Juliet Turner

Amazing to have so much attention brought to the wonderful topic of social insect evolution! 🐜

www.thepoke.com/2025/11/20/a...

Woman achieves PhD in evolutionary biology, man on internet seethes

In case anyone wonders how things are going in The Other Place

POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success

Thank you!

I passed my viva! 🎊

I’m very happy to share that yesterday, after ~4 years of research, I successfully defended my DPhil thesis and will be awarded the title of doctor 😎

Thank you to my examiners, supervisors, and collaborators for all the advice and support given along the way.

Back at the microscope! Identifying & recording tiny insects (<2 mm), mostly aphids at the moment.

Not quite as glamorous as my work on large pollinators but it’s part of our research on biodiversity & organic farming, so still very interesting🦋

No, the Penny Bun is Boletus edulis and Bay Bolete is Imleria badia, but they do look extremely similar!

Here‘s a #blog about pollinators & #biodiversity @juliet-turner.bsky.social

I recently saw this amazing ichneumon wasp - she is a parasitoid, so the long ovipositor allows her to reach insects hiding deep in the wood

Even cooler, their ovipositors are apparently reinforced with metals!

📍 Oxford, UK

Why saving the honeybee could be bad news for other bees In this week’s newsletter: a conservation success story has a sting in its tail as wild pollinators pay the price

PLEASE READ! No more #BeeWashing. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

If you pass by an ivy plant any time soon, stop and take a closer look 🔍

If you are lucky, you might see an unusual autumnal pollinator - the lovely Ivy Cellophane Bee, Colletes hederae 🐝

Here are a few I saw today:

Curious how we're working with farmers to boost biodiversity in the countryside? 🌾🐝

I just wrote a blog post for @gwct.org.uk about my research on pollinators & wild plants in farmland this summer

Read it here 🌱👇

www.gwct.org.uk/blogs/news/2... #conservation #ecology

I examined these bees as part of my identification & processing of bulk pan trap samples for Farmland Ecology, GWCT @gwct.org.uk

This is a Nomad Bee appreciation post! 🐝

They are “nomads” because they do not build their own homes, instead laying eggs in the nests of other bees where their larvae develop as kleptoparasites

There are up to 39 species of nomad bee in the UK; here are two! Nomada flavopicta & Nomada fucata

I tried to look around carefully for their nest but couldn’t find one (with such complex architecture and high ceilings there are many ideal sites for a paper nest!)

I was very excited to find this Paper Wasp in the garden of the UK’s oldest cathedral

Paper Wasps rarely seen in the UK, usually brought over accidentally with shipping and other international trade. The jury is still out on exactly which species this is!

📍 Canterbury

Today’s insect highlight is this spectacular Cuckoo Wasp (species ID pending!)

This tiny wasp was among pan trap samples I have been photographing & identifying for a farmland biodiversity monitoring project with the GWCT 🔬

I’m really into solitary wasps recently, especially Crabronids like this adorable Ectemnius sp. (continuus?) I photographed the other day

Would love some suggestions for UK/European solitary wasp identification guides!

What an amazing place for a living room!

I found something cool while conducting pollinator & botanical surveys in S England - a rare bumblebee! 🐝

On the right is Bombus humilis/ the Brown-banded Carder (easily confused with B. pascuorum)

It’s the first time I’ve seen this species in the field. Always exciting to find new insects!

I just submitted my DPhil thesis!

Title: The evolution of cooperation and division of labour in insects 🐜🐝

Now let’s hope it’s not just rejected immediately 🤞

Quantifying the unquantifiable: why Hymenoptera, not Coleoptera, is the most speciose animal order - BMC Ecology Background We challenge the oft-repeated claim that the beetles (Coleoptera) are the most species-rich order of animals. Instead, we assert that another order of insects, the Hymenoptera, is more spec...

bmcecol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Did you know there is probably at least one species of wasp for every other type of insect?

I didn’t really believe it until I started looking. I have been seeing some incredible diversity!

Here is a beautiful (2mm long!) Chalcidoid wasp I found

When I’m not roaming the countryside surveying plants & pollinators, I am in the lab identifying insects🔬

These were collected as part of biodiversity monitoring on farmland. I love fieldwork but I love this too: I never know what I will see in the next sample!

Want to learn to recognise some pollinators?

Here are some butterfly species you should look out for this summer! 🦋

I’ve had a great week in my new role surveying pollinators and plants across English farms🌾

The heat is challenging but I’m seeing lots of amazing insects- here’s a selection of butterflies I managed to photograph so far (I’ve seen many others but they were too fast!)

#Ecology

Excited to be starting the first field season of my new job. 🐝 Can’t wait to get out and start surveying some plants and pollinators! #Ecologist

This bee is really cool because it’s a wetland specialist and, as the name suggests, feeds quite specifically on the Yellow Loosestrife flower. She also collects oil from the Loosestrife which she uses to waterproof her nest (necessary if you are a wetland specialist!)

In my new research position I am spending a lot of time developing my bee identification skills 🐝

At the end of a long day identifying dead bees I like to unwind by identifying some live bees, such as this - European Yellow Loosestrife Bee (Macropis europaea)

📍 Oxford