iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Royal Holloway Biology @rhulbiology.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Dr Fabrizia Ratto (@fabrizia-ratto.bsky.social) is currently working with Ambios Ltd and other organisations to reintroduce the Black-veined White Butterfly (Aporia crataegi), which became extinct in the UK over 100 years ago 🦋

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Bumblebee Conservation Trust @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Most of the UK is farmland – and bumblebees are struggling to find enough food on it 🐝🍽️ New research from 20 English farms shows that pollen and nectar levels are far too low for bumblebees to thrive. Leo Fordham and Prof Elli Leadbeater tell us more in our guest blog: ow.ly/2coK50Zu6xA

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Corneile Minnaar @cminnaar.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

After months of planning, our bumblebee colonies are out at Thursley National Nature Reserve and surrounds to test the impact of Heathlands as nature's pharmacies for bumblebees. HUGE thanks to @naturalengland.bsky.social, @nationaltrust.org.uk and all the public volunteers for hosting our colonies!

Information sign showing details of research in progress on the impact of an anti-parasitic compound found in ling heather nectar on bumblebee health. The sign is erected in a heathland filled with pink ling heather flowers.

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Morgan Morrison @morganmorrison73.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Happy to share our horizon scan of European wild pollinators is out! We identified 10 priority issues for 10yrs, including, for the 1st time, legislation as an opportunity (NRR). However, political shifts may slow progress, while new pesticide tech presents opportunities. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

doi.org

Horizon scanning for European wild pollinators identifies world-leading legislation as a key opportunity for pollinators - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Horizon scanning for European wild pollinators identifies world-leading legislation as a key opportunity for pollinators

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Nature @nature.com · 01/07/2026

A biology journal trialled paying their reviewers and found it led to faster first editorial decisions – and increased review quality. go.nature.com/446SaLu

go.nature.com

Why paying peer reviewers works, according to a journal’s editor-in-chief

A biology journal which paid peer reviewers found that the approach cut the time to a first editorial decision by 85% and maintained high-quality reviews.

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Liam Olds @liamolds.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Today was my first visit to the 'Bee City' at Castlemartin Range, Pembrokeshire, since April. This extraordinary population of Golden-ringed Mason Bee (Osmia aurulenta) nest in empty ammunition casings - an incredible adaptation to living on an activity military site!

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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Have a look at the fantastic photos captured by the winners of last year's Photography Competition. This short video features our #InsectWeek 2025 Under 18, Environment and Smart Device winners. Enter this year's photography competition now 🔽 buff.ly/Xv8aiaN

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Corneile Minnaar @cminnaar.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

If you're looking for ways to support your LGBTQIA+ peers in ecology and evolutionary biology, @britishecologicalsociety.org has put together a great set of resources to get you started. Happy pride! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

britishecologicalsociety.org

Resources for LGBTQIA+ ecologists - British Ecological Society

A collection of websites and literature for LGBTQIA+ ecologists and allies.

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University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge @zoologymuseum.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

This #PrideMonth take a look around the Museum with our Pride In Nature trail. It's about how queer perspectives help us to understand the natural world & how 'science' has actively hidden same-sex behaviour in animals. Trail & Museum entry FREE #PrideUK #Pride2026 University of Cambridge Museums

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Mark Brown @markjfbrown.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Month! The natural world is full of diversity, and I’m delighted that @zoologymuseum.bsky.social we celebrate this and can show you some highlights beyond the binary. Come and visit!

A poster for pride in nature tours at the University Museum of Zoology Cambridge

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Morgan Morrison @morganmorrison73.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Hive mind: I'm on the hunt for any practitioner reports, policy docs, restoration frameworks, or applied conservation reports that explicitly use plant–pollinator interactions or ecological networks in practical conservation/restoration/rewilding? (Not scientific research) 🐝🌻

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University of Cambridge @cam.ac.uk · 20/05/2026

One-third of our food depends on bees, yet their world is collapsing 🐝 Professor Mark Brown, Director of the Museum of Zoology at @camzoology.bsky.social, reveals the stressful lives of our pollinators who are beset by diseases, pesticides, and parasites. Discover more 👉 bit.ly/4ny4rkW

A person is observing a display of preserved specimens in jars at the Cambridge Museum of Zoology, with a background of skeletons. Text above reads: "What's killing our bees, and how do they fight back?" Additional text below reads "Meet Mark Brown, the new Director of the Cambridge Museum of Zoology, who has devoted decades to protecting pollinators from disease, pesticides and parasites."

