Hey y'all! I'm gonna try something! For #EntSoc20, I recorded a talk about Bombus affinis foraging and habitat preferences in a large, restoration setting. For those who may be interested in the talk but are not registered for the conference, here it is in twitter-thread form! 🐝

It's #PollinatorWeek! Check out this great photo from #MNZoo Conservationist Erik Runquist. Pollinators are crucial to our environment, impacting our food, ecosystem, and more! Learn about Erik's conservation work with prairie butterflies here: bit.ly/2SiGOCU

Amazing to watch endangered Dakota Skippers reintroduced at the Hole in the Mountain WMA in SW MN. DNR appreciates partnerships w/Minnesota Zoo, Sioux Falls Zoo & a local farmer whose cattle graze the prairie as part of adaptive mgmt research. Photo cred danruiter

Let’s thank our pollinators! Did you have berries in your cereal? Can you imagine fall without pumpkins or apples? Bees, butterflies, beetles, and other pollinators are central to agriculture, sustain ecosystems, and light up our gardens. bit.ly/2SiGOCU #MNPollinatorWeek

The #MNZoo’s Butterfly Conservation Program aims to secure a future for MN prairie butterflies. Fewer than 500 Poweshiek skipperling are left in the wild, formerly one of MN’s most common prairie butterflies. Learn more: bit.ly/2SiGOCU #MNPollinatorWeek #MN4Pollinators

The Dakota skipper reintroductions in MN would not be possible in its current form without support of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate! The tribe’s managed lands sustain some of the healthiest populations in the world & form the core of the ex situ population at the Minnesota Zoo. Thank you!

I grew up in the shadow of Mt Ashland, and solidified my love of butterflies on those same slopes where Franklin’s bumble bee was last seen. I wish I had looked harder for it. I sincerely hope Franklin’s is still somewhere out in those high mountains, buzzing about in peace.

New TikTok video: Doing my part in helping people understand the difference between P(vacc|infected) and P(infected|vacc)

Happening now! Folks in the Upper Midwest and across the Great Lakes: look out for the endangered rusty patched bumble bee! Report sightings to Bumble Bee Watch. Left photo: worker being released alive after sample collected for genetics (under permit). Right: a new Queen (gyne)!!

ECR feature: Dr. Ryan B Runquist is an evolutionary ecologist interested in invasive species and their potential impacts in a changing world. She shares her recent work on predicting invasive species range expansion using Joint Species Distribution Model 🌿 journalofbiogeographynews.org/2021/08/12/ecr…

If you're interested in learning more about Franklin's bumble bee, and help us find it, join us (The Xerces Society, ODFW Conservation, and California Department of Fish and Wildlife) at PNW Bumblebee Atlas or California Bumble Bee Atlas.

That sound you hear is the collective exhaling of millions of parents after a year and a half of anxiety, disrupted school, lost work, & social isolation. I’m one of those parents breathing more deeply now, after our two kids could get their first shot last night. Thanks science!

Rusty patched bumble bee swag alert. Props to John M. Mola for making this happen. He tells me proceeds from this will benefit The Xerces Society and our efforts to protect all invertebrates! Win/win. Buy a fris(*), save a bumble(*). (*)=bee

The final sentence of new IPCC report: "The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future."