Extraordinary dataset of 44 million+ records of UK #butterflies collected by 782,000 volunteers in the past 50 years shows many species are in long-term decline eg Pearl-bordered Fritillary. @ukbms.bsky.social is run by @savebutterflies.bsky.social, UKCEH, @btobirds.bsky.social, and JNCC. 🧪 1/

Warm enough this afternoon for my first @pomscheme.bsky.social #pollinator FIT Count of 2026. During my ten minutes this dandelion was visited by a beetle and a solitary bee 😃 and then this hoverfly arrived after time was up ⏰️

A short summary of our last paper on the first attempt at a global butterfly index of population trends theconversation.com/a-global-but...

A global butterfly index could advance insect conservation worldwide

A global butterfly index could help track butterfly populations worldwide and how environmental changes are impacting them.

theconversation.com

We’re missing a global indicator to track insects. By analyzing thousands of butterfly populations, we highlight both promising signals and key challenges—showing why these taxa are strong candidates for building a Global Index to support conservation. conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Addressing Gaps in Butterfly Population Monitoring to Catalyze Global Insect Conservation

The conservation community sorely lacks a global indicator of change in insect populations. Given widespread insect declines, addressing this gap is key for conservation and policy targets. We sugges...

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New #OA paper from the @glitrs.bsky.social project asking, how well does the Global #Biodiversity Framework address insect declines? Turns out the targets could well deliver for insects, but the indicators won't tell us whether or not they have! doi.org/10.1111/con4...

Global Biodiversity Framework Targets Can Drive Action on Insect Declines, but Lack Robust Indicators to Prove Their Effectiveness

Insects are the most diverse and functionally important animals on Earth. In at least some regions, terrestrial populations are declining. Despite this, insects are often overlooked in conservation p...

doi.org

NEW PAPER! And what a challenging one. It has taught us a lot about how we can understand the impacts of pressures on insects, and I hope we can continue to add to it into the future. Another great output from the @glitrs.bsky.social GLiTRS project team 🌍 🐝 🐜 🦋 🐞

New GLiTRS paper led by @joemillard.bsky.social 🚨📝 "Our database provides a framework for the first global meta-analytic overview of the response of insects to a range of major anthropogenic drivers" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A Multithreat Meta‐Analytic Database for Understanding Insect Biodiversity Change

Aim Widespread declines in insect biodiversity have been attributed to a diverse set of anthropogenic drivers, but the relative importance of these drivers remains unclear. A key reason for this unc...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

✨Bumble bee probability of occurrence responds to interactions between local and landscape land use, climatic niche properties and climate change🐝New paper out, led by @tnewbold31.bsky.social, & with @jetkerr.bsky.social & Peter Soroye (the result of some fantastic trips across the Atlantic 🇨🇦) 🌎 🧪 🌐

Bumble Bee Probability of Occurrence Responds to Interactions Between Local and Landscape Land Use, Climatic Niche Properties and Climate Change

We analyse a collation of bumble bee presence and absence data from across the continents of Western Europe and North America, spanning both natural and human-modified habitats. We find that bumble b....

tinyurl.com

Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae) had its worst year on record in the UK in 2024. It numbers at @ukbms.bsky.social monitored sites have been below average now in 20 of the last 25 years. Since 1976, its population has decreased by 49% (📷Mark Searle)

How do we increase nature literacy among society? Some thoughts from @waspwoman.bsky.social theconversation.com/heres-how-to...

Here’s how to create a more nature-literate society

Nature literacy has inspired creativity and innovation for thousands of years.

theconversation.com

NEWS: Despite fears about insect declines, we know very little about 99% of species globally 🌍📉. Scientists are proposing a new approach to get a more complete picture of insect populations and analyse how they are responding to threats. Read more: www.ceh.ac.uk/press/some-i... 🧪 🧵 1/

NEW PAPER from the GLiTRS team! 🎉 We review how best to use different types of evidence to better understand global insect declines 🦗🪳🪲🦋🐛🐜 "Integrating multiple evidence streams to understand insect biodiversity change" published in @science.org 🔗 tinyurl.com/mr35bdaa A summary 🧵 below (1/7)

Great to be at the #FutureforButterflies. Tomorrow I will speak about this new paper and our work with #biodiversitymonitoring using #Insect #cameratraps and #AI as part of @mambo-project.eu @onestop-project.eu and @insectai.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...?

Emerging technologies for pollinator monitoring

Efficient tools for monitoring pollinator populations are urgently needed to address their reported declines. Here, we review advanced technologies fo…

sciencedirect.com

It's published! The largest research work I've ever undertaken: Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz 1/x

😎 It's 1 April and that can only mean one thing... yes, insect survey season is back in earnest! 🐝🪰 Check out @pomscheme.bsky.social to help monitor #pollinator abundance with 10-minute Flower-Insect Timed Counts 🦋 And see @ukbms.bsky.social for getting involved with #butterfly transects

The recording of the @savebutterflies.bsky.social 2025 UK Moth Recorders' Meeting is available to watch here: bit.ly/43315yr

UK Moth Recorders' Meeting 2025

Our annual UK Moth Recorders' Meeting took place online on 25 January 2025. Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 06:39 - National Moth Recording Scheme Update by Zoe Randle 29:53 - Charismatic Clearwings in mid Wales by Norman Lowe 53:29 - Can we measure the impact of insect change on bird and bat populations? By Luke Evans. 01:20:15 - Surveying Argyll's rare moths 01:45:56 - Understanding why artificial lights trap flying insects using high-speed videography. By Dr Sam Fabian. 02:15:18 - Moths and light pollution. By Dr Avalon Owens. Thumbnail image by Patrick Clement #MothsMatter

bit.ly

Our new paper thinking about bias in population monitoring using @ukbms.bsky.social data 🌍🦋

Methods in Ecology and Evolution@methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 2y ago

📖Published📖 Our new research article demonstrates how you might combine expert knowledge with causal diagrams and superpopulation models to mitigate geographic biases in biodiversity monitoring data 🌎 🧪 Read it here 👇 https://buff.ly/3C2ZKws