New PhD alert! We'll be applying animal welfare ideas to look at how stress affects bees, looking at the effect on bee brains with @lenariab.bsky.social, and working with @sensibee.bsky.social developing new monitoring methods. Please spread the word! #bees #PhD 🧪 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Do agricultural diversification practices pay off in the long run? Our new paper synthesizes 100+ years of evidence showing that diversification practices become more profitable over time and delivers growing benefits for soils, biodiversity, and carbon. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Steven Hammer, one of our regular collection users, co-developed a new #insect pinning block, with staff and volunteers from the museum. It’s 3D-printed and open source, so you can try it for yourself: cults3d.com/en/3d-model/... #ECN2025

I am teaching a GIS class this semester for undergrads. First time I’m teaching it and it’s all done in R. I’m super excited! I was wondering if you have any recs on papers that link GIS and geospatial science with ecology. I want to include readings and discussions for the lecture part. 🧪🌎#ratats

Plenty of Bombus terrestris workers active near Tower Hill station in London today - chilly but not bitter, and almost warm in the sun, so I guess they were making the most of the big flowering Choisya while conditions were good. Workers were collecting pollen, so active winter nest. #Pollinators

Christmas day walk flowers: scentless mayweed, daisy, annual mercury, common mallow, black nightshade, marigold garden escape, red deadnettle, shepherd's purse, some sort of sowthistle? Nice to have flowers still cheering things up. #WildflowerHour

Has anyone found an Android app that genuinely, really: 1. Provides translation of voice/speech 2. Between English and Brazilian Portuguese 3. And does this in offline mode?

Really brilliant day visiting fruit farms in São Paulo state. Lots to think about, comparing Brazilian v. UK strawberry cultivation - diff substrates, diff pests (though did see an SWD!) & very different pollinators! Super-cute seeing strawberry flowers pollinated by stingless bees! #Horticulture

In Brazil to network around future collaborative projects and dynamic agroforestry. More about that later. For now...found an impressive (sadly deceased) Ascalapha odorata aka black witch moth aka duppy bat in my hotel. Amazing. #TropicalEntomology #Lepidoptera

Ditto with final talk #AAB_IPPM by @sejarnold.bsky.social NIAB surveying parasitoid wasp diversity on aphids from strawberry crops in Kent. 4 main species found plus hyperparasitoids. eDNA barcoding showed more. Little relationship to local vegetation. Sadly missed rest or risk missing train.

Day 2 of #AAB_IPPM meeting and today is more entomological (but not entirely!). Lots of good talks on the schedule. #IntegratedPestManagement #IPPM #SustainableAgriculture #HorticulturalEntomology

#AAB_IPPM meeting kicking off with excellent talk from Martin Lines @nffn.bsky.social - he has found that introducing flower-rich margins on his farm as habitat for beneficial biodiversity reduces pest damage significantly and much reduces need for synthetic inputs. #NaturalEnemies #IPM

On my way to AAB Advances in Integrated Pest and Pathogen Management meeting - looking forward to a couple of days hearing about what's happening in applied IPPM research. www.aab.org.uk/event/advanc... #IPM #IntegratedPestManagement #Biocontrol #Parasitoids #Aphids #AppliedEntomology

Brilliant first session at today's Kent Wildlife Conference, with @ianbeavis.bsky.social talking Tunbridge Wells' urban hymenoptera, Scarlett Weston of @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social on urban bumblebees, and EA's Josh Hammond on citizen science in water quality monitoring in Kent. #KentNature

The impact of PhD studies on mental health - A longitudinal population study PhDs can be and some would likely argue, should be hard. But surely not *this* hard? #AcademicSky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Really proud of Cedric. It's been a fantastic project, piloting some super cool novel methods in #PollinationEcology and providing new insights into crop #pollination in legume systems. Cedric worked incredibly hard collecting all the data. Thanks also to Angela Mkindi at NM-AIST in Tanzania!

