Iceland Gull. From Matthew Wills’ blog. matthewwills.com/2026/02/22/i...

Tiny ducks, and more, from Matthew Wills’ blog. matthewwills.com/2026/02/20/o...

New publication! Updated taxonomy of “coin spiders” (genus Herennia, family Nephilidae). This group is known for extreme size dimorphism, ladder-like webs, and varied distributions across Asia and Australasia. Check out what’s new in their taxonomy in biogeography. www.ezlab.si/post/new-spe...

In case anyone's keeping track (I had lost track until just now), I've now helped name 115 new insect species, 95 of them being agromyzid flies described with Owen Lonsdale. You can find them all here: bugtracks.wordpress.com/taxonomy/

The floristic richness of a small agricultural holding in an urbanizing landscape: A case study of Mannankulam Estate, Eastern Coastal Sri Lanka T. Shahirajh & Neela de Zoysa Ceylon Journal of Science 55: 183-204. cjs.sljol.info/articles/10....

Humans vs Elephants - Prithiviraj (“Pruthu”) Fernando speaking to Rohan Pethiyagoda youtu.be/7u2CxoCC00U

Ring-billed Gulls in snow aka “Snow Gulls”. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/02/13/s...

Good morning, from Central Park, NYC!

sooooo... WHO is NEXT?!? 😱🙈😭 🔥 #Diptera unit 🦟🪰 at #CNC in Ottawa under threat!!! 🔥 Plz support the colleagues!!! Read the Open Letter and sign the petition here: diptera.de/CNC_Diptera/ #taxonomy #biodiversity #collection #museum #entomology #gnatsarecool #fliesarecooltoo #Canada #insects

From the North: Horned Larks at Bush Terminal Park. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/02/10/7...

The wait is nearly over - we've just approved an unbound copy of our new 416pp guide to #FliesofBritainandIreland -still on pre-pub offer til 14 Feb bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @rdimond.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

Superb Owls. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/02/08/s...

I regret to inform everyone that The Taxonomists have gone and changed a bunch of ant names again.

Anyone up for a swim? The water’s clear, sun is shining… It’s colder than yesterday, too.

If you’re from a different climate, this warm blue sky & golden winter sunlight might give you the wrong idea. Yesterday was one of the coldest days of the year. We continue under the extreme cold weather alert today… gloriously sunny, loads of diving and dabbling ducks close to the beach. Gorgeous.

According @inaturalist.bsky.social adult Wharf Borer (Nacerdes melanurus, Oedemeridae) beetles appear in NYC mostly in May & June. Hard to imagine larvae now in rotting wood at -17 C. (Text from Robinson, Handbook of Urban Insects and Arachnids; larva pix: iNat obs 147257381, Ireland, January 2023)

Shipworm (see last repost) & other tunnelling molluscs from the Oxford Book of Invertebrates (1971)

Ordered last June, arrived Tuesday, finished last night. A book I needed years ago. Absolutely terrific and if you’re early in your naturalist phase an essential read I would say. One that won’t go on the shelf but to reread and dip into, especially the section on different groups.

Taxonomy: What is it good for? Sandra Knapp, via ASPT.

Have you seen your 1st Eristalis hoverfly of the year yet? Our new #FliesofBritainandIreland covers 1200+ species & is still on pre-pub offer til Feb 14 bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @rdimond.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

Ice Sentinels. From Matthew Wills’ blog. matthewwills.com/2026/02/06/i...

Seeing a discarded copy of Vertebrate Life (8th edition, 2009) & thinking back to the time I used the original edition (1979, paperback version) as an undergraduate in zoology many moons ago! Still have it.

NEW on #theBOUblog from Fabio Marcolin Are parrots filling ecological niche space?: How non-native parrots become established in urban bird communities bou.org.uk/blog-marc... Based on this IBIS paper doi.org/10.1111/ibi....#theBOUblog #ornithology 🪶

New #OpenAccess research from @tbuescher.bsky.social et al. in #RESPhysEnt reports on the postembryonic development of the predatory strike mechanics in a #PrayingMantis (Insecta: #Mantodea) doi.org/10.1111/phen.70032 #Behaviour #Kinematics #Physiology

Mammal Monday. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/02/02/m...

Great Silver Water-beetle (see last repost) in plates from William Fowler's British Coleoptera vol.1 (1887) & John Clegg's Freshwater Life of the British Isles (1952). This beetle is not really silver but appears so underwater due to the bubble of air it carries with it.

