🚨New Bedfordshire shieldbug klaxon 🚨

Had another go at getting a photo of the Dicyphus escalerae which have colonised the snapdragons in my garden earlier. They're not very obliging, but this was an improvement on what I've managed before. Worth checking any snapdragons near you to see if these have taken up residence.

Feels mothy out there...

A nice surprise in the moth trap a couple of nights ago with this stonker of a Convolvulus Hawk-moth sat on the side, apparently unbothered by sharing the trap with 10 or so Hornets. #TeamMoth

Got out with the camera for the first time in a while yesterday, and had some quality time with the funky armoured mini-grasshopper that are Common Groundhoppers.

Bedfordshire naturalists, please also look out for this!

Well hello there little friend (Grey Dagger caterpillar)

Found this wasp in the polytunnel at the lodge (Bedforshire, UK) today, does anyone have any idea what it is, and if the abdomen is meant to be that thin?

Hello world! RSPB Conservation Science has officially landed on BlueSky Follow us to hear about our science discoveries, new publications, citizen science, and all things conservation research

Tomorrow is the day! 🦋🎉 It’s the start of the Big Butterfly Count. Between the 18 July - 10 August, spend 15 minutes recording the butterflies that you see. 1️⃣ Download the Big Butterfly Count App 2️⃣ Register 3️⃣ Get Recording #savebutterflies #bigbutterflycount

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 is immensely pleasing - my Stratiomys potamida sighting from the weekend now showing up as a new square on the #Soldierfly revisits map. connect-apps.ceh.ac.uk/targeting_re...

Delighted to stumble across this Banded General, Stratiomys potamida, in a meadow at the edge of Guilden Morden this morning. Very impressive flies!

Also came across a patch of Aspen, and thought, I wonder if anything interesting lives on Aspen? Gave it a shake, and out fell this little leafhopper, Tremulicerus tremulae, which feeds on Aspen and White Poplar. #Hemiptera #Bugs #Insects

I always take a closer look at any patch of Enchanter's Nightshade that I come across, and today I was rewarded by finding the stilt bug Metatropis rufescens hanging out on the leaves, as they are wont to do. #Heteroptera #Insects

In the winter I sowed 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘮 (Snapdragons) specifically to try to attract 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘺𝘱𝘩𝘶𝘴 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘦. On 30th June I beat one, and today found two by direct inspection. @willgeorge.bsky.social‬ has confirmed as a new species for Bedfordshire.

One of the best things that you can knock out of a Scots Pine, the delightful Pilophorus cinnamopterus at The Lodge RSPB today. #Heteroptera #Insects

First Heterotoma planicornis of the year in the garden today. Very distinctive looking bugs with their curiously expanded antennae. No photo today, so here's one from a while ago.

A nice Isle of Sheppey speciality, the Dainty Damselfly. Extinct in the UK up until 2010, when they recolonised Sheppey.

Pleased to continue my streak of weird looking hoppy insects with oodles of the excellently odd looking Pentastiridius leporinus on saltmarsh on the Isle of Sheppey on Friday. A fairly scarce coastal species of southern England and Wales.

I've been enjoying finding weirdly shaped leafhoppers recently. Here's the daddy of them all, the glorious bunny-eared, frog faced, armour-plated hunk that is Ledra aurita. This one was beaten from oak, but they often turn up in moth traps too.

They said it couldn't be done, but my attempts to cross a leaf hopper with a squid have finally succeeded.

One more from yesterday, a speedy little Peritrechus lundii which was scuttling through dry grassland at The Lodge RSPB. A fairly widespread species in Bedfordshire, but never common.

The Rhogogaster sawflies are up there amongst the brightly coloured of all of the UK's insects. I think that this particularly neon green individual might be Rhogogaster chlorosoma, but they're a tricky bunch to identify.

A charming Striped Ladybird that I found in a Scots Pine today at The Lodge RSPB. Just the second time I've managed to find this pine specialist.

