🐝 World Bee Day is here! We are sharing the very first Butterfly newsletter: butterfly-europe.eu/news/newslet... Stories from Living Labs, AI for pollinators, soil-dependent pollinators, a message from a solitary bee, and more. We invite you to read, share and join us on the Butterfly journey🐛🦋

🎉 Tomorrow, CETAF kicks off #TaxonomyRecognitionDay at the 8th Knowledge of Chamber! We'll be at the House of European History & Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences talking about taxonomy & @tettris.eu Join our #NameItToSaveIt campaign! 📸🌱 #TRD2026 #Biodiversity

🟡 🌿 Wrapping up a busy week at #BioMonWeek2026 #CETAF contributed to discussions on biodiversity monitoring and highlighted TETTRIs-linked outcomes supporting taxonomic capacity building in Europe. Excited to see @tettris.eu featured in the new #CORDIS Results Pack 🔗 cetaf.org/cetaf-biomon...

🐝🌸 Celebrating World Bee Day with this beautiful interaction recorded during last Saturday’s Scientific Expedition to the Berlengas. The bee Anthophora mucida visiting the endemic plant Echium rosulatum subsp. davaei 🌿 Without pollinators, there is no life. #WorldBeeDay #Pollinators #FLOWerLab

BeeConnected SUDOE - day 3 of the May sampling in the city of Coimbra!

Panurgus taking a nap at Drosophyllum lusitanicum! Until someone wakes them up.... Buzz....

BeeConnected SUDOE - início da amostragem de maio em jeito de homenagem do centenário do Sir David Attenborough! Muitos Parabéns Grande Mestre! BeeConnected SUDOE - start of the May sampling as a tribute to the centenary of Sir David Attenborough! Many Congratulations, Great Master!

📣 Estão abertas as inscrições para a V Reunião Anual da polli.NET 🐝 🗓️ 25 junho 2026 💻 Online O formulário permite também submeter propostas de apresentações sobre projetos e iniciativas na área dos polinizadores e da polinização. 👉 forms.gle/NsFKHcphY7fA... Contamos convosco 🌼

World Bee Day is coming! 🐝 But 20 May is also a day for all pollinators, including flies. True flies (dipterans) are essential pollinators! 🪰 Read the paper about dipterans: doi.org/10.1111/eea.... Learn more about World Bee Day: www.fao.org/world-bee-da... #WorldBeeDay #Diptera

Listen to the slow-motion buzz of this Red-tailed bumblebee enjoying a dandelion buffet 🌼🐝 Many plants considered as “weeds” are great sources of food for bumblebees. By letting these plants grow this #NoMoMay – and, if you can, beyond – you’ll be making a big difference for bumblebees ❤️

🐝🪰🦋 Guardem a data! A V Reunião Anual da rede polli.NET terá lugar online a 25 de junho de 2026. A manhã será dedicada ao projeto PolinizAÇÃO e tarde para projetos e iniciativas dos membros. Inscrições e submissão de resumos em breve.

Yummm! These seven flowering herbs are loved by bumblebees🌿🐝 🍽️ Add heaps of flavour to your meals. 🪴 Great for containers and small spaces. 👌 One of the easiest things you can grow. 💛 An absolute favourite of many bumblebees! Discover our best bumblebee-friendly herbs: https://ow.ly/uesg50YLbHi

🐝 Pollinator Spotlight: Today we’re talking about the genus Xylocopa! Did you know there are over 9 species found across Europe? Swipe to learn more about this fascinating genus! What is your favourite species of Xylocopa? Tell us in the comments! 👇 #Pollinatoracademy #PollinatorSpotlight #Xylocopa

El mismo sírfido ya con la cámara. Diría que esta belleza es una Eupeodes.

Blueberry Buzzzzzzz!