TGI #FlyDay! Reminding myself that some day, summer will come back, with this warm-looking House Fly (I think? ID help welcome!). #BugSky #Diptera #Insects #Arthropods #SciArt #Macrophotography #Photography #PhotoHour

Walking home from bus stop heard geese honking & looked up.

A revision of Chrysso O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1882 sensu lato (Araneae, Theridiidae) Changhao Hu, Rui Zhong, Jie Liu, Zichang Li @zookeys.pensoft.net doi.org/10.3897/zook...

FREE NEW EVENT!!! 🕷️ Join us on Friend, Foe, or Freeloader? The Flower Crab Spider webinar on 2nd June. @envirosyment.bsky.social explores how Misumena vatia hunts on flowers—and how you can get involved in the research too! 🌍 🧪 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1915221742... @britishspiders.bsky.social

Travel does broaden your mind! I didn’t know honey wasps existed until I found a wasp nest in Kabah, Yucatán Peninsula & had the species identified by @humanbyweight.bsky.social on @inaturalist.bsky.social . (Btw Alie’s book has a lot of cool info on these wasps.) www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Years of fun collaboration, led by Dr. Lacie Newton together with our #GEODE #NSF #DRAGONFLY #phylogeny #systematics team, Seth Bybee, John Abbott, Rob Guralnick, Vincent Kalkman, and rest of #GEODE community! track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...

Cemetery Birds. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/01/16/c...

Perhaps “Why not here” is the question we should all be asking as we re-imagine urban nature in the places we love. New essay from me in @tnoc.bsky.social, reflecting on a recent visit home, and the beauty and potential of an often-overlooked city. www.thenatureofcities.com/TNOC/2026/01...

A revision of the Korean species of antlions (Myrmeleontidae): doi.org/10.3897/zook... #antlions #zoology #taxonomy

Occurrence data and range maps in endemicity analysis: Data choice matters M. Dolores Casagranda, Romina V. Semhan, Diego Almeida-Silva Cladistics 42(1): 92-107. doi.org/10.1111/cla....

Join @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social for the first webinar in our 2026 series: "Taxonomy: What is it good for?" Free to all! Join us to hear @sandyknapp.bsky.social's "Of course taxonomy matters! The story of the mega-genus Solanum (Solanaceae)" Pls register & share: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

This reminds me of the poems in marine biologist Walter Garstang's little book Larval Forms (1951). I first came across these in Alister Hardy's Open Sea-the World of Plankton. But this is from the actual book.

What bird is this? 🤔 (See alt text for clue) 🌏 #mybirdcards | #birdsoftheworld #birds ❤️🦜

Just out. Lots of muscid info packed into 1,341 pp. archive.org/details/be18...

My first read of 2026: The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans' Decline by Gillen D'Arcy Wood (@princetonupress.bsky.social, 2025): bit.ly/49sMNZh #HPS #histsci #environment #oceans #books #sciencebooks

Despite changes in bird taxonomy it is often necessary to consult the classic J L Peters Check-list of Birds of the World (16 vols, 1931-1987), for bibliographic & nomenclatural purposes. Thanks to @biodivlibrary.bsky.social we have access to all 16 vols. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography...

“Ce que les araignées m'ont appris” Jessica Jousse-Baudonnet www.fnac.com/a22185708/Je...

Did spiders really turn dark because of pollution? 🕷️🏭 Industrial melanism is famous from the Peppered Moth — but what about spiders? Join Dr Geoff Oxford on 26th Feb 2026 for a FREE entoLIVE uncovering the evidence (and myths). 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1968443417... @britishspiders.bsky.social

Killdeer on the Rocks. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/01/09/k...

Finally published! "Thirty-three new species of Agromyzidae (Diptera) from the United States and Canada, with new host and distribution records for 154 additional species." Now I've got some updating to do on BugGuide and iNaturalist...

A lovely diary piece from one of my favourite nature writers and namesake. www.theguardian.com/environment/... #naturewriting #birds #Amandas

Was surprised to find that the “Common Earwig” which I had thought to be a single species is actually a complex, on @inaturalist.bsky.social this incl Forficula dentata (15,446 obs), F. auricularia (15,037 obs), F. mediterranea (768 obs), F. aeolica (10 obs). 1/n www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Does anyone else think Common Earwig is declining? It used to be something that turned up on any site you visited, but it seems a long time since I've seen one.