David Notton

UK must stockpile food in readiness for climate shocks or war, expert warns Prof Tim Lang says country produces far less food than it needs to feed population and is particularly vulnerable

Ensuring #FoodSecurity - surely a crucial government responsibility on which Westminster has been failing for decades

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Stand Up for Science plans second rally on March 7 Public health chaos and research funding cuts are inspiring nationwide pro-science protests against the Trump administration

Public health chaos and research funding cuts are inspiring nationwide pro-science protests against the Trump administration

ICZN call for new Commissioners:

Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text Discovery sheds new light on how famed astronomer came to lead a scientific revolution

If this Galileo discovery turns out to be what it seems to be, it'll be very cool indeed.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Integrative systematics of a new species of the gall wasp genus Belonocnema Mayr (Cynipidae, Cynipini) on the Mesoamerican live oak Quercus oleoides (Fagaceae) and its associated hymenopteran communit... Belonocnema Mayr (Cynipidae, Cynipini) is an oak gall wasp genus currently known by three described species distributed in the southern and southeastern U.S. and northern Mexico, all associated with l...

Meet Belonocnema mesoamericana, a new species of Belonocnema that we described on Mexican live oak! This is a fun little critter that makes velvety root galls, a great find by @scottpegan.bsky.social and Alejandro Zaldívar-Riverón's team at UNAM.

jhr.pensoft.net/article/1851...

Callitula pyrrhogaster

Callitula cf bicolor

Callitula cf bicolor

Wildlife Group's trip to Llanymynech Rocks on the England/Wales border yesterday in glorious sunshine produced the tiny (c. 2mm), wingless wasp Callitula pyrrhogaster as usual. But we also founds its fully-winged relative C. cf bicolor for a change.

#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.

# 281

Bumblebees spend long periods in bright sunlight but can’t close their eyes.
UV induced damage is known to impact the eyes of some insects but bumblebee eyes exposed to similar levels of UV-radiation appear unaffected.
#bees
#nature
#science
🐝🌍

Male Anthophora plumipes bee feeding on Red Dead-nettle in St Paul's churchyard, Fazeley, #Staffs 04/03/26 #solitarybee

Exotische sluipwesp duikt op in Drenthe: 'Natuurlijke vijand van gevreesde fruitvlieg' In Drenthe is een nieuw insect opgedoken. Onderzoekers van Wageningen University & Research (WUR) hebben vastgesteld dat de Leptopilina japonica, een Aziatische sluipwesp, zich in onze provincie heeft...

De natuurlijke vijand van de ongewenste Suzuki-fruitvlieg is in NL aangetroffen, soms in grote aantallen! Het is goed nieuws als er een biologische bestrijder is (ipv gif). En het is natuurlijk … een wesp 😉 Binnen de Hymenoptera bevinden zich veel soorten parasitica www.rtvdrenthe.nl/nieuws/18259...

Thanks!

Bee hotels

Bee hotels

Bee hotels on shed

Taking advantage of the good weather to install more bee hotels at the Lauriston Farm allotments, hopefully the local Red mason bees will move in and help pollinate the nearby fruit trees #Edinburgh

Bombus pratorum

The bright sun brought out this Early bumblebee queen today at Lauriston Farm #Edinburgh - it was nectaring at willow flowers

One way to name after the Bacchae would be Eciton baccharum- baccharum is Latin genitive plural meaning 'of the bacchae' or even just Eciton bacchae - simply the nominative plural noun in apposition, these are common ways to form zoological names.

‘I love midges because I know what their hearts look like’: is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out? Insect taxonomist Art Borkent has described and named more than 300 species of midges but fears his field of science is dying out, despite millions of insects, fungi and other organisms waiting to be ...

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

March sees the return of bumblebee queens as they emerge from hibernation – here are some of the common species you can spot this month 👀

Have you spotted your first bumblebee of 2026?

