It's the first #MothFaceFriday of #Leptember So here's the tiny head, broad shoulders and thick torso of the Northern/oak Eggar. These moths always give me body-builder vibes! Have a pumped weekend #TeamMoth - don't overdo it on the protein shakes!

📣 New research, including @savebutterflies.bsky.social #citizenscience data, shows winners & losers across >1200 insect species in Britain since 1990. Urbanisation identified as major driver of decline for moths, ladybirds & hoverflies www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌍 🦋🐞🦗🪲🐝

Met Office stats confirm summer 2025 is officially the warmest summer on record for the UK. The UK’s mean temp of 16.10°C surpasses the previous record of  15.76°C and pushes the summer of 1976 out of the top 5 warmest summers. www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

Join us in Newcastle in September for EcoNet! Registrations open until Monday!

Queen bees bite flower leaves and they bloom quicker! Who knew! Read more on our newest EntoBites blog post below ⤵️ entobites.blog/2025/08/13/f...

A wonderful Elephant hawk moth caterpillar (Deilephila elpenor) was stumbling along the path on my walk yesterday! Always a delight to see such a huge caterpillar! #MothMonday #TeamMoth #MothsMatter

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

The front of my flat is by no means the most biodiverse place. Yet, the cinnabar moth caterpillars are making the most of it!! Nice to know the adult I saw in June was rather busy! #teammoth #mothsmatter @savebutterflies.bsky.social

From beautiful #moth trapping locations to sampling Alpine meadows filled with butterflies 🦋 and learning about sample preparation 🧬, I had the best week on the @10klepgenomes.bsky.social field trip! Huge thanks to all the entomologists, #COST10KLepGenomes, #LepEu and @projectpsyche.bsky.social!

First field trip of the #WG2 has come to an end! We will share some of the most relevant moments of this fantastic week! Stay tuned 🦋🧬

The Big Butterfly Count 2025 is here and butterflies need our help 🦋🚨 This isn't just a survey, it's a rescue mission, and we need everyone to get involved. No lab coats. No science degrees. Just 15 minutes of your time. ⏱️ Get out for the count 👉 bigbutterflycount.org

You don't need to be a butterfly expert to get involved in the #BigButterflyCount 🦋🔎 Use our free identification guides for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to help you. Download them and take part here 👉 bigbutterflycount.org

....and following our last post here's Madeleine @fabusovam.bsky.social out on Eilean nan Ròn as well. What a place, and what amazing birds!

Thanks to the seabird ringing grant from @btobirds.bsky.social, I spent an incredible week Eilean nan Ròn, advancing my ringing skills! We managed to catch and ring storm petrels, shags, few gull chicks and more! Huge thanks to BTO and the team! All birds ringed under licence @sophiesww.bsky.social

Excited to share our latest review of the impacts of artificial light in sea turtle hatchling dispersal 💡🐢! We review their visual capabilities 👀 and discuss the costs of disrupted orientation. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

Slightly chilly and windy night (the trap shield might have suffered too!) in the Lakes, but still nice 19 of 10 sp. Highlights were definitely multiple White Ermines (Spilosoma lubricipeda), what delightful moths! #teammoth #mothsmatter

📢 New paper out in Nature Communications! Using sedimentary ancient DNA from 14 alpine lakes, this study reveals how wild and domesticated herbivores have shaped plant diversity in the Alps over the past 14,000 years. Check it out here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #biodiversity #ancientDNA #alps

Come and join us in Newcastle for a wonderful gathering of network ecologists! This year our theme is 'Network Ecology in the Anthropocene' and our plenary speakers include Jane Memmott and Paulo Guimarães. Symposium tickets are an absolute bargain, especially for students.

Love #bumblebees? Then you probably know they're in crisis and need our help You can help by supporting the very lovely @bumble-being.bsky.social raise funds for @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social as she walks the Northumberland Coast Path 🐝 👣 Please donate here 🙏 www.justgiving.com/page/charlot...

Check out the newest article on EntoBites! Can seaweed help fight mosquitoes? Learn below 🦟 entobites.blog/2025/06/06/c...

Great day yesterday at the Discover Festival in Newcastle, talking about our work on light pollution, moths, and the importance of insects! @sciencesncl.bsky.social @nclneg.bsky.social Thanks to @darkskyintl.bsky.social for the amazing resources! #DarkSkyAdvocate

👩🏾‍💻 It’s finally here! 👩🏾‍💻 We’re excited to announce the launch of our official website for Cost Action 10kLepGenomes: www.10klepgenomes.eu 🦋 We invite you to explore and stay updated with our progress in Lepidoptera genomics! 🧬 #10kLepGenomes #Lepidoptera #Genomics

Not the creatures I was expecting to find when #moth sampling, but what a great surprise! Last night, I was joined by this beautiful Empusa pennata, the conehead mantis, and a very loud hedgehog!

Happy #WorldBeeDay! It was a pleasure to catch up with both the Andrena bucephala (Big-headed Mining Bee) and @entomophily.bsky.social last week, and today is a perfect day to share this beautiful Mining Bee!

