As another year of fieldwork comes to a close, I can reflect on how this season was for butterflies in my region

It’s been scorching hot here in Germany for so long many of the plants and even trees are dead/dying. 🥵🔥 It’s getting hard to find any butterflies, but I am still finding moths, like this lovely Silver Y (Autographa gamma), a long distant migrant from southern Europe/Africa

🦋🏔️🌡️ Lack of variation in thermoregulatory capacity in #butterflies across an elevational gradient suggests limited adaptive capacity. Poorer thermoregulators had stronger upwards range shifts in response to #climate change. @esme-ashe.bsky.social @globalchangeeco.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s420...

Butterflies with low thermoregulatory capacity show greatest upwards range shifts along an elevational gradient - Communications Biology

Lack of variation in thermoregulatory capacity or thermal tolerance in butterflies across an elevational gradient suggests limited adaptive capacity. Poorer thermoregulators had stronger upwards range...

doi.org

Catch of the day!! An absolutely gorgeous Queen of Spain fritillary (Issoria lathonia), caught with the help of our student intern in an extensively managed urban park

New paper out! Limited evidence that butterflies are capable of changing their thermoregulatory performance or thermal tolerance in response to local climatic conditions. Instead, poorer thermoregulators have shown stronger upwards elevational range shifts in response to climate change rdcu.be/fuSJE

Butterflies with low thermoregulatory capacity show greatest upwards range shifts along an elevational gradient

Communications Biology - Lack of variation in thermoregulatory capacity or thermal tolerance in butterflies across an elevational gradient suggests limited adaptive capacity. Poorer...

rdcu.be

Last night we hosted Moth Night; we showcased different moth trapping methods, looked at moths beneath the microscope, and played some moth themed games! We highlighted their diversity, ecological importance, and conservation. 🌙 Thank you to everyone who took part!

Caterpillars Count!@caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What are you doing for National Moth Week? Here are some moths from our @dinalab.bsky.social Mothbox programmed to take photos every 10 minutes at the NC Botanical Garden. Find a moth event near you! nationalmothweek.org

Woke up to an elephant hawk moth (Deilephila elpenor) on the toaster, must’ve been after some breakfast 🍞🍳🥓

I’ve had some interesting insect finds this week while out hunting for butterflies, including this dazzling light crimson underwing moth (Catocala promissa) that generously showed off its bright red hindwings as for just a moment before flying off 😍

Delighted to share that our paper that showed how historic records kept by hobby entomologists can be used to investigate long-term change was Highly Commended by the Royal Entomology Society Journal Awards 🥰📚📜 you can find our paper here: doi.org/10.1111/icad... www.royensoc.co.uk/news/res-jou...

The forest has been a great place to work on these hot days, lots of insects flying (and unfortunately biting 🪰🦟)! Plenty of white admirals fluttering about at the moment🌳🦋

Had a great (but very hot) weekend on the Fauna Excursion, collecting and identifying insects in grasslands and forest. The forest day in particular was great, we caught both a purple emperor and a lesser purple emperor, and lots of white-letter hairstreaks! 🦋🦋🦋🌳

Germany is currently experiencing a pretty brutal heatwave 🥵🔥 bad for me, but the butterflies so far are loving it! Very high numbers of Essex skipper (Thymelicus lineola) and marbled white (Melanargia galathea) on campus at the moment! 🦋🦋🦋

On our Evolutionary Ecology course today, we had the pleasure of meeting Pinu, a dog trained to sniff out scarce fritillary (Euphydryas maturna) caterpillars to improve their monitoring! 🐛🦋 Great job Pinu and his dedicated owner Ádám Kőrösi!

