How does a spider choose its flowers? 🕷️🌸 Meet Misumena vatia – an ambush predator that hunts pollinators, takes down huge prey, and even changes colour to camouflage. Join @envirosyment.bsky.social on 2 June to see how modern ecology uncovers these secrets: 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1915221742...

Chat! From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/05/30/c...

Our (Jenny Dunn, Carolina Chagas, @willjsmith.bsky.social) paper on the evolution of island Wrens is finally out @evojlinnsoc.bsky.social! We describe the evolution of island gigantism in the St Kilda and Shetland subspecies. academic.oup.com/evolinnean/a...

📢 REMINDER: IBIS SPECIAL ISSUE Collections-Based Ornithological Research in a Changing World If you use avian natural history collections in your research, then this Special Issue is for you! onlinelibrary.wiley.... ⏰ Submission deadline: 30 June 2026 #ornithology

Some ants from my walk yesterday evening. Camponotus nearcticus, Prenolepis imparis & Lasius neoniger. Lasius neoniger (Turfgrass Ant) is abundant in open areas with dry sandy soil, last photo shows a couple of nest entrances. (Cropped from cellphone photos, not at same scale.)

just got word from @arachnology.bsky.social that Petra Sierwald of the FMNH passed away recently. She was always really kind to me when I was there, even though I wasn't working on spiders or millipedes.

Spotted Lanternfly nymph.

Some happy news: 60% increase in invertebrates since removal of rats & mice🪲 from the island www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Just recommended to a young naturalist in Sri Lanka who is interested in flies “the Fly Guide” by Even & Zachary Dankowicz. #Diptera #flies Dankowicz, Z. R. & Dankowicz E. (2026). Field/Photo ID for Flies. Retrieved May 27, 2026 from sites.google.com/view/flyguide.

This is beautifully written, and while on an intellectual level I understand libraries with fewer (physical) books, I have similar feelings about it. Read it; and imagine my books (and yours, if you've written them) on those shelves.

I have seen bugs of the subfamily Ectrichodiinae (of the assassin bug family Reduviidae) referred to as "Millipede Assassin Bugs" but I have not seen them in action, so I found this @inaturalist.bsky.social observation by Avinash Perera in Sri Lanka interesting: www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Filial Cannibalism. From Matthew Wills’ blog. For your #memorialday reading pleasure. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/05/25/f...

No exciting migrant moths here last night, but the latest moth to emerge from larval spinnings on birch found earlier in the month was this Caloptilia betulicola (Birch Stilt) #teammoth

OniscidBase: A call for contributions to a global database to advance terrestrial isopod research Konstantin B. Gongalsky et al., 2025. @soilorganismsj.bsky.social 97(3): 247–269. #woodlice #Isopoda #Oniscidea doi.org/10.25674/466

Wait, what? There's a journal called "Bulletin of Phylogenetic Nomenclature"? How did I not know this? mapress.com/bpn/index #phylocode

Over 50 newly arrived migrant Silver Y moths Autographa gamma fueling up on Bluebell nectar at Emsworthy, Dartmoor, Devon this afternoon.

Good morning all. A Pied Wagtail for #BirdOfTheDay #BirdOnAWire #Birds #Wildlife #BirdPhotography #ECK

NEW on #theBOUblog from Cristian Pérez-Granados Optimizing BirdNET: lessons from a global initiative bou.org.uk/blog-pere... Based on this IBIS paper doi.org/10.1111/ibi....#theBOUblog #ornithology 🪶

An attempt to photograph this Philodromus aureolus mid-moult on the clothes pegs revealed a very impatient male waiting for her to finish! He briefly locked horns with another male while she decided she wanted nothing to do with either of them... @britishspiders.bsky.social

1/2 The Collared Dove - a bird of simple beauty. This species only began colonisation of the UK in the 1950's but recently they have gone into a steady decline. #Birds

At last, my own copy of this hallowed volume. Been after it for about two decades. >>And signed by Delacour himself<<

Green Herons. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/05/22/g...

Invasive freshwater jellyfish (Craspedacusta sowerbii) are spreading through Brazilian rivers and lakes. New research shows this Asian species was introduced to Brazil at least twice via distinct pathways. 🔗 More: www.biota.org.br/en 📄 Paper: doi.org/10.1111/aec....

RESEARCH: When invasions go unnoticed: Public perception of the freshwater jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbii in Europe. Coauthored by Dr. Florian Luskow and Dr. Evgeny Pakhomov People and Nature, 00, 1–17. doi.org/10.1002/pan3...

Very happy to find my first ever Parasyrphus nigritarsus eggs and larvae in Green Dock Beetle egg batches yesterday during the wildlife group's trip to the Bicton area. This hoverfly predates the eggs of various leaf beetles, laying its own eggs (the smaller, white ones) within their egg batches.

