Ian Beavis

Fresh looking female of Yellow-legged Mining Bee (Andrena flavipes) in Calverley Grounds today. This species does occasionally produce a small 3rd generation at this site

Red-tailed Bumblebee queen in Calverley Grounds today

Illustration from Sowerby's Mineral Conchology of the large ammonite he named after William Buckland. It shows a large spiral shell with its inner whorls missing.

Extract from Sowerby's published description: 'Found in the Blue Lias of Bath and the neighbourhood, measuring from a foot to 21 inches or more in diameter, and rather remarkable for having frequently lost the inner whorls; which circumstance, by a sort of friendly pun, has given rise to the name given it, in honour of a meritorious and enlightened Geologist, the Rev. W. Buckland, who having found a large specimen, was induced by his ardour to carry it himself, although of considerable weight, and being on horseback it was not the less inconvenient; but the inner whorls being gone so as to allow his head and shoulder to pass through, he placed it as a French horn is sometimes carried, above one shoulder and under the other, and thus rode with his friendly companions, who amused him by dubbing him an Ammon Knight; and thus the specimen was secured, by diverting the tedious toil otherwise hardly to be borne. May his zeal for information always be rewarded: may his abilities continue to meet that attention they have hitherto so deservedly gained: may his horn be exalted with honour.'

#MolluscMonday: James Sowerby's illustration of Ammonites bucklandi from the Lias of the Bath district, in vol.2 of Mineral Conchology (1818), the description brightened by the tale of William Buckland being proclaimed an 'Ammon Knight' by his friends for his mode of carrying a large specimen.

Some years I've had them hanging on into November!

Common Storksbill on Tunbridge Wells Common - the form here is consistently paler than normal #wildflowerhour

Pink-purple form of Yarrow that has been appearing in the same spot on Rusthall Common for several years #wildflowerhour

Black Nightshade on Rusthall Common #wildflowerhour

A few flowers of Perforate St John's Wort hanging on in Calverley Grounds #wildflowerhour

Speckled Wood (with a Harlequin Ladybird) at Mount Edgcumbe Rocks on Tunbridge Wells Common today - a sheltered spot where they commonly appear very late in the year

A fresh looking Red Admiral on Rusthall Common today

Female of Mellinus arvensis (Field Digger Wasp) on Tunbridge Wells Common today - the most late-flying of the solitary wasps

The tiny hoverfly Neoascia podagrica feeding at ragwort on Rusthall Common today

Ivy Bee female foraging on Rusthall Common today

Still a few very fresh Walls on Corfe Common, my first ever October sightings in UK. @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Yes. Graeme gives the details in his blog - link included in his post

Plate from the Oxford Book of Invertebrates (1975) showing single-celled marine organisms including (at fig.1) the phosphorescent Noctiluca (see last repost)

The star of the show this #MicroscopyMonday is Noctiluca scintillans — a giant among plankton! At up to 2 mm across, visible to the naked eye.

Around UK and European coasts, it sometimes forms blooms that appear pinkish-red or orange, creating the phenomenon known as “red tides.”

A little known outpost of the Channel Islands

Locust Blowfly, Stomorhina lunata, Fen Bog, N Yorkshire 24Sept @ynuorg.bsky.social @suillia.bsky.social

A late-flying male of the mining bee Lasioglossum leucozonium in Calverley Grounds

Large nesting aggregation of Ivy Bee in Calverley Grounds

Cave Bristletail Trigoniophthalmus alternatus Buckfastleigh Devon

Congratulations!

Nice to see the male of the large & impressive mining bee Halictus scabiosae, widespread in the Channel Islands but not yet recorded in mainland Britain

Finally some fungi appearing locally in East Yorkshire, and with those come the fungus-breeding, spiny-winged heleomyzid flies, like this gorgeous Suillia notata at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve. #heleomyzidae @ynuorg.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

This one has been resident locally in Dunorlan Park for several years, and this year turned up for the first time in Grosvenor & Hilbert Park

You can find out more about our #NMCCbiodiversity work by tuning into Gardeners World this Friday, at 8pm on BBC TWO.

📺 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Small Copper (on yarrow) and female Common Blue (feeding at Mouse-ear Hawkweed) still active in Calverley Grounds today

The tachinid fly Ectophasia crassipennis in Calverley Grounds today. Quite new as part of the UK fauna and now widespread around Tunbridge Wells

A stunning Sargus bipunctatus soldierfly seen in Tamworth, #Staffs 30/08/25 @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @kitenet.bsky.social #soldierfly