Corneile Minnaar

Heather nectar extracts reduce within-colony epidemics of the bumblebee parasite Crithidia bombi Abstract. Disease and habitat loss are significant causes of pollinator declines, and evidence indicates the two are linked. In Britain, lowland heath is a

Heather nectar metabolites reduce within-colony epidemics of the bumblebee parasite Crithidia bombi showing that anti microbial compounds in nectar are effective at improving bee health at colony levels. @rbgkew.bsky.social
@markjfbrown.bsky.social
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Photo with just a person's legs and feet visible as well as their luggage which includes a yellow backpack and black cabin bag. The person is on a train to somewhere.

Bags packed, on the train, and super excited to finally attend my first @britishecologicalsociety.org conference! #BES2025 🤸🏼‍♂️🐝 (luggage in bee-colour theme is accidental, promise 😅)

Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly journals in ecology and evolutionary biology Abstract. The current economics of scientific publishing reveal a profound imbalance: academia pays prices far exceeding the actual costs of publication. R

Delighted to publish Forum Article by @nicolasgaltier.bsky.social et al:

"Journals run by learned societies or universities have more ethical policies while being cheaper and similarly cited"

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Thank you for choosing JEB - we encourage the support of #societyjournals

Resource supplementation later in the colony cycle improves real‐world bumblebee colony survival Our findings suggest that B. terrestris colonies became food-limited towards the end of their colony cycle in early summer. We suggest ecological intensification through planting native wildflower sp....

I am absolutely thrilled to share my first chapter, published today in @jappliedecology.bsky.social! Results are summarised in the thread below, or you can read it OA here doi.org/10.1111/1365... @ellileadbeater.bsky.social @rhulbiology.bsky.social @uclcber.bsky.social @ucl-pnl.bsky.social 1/7 🧪

(PDF) A second British record of Paragus quadrifasciatus Meigen (Diptera, Syrphidae) PDF | In short note format, we report the second UK record and the first specimen for Paragus quadrifasciatus (Meigen, 1822), found in Stratford,... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ...

Delighted to share this note on only the second British record of the #hoverfly Paragus quadrifasciatus, which @amaeda16.bsky.social, @ellileadbeater.bsky.social, and I found during a #pollinator survey of the @ucl-pnl.bsky.social garden lab. Read and share! 🧪
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Deciduous leaves may have evolved to be symmetrical and subtly lobed so they fall quicker and land near their parent tree, recycling their annually sequestered carbon. Join us 22 Oct 3:00 PM (London, UK) to hear #JRSocInterface author Kaare Jensen talk about his research: cassyni.com/events/5PbU2...

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species

go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

Purple pollen visible in a dissected flower of Linum grandiflorum, flowering flax, an insect-pollinated species.

*Postdoc in Evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University*
We are recruiting a postdoc for a large interdisciplinary project to investigate evolutionary drivers and genomic consequences of pollen evolution in response to pollination mode shifts in flowering plants. 1/5

su.varbi.com/what:job/job...

Beyond the Grant–Stebbins model: floral adaptive landscapes and plant speciation AbstractBackground. Floral diversity, a striking feature of angiosperm evolution, provides the impetus and rationale for linking pollinator-driven selectio

Is the Most Effective Pollinator Principle a zombie idea? How do plants adapted to one pollinator shift to another without traversing an adaptive valley? How should we measure fitness in pollinator selection studies? We explore these questions and more in a new review doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

A figure showing that light pollution prolongs avian vocal activity by nearly an hour. (A) Most diurnal bird species show bimodal vocalization patterns with peaks in the morning and evening; in light-polluted landscapes (yellow shading), the first vocalizations occur earlier in the morning and the last vocalizations occur later in the evening. (B) Globally—averaged across species, space, and season—onset of morning vocalization shifted 18 min earlier in the brightest landscapes versus the darkest landscapes. (C) Similarly, evening cessation was delayed by an average of 32 min. In (B) and (C), lines are means and shaded regions are 95% confidence intervals (CI) of model predictions.

Light pollution is causing birds around the world to sing for longer each day, prolonging their vocalizations on average by 50 minutes, according to a new study in Science.

Learn more: https://scim.ag/3Uz7vzP

Saving bees with ‘superfoods’: new engineered supplement found to A new study led by the University of Oxford could provide a cost-effective and sustainable solution to help tackle the devastating decline in honeybees. An engineered food supplement, designed to

Press release for our @nature.com paper on the importance of #sterols in the diet of honeybees is here - the piece provides details on the yeast engineering & bioassays. The work was the research of my brilliant PhD student Elynor Moore www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-08...

Major heath blaze at Holt Heath brought under control More than 100 firefighters have worked to get the fast-moving fire under control.