🐜 A revised identification key for Nearctic Formicinae ant genera has recently been developed exclusively from male morphology. ➡️ Check out the full study: doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1280.176598 #ant #antmorphology

🌦️Tropical countries hold the most insect diversity — but the least monitoring data. Shawan Chowdhury discusses what this means for understanding insect change. Learn more on #InsideBiodiversity. @shawan-chowdhury.bsky.social @monashuniversity.bsky.social 🎧 insidebiodiversity.podigee.io

Finding quite a few winged Tetramorium immigrans in bathroom, in sink & bathtub & on floor, recently.

Bugging Out. From Matthew Wills’ blog. #NatureNYC matthewwills.com/2026/05/15/b...

Place your bets. Which mosquito-killing bucket in my yard is going to have the most egg rafts? Oak leaves, straw, old log, beet skins. #mosquitoes

A little bit of 5g available this morning! A pair of large basking female Adders. #adders

Check out the world revision of #Piogaster - parasitoid wasps that hunt jumping spiders 🕷️. It includes a new species from Alberta, new records across Europe & North America, and the first confirmed male-female match in a species: doi.org/10.3897/jhr.... #Entomology #Taxonomy #Parasitoids

I am giving an online talk this evening(Tuesday 12 May 2026) 7 pm on the wildlife of Dartmoors' temperate rainforests including the slug munching Blue Ground Beetle, the weird Hazel Gloves fungus and Redstarts www.dartmoor.gov.uk/enjoy-dartmo...

After months of work my Norfolk Pseudoscorpion guide for @norfolknats.bsky.social is now on the website free to see/download. Covers 20 species recorded in Norfolk so hopefully useful for other areas of UK. norfolknaturalists.org.uk/wp/wp-conten...

If anyone wants to listen to me wibbling about a book I may have written, do listen in to the lovely @batability.bsky.social Neil Middleton. It was a real pleasure being interviewed by Neil 💚🪲🌱🪲💚

Walk in the Woods. From Matthew Wills’ blog. matthewwills.com/2026/05/10/w...

✅📄Now Free Access: Rearranging development makes a slippery slope: a commentary on ‘Carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants combine common developmental processes to make a complex epidermal trapping surface Get the Paper: doi.org/10.1093/aob/... #PlantScience

Another great volume in the Wayside and Woodland series is Land and Water Bugs of the British Isles by T R E Southwood & Dennis Leston (1959). There are images of a copy from the sold stock at Stella & Rose’s Books: www.stellabooks.com/books/tre-so...

I guess Colyer and Hammond was a predecessor? Learnt a lot from that, and will no doubt learn more from this new one - will be a big step forward for Diptera, can't wait to see it 😀

Delighted to have spoken on the @englishheritage.bsky.social podcast on the 'History of Natural History' with Sabrina Villani, curator of Charles Darwin's home at Down House, and Amy Matthews: open.spotify.com/episode/744D...

#LiteratureNotice Sánchez-Vialas et al. Secondary sexual traits and lineage diversification in the giant blister beetle #Berberomeloe insignis (Coleoptera: Meloidae)https://doi.org/10.3897/asp.84.e162254 #Beetle #Beetles #giantblisterbeetle #speciesdiversification

Enjoying Colyer & Hammond’s ‘Flies of the British Isles (1951) for its retro fly-catching in full suit and tie, with pipe. I’m the first person to borrow the copy from @theul.bsky.social. #Diptera

Loooooong spider

New to iNaturalist (or just want a guided intro)? Join us for a free webinar on May 15 — the iNaturalist team will show you how to explore nature near you and turn your photos into real scientific data! ➡️ May 15, 9am Pacific Time 🔗: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

My first observation of this species is so vivid that I remember it as though it has only just happened. I encountered it for the first time while cycling along the Pannai causeway on a late March evening in 2023.

The firefly Medeopteryx taprobana was described from the south of Sri Lanka last year (www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...). It was observed in the north of Sri Lanka by @aravinth6.bsky.social long before it was formally named. Obs on @inaturalist.bsky.social: www.inaturalist.org/observations...

More tweaks to the Open Tree of Life viewer. It now distinguishes between taxa that are placed solely based on taxonomy rather than any phyklogenetic evidence. For example Goniurosaurus is mostly based on taxonomy iphylo.org/ott-viewer/?... has shown by a polytomy with lots of dashed lines.

Blue Forget-me-not (Myosotis stricta). Now in bloom in NYC. It’s a get-down-on-your-hands-and-knees type of plant. #NatureNYC

Common Chickweed (Stellaria media) seeds. From my walk in the park yesterday. #NatureNYC

I think this is a Beefly (Bombyliidae sp.) laying eggs by flicking them into the nest of a solitary bee. New England Wood, Cuckfield, West Sussex. #entomology #dyptera #beefly @royentsoc.bsky.social