Day 6 of the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social meeting. I think I just about have the specimens still under control…..

New publ. in the Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification (in the New World subfamilies of Braconidae (Hymenoptera) series) Key to the New World genera of Euphorinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea: Braconidae) & synopses of the genera, by Sharkey et al. cjai.biologicalsurvey.ca/articles/ssv...

Utterly stunning.

The Dipterist Forum Summer Field Meeting starts today in Somerset! By exploring a wide range of habitats across 56 sites over a week, thousands of new Diptera records will give a clearer picture of the abundance, distribution and ecology of this much over looked Order of insects. #fliesarefantastic

Whooop! In a few years of light trapping and scattered attempts to lure them unsuccessfully with carrion traps with no success.

hopenothate.org.uk/chapter/who-... When people come out bearing tribute to her for her long political career, don't be afraid to speak ill of the dead.

In stock now! 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐢 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞: 𝐊𝐞𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐦𝐲𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐄: £𝟔𝟎 (RRP £80) tr.ee/wZGxvIxj_b #fungibooks #newfungibooks #FungiOfTemperateEurope #basidiomycetes #mushrooms #fungiofeurope

Let’s face it, we’ve all made some question dress choices when young. But first these former caterpillars, there’s no other choice but their former skin as a hat. You do you guys. #lepidoptera #entomology

Received copies of my book today! Very grateful to the Publishers and Editors for all their efforts towards bringing it to life. I’m very pleased with the end result. #Ichneumonidae #Pimplini #Pimplinae

🍄 Identify over 4,600 species of temperate European #fungi with this beautifully illustrated guide! Packed with photos, comparison wheels, and step-by-step keys. tinyurl.com/fungitemp #Mycology #Mushrooms #NaturalHistory @princetonupress.bsky.social

The mouth parts of this Carabid are chocker with the thalli of a, presumbly, Laboulbeniomycetes fungus. I really need to get my head around how to ID these guys! #coleoptera #fungi

The book 'Pezizomycetes of Europe' is now available to preorder for €80 #MycoBookClub #FungiFriends ascomycete.org/Book

They massively outnumber Harplus rufipes at @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social this weekend, but they appear determined to avoid Hampshire & West Sussex, and neither are short of Daucus carota.

Ophonous ardosiacus is another regular at light traps. Check out that lovely blue sheen! Not such an obvious range shift but increasing everywhere with lots of new 10km squares this decade. Associated with Wild Carrot. 📸Dudley Martin via iRecord

A cluster of records for Polistichus connexus from the June heatwave, increasingly common at light on hot nights (usually see egg boxes or moth scales in the record images!) 2026 records filling in some gaps in the spread northwest. 📸Stephen French via iRecord

The NHS was founded 78 years ago today. It was built after the devastation of the Second World War when the country was bankrupt - but when the people demanded a society built on fairness and dignity for all. Today, we must defend the right to healthcare and rebuild our social security system.

Thank you to excellent @britentsoc.bsky.social and @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social for interesting field meeting getting to know Portland. And most of all to the sterling and irrepressible efforts of @gavinbroad.bsky.social for making it happen.

The world is a sh*tshow right now so I'm posting this #WaspWednesday image a day early. It's Conura sp., collected in central Texas, and I'll add the obligatory "never missed leg day at the gym" comment. #NaturalHistoryCollections #FocusStacking #Hymenoptera #Chalcididae

It’s that time of year again, the Garden Tiger, Arctia caja, caterpillars are nearly there in the garden and looking absolutely fabulous! Now collecting to see if we can rear any wasps from them. #Lepidoptera #entomology

I've spent years working towards a ban on conversion practices, hoping to see a bill published. Today, I just feel so profoundly sad. As many others have noted, the draft has a carve out for "healthcare" so broad it makes a mockery of the idea this is a 'ban'. 1/2 www.gov.uk/government/p...

We rarely get to see them, but managed to spot the heads of two Swifts poking out of our nest boxes this evening! From the range of noises & volume from the boxes, we’ve think there’s been chicks in both boxes this year.

Thank you to excellent @trisnorton.bsky.social & @hantsbic.bsky.social for an enjoyable, if meltingly hot, day bothering the wildlife of Northney Hayling Island.

Awesome to see Sawfies, I think Arge pagana, making the next generation of Sawflies! I don’t think that they usually lay so close together however, I don't think I’ve ever seen a scar with a neighbour before! #sawflies #hymenoptera #entomology

Fossil Symphyla myriapod from 38(ish) MYA Baltic Amber from the Krakow Museum Of Zoology (Poland) #Fossilfriday 🦖⚒️, photos by me, using VHX6000 digital microscope

Come and join us at @havantborough.bsky.social's #Bioblitz on Sunday! It's at Northney Common, Hayling Island, and only a 10 minute walk from the nearest bus stop (Stagecoach 31). How many species will we record?