🫐🌼 Operation Violet Beauregarde is underway! At Viseu’s Agricultural Station, we’re testing how pollination affects blueberry yield and fruit quality, comparing open, cross and self-pollination. A hands-on experiment led by Helena Castro during Cleyton Tenório’s research stay in Portugal 🐝

🐝🌍 Portugal’s Pollinator Action Plan is now featured in @apimondia.bsky.social. This is an important step not only for wild pollinators, but also because the Plan includes concrete actions to safeguard the honey bee and support the beekeeping sector in Portugal. 🔗 apimondia.org/uncategorize...

Tres machos de Eucera rufa (Apidae) no entienden qué pasa: la hembra que buscan copular está paralizada por una Danacosa merlini (Lycosidae). Cuando intenta llevársela, reaccionan y se enfrentan a ella. Naturaleza pura: instinto, confusión y lucha. Laguna del Ojillo (EBD) 🕷️vs🐝 @ebdonana.bsky.social

Plano de acção para reverter declínio dos polinizadores foi aprovado com verba para dois anos. Zero aplaude documento, mas lamenta falta de “músculo” político e financeiro.

🐝🪰🦋 O Polinizadores em Ação: Plano para a Conservação e Sustentabilidade dos Polinizadores foi alvo de destaque no @publico.pt, com declarações de Helena Ceia, do ICNF, Sílvia Castro, coordenadora da polli.NET e do PolinizAÇÃO, e Paulo Lucas da ZERO. Leiam abaixo! www.publico.pt/2026/04/12/a...

De esta pequeña visitante de las coles de al lado estoy más seguro de que es Lasioglossum.

One month of sampling completed in the urban area Coimbra for BeeConnected SUDOE 🌿🐝 We surveyed pollinator diversity, floral resources and nesting resources across 16 urban green spaces. Now it is time to process samples and analyse the first data. We return in May for the second sampling month.

João Loureiro (@jloureiro13.bsky.social), co-PI of the FLOWer Lab, spoke with Wilder about the approval of Portugal’s Action Plan for Pollinator Conservation and Sustainability 🌼 Find out more at the link below. wilder.pt/historias/po...

Já estão disponíveis na página WEB do ICNF as versões finais, ilustradas, do Polinizadores em Ação e do respetivo resumo para stakeholders 🐝🌼 Consulta aqui: www.icnf.pt/noticias/con... Obrigado a tod@s @s envolvidos, com destaque para a equipa PolinizAÇÃO e para a designer Maria Carlos Oliveira 🙌

Um marco para a conservação dos polinizadores em Portugal 🐝🌼 O Polinizadores em Ação foi oficialmente aprovado e publicado hoje (Despacho n.º 4214/2026). Um esforço coletivo da polli.NET e de muitos parceiros no território. 🧾 diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/d...

First flowers are now blooming in the restored beds at Pátio das Químicas, University of Coimbra 🌸 The first pollinators are here too, including a male and a female Anthophora plumipes, and we are now starting pollinator monitoring with the FITCount citizen science app 🐝

Los mirones de las abejas en los canteros de la Universidad! Também tu podes ser um mirone de las abejas! Instala o FITCount e vem espiar as abelhas e outros polinizadores connosco!

Meet the expert… Hugo Gaspar 🐝 Read more about Hugo in this post! Do you have any questions for him? Let us know the comments 👇🏻👇🏾 #PollinatorAcademy #Meettheexpert #Pollinators #Bees #Taxonomy

An unrequited love story between an Andrena bee and Ophrys fusca 💔🌸 A classic case of sexual deception, where the orchid mimics female cues to attract pollinators, not always successfully.

🍎Did you Know? Apples depend on honeybees, wildbees and bumblebees for pollination🍏

𝗔 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝘁 Join a session to know more, to contribute to finalising this first version of a citizen science competency framework. 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

First nocturnal moth sampling at the Station of the Botanical Garden of the Universidade de Coimbra 🌙🦋 A total of 9 individuals recorded, belonging to 6 different species.

