Pi the humpback spending her sixth winter with us here on Scilly - I flew the drone out to catch this video of her 800m offshore to the north of St Martin’s yesterday #whale #scilly

Red Deadnettle with Petty Spurge in Calverley Grounds #wildflowerhour

Two fresh flowers of Common Knapweed appeared earlier in the week in Calverley Grounds #wildflowerhour

A female Microterys tricoloricornis wasp of the Encyrtidae found in the garden bay tree for New Year's Day. #UKWildlife #wasps #Encyrtidae

In other Hymenoptera macro size comparison news: ~3/4" Sweat Bee so sweet and teeny... ...then there's the chalcid wasp following her... #inverts #becurious

My 12 days of Xmas in moths 10. Orange /Light Orange Underwing. Since 2021, a pilgrimage is made to Balls Wood VC20 (aspen/silver birch rich) hoping to get close up to one of each species. On 24/03/25 I photographed a co-operative Orange. On 03/04/25 with a friend we found Light Orange #teammoth

The Oxford Book of Flowerless Plants (1966) covered land, freshwater & marine species including fungi, lichens, mosses, liverworts, ferns and seaweeds.

The Oxford Book of Vertebrates (1972) covered all groups in the British fauna apart from birds, which had their own separate volume in the series.

There was also an Oxford Book of Vertebrates & an Oxford Book of Flowerless Plants, along with volumes on Birds, Wild Flowers, Garden Flowers, and Food Plants.

Two Arocatus longiceps/roeselii bugs found under the loose bark of a half dead Alder tree on New Years Day in Norwich.

The deep-sea jelleyfish Periphylla - featured in those last two reposts - as shown in Alister Hardy's The Open Sea - the World of Plankton 1956 (left, fig.4) and F S Russell's Medusae of the British Isles 1970 (right, fig.5)

Periphylla on descent. Target depth for the dive today is 2550m. @Schmidt Ocean 🌊 dive 887 #argentiniandeepseeps #CONICET #MarineLife

Like a tiny heart beating in time, this deep-sea jellyfish — Periphylla — pulses through the Ocean’s midwater. ROV pilots filmed this luminescent beauty at 920m along Argentina’s continental shelf, off the coast of Buenos Aires #ArgentinianDeepSeeps Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

My last finds for 2025. A group of Firebugs Pyrrhocoris apterus on the trunk of a lime tree in SE Essex today.

Mazarine Blue used to be a resident of our region. For example being recorded in the Gog Magog hills near Cambridge. A site that is now the best in the region for Small Blue

Volumes like Woodland Life and Field & Meadow Life in the 1960s Blandford 'in Colour' series were - & are still - unusual among general insect/invertebrate guides in featuring larvae other than butterfly/moth caterpillars, plus galls & leaf-mines

The original 1960s covers of three of these volumes

Lastly other notable species in Bengeo garden in 2025: Drepanepteryx phalaenoides, fantastic leaf mimic lacewing; Nothochrysa capitata, large scarce lacewing; Leopoldius calceatus, conopid that has recently colonised UK; Callicera aurata, magnificent scarce hoverfly. @ianbeavis.bsky.social

Not many places where you can cycle beside one of Britain’s rarest ferns! A colony of Forked Spleenwort grows on a low wall near Llanrwst and is doing well, with quite a few young plants. Nice little treat for the end of the year while burning off the mince pies! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Found my first y-larva (Facetotectan) yesterday- a mysterious and parasitic sister group to the barnacles. No-one has seen an adult and no-one yet knows their hosts… This is a naupilus stage and maybe a moulted exuvia #marineplankton

As the weather warms we’re starting to see more native solitary bees in our Perth Hills garden 🐝 Not always easy to photograph, but this Plasterer bee (Hylaeus ruficeps ssp kalamundae) was intent on cleaning so easier to snap a few pics #ausinverts #wildoz #bees #pollinators #inaturalist #nature

A pair of mature “elfin saddles” helvella lacunosa, looking surreal as always. #fungifriends #mushrooms

Interrupted Brome Bromus interruptus is a rare/extinct-in-the-wild English endemic. Perhaps it has a future as a garden plant - it looked lovely spreading through my cottage garden borders last summer

A quick Brown Hairstreak egg survey today at the recently colonised site at Bugs Bottom, Caversham. 10 found in total. Great to see a butterfly that is doing well!

