All welcome; in person at the DAB, or online via zoom (register in advance). What could be more relevant for natural historians than a talk called 'The Past and Future of Natural History'.

More photos of the Great silver diving beetle (Hydrophilus piceus) found today in the moth trap. #cubotanicgarden.bsky.social

Great silver diving beetle (Hydrophilus piceus). Holly videoed this beetle being released after we found it at the bottom of the moth trap this morning in the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens #cubotanicgarden.bsky.social #mothsmatter

Walnut (Juglans regia); 1 tree, 3 plants galls. Aceria brachytarsus, A. tristriata & A. erinea. A. brachytarsus was first found in UK in 2021, in Cambridge.

CNHS - First talk of the season = all about bees. Plus termcard for the autumn talks. Available both in person or online.

Pale tussock (Calliteara pudibunda) crawling across a lawn today in Cambridge - probably looking for some leaf litter to pupate in #mothsmatter

Roe deer asleep in the woods today in Cambridge. I hadn't realised they slept all curled up.

@cnhs1857.bsky.social Lots of people turned out for the CNHS Plant gall survey yesterday. Some curious bullocks tried to join in which made examinations by loupe difficult. The Oak trees provided the best number of galls, including Andricus gemmus, perhaps new to central Cambridge.

A Wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) in a central Cambridge meadow . The main food item for this spider is orthoptera (crickets and grasshoppers), so perhaps it has caught one of the many Field grasshoppers in the meadow.

New species for Britain found in Cambridge - Otiorhynchus corruptor. It has been found in grapes in a supermarket in Wales before, but we are not aware of any other records of it from outdoors in Britain. It is similar to O. sulcatus but corruptor has broad areas of scales with a bare patch.

A Bank vole (Myodes glareolus) amongst the fallen autumn leaves today in Cambridge.

Field Study trip to Wandlebury with Jonathan Shanklin, Sunday Aug 31st. Meet by the cycle stand and information board at 2pm. All welcome. 550 taxa reported from site but 150 haven't been seen for a decade so we shall be looking for plants.

Jersey-Tiger Moths have been making headlines recently as their numbers are on the rise 🦋 Moth experts Duncan McKay and Lois Clarke from the CNHS explained just how special these moths are. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... Thordis Fridriksson on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

Adonis' ladybird (Hippodamia variegata) has not been spotted (we think) in Cambridge since 2021. They have been seen at least 4 times in the past month. Is it a good year, or have people not been spotting them?

63 Jersey tiger moths (Euplagia quadripunctaria) found in a moth trap in Cambridge this week. There are lots around Cambs this year.

Nightingale Community Gardens - CNHS survey 26th July 2025. 63 species seen including a Raspberry clearwing moth; Fig-tree skeletoniser moth; European paper wasp; Wasp spider; the bug Fieberiella florii, an ovipositing Southern hawker and tens of Gatekeeper butterflies!

Hummingbird hawkmoth egg-laying today in Cambridge on Ladies bedstraw #teammoth

CNHS led a biodiversity walk around the new Marleigh development on Tuesday evening. Despite the pouring rain it was good to see quite a few residents turning up for the walk and we managed to find and record quite a lot of wildlife (mainly plants though!)

A herd of Elephant moths today in the Botanic Gardens. We also saw a scarce migrant, the Small marbled (Eublemma parva) and other beauties such as the Spectacle, Dark arches & Buff-tip.

Summer mothing in Cambridge. Here are some photos from this morning at King's College and the roof of the David Attenborough building.

Elephant and Small elephant hawkmoths last week. Mothing with CNHS on the top of the David Attenborough Building in Cambridge.

FIELD STUDIES WITH JONATHAN SHANKLIN: Our next field studies visit to the Coe Fen area is on Wednesday, June 18. We’ll start by looking at Sheep’s Green, meeting by the race on the Cam by Scudamore’s at the bottom of Mill Lane (TL447580) at 6:30pm. Suitable for beginners to experts, all welcome.

CNHS visit to Monk's Wood last weekend (it was a long day):

CNHS visit to Woodwalton Fen last weekend:

CNHS visit to Holme Fen NNR last weekend:

Goldfinch in wildflower meadow, Cambridge.

Larvae of a tortoise beetle seen in Cambridge on Knapweed (perhaps Cassida vibax). The eggs are laid and covered with faeces and the larvae bear a shield of faeces and stripped off larval skins. The faecal shield is a defence against predators (this earwig turned and seemed to retreat).

Subilla confilis, a snakefly seen today in Cambridge. The long neck is the main identification feature of this insect. Differences in the wing venation distinguishes this Scarce snakefly from Xanthostigma xanthostigma which has also been recorded from Cambridge.

Our next field studies visit is on Wednesday, May 28. Field studies aim to record the wildlife of an area of Cambridge each year. This month we’ll start by looking at Sheep’s Green, meeting by the race on the Cam by Scudamore’s at the bottom of Mill Lane (TL447580) at 6:30pm. All welcome.

Conversazione photos: CNHS President Jim Woodhouse presenting the Student Prize to Maito Shiode for his outstanding exhibit "Advancements in Stellar Calculations by Cambridge Professors" and to to Kevin Siyuan Cheng for his excellent exhibit "Moth trapping around Cambridge".

Conversazione photos

Conversazione photos

Conversazione photos

Conversazione photos

Conversazione photos

Conversazione photos

Conversazione photos

Conversazione photos

More photos from the Conversazione 2025

Blue tit eggs have hatched in the 24/7 nestcam: apps.jesus.cam.ac.uk/birdcam/

More 106th Conversazione displays: from Rhona and Sarah. Their posters this year described the biodiversity in College, the wildlife on Sarah's work commute, and some of the apps we use for wildlife identification.

Interesting ideas from Water Sensitive Cambridge @watersencam.bsky.social at @cnhs1857.bsky.social Conversazione today and to learn from this poster the difference between a swale and rain garden. (Water runs through the former but not the later!)

So happy to be in the 106th @cnhs1857.bsky.social Conversazione. How often do you get to take part in the 106th of anything? Many more happy returns! Lots of lovely people got to play with our #RainLab to see how different vegetation affects the infiltration rate of rain. See you in the 107th 😸

At @cnhs1857.bsky.social Conversazione yesterday copies were available of #Cambridge Philosophical Society proceedings XVI(III) in which AH Evans wrote 'A Short Flora of Cambridgeshire' dated 1911. He who in 1939 published 'A Flora of Cambridgeshire' in book form! A 28 year gap. 😮🤔🤗 #Botany #Flora

Mating Speckled woods and Green-veined white butterflies this week.

This seems to be a new hoverfly for Cambridge today: Melangyna cincta (the NBN altas shows the nearest records at Lode and near Wimpole).

Easter Saturday, 19th April. Cambridge. To exhibit see www.cnhs.org.uk/conversazion...

A day for butterflies. Several Peacocks; a Comma, and my first Speckled wood and Small tortoiseshell of the year. We also had a fly-by by a male Brimstone this lunchtime in Cambridge.

Rivers of Light screening - speakers James Murray-White and Kevin Hand (CNHS) Thursday 3rd April 2025, 17.00-19.00, Cambridge www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/river...

Male Hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) lining up behind a female.