"My writing, back when I read little, was bumbling in the dark hoping I’d touch something valuable by accident; a writer who doesn’t read now strikes me as absurd. How does a bee make honey without visiting the flowers?" !!!

"Barn owl color morphs hunt differently in moonlight" Learn more in Current Biology: www.cell.com/current-biol... Kim Schalcher, @pbecciu.bsky.social, @owlsforpeace.bsky.social & colleagues @currentbiology.bsky.social

Plant phenology tends to track with climate warming, but it could also be sensitive to biotic factors. This study shows that a single year of tree responses to intense insect herbivory can counteract a decade of environmentally driven shifts in spring phenology 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"The rise in the island’s invertebrates – beetles, weevils, bush cockroaches and other bugs – has come after a campaign seven years ago to rid the island of about 300,000 invasive rats and mice." #Environment #LordHoweIsland #Biodiversity #Invertebrates #Insects #Conservation

Study: “rewilding” with large mammals increases insect diversity, especially that of Orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers) and Hymenoptera (bees, wasps).

The animation chat has me thinking one telling thing - in the years since AI arrived, there's not been a ground-up indie phenomenon, like we saw with earlier tech (Flash, etc). It hasn't unlocked anyone's creativity. For all the anti-gatekeeping rhetroic, nothing anyone cares about has been born.

In a new Science study, researchers use data on food webs to show that African elephants have a keystone role in savanna ecosystems through their effects on dung beetles, an insect group with important ecological functions. 📄: https://scim.ag/42Ybev1 #SciencePerspective: https://scim.ag/435N4yC

New #OpenAccess research in #RESInsectConsDiv Against the odds: Nesting specialization and foraging ecology provide insights into climate change responses in a mountain #bee doi.org/10.1111/icad.70090 #Exoneura #Pollinators @manusaunders.bsky.social @wileyecology.bsky.social

NEW PREPRINT: You may recall Joshua trees started flowering fully four months early this year. Was that due to climate change? Well, @colincarlson.bsky.social and I called in Chris Callahan to formally test that hypothesis, and the answer is... it probably wasn't! doi.org/10.64898/202...

Interesting new tool to extract phylogenies from images (Tremble). It is crazy that this is still something we have to do. doi.org/10.1093/bioi...

How predictable is evolution? Replicated C. elegans experiments show environmental differences and population bottlenecks jointly shape the repeatability of adaptation doi.org/10.1093/evle... Image credit: Wikimedia

Some Pumpkinseeds for today's #SundayFishSketch 🐡

Caught #SundayFishSketch this week, yay. Titan triggerfish sketchbook studies 🎨🐡 #art #sketchbook #tradArt #fishArt #sciArt #wildlife #natureArt

If you’re in the NorthYork Moors over the next few weeks, the National Park Centre at Danby is running an exhibition called ‘Grubs Up!’, highlighting the importance of habitat for invertebrates. I have 3 paintings amongst lots of lovely art 🐡 #invertebrates www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/things-to-do...

"Science is not simply a sequence of tasks that can be optimized....The scientific system thrives on inefficiency: redundant efforts, failed attempts, and divergent paths. These are not costs to be eliminated but sources of discovery." Excellent essay! ⬇️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Swifts- now they really are back! My Swift 2026 blog continues at jonathanpomroy.wordpress.com

Out today in @royalsocietypublishing.org - we show that crab spiders (the ones you usually see ambushing pollinators on flowers 🕷️🌸) get worse at hunting if their eyes are covered!🫣 Sounds obvious? It's actually quite surprising, here's why... 👀 (1/8) royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

#WorldBeeDay 🐝🧪🐡

Are you a scientist if you simply test hypotheses spat out by a computer? Is hypothesis generation not foundational to the scientific endeavor?

Artificial intelligence is rapidly accelerating scientific output, but risks narrowing inquiry, weakening judgement and undermining how scientists are trained go.nature.com/3RiE5HN

Stumbled into some cool weevils this weekend #InverteFest #beetles #weevils

No seed size–number trade‐off in European beech: climate governs investment per seed Kondrat et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/ZBJNZH...

We have launched a new article type! Data Notes: a way to preserve & share biodiversity data: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Last chance to apply to be our Biological Data Manager! Visit www.bto.org/jobs to submit your application! 📆 Full time, Permanent 📝 £32,952 per annum 📍 HQ in Thetford, Norfolk (hybrid role) Deadline for applications: Sunday 17 May #Ornithology

The olfactory receptor SNIF-1 mediates foraging for leucine-enriched diets in <i>C. elegans</i>

This should be applied to proposals too.