I think it's going to be one of those autumns of many, many ladybirds. Seeing multiple reports of this sort of thing today, and enjoyed watching them all flying around in the sun outside work as well.

Exciting new meta-analysis: compared to calendar spraying, threshold-based management cuts insecticide use by 44% and costs by 40% without reducing yields, and supports more beneficial insects. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Interesting new paper discussing fieldwork risk assessments and policies in UK HE (but which has some good ideas that other orgs could also incorporate) and how to make fieldwork safer, more inclusive and consider individual needs/intersectionality/etc. #Fieldwork #RiskAssessment

My mind has just been blown and everything you thought you knew about biology is a lie... Seriously, this is one of the coolest "now rethink everything" type papers I've encountered in a while.

Not long now till the 2025 Kent Wildlife Conference! This year's themes are urban biodiversity and citizen science - check out the impressive list of speakers here - www.kentfieldclub.org.uk/programme/up... Also - tickets only £22 including refreshments and lunch! So why not book your place today?

An abbreviation (ABB) in a journal article (JA) or Grant Application (GA) is rarely worth the words it saves. Every ABB requires cognitive resources (CR) and at my age by the time I'm halfway through a JA or GA I no longer have the CR to remember what your ABB stood for.

Do you do moth trapping in the UK? We'd love your help! 💡 At @ukceh.bsky.social we're training & testing AI to detect multiple moths in a single image. Send us top-down photos of multiple moths on egg trays to support this work. More info & form: forms.gle/e3HzBPEd7RVV... #mothsmatter #TeamMoth

Yesterday's @kentfieldclub.bsky.social meeting was at @niab-uk.bsky.social's East Malling site, which has orchards of various ages and management, and wildflower areas (though the visitor car park was also biodiversity-rich). The site has a wide diversity of bees! [1/] #KentNature #bees #entomology

A wet day for our field meeting last Saturday, but several members braved the weather. Amongst the species recorded was this Horseshoe Ladybird Clitostethus arcuatus, found and photographed by @sejarnold.bsky.social. #beetles #coleoptera #ladybirds #microladybird

Very heavily damaged Polistes sp. spotted on the Niab East Malling site on Friday - have to admire how it was still foraging despite the serious damage on the abdomen. #KentNature #Kentomology #Entomology #KentInsects #PaperWasp #Polistes #Wasp

Some photos from today, all at or close to home: Pantaloon bee (Dasypoda hirtipes), Fiery clearwing, Wall brown. #insect #entomology #KentMoths #KentNature @kentfieldclub.bsky.social

Hummingbird hawkmoth caterpillar in North Kent, in a wildflower patch allowed to grow tall on a new housing estate! @kentfieldclub.bsky.social #KentMoths #UKMoths

Meet my new friend-species and current favourite flea beetle, the houndstongue flea beetle Longitarsus quadriguttatus. (Is it OK to have a favourite flea beetle?) [1/]

That feeling when you spent a chunk of the day going through old pan trap samples (making good use of by-catch!) but the smell of old pan trap samples seems to get stuck in your nose for the next 12 hours. #Entomology #SmellOfScience

In about a week we (Biological Sciences @ Monash Uni in Melbourne, Australia) will be opening a search for 3 (!!!) permanent academic positions (40% research, 40% teaching, 20% service) at Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. 1 Genomics, 2 Ecology. Please share, email me, DM, follow, send carrier pigeons…

I understand it's an automated system, but I wish the automated system was a bit cleverer. Invitation to review a paper sent to me Friday evening (outside my work hours); a "polite reminder" that I have not yet replied on Sunday at 6:30am seems a bit pushy! #PeerReview

Ooh, I've run a session on basically "How to Conference" for the undergrad diversity program at the Evolution conference for the past few years. Some of what I cover:

Thank you to everyone sending us #AppleBlossomWeevil capped blossom from their UK #orchards and trees. We are spotting some really interesting parasitoids developing - two or maybe three species. This implies we have some natural enemies of this re-emerging pest already present in the UK.