This is devastating. We’ve lost most Lowland Heath in England. It supports unique flora & fauna & healthy bees. Our work @rbgkew.bsky.social w/ @cminnaar.bsky.social & @markjfbrown.bsky.social studies heather nectar for compounds that protect bumblebees from parasites www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Pollinating insect count for City of London Bees, butterflies and moths are being counted across the City of London on Thursday.

Pollinating count to track Square Mile's ecosystem Bees, butterflies and moths are being counted across the City of London on Thursday to document the state of insect populations.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Insects usually care for their own young, but sometimes they also help other species. This #RSOS study found that yellow meadow #ants protect the eggs of root aphids in their nests during winter. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @tparmentier.bsky.social @wybouw.bsky.social

If you've not already followed the cool trans nature experts in this starter pack, you're really missing out.

Also, it's Pride! Get some more trans voices on your timeline!

Front cover of UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme Annual Report 2024, including image of Variable Nomad Bee, Nomada zonata © Steven Falk and logos of UKCEH, JNCC and PoMS

As @royentsoc.bsky.social #InsectWeek begins, we’re excited to share the latest @pomscheme.bsky.social annual report 🐝🪰🪲

Explore this year’s findings and help us welcome The RHS as a new PoMS partner! 👏🏼

Planting a variety of flowers and creating diverse habitats is key for pollinators 🌼

🧵🧪 1/

Check out our latest blog post in celebration of #Pride 🏳️‍🌈

In this post, @zoomingbio.bsky.social‬ shares fieldwork advice for researchers with marginalized identities.

Read the post here 👉 buff.ly/rJhjheF

#RainbowResearch

I found some solitary wasps so engaged @whistlingjoe.bsky.social mode, set up the probe lens and filmed :)

Putting this out here, but I’m available for peer-review request, guest lectures, article writing & collaborations.

My expertise is in animal behaviour & physiology with a focus in North America bats. I also have experience with wildlife diseases and veterinary medicine!

🦇🧪🌎🪶🐞🦅

Localised patterns of wild bee abundance indicate woodlands play multiple roles in supporting farmland populations Across 12 farmland sites, we deployed wild bee traps in deciduous woodland canopies and understories, and in an open habitat (at field margins) before and after canopy closure. Post-canopy closure, .....

Woodlands play multiple roles in supporting farmland populations of wild bees. Deciduous woods provide floral resources, and open woodlands extend availability of understory floral resources respite from hot weather resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Common spotted orchid

Common spotted orchid

Loving the benefits of nature restoration on our beautiful campus @royalholloway.bsky.social @rhulbiology.bsky.social

Global change reshuffles species communities: who could interact with whom? We introduce new ways to measure the capacity of species & communities to rewire interactions, which can be used to predict how ecological networks might adapt to changing conditions.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A new study shows how garden flowers keep city pollinators flying all year round When we think of cities, gardens might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But these green patches — whether in private yards, parks, or balconies — play a surprisingly important role in sup…

In a new study just published, I teamed up with some Brazilian colleagues to explore how the different features of garden flowers help sustain #pollinators throughout the year in a subtropical urban garden.

Read more about it here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/05/30/a...

#biodiversity #ecology #bees

Methods paper by Ollerton et al. on how to improve data quality of plant-pollinator relationships in large data bases that would be worthwhile to become a standard for pollination research! doi.org/10.26786/192...

Ooh! This sounds mind-bendingly interesting 🤔

Lovely bee orchids on @royalholloway.bsky.social campus @rhulbiology.bsky.social

Stomatal transpiration and rapid programmed cell death ☠️ triggered by lowered ambient humidity causes anther tissue collapse for effective pollen release !

Happy to be part of this great PNAS story with @kampova.bsky.social, Matyáš Fendrych, and @svosolsobe.bsky.social! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Gustatory sensitivity to amino acids in bumblebee mouthparts | Royal Society Open Science Bees rely on amino acids from nectar and pollen for essential physiological functions. While nectar typically contains low (less than 1 mM) amino acid concentrations, levels in pollen are higher but variable (10–200 mM). Behavioural studies suggest ...

🚨 Our study from @bethbees.bsky.social lab is out in @royalsocietypublishing.org . We show that bumblebees taste some amino acids (valine), but not others (lysine). Bees might choose flowers not just by how sweet they taste! #bees 🐝 #taste 👅 #pollen #nectar 🌺 #protein 🥩

doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Always a pleasure to come across a Golden-fringed Mason Bee (Osmia aurulenta) nest! This is one of 3 UK bee species to nest in empty snail shells. A female had just finished pasting leaf mastic over the entrance to the shell when I came across her yesterday at Porth Neigwl.

#SolitaryBeeWeek