I can't overemphasise what an extraordinarily good range of books these are and how inspirational. I picked up THE HAUNTED LIBRARY the other day, read JUST THE INTRODUCTION FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, a light bulb went on over my head (it emitted a ghastly green glow) and I ran off and wrote a short story.

Paper alert! We have conducted the phylogenetic reconstruction of Proctotrupinae. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the family Proctotrupidae. I hope you are interested in this unique family and we work together! arthropod-systematics.arphahub.com/article/1751...

Dipterist Forum are running a new series of online training courses with those nice people @biologicalrecording.co.uk We're kicking off with 'Surveying for Flies' ideal for beginners or if you want to tighten up your field craft skills. More information in the link: dipterists.org.uk/events/surve...

An exciting and interesting day working on Conopid Flies at the wonderful World Museum in Liverpool, a smaller but fascinatingly odd family. #Conopidae #Diptera #Entomology

Geoff Kibby and Mario Tortelli's New book on Russula is available to preorder from @summerfieldbooks.com #MycoBookClub #fungi #mycolgy www.summerfieldbooks.com/product/the-...

Not something you get to see everyday! This Lackey, Malacosoma neustria, caterpillar didn't manage to spin it's outer silk protection, so we get a view of what a pupating caterpillar looks like! The lighter caterpillar was last night and the darker this morning. #entomology #lepidoptera

english isn't for cowards. if you're not saying 'torpify,' that's a skill issue. there's no Académie Française telling you what to do. if you try to type 'pallific' and freak out when you see a little red underline, maybe you're not ready to roll with the big dogs.

Seconded, both on the congrats, and on the pricing comments. It's superb that a new book on this group is coming out, but that's a ridiculous cost per species. About 50x more than the Duff beetle books. Doubt I'll be buying it, and let's face it, surely I'm part of the target audience.

It's seems, alas, to be a consequence of the @royentsoc.bsky.social singing up with CABI, who's pricing has always been extravagant and has aggressive about locking down works. From previous engaged they are keen to block their ears and refuse to listen to concern alas, shameful behaviour.

We really need high quality biological records for under-recorded groups. These come from amateurs many of whom won't be able to afford this book. Doesn't seem to match up very well to @royentsoc.bsky.social strategy to make insects accessible to all ages and backgrounds

Pleased to have been told by the publishers this will be available for release from the 26th June (ebook 19th). Many thanks to the reviewers, editors and others who gave their time and expertise towards getting this finalised. I Hope readers find it useful. tinyurl.com/5br4skkv #Ichneumomonidae

The Fire Brigades Union has made a statement on the proposed EHRC Code of Practice on Services. Our message is clear. Equality matters, solidarity is essential, and we will continue to fight for both.

And we’re off! The first of our recently collected Lackey caterpillars is pupating, fingers crossed to finally get a wasp out of a caterpillar, only managed Moths & Tachinids so far. I’m beginning to think It’s personal! #Moths #Wasps #Entomology

‘Wildflowers’ out of a packet on one side of the path, weedkillered critically rare native plant on the opposite side 🤯

This cartoon by Ella Baron from the Guardian today actually made me well up a little. We will keep fighting. Together.

↓ This, so very much this. I still find it astonishing that despite precursing pretty much all of the "how-they-dun-its" whodunits, John Dickson Carr has never had a great screen adaptation. And yes Gladys Mitchell has had adaptation, but only touching the surface of her stuff.

Today has been a day engaged in entomological necromancy, of a sort. Collecting a series of these mummified aphids, from which will, hopefully any day now, arise their likely cause, Aphidiinae wasps! #entomology #hymneoptera #wasps

If you are interested in learning to identify the UKs ground beetles there are free guides to download on my website johnwalters.co.uk/publications...

This looks awesome!

A slightly odd one maybe, but dose anyone know of any resources on / have experience with maintaining temperate centipedes in culture, especially non Lithobiomorpha? #myriapods #entomology

It is absolutely extraordinary for the special advisor of a serving cabinet minister to be threatening a British media outlet with an injunction on what seem like deeply spurious grounds. You cannot get an injunction for defamation: the saying is "publish, and be damned" for exactly that reason.

These guys are so utterly brilliant!

A day spent cataloguing Sawfly’s is never a day wasted. Happy to have contributed to my local museums efforts to fully catalogue its collections. #hymenoptera #symphyta #sawflys #entomology

Here we go! Attempting to rear my first Tipulid larvae, with these three larvae collected from a wood chip pile. Apparently it's a matter of keeping the substrate damp and waiting. Fingers crossed! #diptera #entomology #rearing