Make sure you click and expand this great photo to see the #soldierfly in its full glory 🤩 @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

🪰 We’re celebrating the UK’s flies! Flies don’t always get the appreciation they deserve. They play hugely important roles in our ecosystems, but they’re also amazing in their own right. They can be beautiful, colourful and wonderfully weird.

A fabulous soldierfly, increasingly commonly found these days, even around garden ponds

I think 'small dog' has the best idea, one of several cool dens.

Final morning of #BIOCOREFlies26 and it’s the Calyptrates with Thomas Pape Lots of fun looking for lumps, bumps and curving veins. #InsectWeek @dipterists.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

The BTO cuckoo tracking project visualises just one of the ways we are connected to the Congo Basin from Ireland. (There is one in a neighboring field this week for me in Laois ❤️) www.bto.org/get-involved... So many moving parts to the web of life and we are definitely not outside of this web.

I will be at Longmarsh, Totnes, Devon TQ9 5UH with Georgi Gilpin looking at moths and caterpillars this Sunday 21 June 2026 at 9.30 am. Free event with art materials available for producing your own 'moth art'.

Wondering what to do when the nights draw in? How about learning how to survey for flies? Dipterists Forum members get a discount - maggoty goodness right there @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @biologicalrecording.co.uk @dipterists.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/surveying-...

Well this sounds good - learn about the BEST insects furing #InsectWeek @dipteristsforum.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fly-resear...

Had a busy summer and collected a lot of flies. Well here is the perfect course providing all sorts of information about how to manage your dipteran specimens @dipteristsforum.bsky.social get a discount :) @dipterists.bsky.social @biologicalrecording.co.uk www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/managing-d...

Fast, fierce aerial predators; can you spot them? 🪰 Join @kitenet.bsky.social for this talk exploring UK Robberflies species; from dune specialists to the giant Hornet Robberfly 🌎 🧪 📅 Thu 8 Oct 2026 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1976908981... @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social

We also found the scarce ant-mimic jumping spider Synageles venator and the beautiful Bee Beetle.

🌿🕷️ A record turnout for today's Fenland Wonders walk at Pant-y-Sais Fen! The sun finally appeared and so did some incredible wildlife. Highlights included large numbers of the rare reed beetle Plateumaris bracata — we recorded more individuals today than have ever been recorded in Wales before! 🤯

Dipterist Forum are running a new series of online training courses with those nice people @biologicalrecording.co.uk We're kicking off with 'Surveying for Flies' ideal for beginners or if you want to tighten up your field craft skills. More information in the link: dipterists.org.uk/events/surve...

Bath friends, we need one more of you coming to this ecology tour of Warleigh Nature Reserve tomorrow. Go on. It’s fun and I’ll turn up for a cameo between bashing balsam. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ecology-to...

Please take a look and consider supporting. We need another one staring being an MP is their sole job for their time in parliament. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...

When your terrier watches @bbcspringwatch.bsky.social Polecats are fascinating, as are Storks, Buzzards, Badgers......... 🙂

New paper published from Tenerife bdj.pensoft.net/article/1818... not an author but very happy to have helped with Diptera Identification for the project. Increasing numbers of invertebrates of different Orders being discovered around Mt Teide. #diptera #Tenerife #Teide @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

New paper published from Tenerife bdj.pensoft.net/article/1818... not an author but very happy to have helped with Diptera Identification for the project. Increasing numbers of invertebrates of different Orders being discovered around Mt Teide. #diptera #Tenerife #Teide @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Xanthogramma stackelbergi ♂ today in Bengeo garden, striking woodland hoverfly recorded far less frequently than common X.pedissequum. Photos show major ID features: little darkening on wings below pterostigma, 4 yellow spots on side of thorax & yellow membrane below T3-5. @flygirlnhm.bsky.social

🐝 Want to survey pollinators with confidence? Join the self‑paced Surveying for Pollinators course with Pollinator Specialist @jeffollerton.bsky.social. Learn techniques & study design for effective monitoring, for ONLY £12.50. 📌 Enrol: courses.biologicalrecording.co.uk/courses/surv...

Nanananananananana - Bat Fly! Myanthropa florea - the 'batman' hoverfly Thanks for the image @davebriceflies.bsky.social

Times Obituary for Peter Chandler today, written by close friend, Dr Ian F.G. McLean. Dr McLean said: "I am so pleased that Peter should receive this accolade, he was very helpful to many Dipterists and always disarmingly modest about his outstanding contributions to the study of flies".

Peak season now for male Long-horned Bees Eucera longicornis around Prawle, Devon. A Misumena vatia flower crab spider was eyeing one up but didn't catch the bee.

