Foraging Ecology Research Group

Thanks, Josie, for running such a great workshop! So many great discussions and exciting things to come! 🐟🕸️🏞️

We've really enjoyed having @maximuminsect.bsky.social join us for #EcoNet2025, #Ento25 and for a joint group meeting with @nclneg.bsky.social! See you soon, Max!

I had a great time talking to #Ento25 about peer review! We even had them peer reviewing some mock papers and they all did exceptionally well!

FERG News September 2025 Another month of fieldwork and fun here in FERG! Alongside all of the various field experiments well under way, we’ve had some exciting adventures to conferences and courses, some new article…

Another month of fieldwork and fun here in FERG! We’ve had some exciting adventures to conferences and courses, some new articles and protocols and more! 🏞️📃🧪

Check out our latest news post and subscribe on our homepage for email updates!

foragingecology.com/2025/09/04/f...

Thanks to Max Tercel for chairing a session at #EcoNet2025 and for giving a talk to us and @foragingecology.bsky.social at our joint group meeting on Monday

What a buzzing time at #EcoNet2025! Was thrilled to get to share some of my PhD work and to meet so many lovely researchers! Thanks so much to all the organizers.

@foragingecology.bsky.social with a strong showing and a prize winning talk by @beatricedale.bsky.social 🐝🌳

Check out what Rosy's up to in the field! Some great samples on their way back to Newcastle soon! 🤩🕷️🕸️

If you want to keep up with these newsletters, you can subscribe to our email updates on our website homepage!

www.foragingecology.com

If you want to delve even further back, check out our update from May too!

foragingecology.com/2025/05/01/f...

There's even an entomological crossword to have a go at, designed by the one and only @bensjhawthorne.bsky.social!

FERG News June 2025 It’s been another busy month, with plenty of fieldwork underway, some new faces and some nice new outputs! Read below for all of the recent updates, some other things we’d like to share…

What's going on in FERG?!

Find out in our monthly news post!
foragingecology.com/2025/06/08/f...

Some incredible updates and photos from the group, including new papers, fieldwork antics and outreach programmes! There's even a foraging logic puzzle to have a go at.

After such a great response to #spiderspies yesterday and so many people sharing it, I've already had 6 responses in just one day, and 3 people have requested sample kits! So I'll be making a trip to the post office this afternoon to get those sent out to people 🕷️✉️ spider mail here we come

Spider Spies Welcome to Spider Spies! Flower crab spiders (Misumena vatia) love to live in flower verges, which are great for pollinators, biodiversity buffer zones and natural pest control. We want to find out…

Further information about the scheme can be found here foragingecology.com/spider-spies/ along with links to our recording form.

Please feel free to ask me any questions about the scheme, the spiders or the work I'm doing with them!

🚨WHERE ARE THE CRAB SPIDERS?🚨

If you spot any crab spiders on flowers, help out @envirosyment.bsky.social by sending in photos and, even better, live spiders! This will help inform her important research on the weird and wonderful interactions between invertebrate predators and plants!

Mia and Ben with one of the posts

One of the fully set up posts

We had a great time last week putting up experimental lamp posts at one of the university's experimental farms for @miacroftento.bsky.social's upcoming artificial light experiments! We even had a mining bee digging its hole near ours - perhaps setting up their own lamp posts! 💡🐝

What beautiful scenery! 🤩 Lots of exciting things ahead for Broghan!

Also found some great carabid #beetles up here, although this one was not so happy and did try to make a meal out of my finger 🪲

Fairly certain this is a pterostichus but not sure on the species so will be sending over to @chrisfoster.bsky.social and the recording scheme

We're really excited about these new article types!

Share your perspectives on the impact of policy on insects in agriculture and forestry! 📃🐝🐛

Publish new methods and applications of methods from other fields! 🧪🪲💻

Check out the updated guidelines and keep eyes peeled for more updates to come!

Massive congrats to @envirosyment.bsky.social for being selected as the next @royentsoc.bsky.social Student Rep! 🎉🎓🪲

Welcome to Bluesky, Broghan! 😃🚁🌳

Hello all ☺️
I start new accounts with a quote that’s meaningful to me:
“Loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine; but it is still finer to defy arbitrary power, unjustly and cruelly used–not on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of others more helpless.” - Elizabeth Gaskell
#ethics

Really wonderful talk from Chris on his journey through ecology and his current work. Will definitely be sending him and the carabid recording scheme all the carabid data from my master's work last year!

Will, @envirosyment.bsky.social and @bensjhawthorne.bsky.social are having a great time at the @royentsoc.bsky.social #SF25 this week! Be sure to say hello if you're there! 🪱🕷️🐝 #StudentForum2025Squad

It is truly an honour to be shortlisted for the Elton Prize! Reflecting on this paper for the blog was really nice - we had such a great time writing it and it's driving so much of what we're doing in @foragingecology.bsky.social!

Check out the paper here: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Great @sciencesncl.bsky.social Ecosystems PGR Seminar from our very own Will Dawson today about his PhD work using ecoacoustics and metagenomics to construct soil trophic networks! 🔊🪱🧬

Great journal club today with friends from @nclneg.bsky.social! We talked about this excellent paper from Heger et al. in the latest issue of @oikosjournal.bsky.social:
doi.org/10.1111/oik.... A great discussion on the importance of philosophy in ecology and how it informs and shapes our work!

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science – a time to celebrate the incredible women that lead and drive our research!

@envirosyment.bsky.social, @miacroftento.bsky.social, Broghan and Yiran, our research and the group are what they are thanks to you and your expertise and dedication!

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Great to see our very own Broghan featured here, getting ready to fly her drone! 🚁🌳

A great day was had by all! It's a joy working with such a great group of scientists, entomologists and beyond!

@bensjhawthorne.bsky.social et al. review the integration of DNA metabarcoding with traditional insect monitoring methods in agriculture. Molecular analysis presents many distinct benefits, but also some challenges that require careful consideration and expertise.
doi.org/10.1111/afe....