Female Common Earwigs Forficula auricularia are very good mothers. After spending the winter guarding her batch of eggs she cares for the nymphs for several weeks and regurgitates food for them. The nymphs will disperse when they are large enough to fend for themselves. Dartmoor, Devon
New #OpenAccess research in #RESSystematicEnt
#Phylogenomics of #Anthomyiidae and a revised classification of #Scathophagidae (#Diptera: #Calyptratae)
doi.org/10.1111/syen.70037
#Taxonomy
@gkergoat.bsky.social @wileyecology.bsky.social
An iridescent dark navy blue beetle with short soft wing covers on top of a very large soft abdomen walks across a dead leaf. It has a very narrow thorax and head, and beaded antennae.
An iridescent dark navy blue beetle with short soft wing covers on top of a very large soft abdomen walks across a dead leaf. It has a very narrow thorax and head, and beaded antennae.
An iridescent dark navy blue beetle with short soft wing covers on top of a very large soft abdomen lies curled up with legs tucked in on a leaf. It has a very narrow thorax and head, and beaded antennae. There is an orange-yellow droplet of oily cantharidin coming out of the middle leg joint.
Close up of an orange-yellow droplet of oily cantharidin coming out of the middle leg joint of the beetle.
Excited to finally get pics of this genus of oil/blister beetle! This female played dead when disturbed & exuded droplets of cantharidin from her legs. This sticky substance can cause blisters & has been called "Spanish fly". Larvae are parasites of solitary bee nests. #Meloidae: #Meloe; NC, USA
Looks remarkably like Meloe but is it?
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
It’s #WorldBookDay so botany friends, what is your favourite book? For me it’s Sell & Murrell’s epic Flora of GB&I. I came to it late, with the publication of the final vol (vol 1) in 2018. I was already into Rubus but elucidated critical botany for me & enabled recording fine scale diversity.
Embarrassed to say I was completely unaware that this 5-volume flora of the British isles (assets.cambridge.org/97805215/533...) even existed! Knew about the classic Clapham, Tutin & Warburg work & Clive Stace’s New Flora, but not Sell & Murrell! 😬
Antarctic Invertebrates: Diversity and Threats - Peter Convey via @biologicalrecording.co.uk Recording + Q&A now available!
biologicalrecording.co.uk/2026/03/05/a...
What is Pan-Species Listing (PSL)?
A challenge to record every UK species you’ve seen in your lifetime – across ALL wildlife groups. It’s holistic, flexible & grows with your skills.
Join our FREE entoLIVE with Graeme Lyons on 13 May to learn more.
Sign up: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1977266072...
View of a line of large maple trees, with many small saplings around them, along the property line between two houses. It's sunny and there's a light layer of snow on the ground.
It's time! Today we tap for #BackYardSugarBush2026. It's warm (+3C) and sunny, and the trees are calling to me. Here's my little sugar bush: 4 sugar maples in a line along the side of my back yard. Time to tap!
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Interior of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, showing historic wooden bookcases and a decorated ceiling. In the foreground, a sign displays the traditional Bodleian Oath, which readers must read aloud before being admitted to use the library. The oath reads: 'I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, or to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document, or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library'
The traditional Bodleian Oath, which every reader is required to read aloud on seeking admission to the Bodleian Libraries 📚
#WorldBookDay
📷 | @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Cover image of paperback edition of the Tree of Life book by Max Telford.
On world book day might you be tempted to preorder the paperback edition of The Tree of Life?
Out in pb on April 23rd.
www.amazon.co.uk/Tree-Life-So...
For background on the project see "BioNames: linking taxonomy, texts, and trees" (https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj. 190 L) and "Ten years and a million links: building a global taxonomic library connecting persistent identifiers for names, publications and people" (https://doi.org/BDJ.11.e107914 L). Database Statistics Distinct name clusters Names with publications Names with DOls Names with free PDFs Total names 5,464,929 4,496,603 1,782,674 504,962 286,091
Slowly adding content to bionames.org and tweaking the interface. Hope page loads faster now and looks a little better on mobile. Lots of DOIs and PDFs for taxonomic papers, but so much to do. Half a million names linked to DOIs, wish it were more.
