The discovery of a new “species” invariably leads to the discovery of new “species interactions” - new connections in the web of life. Here, the discovery of a new gall wasp also uncovered EIGHT new interactions with other insects - some likely new species as well. #biodiversity @ymilesz.bsky.social
Neuroptera!
New paper! Bird nests (Wood Warblers) are hubs of invertebrate biodiversity on forest floor, hosting more species/individuals than leaf litter. Probably due to heat & food detritus. Losing Wood Warblers = ecological networks lost. #ornithology
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Another great article featuring our research published in @nature.com
Many heat-stressed tropical insects are reaching their limits | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
@science.org
🐜🔬 Researchers at the University of Maryland and KIT in Germany are using a synchrotron particle accelerator and AI to build a massive 3D library of #ants. #science
👉 scitechdaily.com/ai-and-x-ra...
Submission deadline TODAY, MARCH 6! Present your work in the @entsocamerica.bsky.social International Symposium, online April 27-29. Topics include:
Insect Taxonomy in the 21st Century (organized by me!)
Frontiers in IPM
Visualizing Entomology
and more! Sign up here:
entsoc.org/membership/b...
10,000 tons of insects migrate across Switzerland per year, according to this cool preprint by @birgenhaest.bsky.social and his colleagues. 🧪 🪰 🦟
That's 21 billion insects, weighing the equivalent of 50–65 blue whales, flying overhead. 🤯
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The countdown to #BioMonWeek is on. ⌛
👉 We invite you to contribute to the "Biodiversity monitoring in terrestrial protected areas (including Natura 2000)" session, hosted by BMD.
🗓 Deadline: 18 March 2026
🔗 2026.biomonweek.eu/page/programme
Taxonomists: If you liked the old TAXACOM mailing list, we've restarted it. You can sign up, here:
groups.google.com/g/taxacom
Please share widely! We don't have access to the old lists. If you know any taxonomists, let them know, and pass it on.
#science #academia #taxonomy
Tiny, helpful wasps are all around us – in our gardens or on the farms that grow our food. Read about the research our Wasp #Biodiversity Group is doing below! invertebratelab.com/2025/09/24/w...
De natuurlijke vijand van de ongewenste Suzuki-fruitvlieg is in NL aangetroffen, soms in grote aantallen! Het is goed nieuws als er een biologische bestrijder is (ipv gif). En het is natuurlijk … een wesp 😉 Binnen de Hymenoptera bevinden zich veel soorten parasitica www.rtvdrenthe.nl/nieuws/18259...
A flyer for Myriapod Meet-Up 2026. The flyer has a picture of a millipede on it. The millipede is tan and has a cone-shaped head.
Myriapod Meet Up 2026 will be on 1 April, 8AM - 5PM (EDT). This online event will include short talks, and a chance to share and discuss research about myriapods (and other multipedes, e.g. Onychophora). Anyone may participate in this free event (no need to give a talk).
The Toronto Entomologists' Association is holding its annual Student Symposium on March 28, 2026 1pm!
Graduate students, senior undergraduates and postdoctoral fellows are eligible to present a talk and apply for the Glenn Richardson Award.
Visit www.ontarioinsects.org/symposium/ for more info!
Polka dot wasp Syntomeida epilais showing a moth with wings outstretched. The wings are metallic black with green and blue highlights. There are 5 large white spots of each set of wings, and also on the furry body. The terminal abdominal segments are a striking rusty scarlet. Legs are black with white tarsi, and the tips of the black antennae are also white. Watercolour #sciart #naturalscienceillustration completed by hand.
This is the Polka dot wasp #moth #Syntomeida epilais, also known as the #Oleander moth (on which its yellow caterpillars with their long black setae feed voraciously). Completed for the National Trust of #Montserrat, & UKOTCF. It's used in a colouring book, in a section about patterns in nature.
Exciting announcement! My new department is launching a postdoc fellowship in quantitative biology. Fellows will be co-advised by two Bio faculty, one that is quant focused (not me) and one that is not (me???). I would love to co-sponsor a postdoc and build a collaboration so please reach out!
TDWG 2026, Oslo, Call for volunteers Image: Trolltunga by Dong Zhang Unsplash.com
🙋♀️ We need you!🙋♂️ Join the TDWG 2026 Program Committee and help shape the conference in Oslo. We welcome volunteers from all regions, cultural backgrounds, gender identities, ages, and career stages.
👉 Apply now: tdwg.link/eoi-conferen...
