🌃 Night lights don’t just brighten the sky—they reshape earthworm communities and soil structure. Evidence shows that tailored management of artificial light at night, tuned to illuminance and spectrum can safeguard earthworm diversity and soil function 🪱 🌍 Read more: buff.ly/nu5sf87

🚨 Do you have a manuscript to submit? Please let us know by Nov 30.

The cover art is finished for my new book and I LOVE IT! This safari tour of the life in soil and what is means to us, is now available for pre-order as ebook, soft and hardcover in the UK and Commonwealth. Published in August next year (US date soon), I hope it'll entice everyone to love soil! 🧪🪱

Love soil? Great with communications? Join us as a communications representative - apply by 17 Nov!

We are happy to introduce the Soil Ecology SIG @britishecologicalsociety.org! Our aim is to connect soil ecology researchers across career stages, facilitating knowledge exchange and collaboration. Check out www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/plan... and feel free to get in touch!

It's week 3 of fatherhood, and today I was granted special dispensation from shopping, housework, nappies & feeding, to do some macrophotography! The highlight was this Oribatid mite (N. spinulosa) sporting long defensive spines, which I've nicknamed the Hellraiser mite! #SoilBiodiversity 🧪

Today, I had a lot of fun at my daugther's elementary school, where I talked about the importance of healthy soils and the beauty of soil organisms (which is easy if one has the fantastic photos of @frankashwood.bsky.social). Next generation of soil scientists is secured I hope 👨‍🔬👩‍🔬

🎉 EXCITING BABY NEWS 🎉 I'm delighted to announce that I'm now a dad 🥰 We had a beautiful baby girl last Friday, named Elowyn. Mum and baby all doing really well, despite lack of sleep. Instead of her photo (privacy), here's a cute baby springtail 😊 #Macrophotography #SoilBiodiversity #Parenthood

Pleased to be part of this important letter led by @cmarin.bsky.social @thegsbi.bsky.social, calling for greater global action to protect soil biodiversity! A timely publication also because today is #WorldEarthwormDay 🌍🪱

This tiny jumping spider refused to surrender its hard-earned meal when faced with a camera lens, impressive! I finally managed to get out with the camera, now I'm on parental leave. We're still waiting for the little one to grace us with her presence, it could be any day now! #Macrophotography 🧪

My (slightly late) offering for day ten of #invertober (common earthworm) 🪱 Did you know earthworms have a special lip-like first head segment called a prostomium (meaning 'before the mouth')? They use it to sense and manipulate food, and move through soil! #SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography 🧪

Day ten of #invertober Common Earthworm So cute, so cute! I have loved earthworms since I was a kid

#invertober day 10: common earth worm 🪱 (To be seen and adored) #art #collage #worm

A new special issue on soil & litter invertebrates is calling for submissions at NZ J Zool under this fabulous editorial team. See below for details!

Are you researching the conservation, ecology or taxonomy of soil & litter invertebrates? Submit your paper to this Special Issue of NZ Journal of Zoology, edited by me, @carlosbarreto.bsky.social & @barnesecodiv.bsky.social! More info: www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/nzjz-so... #SoilBiodiversity 🧪

📢 New publication out today in NZJE! Vegetation-environment relationships in the regenerating shrubland of Remus Hill, Cass, in the eastern South Island high country 🌱 Lead author: Sarah Wyse (University of Canterbury) @frankashwood.bsky.social newzealandecology.org/nzje/3613

I've been largely absent from social media lately, as I've got lot on at the moment... a draft book manuscript due in 2 weeks (Eeek!), and research work to complete before a brand new baby Ashwood arrives in 5 weeks (even more Eeek)! Time is rather scarce right now! 🧪 #SoilBiodiversity #Fatherhood

An alien creature traversing a distant world, or baby mite navigating the micro-fungi strewn surface of a decaying log? Arguably it's both! Take a closer look at the life beneath your feet, and you'll discover a whole new world of dazzling complexity. #SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography 🧪

