David Notton

Clockwise from top-left: Common Daisy, Fiddleneck, Yarrow, Red Campion. Feverfew, Common Ragwort, White Clover, Red Clover & Viper’s Bugloss.

Some #Speyside finds for this week’s #Wildflowerhour.
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbiscotland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social #Moray #VC95

Good to see that butterfly numbers have increased this year at Lauriston Farm, Edinburgh's Agroecology project, you can read their report here www.lauristonfarm.scot/news/results...

Why do bees buzz - and how can their vibrations inspire micro-robots? 🐝

Join Dr @charliezoology.bsky.social on 13 January 2026 for a FREE webinar exploring bee buzz biology, field research and robotic applications. 🌎 🧪

More info: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1850820516...

24 pieces of amber containing insects, all slightly different sizes and shapes, but all small and pinned to a clear plastic board

Imagine a drop of ancient resin. Inside is an insect, trapped for 53 million years, so well preserved it looks like it might twitch back into life. These amber fossils offer us a breath-taking glimpse into long vanished ecosystems.

But there’s a catch

side view of a tiny brownish wasp, its fringed wings are held vertically above body, and it head with a large red eye is facing to the right of the picture

A female Anaphes ovipositor parasitoid wasp of the Mymaridae found on 12.6.2025 under pine trees in Brede High Woods.

#UKWildlife #wasps #Mymaridae #HighWeald

DNA barcoding of Messor ants of Bulgaria with insights into their taxonomic diversity Despite ongoing efforts to catalogue European ant species, studies focusing on the genetic diversity of Balkan ants remain limited. An integrative approach combining morphology, genetics, ecology and ...

A DNA barcode sequencing analysis of the ants of the genus Messor, with a particular focus on the Bulgarian fauna.

#ants #entomology #taxonomy

doi.org/10.3897/BDJ....

#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.

# 206

Again the #bumblebee v #honeybee theme:

Bumblebee eyes allow higher spatial resolution in vision than honey bee eyes so details are clearer, however, honey bees have better colour discrimination abilities than bumbles.
#bees

Macro photo of the face of a black ant with a deep red thorax standing over a dense herd of greenish-yellow aphids.

A colony of aphids tended by a Camponotus noveboracensis carpenter ant. South Bristol, New York.

The Birnam Oak and its neighbour the Birnam Sycamore are thought to be the sole surviving trees of the great forest celebrated in Shakespeare's Macbeth as ‘Birnam Wood’ #BirnamWood

#GreatTreesof Britain #GTOB 🏆🌳🌳🇬🇧

How many plant species are buzz pollinated? After more than six years in the making, our paper on the convergent evolution of buzz pollinated flowers is out in @journal-evo.bsky.social. Thanks @draverbee.bsky.social @roszenil.bsky.social and all co-authors for your hard work! doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Dave Goulson: Saving Our Insects About the Event Insects are fascinating, beautiful, and essential — without them, ecosystems grind to a halt. Yet their numbers are in alarming decline. In this urgent and inspiring talk, ...

Still a few tickets left for this evening actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve...

View looking directly at the head and antennae of a tiny wasp. This is a slide mounted image. The circular brown part is the head, with large black eyes either side. The two small pale circles at the bottom of the head are the toruli out of which emerge the antennae. Between the toruli are the mandibles.

Looking at the face of a Thysanus ater wasp of the Signiphoridae.

#UKWildlife #wasps #Signiphoridae #entomology

Nearly half of UK garden space is paved over, RHS study finds Homeowners urged to use more robust planting and permeable materials to help mitigate flood risk Nearly half of the UK’s garden space is paved over, a new study has found. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has conducted the largest ever audit of the UK’s gardens, and found that they are an untapped – and until now, mostly unmeasured – potential resource for nature. Continue reading...

Nearly half of UK garden space is paved over, RHS study finds

Macro photo of a large, blind, eyeless ant rearing up with her sharp sickle-shaped mandibles open above a seething mass of smaller ants.

In which our intrepid photographer narrowly escaped being murdered by driver ants in Kibale Forest, Uganda.

Some ant architects design a colony to cut the risk of disease. Humans, take note! One kind of tiny ant can serve as a monumental example for how to keep members of a community safe from pathogens. A new study shows how they do it.

Even ants are better at public health than Americans. 🧪 www.npr.org/sections/goa...

