Rosie Gibbs

Micropathus ditto (female) in profile sitting on a cave wall. Superimposed in the corner is a sprite of the Pokemon Ditto. Image credit Tim Rudman, source: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71119620

Macro photos of the morphology of Micropathus zubat, showing the head, ovipositor, and genital plates. Superimposed in the corner is a sprite of the Pokemon Zubat.

Say hi to Micropathus ditto and M. zubat, two #NewSpecies of cave cricket from forests in southern Tasmania! These crickets are threatened by climate change, land clearing, and logging. Giving them names is an important step towards their conservation. But why did we choose these ones? #bugsky 🧵 1/6

Has anyone else noticed it?

After years of waiting, it looks like we’re going to have a mast year with our native oaks!!!

I’ll be collecting acorns from veteran and ancient trees around Liverpool later this year for anyone or nurseries who would like some and would like to get in touch 🌱❤️

Rare sightings: In the South Gobi, WCS Mongolia is monitoring how wildlife uses crossing structures at a newly built railway. This is important to improve vital connectivity for these nomadic species.

Recently, they caught clips of a rare Eurasian lynx. 🌏

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Wild About Gardens Workshop in #InsectWeek - Be a hoverfly hero!
Join me and experts from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), and Buzz Club as we dive into the fascinating world of hoverflies & how to help them- #WildAboutGardens events.teams.microsoft.com/event/44559f...

Orange-tip caterpillars on garlic mustard and ladybird larvae munching blackfly @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social this week, lots of butterflies and damselflies out too!

The area with Bee Orchids that I spotted back in February and contacted the council about has been roped off to allow them a chance to flower. A quick count reveals a minimum of 129 spikes that look like they'll flower in the next couple of weeks.

Make something good come of the moronic felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, with the culprits now convicted.

The Woodland Trust is calling on Ministers to bring in new legislation so that important trees are listed for protection like historical buildings are:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Repeat after me: There’s no such thing as ‘weeds’.

Example no. 1: Dandelions.

In the U.K., they are native #wildflowers, that provide vital pollen and nectar sources for more than 170 species of insect!

#NoMowMay #WildflowerHour

One of the nice points that I often raise is that mosquitoes are not always problematic - although research is limited, many species now are highlighted as #pollinators

@tanyptera.bsky.social #ThomDallimore #mosquitoes

Photo shows 4 Dandelion flowers amongst green undergrowth. The flowers are made up of many thin yellow petals creating a shaggy look to the flower.

Dandelions. Not weeds but wildflowers, and vitally important at this time of year for all pollinators. Please don't kill your Dandelions, enjoy them, they are beautiful little blobs of sunshine.

Petition: End the Badger cull and adopt other approaches to bovine TB control The Government’s TB Eradication Strategy allows the continued killing of badgers, a protected species, until the end of this Parliament, despite the Labour manifesto calling the cull “ineffective.” W...

Petition to end the Badger cull stands at 81,055

6 weeks to hit the 100k goal! Keep sharing and signing people!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

Wood Anenomies sparkling in undisturbed woodland.

Seeds of the Wood Anenome are rarely viable so they spread mostly through their rhizomes. A process that can take them one century for every single meter gained.

Kelp forest project in West Sussex having 'remarkable results' The rewilding project off the West Sussex coast is celebrating its fourth anniversary.

Undersea rewilding initiative to restore a kelp forest in West Sussex is celebrating amazing results for marine biodiversity.

Rewilding is needed just as much at sea as on land.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

IT’S THE BEST Season!

Beefly season is upon us folks #BeeflyWatch

Yesterday they were spotted at @kneppwilding.bsky.social Tomorrow, my garden 🤓

Please go spotting these little beauties & add your records to either dipterists.org.uk/bee-fly-watch or #IRecord

@dipteristsforum.bsky.social

NEWS This Brazilian frog might be the first pollinating amphibian known to science

It’s the first time a frog—or any amphibian—has been observed pollinating a plant, researchers reported in 2023.

Learn more on #WorldFrogDay: scim.ag/4kGdvCy

Male hairy-footed flower bee basking on an ivy leaf

Fabulous to see the Hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) enjoying the sunshine at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social

Within-species floral evolution reveals convergence in adaptive walks during incipient pollinator shift - Nature Communications During evolution, how adaptive walks cross fitness valleys remains unclear. This integrative study on monkeyflowers reveals that convergence in large steps (floral color and gene expression) drives a ...

Really excited to say that my lab's paper on color transitions in Mimulus sect. Erythranthe is out! We found that some traits demonstrate evolutionary convergence in phenotype & genotype, while others are divergent, & that - as Bob Vickery found - bees prefer yellow!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Opt out scheme for weeds Find out about the opt out scheme we're offering for weed treatment this year, and how to apply.

