Reading Entomology

Just me and a lot of flies waiting for the train this morning. Off to teach on the @unirdgento.bsky.social course

Thank goodness for coffee…

#lecturing @royentsoc.bsky.social

Excited to have a ground beetle project @carabidaeuk.bsky.social open for applications in @crocus-dla.bsky.social. Nice mix of analysing long-term data, fieldwork and time at @forestresearchuk.bsky.social, assessing trends in woodland carabids. Please share!

blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/c...

MSc field trip this week in the Loddon valley: unseasonal Ashy Mining Bee, Aneurus sp. flat bugs (Aradidae), aggregation of 16-spot Ladybird, rootling in tussocks and soil.

Last year our field trip to the legendary Wytham Woods was marked by heavy rain. This year it was raining...ladybirds! 🐞☔

Reasonable numbers of 7-spot and 10-spot ladybirds heading for overwintering sites, though both swamped by an extraordinary abundance of Harlequins. @ukladybirds.bsky.social

We think this must be the Very Short-winged Conehead, Conocephalus brachyptera, since we can't find any wings at all....thanks Glasgow and all at @royentsoc.bsky.social for a fab few days at #ento25!

All smiles on the Reading stand at #Ento25 today. Come see us at lunchtime on the ground floor if you're here! @royentsoc.bsky.social

Pin it to win it is back at #ento25! Come find us in the ground floor exhibition and test your entomological skills. Prizes for speed, quality and best overall. @royentsoc.bsky.social

Ento - our annual flagship event - Royal Entomological Society The home of insect science

It's starting soon… 🐜

We hope you are as excited as we are to welcome everyone to #Ento25 - just one day left!

While you're waiting, why not find out more about the history of our annual flagship conference? 🔽

buff.ly/HFDlAWa

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow! 🐝

@unistrathclyde.bsky.social

We and our insects are on our way to @royentsoc.bsky.social 25! Team Reading Entomology checking the precious cargo at Euston station. One slight casualty of mad taxi dash across London but nothing a bit of glue can't fix...

OK and permit us one none insect, because Bristly Millipedes are awesome!

Clouded Magpie

Caterpillar of the Sulphur Pearl, Sitochroa palealis, on wild carrot

Portland Ribbon Wave, on a wall in Slapton village

Volucella zonaria, hornet mimic hoverfly.

And a handful more why not...

Clouded Yellow

Glow-worm, Lampyris noctiluca

Great Green Bush Cricket

Larva of Silpha laevigata, a carrion beetle

Insects from our 2nd year field course at Slapton Ley last week. Always a rewarding place to spend some time entomologising! IDs in alt text.

Laboratory benches with rows of microscopes, each with an illuminated box of insect specimes

Pinned specimen of a burying beetle - an orange and black beetle with yellow hairs

Students using white sweep nets in a meadow of grass and buttercups with trees beyond

A wonderful week for undergraduate Entomology teaching at Reading whether in the labs or out on campus

Events Committee Vacancies 2025 - Royal Entomological Society The RES is looking to recruit members to join our newly structured Events Committee, working in line with our new Events Strategy. We particularly welcome applicants whose expertise relates to areas o...

@royentsoc.bsky.social are looking for new committee members to join the Events Committee 🦋

Interested in helping with events like #Ento2025 or #Verrall then consider applying! www.royensoc.co.uk/opportunitie...

@hau-entomology.bsky.social @insectwrs.bsky.social @unirdgento.bsky.social

It starts now 🦋

We need your help to support the endangered #LargeBlue butterfly. Starting today, this week only, your contributions will be DOUBLED - Help us raise £10,000 match funded via #BigGive

Read more & donate between 22–29 April 🔽
buff.ly/BpXY1hY

@gloswildlife.bsky.social #EarthDay

Insect Taxonomy and Field Sampling Skills 5-day free course for doctoral students and early career researchers in ecology/entomology, seeking an essential overview of taxonomic theory, insect identification skills, basic field sampling and sp...

FULLY-FUNDED residential insect ID and field surveying summer school, organised by
@oxfordconted.bsky.social,
@morethanadodo.bsky.social and @biology.ox.ac.uk, for PhD students or early career researchers.

📅14-18 July 2025

Apply by 9 May:
www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/inse...

🧪 🌍 #academicsky 🐝

RES Great Welfare Survey 2025 - Royal Entomological Society Insect Research Practices and Ethics in the UK Share Your Experience on Ethics Applications Are you a researcher working with insects? We need your insights! The Royal Entomological Society is conduct...