Author interview with Peter Sutton: Field Guide to the Grasshoppers and Allies of Great Britain and Ireland via @nhbs.bsky.social
www.nhbs.com/blog/author-...
Got this book on an inter library loan, not because I have a special interest in East African Tettigoniidae, Anostostomatidae & Gryllacrididae but because taxonomically sound & well illustrated accounts of Old World members of these families are hard to come by.
www.schweizerbart.de/publications...
A comprehensive taxonomic checklist of bark and ambrosia beetle species (Curculionidae, Scolytinae)
@zookeys.pensoft.net
zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1689...
TAXACOM is being reborn. After the mailing list was abruptly discontinued (and its archives apparently deleted) it is being relaunched in Google Groups groups.google.com/g/taxacom Let us rejoice knowing there is once again a place to endlessly argue about “what is a species?” I’ve missed it.
Good article, but the framing is wrong. There is not a dearth of interest in taxonomy. There is a scarcity of funding and positions, which is a deliberate choice by funding agencies and institutions. The youth love taxonomy! It's the olds that are failing to meet their passion!
Opinion piece speaking the truth on the state of the science of #taxonomy by Art Borkent. Case in point busy writing the @RoyEntSoc handbook to the biting midges 🪰 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
On the actual identity of the genus #Castianeira Keyserling, 1879 (#Araneae: #Corinnidae: #Castianeirinae): the type species and its relatives #taxonomy
Zootaxa
mapress.com/zt/article/v...
Sunday book review (3/3): Where to Watch Wildlife in Britain by Low-carbon Transport by @meganshersby.bsky.social @heatherdevey.bsky.social Rebecca Gibson Dan Rouse
Publisher: @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social
Review: markavery.info/2026/03/01/s...
Well written, much detail, but a difficult subject
On a Mission. (Fish Crows [& Ring-billed Gulls] accessing & feeding on abandoned shrimp in a plastic bag, with a little help from a friend). From Matthew Wills’ blog.
matthewwills.com/2026/03/01/o...
This is such an excellent book full of great tips. Should be used widely.
Glad to hear you have good memories of growing up in Marine Park. It’s definitely one of the more interesting parts of Brooklyn, especially for birders & other nature enthusiasts!
It’s been a while since I was out here. Marine Park, Brooklyn.
Share with all mosquito researchers. 🧪🦟
I'm co-organizing a special issue in the Journal of Medical Entomology on systematics, taxonomy, and natural history of mosquitoes. See details in the link. Happy to answer questions. Proposal Deadline 15 April 2026.
academic.oup.com/insect-scien...
Natural History.
“Some natural history notes from George Templeton Strong’s extraordinary Civil War Diaries, out in a new edition from Library of America edited by friend-of-the-blog Geoff Wisner @geoffwisner.bsky.social.”
From Matthew Wills’ blog.
matthewwills.com/2026/02/27/n...
“Finally, we discuss the application of citizen science to collecting ecological and biogeographical data on arachnids and its potential use for describing new taxa.”
“The Cordyceps spider”: Taczanowskia waska sp. nov. (Araneae: Araneidae), a new spider species and a novel case of mimicry of an araneopathogenic fungus (Cordycipitaceae: Gibellula)
mapress.com/zt/article/v...
Discover how pollution may have driven colour change in British spiders — and what that tells us about natural selection in action. 🧪 🕷️
Catch the full webinar replay👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKwe...
#Evolution #Spiders #Science @amentsoc.bsky.social @britentsoc.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social
Iceland Gull. From Matthew Wills’ blog.
matthewwills.com/2026/02/22/i...