We want your apple blossom weevils! Are you an apple orchard grower or apple agronomist in the UK? We are looking for capped blossom sightings in UK orchards, and a bit of information about the locations where you are finding them. #IPM #AppleOrchards #AppleBlossomWeevil #Horticulture

Apple blossom weevil (Anthonomus pomorum) is one of those pests that was a Big Problem in UK/European apple orchards, then ceased to be a big problem for a few decades, and is recently returning with a vengeance. [1/]

We want your apple blossom weevils! Are you an apple orchard grower or apple agronomist in the UK? We are looking for capped blossom sightings in UK orchards, and a bit of information about the locations where you are finding them. #IPM #AppleOrchards #AppleBlossomWeevil #Horticulture

Finding identification of this caterpillar to be harder than anticipated! Thought it'd be a quick job (is there a comprehensive resource that categorises most UK caterpillars by appearance?) but not that quick. Location: Kent, UK Foodplant: Comfrey (Symphytum) #InsectID #WhatsThatCaterpillar

Maybe it is a long shot but thought I could try out the power of this platform: I am looking for a botanist with knowledge of flora/plant ecology of the Miombo woodland ecoregion, particularly trees! 🌳🌍 If so, drop me a comment or DM! 😊

Cocoa - a highly-valued crop with growing demand, but for many of the world's cocoa farmers, getting a good crop is getting harder by the year. Let's talk about some of the challenges to environmentally sustainable cocoa production...and some of the solutions. #Cocoa #SustainableAgriculture

The lesser celandine is coming back. Cheerful and golden. Spring is nearly here! #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #GlorfindelDay

We think that gall midges may be playing a (somewhat underappreciated) role in cocoa pollination as well. They're really abundant on cocoa farms, but ID challenges and high diversity means sorting out who is doing what is...hard. #Cecidomyiidae #Diptera #AgriculturalEntomology

A reminder that we'll start seeing the first Anthophora plumipes of the new spring in the next couple of weeks if we're lucky. Adorable, busy, charismatic little bees visiting all the long-tubed spring flowers they can find. (What crop flowers have you seen them using? I've seen them on haskap.)

Ainda tem alguns dias para se inscrever em nosso Workshop de Sustentabilidade do Cacau para discutir desafios e soluções para o Climate-Smart Cacau. www.eventbrite.com/e/cocoa-sust... #Cacau #Agricultura #Agroflorestal

Irritatingly specific question: has Forcipomyia seneveti been renamed? Came out in a 100 yo key but v. little information available about this species so either it's v. understudied despite old papers implying it's not rare, or there is information but calls it something else? #Diptera #Forcipomyia

Exciting and productive meeting with the esoko team in Accra today - esoko is an app (with ground-based specialist support and a call centre) that provides information, training and support to farmers across a range of crops and systems in various African countries. The potential is very inspiring.

Artists, I have some questions for you. Let's say, hypothetically, there was a science conference coming to your city, all about animals. The scientists are looking for artists to come to the meeting, sit in on the talks, & live-Illustrate what you learn about. This would be paid. My questions...

Researchers spend approximately 45% of their time on administrative activities related to #grants rather than actual #research. The current #competition in research #funding has significant drawbacks; evidence-based improvements of the funding system are required: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Are you interested in research/innovation to solve challenges in sustainable cocoa in Brazil, Ghana or Nigeria? We are holding two free online workshops to prepare for future funding calls around climate-smart multilateral cocoa collaborations. 15th Jan/7th Feb. #Cocoa #SustainableAgriculture

Cool video of Forcipomyia (biting midge) larvae feeding on slimy surfaces. This is the genus that includes many cocoa pollinating midge species; we need to know more about what they like so we can provide for their ecological needs! That way, happy Forcipomyia spp. & well-pollinated cocoa!