I have an orgy of Odonata over my pond at the moment Dig a pond, fill and watch live explode in front of you

Two of @friendlyevalley.bsky.social Wednesday volunteers recently enjoyed a first try at Austrian Scything & sweep-netting the fen to check on our wetland #inverts. We are also again monitoring larvae of soldierflies using grapefruit skin bait-traps. Stratiomys sp here @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Calling all entomologists! 29th May - Westminster Council's 1st ever Bioblitz at Paddington Recreation Ground. Meet at the 'Star'. More info in link below: dipterists.org.uk/events/first...

Lesser Housefly Fannia canicularis. Not a common sight these days. I rarely find them when sweep netting. This is a single male swept from riverside grassland at The Isle, Bicton this week. In the 70's these were super abundant in many places!

For anyone wanting to improve their search and ID skills for these tiny, rarely seen but often present arachnids, this FREE new guide from @vannabartlett.bsky.social via @norfolknats.bsky.social is a must have... #pseudoscorpions #falsescorpions #arachnids

If you are interested in learning to identify the UKs ground beetles there are free guides to download on my website johnwalters.co.uk/publications...

Superbly camouflaged on an oak twig the Humped Orb Weaver Gibbaranea gibbosa, Dartmoor, Devon

Some insects from today's @bucksinvertgroup.bsky.social meeting, photographed using a floating frame as suggested by @ajcann.bsky.social and others, see Alan's blog ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2025/05/floa... Works really well for getting ID photos of small insects, which can then be released

Dipterist Forum Summer Field Trip is coming up fast! More bursaries to help with costs are now available. Details on the where, how's and what's here: dipterists.org.uk/events/dipte... An excellent opportunity to immerse yourself in all things Diptera, learn fieldcraft and work with the experts!

The Checklist of the Beetles of Belgium (edited by Arno Thomaes and others), in which I wrote a small chapter on Leiodidae, received the Adolphe Crèvecoeur Prize from the Royal Belgian Society of Entomology www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/prix-adol... (the checklist can be downloaded from that page as well.)

Insect Day - A Story of 24 Hours & 24 Hexapod Lives - written by me & Illustrated by Natalie McIntyre Each chapter introduces 1 insect during 1 hour, highlighting how 24 different species spend their time Due out in Oct 2026 but available now to pre-order press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

#doli's #dolichopodidae look at the antenna on that baby! Thank you Epping Forest, a lovely fly from a bog in the Beech trees @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social #dipteristforumSpringFieldTrip #diptera

And we're off! Dipterist Forum Spring Field Trip. First stop today, Epping Forest. #diptera #fieldcraft #surveys thanks for access @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social and @nationaltrust.org.uk . Tomorrow is '#saltmarsh' Sunday with trips to Tollesbury Wick, Abbotts Hall and Malden.

Highlight of a pleasant afternoon rockpooling at Wembury, Devon a Sea Lemon Archidoris pseudoargus - a slow moving creature so a bit of time lapse at the end.

Need more fly stuff in your life? Great, we now have an Instagram page too - drop over and say hello! www.instagram.com/p/DX4OiZdDNcI/ A beautiful Empis femorata, smothered in pollen for attention #fliesarepollinatorstoo @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @davebriceflies.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social

Very sad news regarding the passing of Peter Chandler. dipterists.org.uk/news/announc...

Sadly the folks at @lstmnews.bsky.social wouldn’t let me have this! A stunning collection of insect vector species in resin - featuring many different parts of the life cycle including a copulating couple of Tsetse This historic teaching resource is gorgeous

Unidentified Machimus from Tenerife, Mt Teide. Stunning looking fly even if no-one knows a species as yet. #worldrobberflyday

GO BIG, GO BOLD Its #WorldRobberflyDay - a celebration of the most attractive predators on this planet (no bias) Here is the aptly named Heligmonevra forcipata (Meijere, 1916) - an impressive terminalia club with formidable 'pincers' Mostly an Oriental & afrotropical genus (69 spp)

A great day learning more on Phorid ID with Mark Welch, another layer to add to my knowledge base. Adds more depth to survey results too. Megaselia wigtownensis for show. www.dipteraid.co.uk Sub-contract ID services still available for 2026 @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

A great day learning more on Phorid ID with Mark Welch, another layer to add to my knowledge base. Adds more depth to survey results too. Megaselia wigtownensis for show. www.dipteraid.co.uk Sub-contract ID services still available for 2026 @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

The flies are almost upon us!!! #FlyWeek

Lots of displaying male Green Longhorn Moths Adela reaumurella at Hembury Woods, Buckfast, Devon this afternoon. Thanks @2turrell.bsky.social

I lost 400 followers since last night? I bet they hated solar panels. 🤣 Get me some more followers. I can’t crowdfund climate action and ecosystem restoration shouting into the void.

None of the ~1,000 saplings we planted have guards because we’re out of budget for anything other than volunteer tea and coffee. The biscuits are OLD. Get this crowdfunder to £9,000 and I’ll go buy the fanciest non-plastic guards and get them rabbit proof asap. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/warleigh-n...