy Cellophane Bee, Colletes hederae 🐝 Here are a few I saw today:

Curious how we're working with farmers to boost biodiversity in the countryside? 🌾🐝 I just wrote a blog post for @gwct.org.uk about my research on pollinators & wild plants in farmland this summer Read it here 🌱👇 www.gwct.org.uk/blogs/news/2... #conservation #ecology

I examined these bees as part of my identification & processing of bulk pan trap samples for Farmland Ecology, GWCT @gwct.org.uk

This is a Nomad Bee appreciation post! 🐝 They are “nomads” because they do not build their own homes, instead laying eggs in the nests of other bees where their larvae develop as kleptoparasites There are up to 39 species of nomad bee in the UK; here are two! Nomada flavopicta & Nomada fucata

I was very excited to find this Paper Wasp in the garden of the UK’s oldest cathedral Paper Wasps rarely seen in the UK, usually brought over accidentally with shipping and other international trade. The jury is still out on exactly which species this is! 📍 Canterbury

Today’s insect highlight is this spectacular Cuckoo Wasp (species ID pending!) This tiny wasp was among pan trap samples I have been photographing & identifying for a farmland biodiversity monitoring project with the GWCT 🔬

I’m really into solitary wasps recently, especially Crabronids like this adorable Ectemnius sp. (continuus?) I photographed the other day Would love some suggestions for UK/European solitary wasp identification guides!

I found something cool while conducting pollinator & botanical surveys in S England - a rare bumblebee! 🐝 On the right is Bombus humilis/ the Brown-banded Carder (easily confused with B. pascuorum) It’s the first time I’ve seen this species in the field. Always exciting to find new insects!

I just submitted my DPhil thesis! Title: The evolution of cooperation and division of labour in insects 🐜🐝 Now let’s hope it’s not just rejected immediately 🤞

Did you know there is probably at least one species of wasp for every other type of insect? I didn’t really believe it until I started looking. I have been seeing some incredible diversity! Here is a beautiful (2mm long!) Chalcidoid wasp I found

When I’m not roaming the countryside surveying plants & pollinators, I am in the lab identifying insects🔬 These were collected as part of biodiversity monitoring on farmland. I love fieldwork but I love this too: I never know what I will see in the next sample!

Want to learn to recognise some pollinators? Here are some butterfly species you should look out for this summer! 🦋

I’ve had a great week in my new role surveying pollinators and plants across English farms🌾 The heat is challenging but I’m seeing lots of amazing insects- here’s a selection of butterflies I managed to photograph so far (I’ve seen many others but they were too fast!) #Ecology

Excited to be starting the first field season of my new job. 🐝 Can’t wait to get out and start surveying some plants and pollinators! #Ecologist

In my new research position I am spending a lot of time developing my bee identification skills 🐝 At the end of a long day identifying dead bees I like to unwind by identifying some live bees, such as this - European Yellow Loosestrife Bee (Macropis europaea) 📍 Oxford

I was very happy to find two different species of carnivorous sundew today, and many of each! On the right: Drosera rotundifolia; on the left Drosera anglica. 📍 the Scottish Highlands

I have a new job! A research position in Farmland Ecology, GWCT 🐝🔬 I will be helping with insect identification & conducting pollinator surveys as part of long-term biodiversity monitoring in farmland. I will share my time between this & my research on insect social evolution at Oxford.

I have been teaching on the Oxford Biology undergraduate field course this week, and each morning begins with my moth class. Here are some of my personal faves from the week. Can anyone name all nine species? 📍 Devon, UK @biology.ox.ac.uk

After attending a talk on bee conservation by @davegoulson.bsky.social at @royentsoc.bsky.social I felt inspired to build some clay houses for solitary bees, specifically the Hairy-footed Flower Bees that often visit our garden. I will share updates if there is any nesting success!🐝

Huge thanks to @juliet-turner.bsky.social‬ and to all the brilliant speakers that took part in this year's Student Forum and shared their work. We've had some fantastic research shared this year at @UniofReading and are extremely excited to see even more #EarlyCareer #Entomology next year 🦋 #SF25

I just presented my PhD research as part of this year’s @royentsoc.bsky.social forum #SF25 🐜 Amazing to see Reading University’s campus alive with fritillaries and anemones. Today brought together some of my favourite things: science, insects, wildflowers, and free wine. What more could I want?

🎊 My first BlueSky Post! 🎊 We recently published in Nature E & E, using comparative phylogenetic techniques to study worker caste evolution across 794 species of ant 🐜 (Key words: ants, social insects, evolution, Bayesian statistics, ancestral state reconstruction) www.nature.com/articles/s41...