Ian Beavis

Yellow Meadow Ant nest mounds show up well in low winter sun. Take a look at the ant city in the grassland south of Wellington Rocks on Tunbridge Wells Common.

A young Sessile Earthstar, Geastrum fimbriatum.

A young Sessile Earthstar, Geastrum fimbriatum.

Sessile Earthstar, Geastrum fimbriatum.

In Beech woods at Marlingford, Norfolk.

Seen on yesterday's bike ride.

www.first-nature.com/fungi/geastr...

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Moth Advent 3. Back to Surrey mid-May for another evening on the heath, but on the way I stopped in Berkshire to scratch a long-time itch – Geoff! And he didn’t disappoint. Alabonia geoffrella isn’t just one of Britain’s most beautiful moths, it’s one of our most beautiful animals. #TeamMoth

Significant numbers of hoverflies visiting Mahonia & Fatsia in Calverley Grounds today, along with honeybees. And numerous bluebottles sunning themselves on the Fatsia's large leaves

The amazing Helicopter Damselfly Mecistogaster amalia. This large damselfly has a 14 centimetre wingspan and flies slowly around the forest plucking spiders from their webs. One of the highlights of a visit to Onofre Cunha REGUA in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil last week

A little pseudoscorpion with large reddish claws held tucked up and pulled back against its sides. The pseudoscorpion is on a dark grey piece of old roof slate and is facing left. Its body is a pale yellowy-brown colour.

A little pseudoscorpion with large reddish claws held out in front of it as it walks off to the left on a dark grey piece of old roof slate. Its body is a pale yellowy-brown colour and the legs are almost transparent. It has just one pair of eyes (several other species have 2 pairs, some have none).

Pseudoscorpions have been a bit thin on the ground lately, I've drawn a blank at 8 churchyards in a row now so finding this little Roncus lubricus on yesterday's bike ride was even more special than usual. Only 3rd one I've found.

Life history plate for Duke of Burgundy (see last repost) & Grizzled Skipper from F W Frohawk's Natural History of British Butterflies (1925)

Another day another work party to save the Duke of Burgundy in Dorset. This time at Giant Hill to clear encroaching scrub and open up cowslip rich downland @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

photo of Tasmanian mountain shrimp by joeysantore on iNaturalist. It is dark brown and a few cm long, similar to a crayfish but lacking chelae

photo of syncarids by beschwar on iNaturalist. they are tiny white eyeless creatures with long bodies.

there's an entire superorder (very big category) of crustaceans called Syncarids, and like 99% of them are tiny white eyeless sub-millimeter things living in cavewater, except in Tasmania, where they just casually live on the surface world like regular shrimp. infuriating

New research from Belgium doesn’t support the ‘lost generation’ theory for the decline of the Wall, but does show reduced survival with warming temperatures 🌍 nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... (📷 Mark Searle)

Nipplewort growing in a front garden planter, Tunbridge Wells #wildflowerhour

Groundsel and Water Bent (the grass) with foliage of Common Chickweed - street weed ensemble in Tunbridge Wells #wildflowerhour

A large patch of Yarrow with flowers lingering on in Dunorlan Park #wildflowerhour

The hoverfly Eupeodes luniger at Mahonia in Calverley Grounds today. Not one of the three traditional winter-active hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus, Eristalis tenax, Meliscaeva auricollis) but increasingly moving into that category.

Today's sunshine brought out a Red Admiral in a sheltered corner of Calverley Grounds. This species didnt use to survive the English winter so never properly hibernates.

Following up that last repost with some Clouded Yellow varieties from A D A Russwurm's Aberrations of British Butterflies (1978)

A rather small helice form of Clouded Yellow at Southbourne today. This individual had a delecate lemon flush on the wings. 😀 @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Tresco Abbey Gardens. I’ve been wanting to visit for 30 years and it didn’t disappoint. A riot of exotica and interesting plants. Loved the South African collection and the mature palms

image/jpeg a collection of microscopic photos of organisms with a wide diversity of vase-shaped shells. Colour ranges from yellow to red to purple. A size bar indicates they are about 50 microns in width but can be many times longer. Taken from Dolan et al. 2013. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Biology+and+Ecology+of+Tintinnid+Ciliates%3A+Models+for+Marine+Plankton-p-9780470671511

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐

A fairly warm night forecast, so we put the lamp out for the first time in a while. Just the one species …. But four gorgeous December Moths.
#moths #TeamMoth #MothsMatter #ento #UKwildlife

Scarce Umber, last seen in 2022. Incidentally - for those of you not familiar with my methods and machinations - the anglepoise actinic is a reading lamp I've screwed a 20W actinic bulb into and which can then be angled such that the business end shines out into the garden.

I'd all but retired from mothing for the year. My traps were decomissioned. Then an hour ago I remembered that last night, on a whim, I'd flicked on the anglepoise actinic sometime after 1 a.m. And there, stickered on the outside of the glass above the still-lit lamp was this moth. #TeamMoth

Beetles from ‘Collection de fleurs, d’oiseaux d’insectes.’ Drawn and colored, some from nature, others from the colored plates of Buffon, Roezel, and Catesby by various students of the Royal School of Sorèze. Manuscript, 1783-1789.

Harvard’s Houghton Library.

#naturalhistory #sciart #beetleart

I was going to post the refs in Liddell Scott Jones, which cites Aristotle for the noun meaning membrane for insects' wings & Strabo & Lucian for the adjective.

Linnaeus would have followed classical usage where the noun hymen always means a membrane & so does the derived adjective which Lucian applies to a fly. Aristotle uses 'hymen' in a discussion of insect's wings saying they're a type of membrane. LSJ confirms this.

It’s not often that I find a slightly different 7-spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata), so it was good to see one today with very reduced central spots! #VC40Ladybirds

Yes, the word Hymenoptera means membrane-winged & is known as a Classical Greek adjective. You'd think there was a link with the god Hymen via the female anatomical hymen but my Greek & Latin dictionaries dont confirm that. Nor does the OED.

The Collared earthstars (Geastrum triplex) were out at both the old and the new sections of Cathays Cemetery today - always a joy to see these stunning fungi. #FungiFriday

A few Southern Emerald Damselfly seen at Cliffe Marshes, North Kent in early July. Nationally scarce and a stunner to study and photograph. @britishdragonflies.bsky.social @dragonflydamselfly.bsky.social #Teamdragonfly #UKwildlife

Mottled Umber

Male December Moth showing off it's antennae

14 of 16 December Moths, 1 Large Yellow Underwing, 1 Chestnut, 1 Clancy's Rustic and a Mottled Umber

A nice haul in VC20 last night of 27:8, helped by a few female December Moths appearing, 16 in total (still not my highest count), there was a mating pair & some eggs. Late Clancy's Rustic & LYUW plus 3 Red-Green Carpets & a Chestnut (not yesterday's missing one) & the usual micros! #Teammoth

48/18 in SE Hants last night, a bit of a bumper harvest for this time of year. Scarce Umber NFG was a surprise as it’s very (ahem) scarce in this area. Feathered Thorn x9 the most numerous and A. logiana hasn’t been a regular this year. Migrants, 2 RDP + 1 Diamond Back #teammoth #migrantmothuk