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Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Bees spend a lot of energy while buzz-pollinating flowers. We used respirometry, lasers, and bees in 3D chambers to figure just how energetically expensive it is. Thanks @bethbees.bsky.social and @natacharossi.bsky.social for this fun collaboration! royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

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Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Fixed loan sum for master’s study means students must find at least £10,000 from somewhere else to cover the cost of living. This is beyond the reach of most, says Alexis Gkantiragas ow.ly/7F4u50Z0ZZr

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Julia Koricheva @juliakoricheva.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Exciting times at @royalholloway.bsky.social Peregrines livestream! First chick has arrived (11.25) and now second is on its way (12.49) 🐣 www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDv_...

youtube.com

Royal Holloway Peregrines

YouTube video by Royal Holloway Peregrines

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European Society for Evolutionary Biology @eseb.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Safe to say that we are very excited about this here at ESEB! Huge thanks to Brian Golding for entrusting us with the fantastic service that you have created and curated for the years! Follow @evoldir.bsky.social

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Tomer J. Czaczkes @tomerczaczkes.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Melissa Armand, the first author of the study, also did some excellent scholarship here, reviewing the evidence for decoy effects in bees and other insects, and found that actually, the evidence is pretty shaky and inconsistent. It's such a tempting idea, but it seems often not to be the case!

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FLOWer Lab 🌸🍒 🐝 🪰🔬🧬 @flowerlab.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Flowers can move too 🌼🐝 In Galactites tomentosus, touching the disc florets can trigger a rapid staminal movement that helps control pollen presentation and release during a pollinator visit. This was observed by Biology students during Plant Diversity classes at the University of Coimbra 🌿

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

New in @science.org ‼️ In the most comprehensive study to date, we show that wildlife trade is driving animal-to-human zoonotic spillover at a planetary scale, with +1 spillover per host every 10 years. Live animal markets and illegal trade pose even greater risks. 🔓 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Wildlife trade drives animal-to-human pathogen transmission over 40 years

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Ecol. Solutions & Evidence | Applied Ecol. Resources @aer-ese-bes.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

We're accepting proposals for our Special Feature! We invite scientists and practitioners to share experiences from management projects that didn't go to plan, but still provided important insights into how best to manage ecosystems and species🌱 ⏰Submit by 30th April More here👇 buff.ly/EXXBFsJ

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Wellcome Sanger Institute @sangerinstitute.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Cholera-causing bacteria are locked in an evolutionary arms race with their viral nemesis found in the human gut, according to a new study. 🦠 Find the full story here ⤵️ www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/on...

sanger.ac.uk

One of cholera’s great enemies is found in the human gut

Experts find that cholera strains in Bangladesh are in a constant battle with a protective bacteriophage found in the human gut, lessening cholera’s ability to spread widely.

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SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

The SORTEE guidelines for data and code quality control in ecology and evolutionary biology are now published in the Peer Community Journal! 🔗 peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10....

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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

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mta-lace.bsky.social @mta-lace.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Our new paper, co-authored by Riho and Péter, titled "Pesticides and habitat loss additively reduce wild bees in crop fields", is published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. The study emphasizes the need to reduce pesticide impacts and restore habitats for promoting wild bees. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

doi.org

Pesticides and habitat loss additively reduce wild bees in crop fields - Nature Ecology & Evolution

The authors synthesize bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents, finding that local pesticide hazards and decreasing adjacent semi-natural habitats both negatively affected wil...

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Catrin Westphal @catrinwestphal.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

It’s surprising to see that Bombus lapidarius plays such a key role in virus transmission within agricultural landscapes. This challenges long-held assumptions and highlights how non-honeybee species can drive the spread of pathogens. 🧪 Congratulations to Patrycja Pluta for leading the study!

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Mark Brown @markjfbrown.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Today is World Sleep Day 😴 and in celebration of that, here are some of the snooziest animals in the world @zoologymuseum.bsky.social

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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 13/03/2026

What kills a society: accumulation of uric acid increases infectious disease risk in #termites #ProcB #OpenAccess royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

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Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Published 📖 Generalized graphical mixed models connect ecological theory with widely used statistical models GGMMs connect ecological theory with statistical models that are applied for inference, prediction, and causal analysis throughout ecology 🖥️ 🌍 🔎

buff.ly

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Mark Brown @markjfbrown.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Here’s a great PhD opportunity in the crossover between humanities and natural history- please repost 🙏 www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...

ccc.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge University Library, University Museum of Zoology and the University of Cambridge - Collections Connections Communities

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Phil Stevenson @philstevenson.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Heather nectar metabolites reduce within-colony epidemics of the bumblebee parasite Crithidia bombi showing that anti microbial compounds in nectar are effective at improving bee health at colony levels. @rbgkew.bsky.social @markjfbrown.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Heather nectar extracts reduce within-colony epidemics of the bumblebee parasite Crithidia bombi

Abstract. Disease and habitat loss are significant causes of pollinator declines, and evidence indicates the two are linked. In Britain, lowland heath is a

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Corneile Minnaar @cminnaar.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Bags packed, on the train, and super excited to finally attend my first @britishecologicalsociety.org conference! #BES2025 🤸🏼‍♂️🐝 (luggage in bee-colour theme is accidental, promise 😅)

Photo with just a person's legs and feet visible as well as their luggage which includes a yellow backpack and black cabin bag. The person is on a train to somewhere.

