There was a huge amount of activity at one of my local nesting aggregations today. Andrena clarkella (pics 1 & 2) is one of the first mining bees to emerge each year. But look closely, and you might spot Nomada leucophthalma (pic 3), which is a brood parasite of A. clarkella.

Something new, big and never-before-seen is coming. Have you ever wanted to camp in a field with your family and spend a weekend learning about insects? Me too!!! Well, now you can... invertopia.ie Please share wide and far.

Argonemertes dendyi, a terrestrial proboscis worm from Australia, is now found across Europe. These worms capture and envenomate prey by ejecting a web-like structure from their mouths. Currently, it is in a stasis-like state, having built a cocoon to prevent drying out. Fascinating creatures! 🤯

Spring is here for sure... Some finds from today and yesterday. Andrena clarkella (Clark's Mining Bee) Bombus lucorum agg. (White-tailed Bumblebee) Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly It's time for you to go out and explore!

I've been working on building this app over the last month or so. If you're interested in biological recording, you might like it. It does cost (€4.99 a month), but just enough to cover the server costs. Works on mobile and desktop. Would love to hear what you think? bionexus.pro

I had a fantastic experience yesterday, as I was invited to DeafVillageIreland.ie to talk to the deaf community members about Irish bees. I've never felt so welcome nor witnessed so much interest in my talks. Special thanks to Caroline (who also invited me) and Aoife for signing my talk.

Serendipity allowed me to catch the exact moment a tiny (1.5mm) Chthonius ischnocheles pseudoscorpion caught and ate a bark louse (Psocoptera). For some reason, I assumed it would use its palps (pincers) more, but it didn't. It just chomped away with its chelicerae (jaws).

Meet Artioposthia exulans This flatworm specimen was sent to me to photograph and share it with you all. A non-native visitor to this island, it seems to be located primarily in the south-west and most likely arrived on horticultural goods, once again, highlighting the importance of biosecurity.

I was out surveying today, Blessington lakeside, and turned a stone only to find not one but two really scarce harvestmen (and you know I liove my harvestmen). The last time Mitostoma chrysomelas was recorded in the Republic of Ireland was way, way back in 1997. Isn't it a little stunner!!!?

Don't forget, tonight you can join me for a 90-minute chat about Ireland's Incredible Invertebrates. Grab your ticket here while you can: inverts-2025.eventbrite.ie There are so many things to talk about, 116 slides' worth of things to be exact! 🙂

Just one day before we settle down for a detailed yet accessible chat about Irish Bumblebees. There are still some places available if you'd like to get on board. Just follow the link to get your ticket... irish-bumblebees-2025.eventbrite.ie

Last chance to grab a ticket to this evening's webinar, The Weird & Wonderful World of Irish Wasps. I promise you some mind-blowing facts and anecdotes. irish-wasps-2025.eventbrite.ie

There's very little that matches the excitement of finding a pseudoscorpion for me. They are so few and far between that they always warrant a mini celebration. This stunning specimen is Chthonius ischnocheles (get your tongue around that!). Have you ever seen a pseudoscorpion? Let me know...

And the final webinar for the moment... this time it's Ireland's Incredible Invertebrates. This started out as a presentation to entomology students in Trinity. 🙂 Monday, September 15th @ 19:30 Grab your ticket here: inverts-2025.eventbrite.ie

Monday, 8th September, will see me hosting a webinar on Irish Bumblebees for Beginners, showcasing the most common 7 bumblebees plus a few extra to boot. Learn about their lifestyles as well as how to identify them. Get your ticket here: irish-bumblebees-2025.eventbrite.ie

The Weird & Wonderful World of Irish Wasps Come join me for this webinar, next Monday, 1st September. Tickets are Pay What You Can: irish-wasps-2025.eventbrite.ie

A really exciting find for me this weekend in my parents' front garden. Say hello to the Nosy Pill Woodlouse, Armadillidium nasatum. This is the first record of it in the wild in Ireland (i.e. outside of a garden centre). Keep an eye out for strange things; you never know what you'll find.

Every field surveyor's worst nightmare. This is an adult tick (Ixodes ricinus). Photo 1: Dormant Photo 2: It smelled my breath or felt the heat of my finger using special organs (Haller's Organ) on its forelegs and started to wake Photo 3: It tried to give me a hug 😬 Amazing creatures.

This is the tiniest little jumping spider I came across yesterday while surveying my parents' front garden. I know it's anthropomorphic, but jumping spiders always look a little worried to me. I want to help them, but I'm not quite sure how... 🙂

This is the business end of a Brown Hawker Dragonfly. If you are a flying invertebrate, you do not want to see this up close. Dragonflies are exceptional on-the-wing hunters with a success rate that is unmatched in the animal kingdom.

Last spider pic for a while, I promise... 👀 This beautiful Flower Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) was spotted hiding out on some Thistle flowers, waiting for an unsuspecting meal. We saw it eye up an Eristalis tenax (Drone Fly), but it opted out as the fly was quite large.

@collieennis.bsky.social and I went on a special adventure yesterday, including checking on a population of Cave Spiders (Meta menardi). Hunched over, walking down a smelly underground tunnel and trying desperately to avoid badger poo, I eventually got face-to-face with this stunning specimen.

Just look at this beautiful Trochosa species spider, found under a granite rock, lakeside in Valleymount, West Wicklow. These are bigger than your average wolf spider!

irish-harvestmen.eventbrite.ie Don't forget, this is tonight at 7:30pm... tickets (Pay What You Can) are still available for the next few hours.

