"I'm here to talk about what others won’t. To tell the truth about what makes our country great and what makes it not so great. While others thrive on creating scapegoats, I am here to tell you a different story." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What very much appears to be European Spruce Sawfly Gilpinia hercyniae, tapped from a spruce at the weekend. Apparently the first Kent record. #KentNature #sawfly #sawflies #Symphyta

To transform the country and take on the populist right, Labour must heed the voices of its radical realists - and build a principled, practical, popular left alternative. Join @mainstreamlabour.bsky.social and together we can bring that alternative to life. www.mainstreamlabour.org/get-involved

It is cheering to see two new hopes for democracy in the UK. The new leader of the Green Party, @zackpolanski.bsky.social has set an agenda to improve democracy rather than dismantle it and Mainstream, a new alliance between centrists and the left in Labour. actionnetwork.org/forms/regist...

I revisited the Euura miliaris sawfly larva earlier today to find an ichneumon wasp working its way around them despite their efforts to defend themselves. Amazing how it holds its wings up to avoid being clobbered!

This presumed braconidae fooled me into thinking it was a sawfly for a moment. Two females feeding on pollen/nectar of Canadian Fleabane. Eyes not as good as they used to be. 🙄

Was a pleasure to be there when you found it. Only the second British record since 1970.

One of Britain's most formidable looking insects, a Tanner Beetle, sitting on the wall of a building at RSPB The Lodge today. #Cerambycidae

This parasitic wasp emerged yesterday from an overwintered Dolerus larva. IDed as probable Tryphon sp. by Max Parkhomenko on iNat.

It was a pleasure to introduce sawfly identification to workshop attendees @britentsoc.bsky.social yesterday alongside the immensely knowledgeable Andrew Halstead. Thanks to those who attended.

Interested in identifying sawflies? I'll be running an intro to sawflies workshop on the Cambridge/Beds border in June with Wildlifebcn www.wildlifebcn.org/events/2025-...

A reminder of the @norfolknats.bsky.social training workshop on sawflies I'm running on Sun 6th April. It's at Gressenhall (mid Norfolk). We still have a few places left so please get in touch ASAP if you'd like to attend. Will be focused on microscope-based ID to genus level (at least).

“The world has changed” says Chancellor on #bbclaurak. Yes it has - so why stick to outdated counterproductive austerity agenda & arbitrary fiscal rules? You can’t cut your way to growth. Taxes on extreme wealth of super rich would be fairer & more effective than more cuts @patmillsuk.bsky.social

Great op-ed by our CEO, Martin Lines, on the SFI closure. 👇

Dolerus madidus...a common early-spring sawfly associated with Juncus meadows and always one of the first sawflies to appear each year. East Yorkshire today. #sawflies #ento #yorkshiresawflies #ukwildlife #symphyta

Sawfly season kicks off with Dolerus anthracinus and Claremontia brevicornis...species of chalk grassland found on the Yorkshire Wolds today. Very few county records for either, as they fly so early in the year, before most folk are out looking in their habitat. #symphyta #ento #yorkshiresawflies

"Turnip sawflies use plant chemicals to shape their social lives! Discover how plant metabolites influence insect networks and fitness in our study." @Pragya_otulp, @ChemEcolCM, @LBrueggemann, @gaurav_Kbaruah, and @unibielefeld

Lindstedt et al. Gregarious, chemically defended pine sawflies as a new model to study cooperative interactions in an ecological context link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I don't target sawflies but I try and identify any that I do come across. These four from a wet woodland last May. Details in alt text captions #Symphyta #Tenthredinidae

Fantastic body of work by Marko Prous, Andrew Liston, Spencer Moncton, Katja Kramp, Hege Vårdal, Veli Vikberg, Erik Heibo, and Marko Mutanen. Preempts the publication of their sawfly book later this year. Can't wait! europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ej...

Finally, here's Tenthredo baetica (Mustard Sawfly), which had seemingly gone missing from the UK for much of the 20th century, before reappearing in 2019 (this specimen). Since then, it's proved pretty widespread! www.sawflies.org.uk/tenthredo-ba...

A few sawflies now starting to show up as preferring the Brecks (and Brecky north-west) in the county. This is Dolerus picipes, one of a suite of all-black species, nice to see an emerging picture regarding its ecology www.sawflies.org.uk/dolerus-pood...

Emerged today from its winter cocoon in damp sand, this rather wonderful Sciapteryx costalis soror (the Shady Sister) sawfly. Rarely seen due to their habit of skulking around at ground level.