🌍 Join us for #InsectHour! Our free online talk series is open to everyone, everywhere, making #InsectScience accessible across the globe. Join leading researchers as they explore the fascinating questions shaping our understanding of insects today. More to be announced 🔽

A new Assets page is available at our website! It features our pollinator entomological collection, with about 25,000 insect specimens, including ~20,000 bees and ~1,000 hoverflies, as well as the flow cytometer used to estimate genome size and ploidy in plants. ucpages.uc.pt/flowerlab/as...

🎙️🐝 Hugo Gaspar from FLOWer Lab joined the podcast Palavra de Cientista to discuss the 2nd IUCN European Bee Red List. The assessment covered 1,928 species and found 171 threatened with extinction, while reducing Data Deficient species from 57% to 14% since 2014. 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/2SWr...

🦋 First butterfly transect of the FLOWer Lab! As part of the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, a citizen science initiative coordinated by TAGIS, we surveyed our site in Souselas. Despite marginal weather conditions, we recorded Gonopteryx sp., Pieris rapae and Callophrys rubi. A promising start! 🌿

Last Thursday, Biology students from @ucoimbra.bsky.social visited the Entomological Collection of the Department of Life Sciences (CE-DCV). The visit was part of the course Natural History Collections, and was hosted by Hugo Gaspar. CE-DCV houses ~25,000 insect specimens, including ~20,000 bees 🐝

🌍🐝 World Wildlife Day Plant–pollinator interactions are at the heart of biodiversity. Every flower visit sustains ecological networks that support wild plants, crops and ecosystem functioning 🌸🦋 Conserving wildlife means conserving these connections.

News in PT: www.uc.pt/fctuc/notici...

Hugo Gaspar (FLOWer Lab, UC) contributed to the new IUCN European Red List of Bees 🐝 10% of Europe’s wild bees are threatened. The report highlights the need for national Red Lists – Portugal still lacks one. Report: op.europa.eu/en/publicati... A2P report: op.europa.eu/en/publicati...

Today, plants take the spotlight 👑🌿 We’re sharing some of the winter diversity we found in Coimbra and Souselas, a reminder that even in the colder months, botanical richness quietly persists across the landscape.

Today we’re sharing a wonderful interaction between a hoverfly (Eristalis sp.) and a gorse shrub (Ulex sp.) 🌼 Hoverflies are key generalist pollinators, and observations like this highlight their role in Mediterranean shrubland plant–pollinator networks.

Meet the expert… Juan Pablo Cancela 🦋 Read more about Juan Pablo in this post! Do you have any questions for him? Let us know the comments 👇🏻👇🏾 #PollinatorAcademy #Meettheexpert #Pollinators #Butterfly #Taxonomy

Huge milestone for #pollinators! 🐝🪰 Members of FLOWer Lab contributed to a new paper in Scientific Data led by the University of Mons. The study compiles 5.3M+ records of European bees & hoverflies, covering 97% of species! Vital data for pollinator conservation. 🌍📉 Infographic made with NotebookLM

A fungus gnat (cf. Sciaridae) visiting Euphorbia characias (Mediterranean spurge) in Coimbra, Portugal

Interaction recorded in Mata de Santa Catarina, Coimbra, PT: a fungus gnat (cf. Sciaridae) visiting Euphorbia characias (Mediterranean spurge). Observations like this contribute to documenting underexplored Diptera–Euphorbia interactions. Apologies for the brief focus instability in the video.

Yesterday in the Mata de Santa Catarina, an Eristalis hoverfly during its daily grooming routine 🪰 A small but meticulous ritual, cleaning wings and antennae, keeping flight performance at its best. Even brief sunny intervals matter.

Coimbra hosted the BeeConnected SUDOE participatory workshop 🐝 Stakeholders worked in groups to identify threats to pollinators, prioritize actions and co-create solutions for urban biodiversity. Thank you to all participants for your engagement and valuable contributions. 🌼 #BeeConnectedSUDOE