Join me this Monday for a 90-minute online session about one of my favorite topics: Irish Harvestmen. By the end, you'll distinguish between Nemastoma, Oligolophus, Phalangium and more. Tickets are Pay What You Can, and if you need a free ticket, just let me know. irish-harvestmen.eventbrite.ie

This Saturday, I will be in Cork for an invertebrate walk at Fota House and Gardens organised by the Irish Bee Conservation Project. If it flies, walks, crawls, or slithers, I'll find it and tell you about it. I'm really looking forward to this. Some tickets still available at: bit.ly/fotabugs

If I sweep the grass in the meadow with a net, it is absolutely overrun with bugs, true bugs, as well as other things. This is, I believe, a Marsh Damsel Bug (Nabis limbatus). Females lay eggs in grass blades.

What's going on here, you 'mite' be asking yourself? (See what I did there?) This female Mitopus morio harvestman is suffering the attention of no less than nine parasitic mites. Each is sucking out her haemolymph for its own benefit.

It's rarely only moths we catch in the moth trap. Just yesterday we had a stonefly (Siphonoperla torrentium), a 10-spot ladybird, a Green Drake Mayfly, a Tipula species Cranefly, dozens of Caddisflies and thousands of midges!

Another beautiful moth taken from the light trap yesterday. This one is called a Barred Straw. These fly regularly at night from June to August, and the larvae feed on the Bedstraw family of wildflowers.

Not a ladybird I see very often, and noticeably smaller than the 7-spot ladybird it superficially resembles. This is the 11-spot ladybird (Coccinella undecimpunctata). Try saying that three times, fast! Like many other ladybirds, it feeds on aphids and is therefore beneficial to gardeners.

Another beautiful moth which camouflages itself as a small broken twig. Much smaller than the Buff Tip I shared with you last week, this Flame Moth turned up in the moth trap this morning. If you want an Order of insects that could absolutely absorb your entire life, you want moths. 🙂

Insects and invertebrates can be so hardy at times. I took this Riband Wave moth from my moth trap this morning, and you can see that its left hind wing is almost cut in two. Perhaps it had a run-in with a bat or bird and somehow managed to survive. It didn't appear to have any problems flying.

Thanks so much to Brian from @microwild.bsky.social for sharing his incredible knowledge about all things six and eight legged today at Santry Community Garden in conjunction with the Irish Bee Conservation Project. I think I’ll park the flatworms for now but I may have been bitten by d harvestmen!

There's nothing like a good exfoliation to make you feel better. Woodlice grow by shedding their exoskeleton and then increasing their size before the new exoskeleton hardens. They do this one body half at a time - front first and back later. They will often eat the skin to reabsorb the calcium.

Tipula maxima is the largest cranefly in Ireland, and when you see it in real life, you know why. It is so big, with a leg span of up to 10cm! It also has heavily patterned wings. The sharp bit at the end of the abdomen is just an ovipositor and not a sting. Have you seen these around lately?

One month from now, I'm hosting an Insect/Invertebrate Walk in Fethard, Wexford on Tuesday, 5th August and I'd love for you to join me... I've been holidaying here for years, so I'm familiar with the area and its wildlife, and it never disappoints. fethard-insect-walk.eventbrite.ie

I stuck my moth trap in @collieennis vegetable patch last night to see what we might find and it didn't disappoint. There's little as physically imposing as a Poplar Hawk Moth but we had some other beauties, too. Names in ALT text.

Buff-tip moths are evolutionary superstars in my book. Imagine evolving to look like a small, broken twig. Mind blown!!! These are very much out and about at the moment, but you're very unlikely to spot them resting during the day... and with good reason. Seen any lately?

Let me introduce you to this little rinky-dink, otherwise known as Rhynchodemus sylvaticus (it doesn't have a common name 🙁 ). At about 2cm long, it is, we think, a native terrestrial flatworm that feeds on dead slugs, woodlice, etc. What a beauty!

I wrote an article for @thejournal_ie recently about 'overly enthusiastic grass-cutting regimes,' which generated some online reaction. Newstalk asked me to jump on yesterday to elaborate, and this is the result... link.goloudplayer.com/s/pG5CHgDA0V7X

Can we all just take a moment to stare into those puppy-dog eyes... 😍 I think it's very important to see invertebrates up close so you can see that they are not 'out to get you' or 'creepy'. Instead, they are absolute wonders of evolution.

Many people don’t know that male deer flies don’t bite- only the females go after blood to support egg development. Many people also don’t know how amazingly cool their eyes are. 😎

One thing we were not short of at yesterday's Family Bug Safari was biting flies. Although, thankfully, my citronella kept them at bay for me. This fantastic specimen is a male Twin-lobed Deer Fly. Males don't bite, though; they feed on nectar, so I was safe with this one.

This is 100% the face and reaction you're looking for when you run a family event like today's Family Bug Safari. She will remember this for a long time... 😀

We had some amazing finds on our Family Bug Safari today; some of the more impressive ones are showcased here... 1. Poplar Hawk Moth 2. Buff Tip Moth 3. Brown Hawker 4. Anelasmocephalus cambridgei (Harvestman)

It was a pleasure to attend the Powerscourt Working with Nature Awards today, where microWild was shortlisted in the Biodiversity and Rewilding category. I met and chatted with some fantastic people, all of whom are passionately driving the same agenda: nature protection and nourishment.

Last chance to get tickets for our Family Bug Safari this Sunday. And if you want value, use the discount code FIFTY at checkout to get a ticket at half price!!! Join us for a fantastic day of learning about bugs in the beautiful Baltyboys Estate in Blessington. family-bug-safari.eventbrite.ie

Send me a DM with your kid's favourite bug and why, and I may just throw a free family ticket your way... family-bug-safari.eventbrite.ie

Use the discount code TWENTY to get 20% off the ticket price of the microWild Family Bug Safari on Sunday, June 29th. No better way to spend a family Sunday! There will be bugs. There will be fun. family-bug-safari.eventbrite.ie