⏰LAST CALL! ⏰

The @royentsoc.bsky.social Insect Welfare Survey closes TODAY!

If you work with insects in the UK take a moment to fill it out 🐝🦗🐞

www.royensoc.co.uk/news/res-wel...

@hau-entomology.bsky.social @unirdgento.bsky.social @lshtm.bsky.social @lstmnews.bsky.social @cvrinfo.bsky.social

Flyer for conference: Bucks Invertebrate Group Conference Sunday 27 April 2025 from 9.30am to 4.30pm, Great Missenden Memorial Centre, HP16 9AE A day to celebrate insects and other invertebrates in the county. Including The Eric Hollowday Lecture, to be given by Dr Chris Wilson, on The extraordinary biology of bdelloid rotifers. Plus talks on dragonflies, moths, spiders, bumblebees, flies and much more. Full details and programme can be found on the Bucks Invertebrate Group website. Free to attend but please contact us to book your place: bucksinvertgroup@gmail.com

Buckinghamshire Invertebrate Group has its 1st ever conference on Sun 27 April, Great Missenden. A great range of talks including Dr Chris Wilson's lecture in memory of Eric Hollowday, rotifer enthusiast extraordinaire & long-time member of BIG. Details & bookings: sites.google.com/site/bucksin...

I like big bugs and I cannot lie

A collection of pinned butterflies from the UK in a glass topped display box

A pulled out drawer display box filled with large, black, white and yellow butterflies

A glass topped display box filled with pinned Hawkmoth specimens

Teaching Lepidoptera ID with @unirdgento.bsky.social today.

A chance for me to brush up on my moth skills but mostly a good opportunity to have a look through the amazing pinned collection we have here 🦋

Foxhill House on the University of Reading campus, a large three storey red brick Victorian house

A red plaque fixed to brickwork reading "Alfred Waterhouse, 1830 - 1905, Architect...designed this house and lived here 1868 - 1881"

Stained glass window containing representations of a colourful bird and a bat against the night sky with two stars

Open hall of Foxhill House with students relaxing on leather sofas in front of a large fireplace with ornate wood surround.

Alfred Waterhouse - architect for @nhm-london.bsky.social - also designed Foxhill House in Reading as his home. Now part of the University of Reading campus it was a comfortable destination for our @unirdgento.bsky.social data analysis 'away' day this week!

Palaeontology trilobite practical tomorrow and I’m hoping the students appreciate these wonderful trilobite eyes. #trilobite #palaeontologyatUoR #Colemuseumofzoology @unirdgento.bsky.social @uniofreading.bsky.social

Today I lecturing at @unirdgento.bsky.social on flies…but the wonderful @waspwoman.bsky.social is here talking about Wasps and their value

We share a common issues of disliked hero’s!

@ionace.bsky.social and I identified and databased 6,600 UK ichneumonoids light-trapped by an amazing crew of moth trappers in 2024. Wonderful dataset. Recent highlights: first Rogas luteus for over 100 years and Enicospilus myricae, haven’t seen since I described it in 2016.

A blue damselfly sitting on a finger

Close up image of a pinned metallic blue wasp with a large red eye and long ovipositor

Common blue butterfly sitting on a plantain seed head

A metallic blue jewel beetle with a red stripe across it's back

A few favourites from home and away for this year's #BlueMonday #BlueBugs campaign

1 Azure Damselfly, UK
2 Wasp (ID tbc) - part of our current insect rearing project in Panama. 📷 credit Marleny Rivera
3 Common Blue, UK
4 Jewel beetle, Panama

A Black-tailed Skimmer (dragonfly with green eyes, blue abdomen with a black tip) sitting in sunshine on a reddish rock

To make a change from all that gaudy metallic blue (joking, keep those coming...) here's a lovely Black-tailed Skimmer. Abdomen the colour of a summer sky seen through hazy upper level cloud #BlueBugs #BlueMonday 🟦🌤️

Welcome, what better possible start than an insect collection tour!

AI-INTERVENE is now accepting applications for 26 PhD projects in AI and Biodiversity findaphd.com/phds/program.... Hosted by UCL and the University of Reading, in partnership with NHM, ZSL, Kew Gardens, and UKCEH. More details at ai-intervene.net
#biodiversity #AI #conservation

Image shows an annotated wing of an ichneumon wasp scribbled over with the outline of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer's head

✅ Picture of Rudolph on their wing

✅ DISCOsubmarginal cell

✅ Lay eggs in living bodies of their hosts

Ichneumon wasps are ready for the festive party season!