#TDWG2026 #Biodiversity #WeNeedYou
Our beloved fence pets are back. [Xylocopa sonorina male, Alameda, CA 2-28-26] #bees #nativebees
Post a pic you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed.
We’re hiring! 🌿
Permanent E13 (100%) position in Plant Ecology & Biodiversity Research at Leibniz University Hannover.
Focus: vegetation ecology, field research, quantitative skills, teaching (BSc, German required).
Deadline: 15 April 2026
Details: www.uni-hannover.de/jobs/id/8379/
A macro photo of a slender, tiny wasp atop a batch of katydid eggs. The eggs, which look like brown lima beans, are tiled along a brown grass stem. Four have roundish holes chewed through their sides, where parasitoid wasps (like the one perched on top of them) chewed their way out. The wasp is metallic-copper colored with a yellow abdomen band and large eyes.
A macro photo of a group of katydid eggs, which look like brown lima beans, tiled along a brown grass stem against a pale green background. In the upper right, a tiny wasp's face is peeking out of an escape hole it is chewing from the inside of a katydid egg it has parasitized. A second egg, lower left, has a hole in it where a wasp has already hatched and flown off.
A macro photo of a tiny, green, newly-hatched katydid nymph perched atop a fingertip, against a green and blue-green background. The fingertip and katydid are lower right, and one of the katydid's extremely long antennae stretches all the way up to the upper left corner of the frame.
From a few years ago: katydid eggs mostly parasitized by tiny wasps. When a katydid hatches, the egg opens like a clam shell; but as you can see (pic 2), if there's a parasitoid wasp inside, they chew their way out. Btw, the baby katydid on my fingertip hatched from the same egg clutch. #BugSky 🐙🌿
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...
An historic black and white illustration of a paper nautilus floating on the ocean. There are boats, a city and hills in the background.
🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪
Brown recluse spiders exonerated! In Florida, recluses are rare, much less likely to bite than other spiders, even when provoked, and the one verified bite did not produce necrosis.
An A6 card on a bookshelf. It features an earwig mother and nymph with a tiny pink heart between them. The text at the top reads 'World's Best Mum'. Signed by Emily Jane Foster.
The back if the A6 card on the bookshelf. There is a small version of the front image, the Emily Jane Art mushroom logo, a letter logo and FSC certification. Text reads: Why an earwig? Earwig mums have up to 2 broods of 30-50 eggs a year. An earwig mum tenderly cleans her eggs and protects them from hungry predators. She will often stay with her little nymphs once they have hatched and will feed them to give them the best start. Message inside blank. Art by Emily Jane Foster. Designed and printed in the UK. Www.emilyjaneart.co.uk
One of my #MothersDay earwig #cards went out in the post yesterday! 😊 I hope it has a safe journey 🪲📬
If you're looking for a buggy Mother's Day card in the UK (with earwig facts on the back), I still have some in stock:
emilyjaneartstudio.etsy.com
#BugSky #SciArt #SciComm 🐡 #Invertebrate #Insect
orangutans illustration
I’ve streamlined my portfolio to better reflect my current direction in scientific and nature illustration. #sciart
www.lazaroillustration.com
A short thread with the updated galleries 👇👇👇
Animals moving in the wild (1/12)
www.lazaroillustration.com/animalsmoving
#orangutans
a pair of mating Nymphomyia walkeri adults. These tiny little flies would have feathery wings when they first emerge, but lose their wings when they re-enter the water to mate.
A larva of Nymphomyia walkeri from Newfoundland. This is a tiny little white worm-like larva with a shiny head and little prolegs all along the abdomen.
Dorsal view of a Blepharicera tenuipes larva from Labrador, Canada. The larvae is a pale tan in colour, with a darker mark on its head. Each segment is expanded out on each side, with a proleg on each side.
Ventral view of a Blepharicera tenuipes larva from Labrador, Canada. The larvae is a pale tan in colour, and each segment is expanded, with a dark, circular sucker in the centre to help the larva hold on to rocks in fast water. Little finger-like gills can also be seen on each segment.
Quite a treat to encounter some cute little Diptera in vials inadvertently included amongst my Newfoundland and Labrador mayfly vials: these are Nymphomyiids and blepharicerids.
A new study looks at data from a 29-year moth-trapping effort and suggests a minimum of 15 years of data for detecting true long-term trends in insect populations—and researchers say 20 to 25 years would be even better.
Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.
Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.
There were so many of us, exactly when these emails were being written, expressly working to undo the harms of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination in science. And so many people refused to believe us that any of it was real. It was all real.
19thnews.org/2026/02/epst...
