Here are four lifeforms I photographed at a wetland in Wales yesterday

I photographed my first Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria) of the year yesterday in Hyde Park 🪺

a female Hairy-footed Flower Bee visiting Oxfordshire’s county flower - the Snake’s Head Fritillary 🐍

a little Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) for this species to breed in your garden, you will need to provide Holly or Ivy 🍃 (We have Ivy - its flowers attract many other visitors too.)

This is what my camera roll looks like after spending my lunch break in the garden 🌿

Today my garden was visited by a Blue Mason Bee / Osmia caerulescens 🫶

Andrena minutula - Miniature Mining Bee Absolutely covered in celandine pollen 🌼 📍 Port Meadow, Oxford

Of course, bees are not the only pollinators you may find among the blackthorn flowers. I also captured this pair of Scathophagid flies having a romantic moment 💕

Lots of pollinators out on the blackthorn today! Mostly too high up for me and my camera but I did manage to capture a few portraits including this Mining Bee & Sweat Bee 📸 I’m thinking these are Andrena fulva & Lasioglossum calceatum but second opinions are welcome 👀

Look at this beauty! Tawny Mining Bee / Andrena fulva I photographed her over the weekend in a small village green on the edge of Oxford. Last year we had quite a few of them nesting in our garden lawn🪴

One of the rarest insects that I have photographed was this beautiful fly in Papua New Guinea. 🪰 I’m the only person to have ever recorded it on iNaturalist! It was scientifically described in 2022, when someone bought the rights to officially name it ‘the Bitcoin Fly’ 😐

Here are two especially beautiful spiders I photographed this weekend in Wytham Woods, Oxford 📸 A European Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) Eurasian Green Crab Spider (Diaea dorsata)

I had to get the big lens out for this one! First Peacock Butterfly I’ve seen this Spring 📸

Wildlife gardening tip! 🌱 Plants from the Boraginaceae family — Comfrey, Borage, Pulmonaria, Viper’s Bugloss — are favorites of bees & caterpillars (e.g. the Scarlet Tiger Moth). They very quickly replenish their nectar & flower from early spring to Autumn, feeding insects year-round. 🐝🐛

I spent yesterday in the sun, recruiting farmers & landowners for a research project and looking in on a pollinator workshop 🌼 The highlight was probably this Sharp-collared Furrow Bee (Lasioglossum malachurum); an obligately eusocial sweat bee of Southern England. This one was likely the queen 👑

I always say that it’s good to be in nature (surrounded by flowers and insects)… but to be in Nature (the scientific journal) is not bad either 😊

It’s me!

not to brag but this is my view when I work from home

in Wytham Woods today and I found this adorable Grey-patched Mining Bee / Andrena nitida resting on a celandine 🌼

I found these life forms under a log. Who is your favourite?

Look who I just saw in the garden! Bombylius major / Dark-edged Bee Fly

I have been looking a lot at Chalcid wasps recently- an amazingly diverse group of insects that may contain as many as 500,000 species. 🔬 They’re everywhere, but you may live your whole life without ever noticing them because they are so tiny. I think you would be missing out!

Look at this beautiful male Smooth Newt I saw today!

This summer, why not create habitat for caterpillars in your garden? Ours is now full of Scarlet Tiger moth caterpillars! 🐛 We encourage them & many other species by maintaining their host plants - bramble, comfrey, nettle, blackthorn, etc. alongside our ornamental plants & veg.

Secondhand bookshop treasure: published in 1895!

Today’s insect highlight is this hyperparasitoid wasp: It parasitises other parasitoid wasps which parasitise aphids! If my ID is correct, it is from the subfamily Charipinae. #natureisamazing

Last week I made an appearance on the children’s science discovery channel ‘Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants’ where I gave an introduction to the wonderful world of social insects 🐜 🐝 Thanks so much for having me! @ebtsoyp.bsky.social 🌎

I'm very happy to share that a paper from my DPhil thesis has been selected as the Editor's Choice article in Evolution. 😊 You can read it here: lnkd.in/eCnAQfzT 🐜 @journal-evo.bsky.social #EvolutionaryBiology #SocialEvolution #Insects

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🦋