This splendid female Ghost Moth was the pick of the night's trapping last night, narrowly edging out the always popular Green Silver-lines #TeamMoth

Some larvae I observed in the garden. These are the larvae of Hymenoptera. The larvae usually live on plants and resemble butterfly caterpillars. There are about 800 species of sawflies in Central Europe. I think the larvae’s eyes, or rather their dark outlines, give them a rather cute face.

Bugs, glorious bugs, everywhere you look at the moment. Here's four I found in about 5 minutes today, names and descriptions in alt-text.

This clearly is the year of the snakefly, as I've now seen an unprecedented three individuals - the latest being this rather lovely male Xanthostigma xanthostigma. Just need to find Subilla confinis to complete the UK set!

From today's short walk a few NFY bugs, which I think are Closterotomus fulvomaculatus, a female Leptopterna dolabrata and Capsus ater. Bug diversity is amazing! 💚

Stumbled across a small lek of these Yellow-barred Longhorn moths, Nemophora degeerella, earlier. Truly remarkable little creatures. #TeamMoth #Insects

Sometimes natural history is a grueling slog in the field, followed by painstaking identification under a microscope. Other times, a funky wasp lands on your pizza box at a beer festival, and then runs around on your hand while you work out what it is.

We all know that beetles are essentially an inferior form of the true bugs, but every so often they do pull out a corker like this Saperda scalaris which I'll concede is reasonably attractive... #Insects #Cerambycidae

📢 We need your help to monitor Nightjar for the Heathland Birds Survey! Find a priority site near you ➡️ www.bto.org/heathlan... #Ornithology #UKBirding A huge thank you to all volunteers participating in this project! 📷 Nightjar by Mike Toms

A mightily fine Drinker caterpillar basking on a grass stem today. Named for their supposed habit of drinking drops of dew.

@vc40orthops.bsky.social and I are pleased to announce the publication today of the “Micro ladybirds of Britain and Ireland”, in collaboration with the FSC: www.field-studies-council.org/shop/publica...

The "Targeting revisits" map for soldierflies has had a refresh for 2025: you can now highlight "rediscovery targets" - 1 km squares with multiple species in the past but no records for 10+ years. Would be great to know if the species are still there! Go to: connect-apps.ceh.ac.uk/targeting_re...

Now doing my usual caterpillar identification routine of looking at every plate in sequence and failing to find a match. Help welcomed! First one was beaten from Oak

It was a good day for wacky beasts, also found this mega-spiky Periclista pubescens sawfly caterpillar on oak. There are three species of Periclista in the UK, all of which feed on oak, but this is most exuberantly spiked.

Snakefly! My traditional early May sighting of one of these wacky beasts, this time a male Atlantoraphidia maculicollis

My second 2025 composite of insects visiting Beech leaves in our garden hedgerow. It features some new additions to this year's "Beech List" too! #Staffs #biodiversity #pollination

In other news, rehearsals for the hoverfly air-show are going well... #Syrphidae #Insects

Spotted a rather interesting looking dot on a tree today. If you can work out what it is from this photo (especially if you don't zoom in) then I'm very impressed...

No skipping leg day for this dude. This is Osphya bipunctata, a rather fine species in the Melandryidae, which turned up by my moth trap last night. I confess to never having heard of it until today! #Nature #Insects

New sawfly klaxon 🚨This jazzy little orange and black number is Mesoneura opaca, a species whose caterpillars feed on oak leaves. #Invertefest

New to Britain! These springtails are Dicyrtomina signata, a European species that's never previously been seen in the UK. I found these while out and about in Wanstead Park, London (with @josscarr.bsky.social, @nmaybury4.bsky.social). One to look out for!

Finally found a Criorhina ranunculi which was willing to sit still for some half-decent photos today. A really impressive bumblebee mimic which is widespread across the UK. Also available in a red-tailed form. #Hoverfly #Insects

Also in the trap, a very early Coronet, a clutch of Swallow Prominents, and a delightfully pink-hued Angle Shades. #TeamMoth #Insects

14 species in the moth trap this morning, headlined by the stick-mimicking, shark-finned, quiff-bedecked, floof-snozz that is a Pale Prominent. #TeamMoth #Insects

Those orange legs show up surprisingly well in the field, here's a male I photographed last spring