A new generation of acarologists! Gaby Schutte en Stijn Kroon (students of applied biology at Aeres Hogeschool) are working on our soil mite collection and yesterday were visited by the eminence grise of Dutch acarology, Henk Siepel. They had a mitey old time!

Met zoveel aandacht van de pers (vandaag in @volkskrant.nl) zou de publieke opinie en daarmee ook de politiek toch in het voordeel van de Buurttuin Schalkwijk moeten omslaan. www.volkskrant.nl/cs-b3e1e68d/ (#betaalmuur)

Morgen (zo 27 apr), 19.25 u op NPO2: VroegeVogels over Voorne, met item over het project van @taxonfoundation.bsky.social waarbij we na 40 jr de kevers van het gebied opnieuw analyseren; met verrassende verschuivingen! Na de uitzending is het item hier te bekijken: www.bnnvara.nl/vroegevogels...

I am humbled to receive the @msafungi.bsky.social Martin-Baker Research Award this year, in support of a taxonomy project with #citizenscientists and volunteers in collaboration with @schilthuizen.bsky.social and @taxonexpeditions.bsky.social! #TeamLaboul #MSAfungi25

Yaay!

High school students resampled a carrion beetle fauna in a forest near their school after 40 years and found that rare species had got rarer, common species had got commoner. Read the results of our project today at: doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.... via @bdj.pensoft.net

Het is zover! De deelnemers voor de Insect van het Jaar verkiezing zijn bekend gemaakt. Vanaf vandaag mag Nederland naar de stembus voor de kriebeligste verkiezing van het jaar.  @insectvanhetjaar.bsky.social @aglaia.bsky.social @taxonfoundation.bsky.social @naturalis.bsky.social  #ElkeDagEenInsect

Small is beautiful! In a new pre-print in @elife.bsky.social, a team led by Alexey Polilov do the first-ever 3d electron-microscopic analysis of a miniaturized eye: the 29-lens compound eye of a 0.2-mm-long parasitic wasp! elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre... (whole wasp image by Andrew Polaszek.)

What a great write-up about Taxon Expeditions and its director, biospeleologist Iva Njunjić, from the Biocomm group at @ethzurich.bsky.social! biocommunication.org/en/insects36...

In my new book, The Urban Naturalist, I talk about inspiring community scientists like Graham Moates, who used his plastic cleanups to discover that, in the UK, 3 million mammals every year die inside discarded bottles and cans. His paper: lnkd.in/er8u49s8

One of the more innovative ways in which I communicate science is by taking people on real scientific expeditions. Everybody -- whether young or old, experienced or novice, with or without a science background can join! Check out this year's portfolio: www.taxonexpeditions.com

No matter how the usage of "common" names is growing, old-fashioned "Latin" names are still the only official naming of species, so we cannot do without. But they are hard to remember and pronounce. My friend, Belgian insect advocate Bart Van Camp, makes these lovely mnemonics to help us out.

Samen met buurtbewoners onderzoekt en beschermt Stichting Taxon Foundation stukjes bedreigde (stads)natuur. Steun ons werk! www.taxonfoundation.com