Steph Skipp

Cool idea! The perks of having a brother with a 3D printer 😁

One of my 2025 highlights was getting to visit Windsor Great Park with the BENHS Saproxylic Group. The trees were phenomenal and we found the Windsor Weevil! 😃
#Saproxylic #Entomology #Coleoptera

Male Walckenaeria acuminata: Image thanks to Richard Gallon

Male Oedothorax apicatus: Image thanks to Richard Gallon

Male Oedothorax gibbosus: image thanks to Richard Gallon

Some genera of Money #spiders Linyphyiidae are present as adults throughout the year, often with peak male activity in the #winter months (see chart for Walckenaeria acuminata). Whatever the weather, it's a good time to be out looking for them and their wonderfully distinctive headgear! #Christmas

Is that an ‘I need to get out more and worry about less niche things’ or ‘I need to get out more and find more first taxa’?

Great, thank you!

Not at all! Thank you very much for your help 😃 I’ll get it loaded up to iRecord 👍

Can't make the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social Dipterist Day 2025 in Cambridge this Saturday 15th November - fear not! Sign up through the link in the page below and we'll send you the recordings. The wonders of Modern technology...
dipterists.org.uk/events/dipte...

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A long springtail with quite short, 4 segmented antennae. The springtail has black splotches over its back.

Hey @jamesimcc.bsky.social , here’s another one from my compost heap. I think it might be Proisotoma minuta (although I struggled with the ocelli and abdominal seg separation). What do you think?

A few extras

Hi James, I’m back with new photos 😃 do these help?

Yes they seem to have gone through some things! At least they’re in it together? (apart from the ones that have fallen off…)
I suppose it must be especially tempting with ants when they often come as a package deal 🐜🐜🐜

A piece of card cut into a serrated shape with 17 points next to each other. The card is mounted on a pin and most of the points have small beetles (latridiidae) glued onto them. The card is visibly old and yellowed and most of the beetles are damaged, missing their heads and pronotums.

It is generally frowned upon to mount multiple insects on the same pin. It makes databaseing difficult + the chance that multiple species could be mounted together - a nightmare!
Even so, you have to admire the creativity and precision of this example from the UK Latridiidae collection at the NHM

Thanks James! 😃 I will get back to you with some more pics

Here’s the empodium 👍 also is there a technique that allows you to extrude the mouthparts?

@jamesimcc.bsky.social Hi James! I recently learnt that my village has no springtail records so I wanted to try and add a few. Do you think this could be Hypogastrura manubrialis? Think it has some tiny anl spines, 8x8 ocelli, foot with empodium, and skinny mucro. Found in compost

Orchesella flavescens, one of the UK's largest springtails. It's an elongate springtail, with long antennae, often with a differing number of segments on each antenna (but with a maximum of six). It can be identified by the pattern consisting of parallel longitudinal dark lines running the length of the abdomen, contrasting against a paler ground colour. This is a relatively scarce woodland species.

Send me records: I am excited to be taking on the role of national springtail recorder. I have huge shoes to fill, but I hope to continue the progress Peter Shaw made in understanding the taxonomy and biology of the UK's #springtails.

www.brc.ac.uk/scheme/colle...

That’s brilliant, thanks for your help Derek! I wonder how they all ended up in there 🤔

I see what you mean about that rogue forewing now! Here are some more detailed photos

A bright green moss with wide, flat leaves overlapping each other like scales. The leaf cells are large, reflecting the light in glittering diagonal lines.

A more zoomed out view of the flattened moss shoots

Saw this lovely moss on a survey a few weeks ago. It is Hookeria lucens. I like how the field guide account describes jt as ‘a pleasure to find’ 🥰

Thanks Derek! I’m away from my compound microscope at the moment but I’ll try and get some images of one on a slide in the next couple of days

@arnoldtortoise.bsky.social
Hi Derek, we found hundreds of these tiny wasps in a flight interception trap from an oak tree. Are they Trichogrammatidae? We’d be very grateful of your help 🙂

Hello @bsky.app. we are Norfolk Ponds Project - a science-led partnership NGO focused on pond restoration & #ghostpond ressurection. We aim to educate, lobby & inspire others on ponds. We used to Tweet & had 5000+ followers. ***Please follow & help us achieve the same here***!!!

That’s great to hear! I hope they are doing well 😃🪵

Lovely pics 👌

Woah! 😍🦓

tiny yellow wasp with black markings along its sides, head and antennae are to the left, fringed wings are held at 60 degrees above body

A male Oligosita pallida parasitoid wasp of the Trichogrammatidae found in the garden birch tree.

#UKWildlife #wasps #Trichogrammatidae

In prep for the #Bioblitz at Mote Park today, we set up a few bottle vane traps in lovely old oaks. Highlights so far included Thanasimus formicarius, Tomoxia bucephala, and the chalcid wasp, Astichus arithmeticus 🌳 @kentfieldclub.bsky.social

Look what arrived yesterday hot off the press. The amazing Alpine flower book by my good friend Bob Gibbons. Published posthumously it is a wonderful legacy of one of the greatest modern botanists. It was a privilege to have shared many European tours with him @saveplants.bsky.social

Must have felt good to have been part of a successful trip, congrats on your records. Interesting that they were in thyme clumps, they seem to be happy in quite a few different situations.

I hate to ruin the mystery, but the bug is an immature Ilyocoris cimicoides 😊 The Thrips remains nameless though…