@paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social
Bumblebee taxonomy / evolution / biogeography - at NHM London: guides to the species of the Himalaya, Sichuan, North China, & North America working with genes & morphology pic: Yuzhu Mt, Kunlun range
One of the most beautiful bumblebees in the French Alps: Bombus Brodmannicus foraging on Cerinthe esp. in the morning and the evening. We planned two trips to see this beauty 😍. Several days later whole are was grazed by sheep, no flowers left sadly.
The genetic basis of mimicry in the snowy bumble bee (Bombus niveatus) in Anatolia with insights from a color polymorphic gynandromorph.
March 2026 PLOS Genetics 22(3)
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012060
Tunç Dabak, Çiğdem Özenirler, Ece Kamalak...authors, Heather M. Hines.
Queen of Heath Bumblebee (Bombus jonellus) foraging at spring-flowering heather in Calverley Grounds today
First Common Carder Bee queen of the season in Calverley Grounds today
"There's five times as many butterflies on cattle grazing sites compared with sheep grazed sites,"
@bcyorkshire.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Five “similar” looking #bumblebee species from one collecting event from coastal #britishcolumbia.
While identifying #bumblebees I came across an interesting male of #Bombus rufocinctus. The second image shows the normal head/face of a male, while the head in the second is quite deformed; the right eye/antennae are absent but the exoskeleton is present and is covered with hair. #beesofcanada
Two early females of the cuckoo bumblebee Bombus vestalis in Calverley Grounds today. As their host Buff-tailed Bumblebee is now winter-active, they don't have to wait for the establishment of nests in the spring.
The bee season has also begun here. Many queen bumblebees (Bombus terrestris, B. pratorum, B. lapidarius and B. hypnorum) and solitary bees (Andrena vaga, A. bicolor, Xylocopa violacea, Osmia cornuta) have been flying around Braunschweig since this week. #BeesUp
📣The CETAF Scientific Research Working Group is organising an upcoming live webinar:
"What Defines a Species in the Molecular Age? Delimitation and Diagnosis with DNA Barcodes"
📅 13 May | 14:00–16:00 CET
👉Registration is now open:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#Taxonomy #Systematics
Disgusted in Tunbridge Wells, if Common Land developed commercially?
It looks as if the status of protections for common land are to be tested in the sale of a privately owned common in Tunbridge Wells, which includes a title of Lord of the Manor & a car park alleged to have development potential.
Sibiricobombus bumblebee 'barcodes' often appear from their reduced AT bias at the third codon position (low AT3%) to be recent low-divergence numts. These bees may have more substitutions within their barcode-primer-binding regions since their divergence from the lepidopteran source of the primers
Bumblebees of the Asian steppes - Sibiricobombus - our latest global revision of a bumblebee subgenus out today:
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
The IUCN's BumbleBee Specialist Group's report on its activities in moving towards Red List assessing bumblebees worldwide and helping their conservation during 2025 is now out!
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Could you grow a bumblebee’s breakfast? When insects emerge from hibernation in February and March they’ll be looking for something to eat – so growing plants that produce nectar-rich flowers in early spring really helps.
Ideas: littlegreenspace.org.uk/features/bre...
INSECT TAXONOMY IN THE 21ST CENTURY @entsocamerica.bsky.social
Online, April 27-29! Featuring keynotes from Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social, Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, and Dominic Evangelista.
Now accepting contributed talks! Grant deadline Feb 4, abstracts due Mar 6. entsoc.org/membership/b...
Brown belted bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus griseocollis) are widespread across much of North America. They take pollen and nectar from a variety of plants, including Rocky Mountain beeplant (Cleomaceae: Cleomella serrulata). Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska, 29 Jul 2025.
My first queen 🐝 of the year, foraging hard in the beautiful @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social also carrying lots of lovely Parasitellus mites who will help keep her nest clean once she founds it
I have been interested in the faunistics of northern #Canada and #Alaska for some time. This lovely volume on the #arthropods of #Greenland is an excellent contribution; the three bee species are covered on three pages, though what was called #Bombus hyperboreus should now be Bombus natvigi.
Minnesota National Guard members have arrived at a federal building and were directed to distribute donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate to anti-ICE protesters. Guard members were issued reflective vests so they would not be mistaken for federal agents.
When @omearabrian.bsky.social saw the manuscript, he described it as: ‘What if this figure could be an entire paper?’
I choose to interpret that as high praise.
Now accepted at AmNat: The geometry of macroevolution (with Dan Rabosky). www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Good morning!
Disheartening to learn that after 18 years, founder Ken-ichi Ueda has left iNaturalist, citing irreconcilable differences in the direction of the company.
kueda.net/blog/2026/01...
He has a Patreon while he figures out his next move: www.patreon.com/cw/kueda
Wishing everyone a strong start to 2026! 🎆
Quick note: the Imperiled Bombus Conservation Task Force 🐝 (part of Pollinator Partnership) is accepting research proposals ➡️ graduate students and postdocs encouraged to apply. Deadline 🗓️ is January 31.
More info 🔗
www.pollinator.org/nappc/imperi...
Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all my followers
I must admit, I have not seen many specimens of #Bombus variabilis, this #cuckoo #bumblebee was collected in Florida in 1984. @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social
Buff-tailed Bumblebee worker foraging at Mahonia in Calverley Grounds today
Bombus Consobrinus, Norway 2022.
This bee has the longest tongue of all scandinavian bees.
It is specialised on Monkshood flowers with deep corolla's.
Lovely, very fast, quite large bees 😘
