David Notton

@davidnotton.bsky.social

Mad about diapriid wasps/bees 🐝taxonomy, zoological nomenclature, museums, entomology curation & IPM! Former NHMUK, now freelance. Recording Lauriston Agroecology Farm🌾🥕 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Notton #Edinburgh

Her nest disturbed by the photographer, a Solenopsis thief ant worker exudes a droplet of venom on her stinger and waves it in the air. This behavior is known as "gaster-flagging". Paraná, Brazil.

Macro photo of a small shiny brown ant standing on a stick against a pure black background, head down and abdomen straight up, a droplet of clear liquid larger than her own eye at the tip of her stinger.

This is a historic moment: the first time the rights of Nature have entered the UK parliamentary process. The Bill recognises Nature as a legal subject, reorders the hierarchy of rights, creates a duty of care towards Nature and embeds Nature’s rights into UK decision-making across all sectors.

Walking by the River Wandle close to its Carshalton source the other day, I was pleased to see some flowering Water-Crowfoot, which I think is Ranunculus penicillatus ssp. psuedofluitans. I then spied a Bumblebee, possibly Buff-tailed, land on a flower in the fast-flowing water! #WildWebsWednesday

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tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.

Science Magazine@science.org · 2mo ago

The White House today announced it plans to make major changes in how the U.S. government manages research funding. https://scim.ag/43HgW4s

In the last week or so Western Giant Ichneumonid Wasps (Megarhyssa notrtoni) have oviposited on a dying spruce tree in our yard. Today a female horntail (Xeris indecisus) is ovipositing on the same tree, with a couple male horntails hanging around. The ichneumons parasitize the horntail larvae.

A female horntail with a long ovipositor is laying an egg in a dead of dying spruce tree. The head, thorax, and wings are black, and the abdomen is red.A male horntail sits motionless on a dead spruce tree. It is mostly black (except for the abdomen, which is red) and about 20 mm long

Campaign win! Duchy of Cornwall announces plan to “double the extent of duchy-managed Atlantic rainforest on Dartmoor by the early 2040s” This means Black-a-Tor Copse, as well as Wistman’s Wood! A first step towards doubling rainforests across Dartmoor’s commons www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

‘A gesture towards nature’: call for Dartmoor’s temperate rainforest to double in size

Campaign comes as Duchy of Cornwall announces plan to expand small pockets of ancient woodland at two sites

theguardian.com

Spring time in Europe -every year it will get hotter and hotter earlier and earlier Parts of Western Europe are experiencing an extreme, record early heatwave with temperatures soaring 5 C to 10 C above normal Temperatures in southwest Spain forecast to reach 40°C in coming days

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Climate change is real and it's happening and it's only going to get worse until everyone wakes the fuck up. By far the biggest threat to us all. We don't have another planet we can go to.