Life history stages of Coleophora siccifolia - featured in that last repost - are at figure 3 at the bottom of this plate from H T Stainton's Natural History of the Tineina (1858)

Best of 2025:5. Coleophora siccifolia (Keeled Case-bearer) at Weeting, 13/06/2025 by James Symonds — post-Vic VC28 (case also found nr Foulden 30/08/2025 J. Swalwell) #teammoth #norfolkmoths norfolkmoths.co.uk/micros.php?b...

Yikes, a Boxing Day Speckled Wood in Boscombe. The 2025 season will certainly break some records with flight periods! www.dorsetbutterflies.com/2025/12/spec...

2025 was a quieter year for Odonata for me but the Vagrant Emperors at Carlton Marshes made for a good day out in Suffolk with a bonus Red-veined Darter - which I still haven’t seen in Kent. The weekend in southCumbria, north Lancashire & West Yorkshire provided bits including Black Darter.

Happy #InverteFest! I admire creatures with good camouflage because I would also like to disappear into the background from time to time 😂 #SciArt

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all my followers

Some marine crustaceans from the Oxford Book of Invertebrates (1971) #Crustmas

Tardigrade biscuits, as eaten yesterday at the Anglian Microscopy Group meeting, fit to celebrate an eight-legged solstice. #solstice #Yule #tardigrades

Working on some sketches for a Christmas card design. Just because I can. Snow Flea anyone?

Always love to find the gorgeous Zicrona caerulea (Blue Shieldbug) #Heteroptera #Shieldbug #Asopinae

With the enormous diversity of the #OrchidsOfRhodes, it's no wonder I regularly see all manner of interesting insects interacting with them, pollinating or roosting upon them. It's one of the joys of orchid-hunting - the sense of wonder and surprise at each find never diminishes.

More freshwater crustaceans from John Clegg's Pond & Stream Life of Europe (1963)

Ostracods and Water-fleas illustrated in John Clegg's Pond and Stream Life of Europe (1963) #Crustmas

#Crustmas you say? bromeliad ostracods (tree shrimp) are totally happy living forever in this little vial with some of the gunk from their bromeliad and a crumb of fish flake every so often. probably undescribed or introduced species

I see #Crustmas seems to be a thing, and people are sharing Ostracod photos!? I don't need an excuse to share photos of my Favourite crustacean! Or better yet, here's a video! #BugSky #invert #PondLife

Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all? This Tasmanian Brown Lacewing (Micromus tasmaniae) was beautifully reflected in a window. Seen in our Perth Hills garden in mid-December. Common around large parts of Australia #ausinverts #wildoz #Neuroptera #lacewing #inaturalist #bugsky

In late July 2025 I received word from a friend of his discovery of Field Eryngo Eryngium campestre on the edge of Winchester, Hampshire. Probably arrived via a car tyre with continental origins, but fab nonetheless. Formerly more widespread but now a true national rarity. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Petty Spurge in Calverley Grounds #wildflowerhour

A miniature version of Smooth Sow-thistle growing with Shepherd's Purse in a planter in Calverley Road, TW #wildflowerhour

A great diversity of invertebrates from the garden today, using a beating tray on ivy and a mixed hedge: bugs, beetles, a fly pretending to be a beetle, moths, springtails, spiders, woodlice and more - so much life! #ento

As ever, I've taken loads of Micro-moth photos this year and have been looking to see which one I think comes out on top. I don't think there is any contest, it has to be this, the most superb Carcina quercana I've ever seen. An array of pink, yellow and black with some bonkers antennae. Stunning.

Charcoal Goldeneye, Anthracobia macrocystis. A small fungus growing in swarms on a bonfire site at Bunwell church, Norfolk. Seen on yesterday's bike ride. ascomycete.org/2000-Pezizal... #Fungi #FungiFriends

A scarce species in Kent, but with scattered records over the last couple of years. One to look out for next summer. #KentNature

More planktonic crustaceans from Alister Hardy's The Open Sea - the World of Plankton (1956), with illustrations reproduced from watercolours by the author #Crustmas

Acanthinula aculeata, Prickly Snail, from Colstey Wood in the Shropshire hills with the wildlife group as well as the pseudoscorpion Chthonius ischnocheles. Upland conifer wood with broadleaves and wet areas. Crossbills too but no Willow Tit this time. #ukwildlife #molluscalert #pseudscorner etc

In the UK too, often on bare upland peat hags so threatened by insensitive peatland restoration.