Residents of Brighton & Hove can now opt out of having their streets sprayed with weedkiller: find out more below. How about the rest of us, please....

www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/rubbish-recy...

Douglas Boyes Fund - Royal Entomological Society The Douglas Boyes Fund has been established in honour of Douglas Boyes (1996-2021), an esteemed entomologist specialising in Lepidoptera. The Fund aims to provide young people aged 14-18 with access t...

Know a budding insect lover? Here's a new fund from @royentsoc.bsky.social and family of the great moth expert Douglas Boyes. For 14-18 year old persons who would benefit from funding to support their entomological interest? Please encourage them to apply www.royensoc.co.uk/douglas-boye...

Close up of a hairy leaf with a small droplet of extra floral nectar

Several leaves of a viney stem, each leaf with several droplets of nectar

Caudiciform plant with a thick storage base in a red ceramic pot

Unusual extrafloral nectaries in Pyrenacantha sp. (Icacinaceae, a small Old world family) #botany #plantscience #ants

Rare lichen brought back to East Anglia with help of bookbinding glue Small patches of scrambled egg lichen moved from Cornwall to Breckland region, where it was last seen in 1994

One of the coolest articles I've read lately, and testament to the creative lengths #conservationists will go to help #EndangeredSpecies: www.theguardian.com/environment/... #lichens #fungi #fungifriends #extinction #GoodNews #scicomm 🌿

A male Anthophora plumipes solitary bee sitting on a brown dead leaf. The bee has a rich brown haired thorax and a yellow 'face'. There are long plumose hairs on the middle tarsus (foot) which gives it the common name Hairy-footed Flower-bee.

A male Anthophora plumipes solitary bee sitting on a brown dead leaf. The bee has a rich brown haired thorax and a yellow 'face'. There are long plumose hairs on the middle tarsus (foot) which gives it the common name Hairy-footed Flower-bee.

Male Anthophora plumipes sitting on a brown leaf with its tongue stretched out. The plumose hairs on the mid tarsus that give rise to the common name of Hairy-footed Flower-bee are clearly visible.

Male Anthophora plumipes sitting on a brown leaf. It has stretched its tongue out and is cleaning it by running its fore tarsi down the length of it.

Some welcome spring sunshine in Norwich today. Quick visit to Earlham Cemetery and spotted my first Anthophora plumipes of the year. Spent about half an hour watching at least four males whizzing about patrolling patches of Primrose flowers until one finally settled. #SolitaryBees #Bees

We have been talking moths & butterflies for 2 days to an enthusiastic audience including a high percentage of children. It gives us confidence that future of the natural world is a positive one in their hands. We look forward to more conversations today. #NorwichSciFest

Fancy sharing the love for some of the best creatures on the planet? 🪱🪰

Nominate your invertebrate species of the year We’re asking readers from around the world to nominate their favourite spineless species for our second Invertebrate of the Year competition

Come on people - cast your vote for the invertebrate of the year....

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Our new paper, based on data from 1,705 studies, shows that pesticides are toxic to organisms they are not intended to harm, including fungi, microbes, plants, insects, & vertebrates such as ourselves. Questions the wisdom of applying over 3 million tonnes of them every year...

Female hoverflies are WAY better than males at migrating!

At the beginning of their 1000km+ migrations in Denmark the sex ratios are 50:50, but by the time they get to Spain it is 90% female!

On flight sims females flew 9x further and have better immunity and lifespan!

@flygirlnhm.bsky.social

large brown horsefly with striking emerald eyes and a long proboscis ... almost as long as its body

A photo looking up/under a large horsefly. Its white "beard" is prominent against its black underside. It has two large striking emerald eyes and a long proboscis almost as long as its body

Here's a weird horsefly (Fidena sp) I found in the EC Amazon. Those with a long proboscis can both blood feed and feed on nectar. Some horse flies are important pollinators. This one is female (likely) because her eyes don't meet in the middle. Often male horse flies have two large eyes that touch.

This Pioneering Black Zoologist's Insights Were a Century Ahead of Their Time Charles Henry Turner conducted trailblazing research on the cognitive traits of bees, spiders and more

Here's one of the remarkable entomologists I include in my upcoming graphic novel Insectopolis. He deserves to be credited as the brilliant pioneer that he was. #entomology www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Poecilobothrus nobilitatus - semaphore fly on pond vegetation from a few summers ago.
Mesmerised by watching these tiny insects displaying.
#diptera #invertebrates #flies #ukwildlife #nature #pondlife