Celebrating World Bee Day with a close up of a male Common Furrow Bee (Lasioglossum calceatum) blowing bubbles. #bees #WorldBeeDay2025 #worldbeeday

Hi everyone, I am launching a community science scheme "Spider Spies" where we are asking you, to send us pictures and if you're keen and able samples of Misumena vatia, the Flower Crab Spider to investigate their interactions with their host flowers and the invertebrate community around them.

Cotesia glomerata on a Pieris brassicae caterpillar- the prime example of a caterpillar-parasitoid network!! Nature never fails to amaze me. Here, the caterpillar is 'guarding' the cocoons of its parasite, which might also be parasitised(!). @europebutterfly.bsky.social #Lepidoptera

It's always great to share how important moths are, and what my research has been focusing on! 🦋💡

Only a few weeks left of my first field season! Let's see what the results show! Below is a picture of them at night 🌙

A young male Resplendent Quetzal that was outside our cabin in San Gerardo de Dota #CostaRica #birds #nature

Cream-spot Tiger (Arctia villica) was definitely a highlight of last nights fieldwork and the perfect moth for #MothMonday! #MothsMatter #TeamMoth

The pyramidal orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis) are back! This was the first orchid species I learnt how to identify, so it's always a good day when they start flowering again. Their morphology is well adapted for Lepidoptera pollination too 🦋🌸 @europeanorchids.bsky.social

Moths 🦋 Together with butterflies, they form the order Lepidoptera, meaning scaly wing. Unlike common belief, they are not all brown and eat your clothes- their life histories are fascinating, complex, and they are very colourful! They enjoy dark skies and varied habitats! #DarkSkyWeek

ALAN affects invertebrates (60% are nocturnal[1]): 🦋 inhibits release of sex pheromones in moths [2] 🦋 ALAN alters day length but not temp, leading to ecological mismatches [3,4] 🦋 attracts insects [5,6] More in this great review: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Refs below. #DarkSkyWeek

What's the extent of ALAN? More than 80% of the world's population live under light-polluted skies (shorturl.at/GH8l2). have a look for yourself: pmisson.users.earthengine.app/view/sdgsat-... #DarkSkyWeek #LightPollution

Light Pollution- artificial light at night (ALAN)- affects everything! ALAN influences invertebrate and plant community composition, alters species phenology (timing) and has physiological and behavioural effects, and more! #DarkSkyWeek

Why darkness is important! Just a few reasons: - valuable for personal health 💤 - ecosystems have evolved with day/night cycles needed for their functioning 🌞 /🌛 - seeing stars helps with connectivity to nature ⭐ - night skies have a great cultural significance 🧭 info from: shorturl.at/f1JYx

This week (21st-28th April) we celebrate the International Dark Sky Week, a global celebration of night! Throughout this week, I'll be sharing ALAN research, talk about why darkness is important and share my favourite creates of the night. #DarkSkyWeek

Hope everyone finds some chocolate this weekend, inside or outside the trap! #HappyEaster #TeamMoth #MothsMatter #GardenMothScheme

Barn Owl catching a moth while I was running the North Hampshire garden moth trap last night! Here with what appears to be a Pale Tussock (another one did survive to this morning). #MothsMatter #HantsBirds

Awesome new paper by @lucalivraghi.bsky.social et al. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... in @currentbiology.bsky.social on the evo-devo of a butterfly color variation enjoy the show!

#MothMonday from the beautiful Monchique mountains! Treated to some gorgeous views and moths! Highlights included Goldwing (Synthymia fixa) and (I think!) Coleophora mayrella! #teammoth

Favourites from last week for #MothMonday! All new for me, and all equally gorgeous! #teammoth See alt for ID 🦋

UK native wild Bluebell and Spanish Bluebell, in two patches of woodland on the edge of Exmoor today. Guess which was nearest to the town. Differences are listed in the Alt text. #wildflowerhour

Day 2 of #FutureofButterflies conference is kicked off by Thomas Merckx to discuss conservation of Lepidoptera in urban habitats. Some moths in urban areas adapt to light pollution and become smaller and less attracted to light!

More on light pollution and moths from Evert van de Schoot, who found that even dim skyglow reduces moth abundance by 25% in gardens, but streetlights reduce them by 50%. Very worrying in a rapidly urbanising world #FutureofButterflies

WORLD-FIRST: Ground-breaking research published today in the Ornithologist Journal has, for the first time, translated common UK bird vocalisations into equivalent phrases in the human language. The results tell us a lot! Extracts below... 🧵

This #MothMonday is dedicated to the Radford's flame shoulder. I saw my first one (and only one until recently!) in October 2021, on a night full of migrants in Cornwall! It was a great pleasure to share this with the Falmouth trap folks. And now, I see them regularly- what a privilege! #teammoth

Lovely film about Tim Birkhead's long-term study of Guillemots on Skomer. More than half a century of study of this population: this kind of continuity critical for understanding vitality of these important populations. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... vimeo.com/1063680641/2...

This research study by @rosybeeplants.bsky.social is a must-read for anyone seeking to attract pollinators to their garden! 🌸 🐝 🦋 🌼 🌿 🪰 #pollinators #bees #butterflies #flies #gardeningforwildlife #gardeningforpollinators