It was an absolute pleasure today to share some of my recent research with the students and staff at @unimarburg.bsky.social! 🦋🦗🗻☀️ Big thanks to Elisa Schenkel for the talk invite 🥰

Effective conservation requires knowledge. Our recent paper led by Hendrik Mohr highlights knowledge gaps in our understanding of global change drivers on above/belowground organisms. These closely related and interacting systems require simultaneous study to untangle anthropogenic impacts 🦋🦗🕷️🪱

Malte Jochum@maltejochum.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Our new preprint @ecoevorxiv.bsky.social summarizes research on simultaneous responses of above- & belowground organisms to global change across the 🌐. Congrats to #HendrikMohr on leading it and @esme-ashe.bsky.social! ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... @globalchangeeco.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de

This Sunday is Citizen Science day, come along to Uni Würzburg hubland campus to hear about how citizen science supports research, enjoy hands-on workshops, and guided excursions! 🦋🌱🐦‍⬛ www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/projects/...

Invitation to the Citizen Science Day

At Citizen Science Day, people of all ages can learn about and try their hand at citizen science and biodiversity research on the university campus. Admission is free, and no registration is required.

uni-wuerzburg.de

Come along today at 2:30 to hear me talk about butterflies in the Alps, and what they can tell us about how butterflies respond to climate change 🏔️🦋☀️ #SOTM2026 @sotm2026.bsky.social

Super excited for the start of the #SOTM2026 conference tomorrow!! 🌎🌱🦋 What an incredible location at sun moon lake in Taiwan 🤩 Come along on Thursday at 2:30 to hear me talk about how montane butterflies respond to temperature change 🦋☀️ @sotm2026.bsky.social

Today we set up two insect monitoring stations in the glorious sunshine as part of a Masters thesis project. We will be comparing this with traditional monitoring to improve our understanding of the role of AI to supplement and enhance insect monitoring 🐝🪰🦋💚 @globalchangeeco.bsky.social

I was delighted to receive a best poster award at the closing ceremony yesterday! Had a great time at #TIBS2026 and look forward to seeing all the wonderful biogeographers again in the future 🌍🌎🌏 @biogeography.bsky.social

Global Change Ecology group @uniwuerzburg.bsky.social@globalchangeeco.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Congratulations to our @esme-ashe.bsky.social for winning one of the @biogeography.bsky.social poster award at #TIBS2026. Well deserved! 🎉

The @globalchangeeco.bsky.social team (@christianhof.bsky.social, @esme-ashe.bsky.social, @nicolas-willems.bsky.social, @christianzehner.bsky.social & Lars Landgraf) at #TIBS2026 - we really enjoyed great #biogeography science & the exchange with wonderful colleagues from all over the world.

Already the last day of #TIBS2026, starting with the fascinating links between biogeography, culture, and language @biogeography.bsky.social

How has landscape heterogeneity changed and how did this influence biodiversity trends? Our MSc student Lars Landgraf presented first results on his poster at #TIBS2026.

I had the opportunity to present the first results of my Master’s thesis at #TIBS2026 My work focuses on grasshopper colouration along an elevational gradient. Great discussions and valuable feedback! Thanks to everyone who stopped by! 🦗⛰️

Thank you to those who spoke with me at my poster yesterday! The poster is still up for the rest of the #TIBS2026 conference so please come find me or email me if you want to chat

Amazing talk at #TIBS2026 by @katschiff.bsky.social from @zurelllab.bsky.social on the drivers of bird occupancy trends in North America. Climate change appears to be more important than land-use change, at least for the last 30years.

Wonderful opening to the #TIBS2026, including an inspiring talk from Mark Lomolino who shared his thoughts on the future of biogeography 🌍🌎🌏 @biogeography.bsky.social

Very excited to be sharing my recent paper on microclimate performance during heatwaves at #TIBS2026 today! Come along to poster 2023 to find out more about how insects experience extreme heat 🦋🐜🪲🔥☀️ @biogeography.bsky.social

New paper alert! Microclimate temperatures are more extreme than we previously thought! Near-ground temperatures are amplified in hot weather, cool refugia is lost and replaced with heat traps ☀️🔥🥵 escape from heat will be very hard for small ground-dwelling organisms doi.org/10.21425/fob...

Come work with us! 🪲For our new project bAImo we are searching for a PhD researcher combining modelling 💻 with ecological expertise, aiming to improve interdisciplinary approaches to insect monitoring 🔎🐝 please visit tinyurl.com/bAImo-PhDoffer for more details. Looking forward to your application 🦗😊