Not much good news in this report 😥, but glad to see recognition that "The UK is fortunate in having a large amount of information about its biodiversity, collected across a broad spread of species and habitats both by professionals and by expert volunteers"
London has its own rare snail 🐌
Join Elliot Newton (@citizenzoo.bsky.social) for a FREE entoLIVE exploring the Great German Hairy Snail Survey. Find out what we’ve learned about this remarkable species and how you can get involved 🌎 🧪
📅 Thu 10th Sep 2026
🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1977367798...
A fabulous golden fluffy fly sits on a nice fresh soggy cowpat.
Scathophaga stercoraria or Yellow Dungfly. ‘Yellow’ just doesn’t do it justice. It’s a glorious, fabulous gold and if it was a small mammal everyone would want one as a pet. They’re so fluffy!
iPhone photo, so not the sharpest but still a little beauty!
#diptera
#entomology
Side view of Helina evecta, a dark greyish fly with dark shading on some of its wing veins, sitting on a leaf
Top view of Helina evecta, sitting on a leaf
From the housefly family, a handsome male Helina evecta (or "Sinuous-veined Helina" according to the fabulous new fly book), one of several hanging out in the garden today @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ukmuscidae.bsky.social
Side view of a queen Red-tailed Bumblebee feeding from a sallow catkin
Lovely to see my first Red-tailed Bumblebee queen of the year, a gorgeous velvety black and red #pollinators @pomscheme.bsky.social
Oedemera femoralis beetle, a long, narrow brown beetle, on a yellow sallow catkin
Several Oedemera femoralis beetles in the garden tonight, including this one tucking in to a sallow catkin @colsocbi.bsky.social
Dotted Chestnut moth, a buff-coloured moth speckled with dark dots, on the ground, illuminated by torchlight
Only found one moth during tonight's dog walk, but it was a species I haven't seen for a few years: Dotted Chestnut #TeamMoth
Congratulations to our dear friend @commonbynature.bsky.social on the publication today of his Urban Flora of Newcastle and North Tyneside.
James is a #BSBICountyRecorder for the area so knows whereof he speaks!
More about the book here:
bsbi.org/blog/2026/03...
Full interview coming very soon!
Tachina lurida (Dingy Tachina), one of our earliest Parasite Flies to emerge in March & found in woodland features in our new #FliesofBritainandIreland bit.ly/4dqQI8Z this one spotted in Bernwood Forest on the Bucks/Oxon border
@bbowt.bsky.social @tverc1.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social
Look who is giving a Royal Institute Lecture 😉...on flies..can you believe it....
Very excited to be giving a talk about the Life Cycles of Flies - the vast and splendid adaptations undertaken by these little marvels..
www.rigb.org/whats-on/met...
entoLIVE Webinar: Changes in the UK Stag Beetle Population
12 March 13:00-14:00 GMT
Hear from David Wembridge @ptes-org.bsky.social about how community/citizen science has contributed to new research on population trends of UK Stag Beetles
Sign up: tinyurl.com/7ccx9p2m
@biologicalrecording.co.uk
NEW BLOG: It's no flea. Some choice winter minibeasts, including Snow Flea and Bristly Millipede. www.jameslowen.com/blog-7-mar-2...
This #IWD2026 we’re shining a light on the incredible women who’ve been nominated, highly commended or won an NBN Award for Wildlife Recording since 2015💛 Huge thanks to all. Know an inspirational woman who records or verifies wildlife? Nominations for #NBNawards26 are open! bit.ly/NBNawards26n...
Scoliocentra villosa ♂ on a fallow deer corpse at #AllerthorpeCommon this week. A favourite spiny-winged fly, found around badger setts, carrion and in caves. This one rather lacking in the fore tarsal area! #Heleomyzidae @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social
#WildlifeRecording is vital for #ConservationUK. Who are your recording heroes? Nominate them for @nbntrust.bsky.social #NBNawards26 7 categories: bit.ly/NBNawards26n... Deadline-18 May. Thanks to sponsors: @rspb.bsky.social @opticron.bsky.social @fieldstudiesc.bsky.social @habitataid.bsky.social
I can’t recommend this course (& location) highly enough. A bargain.
The full programme for the YNU Conference on 21st March has now been released! For full details (and to get your tickets!) see the YNU website: www.ynu.org.uk/news-events/...
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/...
📣 New paper 🎉 Proud to have helped with this nice study by @wlangdon12.bsky.social showing a trade-off between nutritional quality & microclimate of host plants for Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas). Here in England, they choose warmth over nutrition resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Soldierfly Quiz! 📝
Can you name these four UK species?
Soldierflies are bold, metallic flower visitors with fascinating life histories.
Want to learn how to identify them? 🧪
Join our #entoLEARN on 16 Apr:
🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1976906539...
@kitenet.bsky.social @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social
Wow, this is an important paper. We had some evidence early on from @ukbms.bsky.social sites but rarely had good data in grazing regimes. But @tombrereton.bsky.social always said that extensive cattle was the best for butterflies and this add yet more evidence
As well as the FIT Count survey, we run a more systematic survey using insect traps in a set of 1 km squares across the UK. If you live near one of the red squares on the map and are interested in taking part please contact us for more details ukpoms.org.uk/one-km-squar...
There's less than a month until the start of the 2026 FIT Count season on 1 April! The Flower-Insect Timed Count survey asks you to spend 10 minutes counting all insects that land on a patch of flowers, to help monitor abundance of #pollinators. 🪰🦋🌻🪲🐝 More info at ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts
Join us for the UK Butterfly Recorders Meeting!
This free event is perfect for butterfly enthusiasts, taking place online on Sat 28th March. Discover the 2025 UKBMS findings and enjoy insights from leading butterfly experts.
Reserve your free spot now!
butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/...
I’ve just about finished reading this. It’s very interesting and useful but will need a second reading I think as I’m not sure it all went in. A good companion and follow up for the PSL book.
Our 100 Plants in 2026 activity (supporting people to identify and record their first 100 plants in 2026) has a talk tonight: Recording For Beginners - Using iRecord
If you're interested, you can book here: bsbi.org/take-part/ev...
The 1st #BeeFlyWatch record in England this year was on 25 February, and we now have the 1st in Scotland on 3 March (@ellenwilson.bsky.social) and in Wales on 4 March (@liamolds.bsky.social) - Ellen's bee-fly is the earliest ever recorded in Scotland, by almost two weeks bsky.app/profile/liam...
For added excitement while looking for bee-flies, check your local daffodil patches for the Daffodil Dung-fly, a spiny-legged fly that is in the dung-fly family but has nothing to do with 💩
If you're ever near Cholsey in South Oxfordshire please go and see this beautiful artwork and the landscape that inspired it 💚
Illustrations of grasshopper, cricket and earwig on the front cover of a book called Field Guide to the Grasshoppers and Allies of Great Britain and Ireland
🦗 This #WorldWildlifeDay, discover Britain's grasshoppers, crickets & allied species in a brilliant new field guide!
It's co-written by our former colleague Björn Beckmann with recording scheme coordinator Peter Sutton.
Allied species are earwigs, stick insects, mantids and cockroaches 🪳
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