Wasps can be beautiful! This female Ormyrus nitidulus is waving around its antennae, perhaps trying to detect other tiny wasps to parasitise.

Over the moon to find a new ant species for me! These two queens are Myrmecina graminicola, which is mostly a grassland specialist and not often come across!

Thrilled to see this Two-tailed Pasha this week in Gibraltar, arguably Europe’s most attractive butterfly (discussion welcome). Less glamorous was the pigeon it was imbibing nutrients from!

Just found my second-ever Vestal, a scarce immigrant moth from Southern Europe or Africa, in Wokingham station. I wonder if it’s also heading to today’s BENHS student and early career group meeting?

Update! In the (almost) two years since this exciting find, we now have records from across NW Europe (and even one from Canada), allowing us to improve the scientific description of this species - published today in Soil Organisms ⬇️ soil-organisms.org/index.php/SO/a…

I feel very privileged to have seen this male Multicolored Tanager this morning - a contender for the best bird I’ve ever seen. A threatened species, and endemic to the Colombian Andes!

The hypnotic movement of knots at Snettisham. 🎥 James McCulloch #WildIsles

Highly envious of Finley’s find… look out for a paper sometime soon! Would be awesome to do a genetic comparison with other populations (Europe & N America) to help decide whether native vs introduced. Feasibility tbd!

David and Goliath. It was very cool to see both giant kingfisher and pied kingfisher together at the Grootrivier mouth this week - the giant kingfisher is roughly the same size as a woodpigeon!

How do moths and butterflies see?🦋👀 Our new preprint looks at the evolution of #opsin genes across #Lepidoptera. We uncover fascinating patterns of opsin duplication, translocation, and expression by analysing 219 genomes (most from Darwin Tree of Life) 🔗tinyurl.com/mr2xh7cx

My short paper on discovering Mycena picta new to Cornwall has been published in the August volume of Field Mycology 🥳 It's my first publication on the fungal kingdom (though keep your eyes peeled for the Autumn volume 👀). PDF available on ResearchGate: researchgate.net/publication/37…

We're very excited to be welcoming Dr Adam Rutherford for our 2024 annual lecture! Come along on Wednesday 7th Feb to hear about "Eugenics and the misuse of Mendel" 🧬 FREE tickets available here: tickettailor.com/events/thetinb…

My first full-length paper has just been published! Co-authored with James McCulloch on the discovery of Fasciosminthurus quinquefasciatus new to Britain from Cornwall. More springtail stuff in the works so keep your eyes peeled 👀 Have a read of this one at researchgate.net/publication/37…

Lucy Cooke: Has evolutionary biology been hijacked by sexist bias? At 19:00 on 20 May, we and Oxford University BioSoc are hosting zoologist, author, and TV presenter Lucy Cooke who will be talking about how the scientific patriarchy has pervaded evo bio. Tickets: clubs.getqpay.com/?s=1102&eventi…

Very excited to announce that we just published our research in Nature Ecology & Evolution! We collected data on 794 species of ant to examine which characteristics influence the evolution of social complexity 🐜 I’m happy to answer any questions! nature.com/articles/s4155…

Inspiring keynote at this week’s International Colloquium on Apterygota & #ICSZ2024 in Cape Town. Daoyuan Yu on how phylogenomics may be putting to rest a century-long debate surrounding the (even order-level) phylogeny of springtails!

Join James McCulloch on 15 July for an amazing talk about the British Spring-tails! James reveals how genome data and citizen science are rewriting UK biodiversity. 🎟️ Book FREE: eventbrite.co.uk/e/1359900281349 Royal Entomological Society Field Studies Council Buglife BENHS NBN Trust