Marsh Fritillary (Iain Leach)

Large Blue (Neil Hulme)

Fascinating Swedish study proving that threatened butterflies can still disperse surprisingly long distances eg Marsh Fritillary >8km and more than 10% of Large Blues travelled at least 1km resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🌍

Great to see Lauriston Agroecology Farm among the finalists for its community work

To mark International Open Access Week, we had the pleasure of having a SAHA Conversation with Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland (@breerob-kirk.bsky.social),member of the Editorial Board of the Scottish Universities Press (@scotunipress.bsky.social)

Full episode available wherever you get your podcast

Robbin Thorp and the image he took of Franklin’s bumble bee

The mysterious population decline of the imperiled Franklin’s bumble bee, which once flourished in a small area of northern California and southern Oregon, is not due to pathogens, but most likely to population bottlenecks and environmental issues—PNAS entnem.ucdavis.edu/news/populat...

@davidnotton.bsky.social Am thinking Callaspidia defonscolombei of the Figitidae, Aspicerinae. Does that seem plausible?

Yes

Galls, thieves, and parasites: Iowa biologists unspool wild world of oak-dwelling wasps Iowa biologist Andrew Forbes’ lab, with a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, is revealing the unknown ecological world of parasitic wasps, which have value to cataloging biological diver...

However small my role may be, I’m proud to be a part of this research! @lordforbington.bsky.social @toomanywasps.bsky.social @guerin-brown.bsky.social

stories.uiowa.edu/galls-thieve...

BBC News. Scottish Greens promise free bus travel for all. The Scottish Greens have pledged to replace council tax and make bus travel free for everyone in Scotland.

Since we delivered free bus travel for those under the age of 22, over 250 million free journeys have been taken.

That's congestion off ours streets, pollution out our air, and money back in people's pockets.

That's a resounding success we can build on.

👉 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Sunday book review - Endemic by @bsbicountries.bsky.social
Publisher: @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social @chiffchat.bsky.social
Review: markavery.info/2025/10/19/s...

'Great book!'

@bsbibotany.bsky.social #buglife #Lundy #coleoptera #stonefly #fungi @ianparsons.bsky.social #cambridge #york #ragwort

Wesp jaagt nog

Het seizoen waarin sociale wespen nog op jacht zijn naar vlees voor de larven in het nest, is wel voorbij. Maar werksters hebben geen kalender die dat vermeldt, dus als ze een rups zien, zullen ze die toch verschalken en er een gehaktballetje van kauwen. #ElkeDagEenInsect

The 2026 bumblebee calendar is here! 🗓️🐝

Our 100% recycled A4 calendar includes:
📸 Stunning photos by our supporters
💡 Fun bumblebee facts
🌱 Gardening tips
🌻 Planting guides
👀 Bumblebees to see this month
🔎 llustrated bumblebee ID guide

Get yours today: https://ow.ly/joKW50Xe5Bj

BHL Transition Update #6: Fundraising Campaign – Support the Future of Open Biodiversity Knowledge The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is launching a new public fundraising campaign to help us navigate our transition to independence. This is our first major campaign since the announcement th…

Support the Biodiversity Heritage Library 📖 🐺🦚🦎🦋🦠🌺🌲 blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/10/dona...

Close-up macrophotograph of several oak leaf galls created by wasps in the genus Neuroterus. The galls are small, disk-like, and slightly raised from the leaf surface. Each one is pale cream to yellowish with a dense covering of fine reddish-brown spots that radiate outward, giving them a speckled appearance. The centers are slightly domed and fuzzy, while the edges are thin and blend into the green leaf tissue. The leaf’s surface is sharply in focus, showing its network of veins and natural texture. The contrast between the smooth green of the leaf and the intricate pattern of the galls creates a striking biological detail, highlighting the delicate architecture of these insect-induced growths.

When you see this on oak, what would you think it was? These tiny round growths are galls, the homes of wasps in the genus (likely) Neuroterus. I love finding these on my hikes, those small signs of the hidden world around us.

#bugsky #entomology #ukwildlife🌿

Found this male Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) on its back with its wings stuck to the damp on the roof of the car. Rescued and placed on Ivy flowers and it started feeding straight away🐝

Mounting risks threaten survival of wild European pollinators – IUCN Red List Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 11 October 2025 (IUCN) – Nearly 100 additional wild bee species in Europe have been classified as threatened in a new assessment for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Sp...

"Nearly 100 additional wild bee species in Europe have been classified as threatened in a new assessment for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species..."

Is anyone familiar with what species? I can't find a full summary list online. Thanks in advance 🐝🌿