Rory Dimond

Save Arena Essex- Tell Google to search elsewhere!   Wedged between the Mar Dyke Valley and Lakeside Retail Park, the former Arena Essex Raceway is not your usual wildlife haven. Where once stock cars and speedway bikes lined up to cross the fini...

Was just talking yesterday about greenwashing by big corporates. Google (claiming to be sustainable) are planning to build a data centre on one of Britain's rarest habitats, home to many scarce specialist invertebrates - help Buglife fight this. Sign here: 🐝🦋 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Quick! Somebody find him a blue flower with red thorns!

I lose track of who I've told this, but one appeared on the family dinghy in Cornwall when I was 8 or so and I was convinced it was a madagascan Giraffe Weevil brought in on a cargo ship! One of my favourite insects as a kid. I suppose the Giraffe Weevil is just one of these with extensions.

A female Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennechi) in her web in long grass.

Saw this queen toda 💛🤍🖤

Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennechi)
#HertsSpiders

A svelt fly with a bluish black body , slender orange legs and an angular head with long antennae and striped eyes. It is facing right and dabbing a crumb of pastry with its proboscis.

The same fly perched on my trousers, looking downwards and rubbing its hind legs together.

Sepedon sphegea live around still water bodies, where they breed on aquatic 🐌 🐌. The adults usually feed on dead insects and perch on reeds, irises, sedges etc having you swearing at the autofocus. This one went straight for my pasty crumb then climbed up my trouser leg like some street kitten!

Today I was blessed with the experience of sharing my lunch with a Blue Long-horned Snailkiller fly (Sepedon sphegea) . Some people feed the pigeons... #Invertefest #FliesofBritainandIreland

Amblyjoppa fuscipennis

An extraordinary ichnuemon wasp from the Norfolk #Brecks the other day - Amblyjoppa fuscipennis aka the Small Elephant-botherer. Presumably the English name is a reference to parasitising Small Elephant Hawkmoths, rather than actual Elephants! #TeamEnto

Female mason wasp Ancistrocerus scoticus building mud cells in relief carving on gravestone in St Agnes churchyard, Scilly

Very handsome though!

Actually smaller than I was expecting 😅. Took me a second to realise what it was.

A large, dark fly squatting on chalky earth, facing right. It has a yellow head, red-brown eyes and a glossy, metallic green abdomen.

Very pleased to have seen my first Yellow-faced Blowfly (Cynomyia mortorum) today on a Herts Invertebrate Project visit to Natural England's Hexton Estate. King of his chalky Hill chasing off the other less glamorous blowflies. #FliesofBritainandIreland #Entomology

@naturalengland.bsky.social

Etymology of the day: spiders were once known as ‘attercops’, or ‘poison-heads’, because it was believed most spiders were venomous. The ‘cop’ element became the ‘cob’ in ‘cobweb’.

I coaxed an ichneumonid off the conservatory window onto my hand today by offering her a wetted finger and she started drinking off it 🥰

I slipped up! Falcons are not hawks of course.

Yes 'heron hawking' was a sport. There are several historic illustrations of it, including this painting by Edward Landseer at Kenwood House. Apparently sometimes a heron managed to injure the hawk with its beak.

Local bumblebees: hungry

Lesser Bulb Fly (Eumerus funeralis) a small hoverfly is common in our garden & develops in Spanish Bluebells, also seen on its leaves was the Large Narcissus Fly a bumblebee mimic #FliesofBritainandIreland bit.ly/4dqQI8Z
@bbowt.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social
@gailashton.bsky.social

Stand Tall for the Small poser for Insect Week featuring a detailed close-up of a fly

Get involved this Insect Week - Join an event near you, organise your own event, take some photos and enter them into our insect photography competition and more. Visit InsectWeek.org.

#InsectWeek is coming!

Insect Week is your annual chance to share and celebrate the fascinating world of insects. This year, we're Standing Tall for the Small and encouraging everyone to take action for insects.

#StandTallForTheSmall from 23-29 June 🐞🔽
www.insectweek.org

A small butterfly perched on a pebble with its wings closed, side-on and facing left. The body is blue-haired. The underwings are brown with white-rimmed black spots and edged in orange and white.

The same butterfly on a different pebble from behind. The wings are parted showing the dark chocolate upperwing rimmed in orange and white.

Went to my local country park to look for solitary bees today and my first Brown Argus of the year was a nice bonus.

I found one randomly on the streets of Worcester as an undergrad, presumably from an older person's well-worn wallet.

Wasp mums use remarkable memory when feeding offspring Wasp mothers have stunning brainpower when it comes to feeding their young, new research shows. Digger wasps make a short burrow for each egg, stocking it with food and returning a few days later to

New research from our Centre for Ecology and Conservation has found that the brain of a wasp is capable of remarkably sophisticated scheduling decisions.

Read the full article below.

news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

Really cheery flowers and I love listening to the Bees 'sonicate' in them to gather the pollen.

Picture-winged Flies pages are now laid out for our NEW #FliesofBritainandIreland due Autumn 2025 - pre-order now at bit.ly/4dqQI8Z & save £££s on published price @gailashton.bsky.social @bbowt.bsky.social
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social
@flygirlnhm.bsky.social

A mating pair of Common Green Shieldbugs amongst yellow-green leaves. The partners are facing away from each other.

A mating pair of light brown Box Bugs amongst yellow-green leaves. This couple are also facing away from each other in the classic heteroptera mating position.

A light brown Box Bug tapping into the midrib of a leaf with its proboscis, facing bottom left. To its right, darkened sections of the leaf show where the sap has drained away, being diverted by the feeding bug.

Several Box Bugs and Common Green Shieldbugs, having a drink and enjoying each others company in a Winter Honeysuckle bush yesterday #Invertefest

Metazooa Become an evolutionary detective to find the Mystery Animal!

A quality animal today on @me🦛 Animal #632 🐻
I figured it out in 8 guesses!
🟥🟥🟥🟧🟨🟨🟨🟩
🔥 2 | Avg. Guesses: 11

metazooa.com
#metazooa

I have learned lots of new clade names today! I did it in 19 guesses but with a hint.

I know it's a case of 'be careful what you wish for' but I really want a Hornet's nest in my garden too!

Yep that's what I do. Whenever I lead a pollinator workshop I try to start with catching a honeybee as a frame of reference (or a honeybee slide in a presentation) and explain that they're not the bees which need saving.

Yet I tend to find that most people don't know what a honeybee looks like if presented with one! They think it's a wasp, since so much bee imagery focuses on cuter, fuzzier bumblebees.

Honey Bees 1 Litre or 500 ml Kilner Storage Jars / Vase - The British Craft House Honey Bees Painted Decoupage Jar Each jar has had 3 coats of white chalk paintDecoupage honey bees image applied3 coats of matt varnish, sanded in between to give a nice smooth finish. Availa...

Interesting. Across the pond, most of our bee iconography is bumblebebees, including on things that actually *should* depict honeybees. Never a solitary bee to be seen though..
thebritishcrafthouse.co.uk/product/hone...