This is wonderful and was digitised this year with the support of a Collections-based Research in the Humanities grant from the Isaac Newton Trust and Trinity College. cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-...

Say hello to the botanists who started it all! We've added 300+ digitised historical titles to our website, from County Floras to periodicals to Herbals dating back to 1571. We're also bringing our digital archives home & unlocking vital plant history. Explore & support: bsbi.org/blog/2026/07...

Female Sphaerophoria hoverfly with wing wear. #InsectThursday #Hoverflies #Diptera #AlphabetChallenge #WeekBforBehind 📷 #photography

Volucella inanis on Hemp agrimony in the wind, Garret Hostel Lane, Cambridge. #WildWebsWednesday #Hoverflies #Diptera

Male Sphaerophoria scripta on Stone parsley. #WildWebsWednesday #Hoverflies #Diptera

Such exciting news!

Mint moth with its gorgeous tapestry-like wings. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekBforBehind 📷 #photography

Ragwort among grasses. #WildflowerHour

Greater knapweed, side view. #WildflowerHour

Greater knapweed in Ely yesterday. #WildflowerHour

Common knapweed in Ely yesterday. #WildflowerHour

A Teasel in West Cambridge. #WildflowerHour

Hemp agrimony growing beside a stream in Cambridge. Not quite right for #AquaticPlants, but it comes with a bonus Volucella pellucens. #WildflowerHour #Hoverflies #Diptera

Small copper on Buddleia in the garden yesterday.

Gorgeous female Volucella zonaria in Ely this evening. A smaller male also seen. #Hoverflies #Diptera

Stained glass fragment, St Peter-ad-Vincula, Coveney. #Quiet #BlueSkyArtShow

Pressed specimen of Moonwort, ca 1780s, in a bound herbarium connected with the Darwin family. MS Add. 8090 @theulspeccoll.bsky.social, @theul.bsky.social.

Marmalade hoverfly on Fennel in the garden. #Hoverflies #Diptera

Delighted to welcome ‘Global Plant Lives’ Global Humanities Summer School students to @theul.bsky.social today for a session co-hosted by @theulspeccoll.bsky.social and our Natural History Humanities initiative at @camglamresearch.bsky.social. Phones came out to snap this Brachystelma barberæ!

Xanthogramma pedissequum in the garden last month. #Hoverflies #Diptera

Scaeva pyrastri getting covered in Perennial sowthistle pollen last Friday in Ely. #WildWebsWednesday

The Hemp agrimony by the stream in Garret Hostel Lane in Cambridge was a Hoverfly hotspot today. Helophilus pendulus one of many seen. #WildWebsWednesday

Toadflax brocade caterpillar on Yellow toadflax in the garden. #WildWebsWednesday

Sphaerophoria in the garden. #Hoverflies #Diptera

🎶 One day, I am gonna grow wings 🎶 Female Roesel’s bush-cricket on the path outside the staff entrance to @theul.bsky.social this morning. The rarer long-winged (macropterous) form.

Autumn hawkbit already. #WildflowerHour

Everlasting pea and Brambles. #ClimbingPlants #WildflowerHour

Common mallow in Ely. #WildflowerHour

The beautiful Vervain at the back of @theul.bsky.social, against a backdrop of Lady’s bedstraw. #WildflowerHour

Common calamint in flower again in Ely. #WildflowerHour

Pretty Selfheal. #WildflowerHour

White bryony in Ely today. #ClimbingPlants #WildflowerHour

Sweet pea ‘Cupani’ in the garden this year.

Wings #wide open. A jewel of a Peacock butterfly yesterday afternoon. #BlueSkyArtShow

Hello. 💚

My heart skipped seeing my first Volucella zonaria of the year, on Buddleia at the back of @theul.bsky.social today. This one’s for Francis Jenkinson (1853-1923), Cambridge University Librarian and dipterist, who would have loved to have seen it. #WildWebsWednesday #Hoverflies #Diptera

Charles Darwin changed how we see our place in nature – but how did he build his theories? 🗺️🌱 We’re currently cataloguing his personal library, full of annotations and notes that chart his transformation from a curious student to influential scientist. Find out more: https://loom.ly/xeloI8E

Day 30, #30DaysWild. Fly time. #Diptera

Day 29, #30DaysWild. An eye-catchingly large insect on the Brambles this morning. Think this is a Musk beetle.

Day 28, #30DaysWild. Garden wildflowers and insects.

Herb Robert in the garden. #WildflowerHour

Ribwort plantain with a dangling Marmalade hoverfly, @theul.bsky.social. #WildflowerHour

Common fumitory at @theul.bsky.social. #WildflowerHour

Feverfew growing in the pebbles in the Dye Garden at @theul.bsky.social. #WildflowerHour

Day 27, #30DaysWild. A Green-veined white in the garden this evening.

Sleepy Bumblebee on a Bramble flower, early morning, earlier this month. #Macro #BlueSkyArtShow

Marmalade hoverfly on St John’s wort. #Macro #BlueSkyArtShow

Forget-me-nots with hidden Ladybird. #Macro #BlueSkyArtShow

Butterfly eye. A Red admiral on a painted bee in The Gateway mural, Ely.