Have you ever thought of all what animals can do when predation is not a big issue? In this review 👉 doi.org/10.1016/bs.a... @maribelrm.bsky.social @juancarvajalcastro.bsky.social and I show how aposematism can be viewed as an “umbrella trait” influencing multiple aspects of its bearers' lives🔴🟡⚫

Do you work with genetic resources collected elsewhere 🧬 ? Are you confident that you’re using them fairly and legally? New step-by-step guide to the Nagoya Protocol helps researchers navigate this complex framework. www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/p...

An old #SundayFishSketch for all the moms out there - thanks for taking care of your kids, even if it means holding them in your mouth for an extended period of time to protect them from being eaten by predators. A clearly universal experience for moms everywhere.

Tiger Barb #SundayFishSketch

💚 Für alle, die in letzter Zeit tote Finken gemeldet haben: Die Zählungen zeigen stabile Zahlen bei allen Finkenarten, der Buchfink legt sogar deutlich zu. Nicht ganz so entspannt ist die Lage bei den Spatzen. Dazu findet ihr mehr Infos in unserem Ticker: www.nabu.de/.../gefaehrd...

Quick lakeside sketches from a Saturday out and about #bodensee #sketchbook

🧬New from @lukeoconnor.bsky.social & Sella! 📄Principled measures and estimates of trait polygenicity

SSE is raising funds to support more students through our Graduate Research Excellence Grants program! These awards provide not only funds for impactful research but also a boost for students just starting their careers. Donate today and help us reach our goal! www.gofundme.com/f/support-st...

Out now in @ecol-evol.bsky.social. Vector use in sympatric #Caenorhabditis nematodes. We document associations between three Caen. species and their dispersal vectors, finally name C. sp. 8 -> C. apta, and infer that C. apta may have spread with the invasive #beetle, Stelidota geminata doi.org/q5tq

Peek! Like most of our native bees, bi-colored sweat bees live in ground burrows that are easy to miss but worth looking for

It’s the first time a frog—or any amphibian—has been observed pollinating a plant, researchers reported in 2023. Learn more during #AmphibianWeek: https://scim.ag/4u0oAmo

Out now in @ecol-evol.bsky.social. Vector use in sympatric #Caenorhabditis nematodes. We document associations between three Caen. species and their dispersal vectors, finally name C. sp. 8 -> C. apta, and infer that C. apta may have spread with the invasive #beetle, Stelidota geminata doi.org/q5tq

The fish lives in just one spot in Death Valley. Wildlife officials managed this iconic fish for decades, and last spring, just as the Trump administration was laying off scientists, the wild population of this fish plummeted to only 20. Officials then took an irrevocable step. n.pr/4wgtwoC

Botanical parasitism of an insect by a parasitic plant: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

#DavidLynch timeline cleanse: today's weather report flashback for May 6 #TwinPeaks youtu.be/nrgGaiSig7U?...

Ignite💥: 🪲Evaluating baselines for long-term ecological monitoring of biodiversity trends: insights from the US National Ecological Observatory Network carabid data 📷Isa Betancourt vist.ly/42wy6

When you arrive at El Septimo Paraiso, one of the first insects you'll find is a stunning blue mud cricket. They are very common in the forests around Septimo. Per iNat this family of insects is not well studied and many aspects of their biology are poorly know. (Ripipteryx sp.) Mindo, Ecuador

Mr & Ms Maevia (an undescribed species) from Big Bend National Park, one of the main reasons for our trip. They will have a proper name someday thanks to our efforts (which involved trying to collect these extremely skittish creatures in an extremely spiny setting, sotol plants) 🖤 #InverteFest 🧪

Isopod up close on the log kind of afternoon

Some inverts found during the @inaturalist.bsky.social Campus Nature Challenge at Uni Konstanz last weekend #InverteFest #beetles #butterflies #insects

The relationship between #rewilding and butterflies is nicely illustrated by @jeroen-helmer.bsky.social for @ark-rewildingnl.bsky.social . Free to download in multiple languages for educational purposes. winkel.ark.eu/sites/defaul...

New research by @adiethelm.bsky.social et al. in #RESEcolEnt reports on food plant–associated #predation risk & its impact on larval #development and adult #morphology in the #MonarchButterfly doi.org/10.1111/een.70094 #Danaus @sheborg.bsky.social @robwilsonmncn.bsky.social @callomac.bsky.social

I love it when parasites/parasitoids get funky and convoluted with their life cycles - as is the case with the parasitoid wasp genus Orasema which are parasitoid of ants 🐜🧪 hymenoptera.ucr.edu/sites/defaul...