This shouldn't be so difficult to get done. We need this.

I don't have anything more than a glancing knowledge of hymenoptera, but I sure do appreciate how beautiful they are #hymenoptera #bee #museum #collection #entomology

The bittersweet moment of discovering my grandmother's nature teaching books whilst clearing my big sister's house. Level 1 book. 1/3

I don't think our insect illustrators are at risk from Google's Gemini AI. I asked it to draw a sawfly on a flower and this is what it produced.

This healthy looking fox has been barking in the meadow recently.

Sawfly eggs on a gray birch leaf, found in my yard back in May.

Great day surveying #earthworms on farms in the Chilterns. We surveyed two fields on each farm, giving the farmer the choice of what they’d like to see compared. Farm 1 wanted to see 3rd yr cover crop vs 1st yr. Farm 2 was ploughed vs min till. 🧪 🚜 🌍 #ecology #soils #invertebrates #agriculture

2024 was a good year for getting to grips with #sawflies on Larch, and so next year can be all about adding some more dots to the distribution maps, as they're so poorly recorded in Yorkshire up to now. 🙂 #ento #yorkshiresawflies #symphyta #ukwildlife

Inspired by the winners of the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2024! www.linkedin.com/posts/nation...

One of the absolute highlights of my year was stumbling across this magnificent sawfly, Tenthredo baetica, at Hexton back in May. The first Hertfordshire record of a species that seemed to be extinct in the UK as recently as 2019. #Sawfly #Symphyta #Insect #UKWildlife

Some rainy afternoon musings on whether it makes sense to talk about "garden rewilding". youtu.be/JW0goeznrH4

Pretty sure Nature Friendly Farming Network have joined us... nffn.bsky.social

Been at the Natural History Museum today to see this moth which has been named in Douglas's honour. Thanks to Alessandro Giusti for describing and naming it. Good to see @flygirlnhm.bsky.social too!

Starter Packs are great, but they favor well established individuals (understandably so). To help prop up new voices, here is a set of early career ecologists (self defined) who are, or would like to become, active on BlueSky Please reply if you would like to be included! go.bsky.app/Di74bDy

I can't bare any more Musk drivel, what an absolute arse. So goodbye Twitter & 36k followers. I am simultaneously trying Bluesky and Threads, hello everybody. Follow me if you are into bees, insects, wildlife gardening, pesticide research, regenerative farming, rewilding, etc... 😊

I’ve set up a “sister” pack to this called Biological Recording (UK) that is for organisations involved in recording and natural history training. It’s small currently as there aren’t many organisations that have made the jump yet. go.bsky.app/RboM6sR

Some exciting news for our first post - Strawberry Hill has been saved! This unique rewilding site is home to half of Bedfordshire's nightingales. Today we can announce you've helped us raise an amazing £1.5million and the site's future is safe. Thank you everyone who gave, we're so grateful.

Over 50 accounts in the UK Naturalists starter pack now :) go.bsky.app/DeyPecR

Diversity of sawflies (Hymenoptera, Symphyta) within commercial Sitka spruce plantation forests in Wales – 60 species recorded, including potential future pests: resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #insects #entomology

Whoa! Look at the detail on this fossil insect! 🧪https://phys.org/news/2024-10-extremely-fossil-sawfly-evolution-insects.html

A surprise on the school run yesterday was finding this Cassida nebulosa ambling up a wall. Possibly the first Bedfordshire record of a fairly scarce species. Impossibly endearing like all tortoise beetles. #UKWildlife #BugSky #Invertebrates #Coleoptera

This is the commoner sawfly mine on Alder around here, Fenusa dohrnii. The larva is much less clearly marked than the Heterarthrus vagans I posted previously, and you may need to squint and use imagination to see the pale yellowy brown ventral spots. #sawflies #hymenoptera #ukwildlife

A Tachinid parasitoid emerged from the larva of a Brulle's Knucklehorn sawfly, Cladius brullei yesterday. Suspected Bessa species going to Chris Raper, NHM for ID.

Larva of the sawfly Euura pedunculi, Sallow Pea-galler, make pea-shaped galls on broad-leaved willows and sallows. Still some around at this time of year as well as vacated galls.

The Woolly Alder Sawfly, Eriocampa ovata, exudes waxy fibres in tufts from pores in the skin. After each moult a new coat has to be exuded. The waxy fibres clog the jaws of attacking ants.