They vary widely

These are the beautiful spore-producing structures of plasmodial slime molds. Which is your favourite colour? Originally considered Fungi, they are now classed as Ameobozoans - single celled organisms with thousands of nuclei... not animals or fungi but something else entirely! #SoilBiodiversity 🧪

This festival of waxy lumps is a baby biting midge, AKA a Forcipomyia larvae. Before they grow into bloodsuckers, they're surprisingly cute. My good friend @mesofauna.bsky.social has a whole webpage dedicated to them - so go check that out! www.chaosofdelight.org/forcipomyia #SoilBiodiversity 🧪

Send me records: I am excited to be taking on the role of national springtail recorder. I have huge shoes to fill, but I hope to continue the progress Peter Shaw made in understanding the taxonomy and biology of the UK's #springtails. www.brc.ac.uk/scheme/colle...

This coming Tuesday lunchtime! I’m looking forward to talking springtails, speciation, and cryptic diversity. Sign up! ⬇️

Yesterday we had earthworm cocoons, today I bring you springtail spermatophores! Springtails, like many soil invertebrates, reproduce by a male leaving these structures (sperm-rich fluid on a stalk), which the female will sniff out and collect to fertilise her eggs. Romantic! #SoilBiodiversity 🧪

Did someone bury a tiny lemon? Nope, this is an earthworm cocoon! After mating, both earthworms will produce small cocoons like this, each containing a fertilised egg. Inside, a baby earthworm will grow, before hatching out the end like a tiny pink noodle! #SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography 🧪

Predatory flatworms are found in damp habitats, such as under logs. They have eversible tube-like throats, which externally digest their prey alive! Here's one feeding on a land-hopper, a type of exclusively terrestrial shrimp found in the Southern Hemisphere. #SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography🧪

I'm currently writing a book chapter about deep soil life, and I'm fully entranced by the diversity and adaptability of soil microfauna. If you've got any amazing facts, which you think MUST be included - about things like bdelloids, nematodes, tardigrades etc., drop them in the comments below! 🧪

Like all arthropods, springtails need to shed their exoskeletons to grow - a process called 'ecdysis'. I recently got very lucky to find a giant springtail that had just moulted! I don't know if anyone's ever photographed this before! #SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography #Invertebrate 🧪📸

"On not being a naturalist - but being one anyway". A more personal blog post than usual, reflecting on how I both don't, and do, fit in among my colleagues who study ecology and evolution. scientistseessquirre...

I’m writing a popular science book about the incredible world of soil - lucky me! Writing flat-out at the moment, so I’ve not been active on socials. A change is as good as a rest, so I’ve taken a writing retreat to tackle the next chapter! I love Kaikōura, where the mountains fall into the sea 🧪

I bring you exciting news... I FOUND THE FIRST EVER GIANT SPRINGTAILS IN CHRISTCHURCH! The closest population before this were at Arthur's Pass, but now we can add the Port Hills to their distribution. Definitely my best observation from the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge. #SoilBiodiversity🧪

a few recent springtime mites: 1 - a little dark Galumnid passes behind a larger Euptyctima (both oribatids) 😘 2 - Penthaleid "earth mite" w/ a perfect crystal ball of fluid exuded from its dorsal anus 🤩 3 - hypersaturated Trombidiid red velvet mite ❤️ 4 - wonderfully wrinkled Bryobia spider mite 🧓

If you're an entomologist/soil invertebrate scientist, then it's likely your dream job advert just went live at Reading University in the UK! #Invertebrate 🧪 jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Excuse the radio silence from me lately, it's been a very intense University teaching semester. On the plus side, I've done LOADS of entomology lecturing, which has been great fun! Naturally, I've squeezed in some soil invert content, like this bizarre not-quite-an-insect Proturan! #Invertebrate 🧪

