#bees queen red-tailed bumblebee (b.lapidarius) and common carder (b.pascuorum) 🐝

🐝 Today I was delighted to find what I thought was a broken-belted bumblebee (b.soroeensis). But no, upon closer inspection, the break is due to a loss of yellow hairs, not the addition of black ones, and the white tail band is missing. This is the Early bumblebee (b.pratorum). #bee #bees

Earthstar, Geastrum fungus #fungi #fungifriends

Seedling update! Mostly everything has geminated including corncockle, chicory, self-heal, chives, coreopsis, yarrow, cardamine, valerian and musk mallow... in that order. What hasn't germinated is violets, red-dead nettle, Canterbury bells aconitum and lungwart.

Putting the bees out for the spring. These are Andrena Scotia. The hawthorn bee, and they should emerge late this month or next month. #bees

It’s official, 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records began🚨 The latest findings from #BeeWalk, our national bumblebee monitoring scheme, have revealed bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter (22.5%) across Great Britain💔 Read on: www.bumblebeeconservation.org/british-bumb...

#fungifriends birch polypores

Such an adorable talk this was: Earwigs don't go back to earwig hotels because of the quality, but instead if an earwig is currently happy inside and releasing pheromones ie, "currently giving it a good review" others in range will visit it. 😂

Buzz Club@buzzclub.bsky.social · 2y ago

Earwi’GO! ran from 2021 – 2024, focusing on making earwig ‘hotels’ (day time shelters) from easily-available materials. Join us for the Earwi’GO! retrospective, where our volunteers encounter record heatwaves, slug sabotage, wandering wiglets and the distracting allure of rattan lamps Link below!

Some of my favourite moments from Lars's talk yesterday: Finding out that bees play and have emotional states. That they can imagine the shape of objects they have felt but not seen. Learning their brains are more fine, complex and specialized than human ones, so they are smart despite their size.

Lars Chittka@larschittka.bsky.social · last yr.

A recording of yesterday's EntoLIVE presentation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRrW...

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...

A cluster of ladybirds is called a "loveliness", it's an old Suffolk term.

Alan Stewart@wildlifeblog.bsky.social · last yr.

Another photo from my book Walking with Wildlife, which covers a year walking on Dupplin Estate in Perthshire. Over 100 ladybirds hibernating on this old gate on the south side of a wood. What draws them together like this, pheromones?

Have started the seedlings off early for the year indoors. I am adding to the native plants with cuckoo flower, corncockle which was almost extinct in the UK in 2014, pulsatilla, red dead-nettle, soapwart, yarrow, chicory(?), pulmonaria or lungwart, and monkshood or aconitum napellus.

“The sun poured out light on flooded waters, on purple-side thickets of alder, and celandines under them….as if all was now to be well.” From E. Thomas, In Pursuit of Spring. www.edwardthomaspoetryplaces.com/post/celandine

If you discover a hibernating bumblebee while digging in your garden or allotment this winter, try to avoid disturbing her, and loosely re-cover her so she can hit the snooze button until spring. More advice from @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social at www.bumblebeeconservation.org #SaveTheBees #nature 🐝

Pet owners accidentally poisoning garden birds. Our latest research finds pet flea treatments (fipronil and imidacloprid) in 100% of blue tit and great tit nests, with nestling mortality higher in the more contaminated nest. @SongBirdSBS @SussexUni @CannelleTassin

I did some sculpting and 3D printing and made a Blahaj shower thing using OnShape and Meshmixer. #blahaj #3Dprinting

This was a fascinating talk, I learnt about how treehoppers use the protubances on their heads to use static electricity to detect predators, how insects visiting flowers use electrostatic charges to help them attract pollen, how ticks use electrostatic charges to passively attach to hosts...

Nat@bugs-are-nice.bsky.social · 2y ago

And many of them are free, like this one Electric Ecology: How Invertebrates Capitalise on Static Electricity, which sounds fascinating. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/electric-e...

New book: #Paleontology in Public - and it's 100% free to read! I contributed a chapter on the public history of #Spinosaurus, co-authored with @tattersdill.bsky.social, and also provided some Gertie-inspired cover art. Congrats to @chrismanias.bsky.social for getting this over the line!

Chris Manias@chrismanias.bsky.social · 2y ago

"Palaeontology in Public: Popular Science, Lost Creatures and Deep Time" is out today, and is freely downloadable as an open access pdf, published by @uclpress.bsky.social ! uclpress.co.uk/book/palaeon... 🎺🦕🦕🦕⚒️🎥🦖🦖🦖📖📰🦣🦣🦣🎺

I'm on the fibrecap server.

Saimi Hanma ⚔️ サイミ@saimihanma.bsky.social · 2y ago

Did you know we're all placed onto different Bluesky servers, and they're named after mushrooms?? You can find out what mushroom server you're on by looking yourself up on Clearsky clearsky.app I'm team oyster mushroom. 🦪🍄

I've just noticed @biologicalrecording.co.uk have a load of really interesting talks. I've signed up for thier Bumblebees of the UK series. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bumblebees...

Bumblebees of the UK Part 2

Learn about the rare and localised species of bumblebee occurring in the UK with Dr Nikki Gammans.

eventbrite.co.uk

I am so hyped for the Europa mission. I'm excited for what this latest mission could find out about life below the icy surface.

Jasmine 🌌🔭@astrojaz.bsky.social · 2y ago

imagine telling me that 5 years later i’d be on the europa clipper team. life is so crazy, don’t EVER give up on your dreams.

Today is the last day you can stream the Fungi Film Festival. www.fungifilmfest.com/2024

Page - Fungi Film Fest

20 films | 2+ hours | 17 countries

fungifilmfest.com

Giant Polypore