🔎 Brush up on your bumblebee identification skills: https://ow.ly/af3U50Yi2iq

Could Rights of Nature save Britain’s disappearing wildlife? - British Ecological Society Join us for a special evening at Burlington House as our expert panel of ecologists, lawyers and members of parliament debate this innovative approach to protecting our vanishing biodiversity.

Looking forward to speaking about Rights for Nature at this event in May with the British Ecological Society. Suspect tickets may sell out at the wonderful Burlington House.

#NaturesRights
www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/righ...

Portrait of a giant forest ant (Dinomyrmex gigas). What an absolute puppy! 🐜 🐶 🐜 Danum Valley, Sabah.

PFOS 'forever chemical' can accumulate in bees—and their honey A study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology has revealed the toxic "forever chemical," PFOS, can accumulate in exposed honeybee colonies and transfer to their honey, threatenin...

No escape on this #PoisonedPlanet, for any species of animal, including us

#PublicHealth #NovelEntities #ForeverChemicals
phys.org/news/2026-02...

European red list of bees - Publications Office of the EU

European Red List of Bees
op.europa.eu/en/publicati...

#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.

# 277

The 3 simple eyes, ocelli, on the upper front of the bumblebee head are very sensitive to UV light and seem to act as sensors for light levels, but unlike the compound eyes, they are not capable of forming useful images.
#bees
#nature
#science
🌍🐝

An historic black and white illustration of a paper nautilus floating on the ocean. There are boats, a city and hills in the background.

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪

Morning Northern Paper #Wasp from my fall garden.🌞
#Flyday #BugSky #macro #photography #nature #insects #dailyphoto #eastcoastkin #Insecta #Vespidae

I'm sure there's good reasons for a creature to look like this 💙

A macro photo of a slender, tiny wasp atop a batch of katydid eggs. The eggs, which look like brown lima beans, are tiled along a brown grass stem. Four have roundish holes chewed through their sides, where parasitoid wasps (like the one perched on top of them) chewed their way out. The wasp is metallic-copper colored with a yellow abdomen band and large eyes.

A macro photo of a group of katydid eggs, which look like brown lima beans, tiled along a brown grass stem against a pale green background. In the upper right, a tiny wasp's face is peeking out of an escape hole it is chewing from the inside of a katydid egg it has parasitized. A second egg, lower left, has a hole in it where a wasp has already hatched and flown off.

A macro photo of a tiny, green, newly-hatched katydid nymph perched atop a fingertip, against a green and blue-green background. The fingertip and katydid are lower right, and one of the katydid's extremely long antennae stretches all the way up to the upper left corner of the frame.

From a few years ago: katydid eggs mostly parasitized by tiny wasps. When a katydid hatches, the egg opens like a clam shell; but as you can see (pic 2), if there's a parasitoid wasp inside, they chew their way out. Btw, the baby katydid on my fingertip hatched from the same egg clutch. #BugSky 🐙🌿

Pteromalidae, but I'm not sure beyond that.

#Wasps #Hymenoptera #VC55

Scotland and Wales have brought in important new laws that aim to protect wildlife and help nature recover. These changes could be a big step forward for the recovery of bumblebees, other pollinators, and the many species that urgently need better protection.

📰 https://ow.ly/TpBo50Ymw2U

Macro photo in side view of a black and yellow striped wasp standing on a pure white background with its orange, black-tipped antennae held out in front. The wasp is fairly stubby, with short legs and a rather cylindrical shape.

The emergence of spring bees here in Austin also means the emergence of somewhat rarer bee parasites. I caught this Sapyga nevadica wasp yesterday; it lays eggs in solitary bee nests.

Quantifying the unquantifiable: why Hymenoptera, not Coleoptera, is the most speciose animal order 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 speciose, due in large part to the massively diverse but ...

“…if the micro-hymenopterists would get off their lazy asses and start describing species, there would be more micro-Hymenoptera than there are Coleoptera.”
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...