📢 🪱 Earthworms enthusiasts 😁 : The official website for the 13th Symposium on Earthworm Ecology is now live! ✨ 🪱 📅 SAVE THE DATE: August 23-28, 2026 in Wageningen, the Netherlands 🔗 Check it out and stay tuned for updates! event.wur.nl/isee13/home-2 📸Amazing pictures @frankashwood.bsky.social

m.youtube.com/watch?v=4mi2... To mark #IWD25 National Museums Scotland have produced this video of me and @ashwhiffin.bsky.social talking about insects, moths, recording and museums and the legacy of Alice Blanche Balfour (1850-1936). #MothsMatter @savebutterflies.bsky.social

This gorgeous creature is the prickly stick insect (Acanthoxyla prasina), one of New Zealand's 23 species of stick insect. Huge thanks to @morganemerien.bsky.social for pointing this out on a recent University of Canterbury field trip - it's great fun teaching entomology! #Invertebrate 🧪

We've all been there: You've been hunting a moth all morning, and when you finally land the killing blow, you overcompensate and savage it so violently, you get its wing scales all up in your eyes. Then a human comes along with a camera to immortalise your embarrassment. Typical! #Invertebrate 🧪

Now Bug of the Year is over, normal service can resume! Here's an incredibly feathery velvet mite (Chyzeriidae) from New Zealand. These active predators wander the forest floor, looking for springtails to ambush and drink dry using their piercing mouthparts! Beautiful but deadly. #Invertebrate 🧪

Introducing New Zealand's latest Bug of the Year- the magnificent Ngāokeoke / Velvet Worm! NZ has two genera: one lays eggs (Ooperipatellus, 1st photo) and another gives live birth (Peripatoides, 2nd). They also deposit sperm which burrow through their partner's skin, but that's another story! 🧪

Hello, internet! Things are bad for our trans & queer friends in the US, so I teamed up with bsky's nature artists to create this pack containing 80 wallpapers and growing. 1. Donate to one of the two orgs below 2. DM me your receipt 3. I'll give you a download link Valid til the end of the month

Podium finish for the Giant Springtail - thanks for all the support! Congratulations to the Velvet Worm for a well-deserved win. Having two soil inverts in the top three is great awareness raising for soil biodiversity! Nice to see my photos in the Guardian too: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

We're all on tenterhooks waiting for the results to be announced tomorrow for the NZ Bug of the Year competition! Here's a few of my favourite contenders. Now voting is over I'll admit I have been quietly rooting for the velvet worm too - they're amazing animals! Good luck #TeamGiantSpringtail!

Anybody out there working on pseudoscorpions? I'd love to write about them! 🧪

ONLY THREE HOURS LEFT TO VOTE! Anyone in the world can vote in the Bug of the Year contest - It's quick and easy! Please go vote for the Giant Springtail RIGHT NOW! bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20... If it wins, I'll get one as my first ever tattoo!! #Invertebrate #TeamGiantSpringtail 🧪

Only 24 hours left to vote for Giant Springtails to win Bug of the Year! If I haven't convinced you yet, perhaps this photo I took of one DEFENSIVELY BLEEDING will win you over. So metal. We need every vote we can get, so please vote now: bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20... #Invertebrate 🧪

Colouring contest results! There were so many amazing entries, but these two were so good I couldn't decide between them and made two categories 😅 Congratulations to Kora and Heidi for these epic giant springtails, I'll be in touch to arrange your prizes! bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20...

Only four days left in the Bug of the Year 2025 contest! If every single one of my followers on here votes RIGHT NOW, we'll DOUBLE the winner's votes last year. Let's make it happen - we can't lose to the velvet worm in the last leg! bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20... #Invertebrate 🧪

🚨BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!🚨 I know everything is a lot right now, but this is the LAST WEEK of Bug of the Year, and team velvet worm are hot on our heels! Please VOTE NOW to make Giant Springtails victorious! bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20... IF WE WIN, I WILL GET A GIANT SPRINGTAIL TATTOO!!

*DOOMSCROLLING CHECKPOINT* Stop. Breathe. Take your mind off the collapse of US Democracy. Here's some baby giant springtails, aren't they cute? They don't understand human politics, they just eat fungi and logs and go to sleep. That must be nice for them. Okay, off you go. #Invertebrate 🧪