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Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Delighted to publish Forum Article by @nicolasgaltier.bsky.social et al: "Journals run by learned societies or universities have more ethical policies while being cheaper and similarly cited" doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... Thank you for choosing JEB - we encourage the support of #societyjournals

doi.org

Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly journals in ecology and evolutionary biology

Abstract. The current economics of scientific publishing reveal a profound imbalance: academia pays prices far exceeding the actual costs of publication. R

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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 17/10/2025

Deciduous leaves may have evolved to be symmetrical and subtly lobed so they fall quicker and land near their parent tree, recycling their annually sequestered carbon. Join us 22 Oct 3:00 PM (London, UK) to hear #JRSocInterface author Kaare Jensen talk about his research: cassyni.com/events/5PbU2...

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Nature @nature.com · 03/09/2025

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

go.nature.com

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

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Tanja Slotte @tanjaslotte.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

*Postdoc in Evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University* We are recruiting a postdoc for a large interdisciplinary project to investigate evolutionary drivers and genomic consequences of pollen evolution in response to pollination mode shifts in flowering plants. 1/5 su.varbi.com/what:job/job...

Purple pollen visible in a dissected flower of Linum grandiflorum, flowering flax, an insect-pollinated species.

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Is the Most Effective Pollinator Principle a zombie idea? How do plants adapted to one pollinator shift to another without traversing an adaptive valley? How should we measure fitness in pollinator selection studies? We explore these questions and more in a new review doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

doi.org

Beyond the Grant–Stebbins model: floral adaptive landscapes and plant speciation

AbstractBackground. Floral diversity, a striking feature of angiosperm evolution, provides the impetus and rationale for linking pollinator-driven selectio

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Science Magazine @science.org · 21/08/2025

Light pollution is causing birds around the world to sing for longer each day, prolonging their vocalizations on average by 50 minutes, according to a new study in Science. Learn more: scim.ag/3Uz7vzP

A figure showing that light pollution prolongs avian vocal activity by nearly an hour. (A) Most diurnal bird species show bimodal vocalization patterns with peaks in the morning and evening; in light-polluted landscapes (yellow shading), the first vocalizations occur earlier in the morning and the last vocalizations occur later in the evening. (B) Globally—averaged across species, space, and season—onset of morning vocalization shifted 18 min earlier in the brightest landscapes versus the darkest landscapes. (C) Similarly, evening cessation was delayed by an average of 32 min. In (B) and (C), lines are means and shaded regions are 95% confidence intervals (CI) of model predictions.

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Phil Stevenson @philstevenson.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Press release for our @nature.com paper on the importance of #sterols in the diet of honeybees is here - the piece provides details on the yeast engineering & bioassays. The work was the research of my brilliant PhD student Elynor Moore www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-08...

ox.ac.uk

Saving bees with ‘superfoods’: new engineered supplement found to

A new study led by the University of Oxford could provide a cost-effective and sustainable solution to help tackle the devastating decline in honeybees. An engineered food supplement, designed to

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Phil Stevenson @philstevenson.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

This is devastating. We’ve lost most Lowland Heath in England. It supports unique flora & fauna & healthy bees. Our work @rbgkew.bsky.social w/ @cminnaar.bsky.social & @markjfbrown.bsky.social studies heather nectar for compounds that protect bumblebees from parasites www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Major heath blaze at Holt Heath brought under control

More than 100 firefighters have worked to get the fast-moving fire under control.

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Phil Stevenson @philstevenson.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Pollinating count to track Square Mile's ecosystem Bees, butterflies and moths are being counted across the City of London on Thursday to document the state of insect populations. www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Pollinating insect count for City of London

Bees, butterflies and moths are being counted across the City of London on Thursday.

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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 19/07/2025

Insects usually care for their own young, but sometimes they also help other species. This #RSOS study found that yellow meadow #ants protect the eggs of root aphids in their nests during winter. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @tparmentier.bsky.social @wybouw.bsky.social

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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 25/06/2025

If you've not already followed the cool trans nature experts in this starter pack, you're really missing out. Also, it's Pride! Get some more trans voices on your timeline!

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UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) @ukceh.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

As @royentsoc.bsky.social #InsectWeek begins, we’re excited to share the latest @pomscheme.bsky.social annual report 🐝🪰🪲 Explore this year’s findings and help us welcome The RHS as a new PoMS partner! 👏🏼 Planting a variety of flowers and creating diverse habitats is key for pollinators 🌼 🧵🧪 1/

Front cover of UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme Annual Report 2024, including image of Variable Nomad Bee, Nomada zonata
© Steven Falk and logos of UKCEH, JNCC and PoMS

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