iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Sky, mate. What have we done to deserve such a visual treat? #light #morning

Incredible orange-blue mottled sky in outskirts of Stuttgart

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Warning: sharing offices with entomologists can taint childhoods @smnstuttgart.bsky.social #bugsky #museum #wasps

Very hungry Caterpillar parody reading "but the wasp larvae were even hungrier"

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Now we've been bombarded with Leptoglossus occidentalis, a well-established travelling species here in #Germany. Never a dull moment in the life of a bug monitor #ecology #bugsky #anthropocene

Western conifer seed bug, Baden-Wurttemberg

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Given I'm out with the @smnstuttgart.bsky.social state insect monitoring project as part of @frontiersmedia.bsky.social, it's pretty appropriate I've encountered this gargantuan ant nuptial flight. It's always #flyingantday somewhere. #bugsky #nature #wildlife

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

One of the most utilised #pollinator hotels I've ever seen, on the hills above Lake Constance. #beesky #bugsky #Germany

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Here, have a Sunday buzzard. Sipplingen, Germany. #birdsky #wildlife

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Last week I went to a state public outreach event about Tapinoma magnum, an ant on the move in Germany. Coming from the UK I expected angst & pitchforks, but it was all very reasonable. #Insects and #politics don't seem natural bedfellows - but maybe they should be. @frontiersmedia.bsky.social

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Run into the newsroom and yell "SCOOP!" at the top of your voice #news #crying #media

Headline about a footballer posting an emoji

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I would like to put on the record that this was one of the greatest needless penalty concession-terrible pen 1-2s in history #thefootball #lowerleagues

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Whatever the quality of the game, I've had far worse walks to a football ground. Complete with a perfect woodland metaphor for the drive to watch lower league football #groundhoppers #forest

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Coming to you live from The Big One (Stuttgart Kickers v SG Barockstadt Fulda Lehnerz, if that needed clarification) #groundhopping #thefootball

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A novel note from my @frontiersmedia.bsky.social trip to Karlsruhe yesterday was that the dark blue graffiti on the city's electrical boxes by the local football club's #ultras may be making them warmer and more attractive to invasive #ants in the spring. #antsky #fanculture #streetart #scicomm

Electrical box in Karlsruhe, Germany, painted in local football Karlsruher SC colours

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Human borders mean nothing to non-native species, so I've got in the spirit and hopped over from @smnstuttgart.bsky.social to Winterthur in Switzerland to explore how they're monitoring and managing a very urban ant. @frontiersmedia.bsky.social #cities #nature #bugsky

Frontiers fellow, journalist Gary Hartley, at Winterthur station

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Here, add a brown argus to your Sunday. (Backnang, Baden-Württemberg) #buttersky #bugsky #wildlife

Brown argus butterfly on dry grass stalk

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Naturepenis 1, Nationalgalerie Deutschland. (Metal, spraypaint, organic materials) #art #badgraffiti #Germany

Picture of a sign for a nature monument, showing an eagle but with a classic graffiti cock and balls spraypainted on

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

And a parakeet, naturally, but who was really counting at that point. #birdsky #fauna #cities

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Apparently if you read enough papers about non-native species in a day, a gaggle of Egyptian geese and a nutria will immediately rock up when you take a post-work stroll to show you how it's done. The magic of @frontiersmedia.bsky.social #Stuttgart #wildlife #nature #ecosky

Egyptian geese at Max-Eyth-See in Stuttgart

Nutria, South American aquatic rodent at Max-Eyth-See in Stuttgart

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Insects need to stop being so perfect I feel like I'm in a simulation. (Hornet-mimic hoverfly, Stuttgart) #bugsky #nature

Hornet mimic hoverfly on beige street furniture

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

It's quite easy to think about ecosystems for @frontiersmedia.bsky.social when @smnstuttgart.bsky.social is an urban ecosystem in itself. Kudos to the #botany department. #museums #plantsky

Plants are everywhere at Stuttgart Natural History Museum

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Day 1 of my journalism residency at @smnstuttgart.bsky.social with @frontiersmedia.bsky.social. Already had some great conversations about how you communicate the importance of tiny creatures when the massive dinosaurs hog the headlines. #museums #bugsky #frontiers2026

Frontiers journalist in residence outside the Stuttgart Natural History Museum

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Mint Choc Chip I - for the consideration of the 2027 Turner Prize judges. Materials: Dairy/ concrete #UK #summer #art

A perfect splat of mint choc chip ice cream on concrete

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Love a good plume moth. And the beautiful plume moth at that. Nice of you to drop by this filthy window. #mothsky #bugsky #nature

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Buff-tip caterpillar. A clear don't touch/ don't eat message. #bugsky #ukwildlife #moths

Orange and green hairy buff tip caterpillar

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

A cordial public realm exchange on the subject of pointless path blockages and inept councils #debate #walking #observations

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Couple of yellow-striped beauties to take you over the midweek slump. #bugsky #dragonsky #spidersky #wildlife

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

It's almost as if there's an overarching phenomenon of some kind going on here 🤔 #wildfires #drought #coincidence

BBC News front page packed with fire and drought

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Have yourself a look at this lesser stag beetle, why don't you #bugsky #beetlesky

Lesser stag beetle climbing wall in a seemingly futile way

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I enjoyed the views at NK Solin when I visited a few years back. They even had a Poundland Niko Krancjar

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Very pleased to spot the hornet-mimic hoverfly (Volucella zonaria) in #Scarborough today. Formerly a committed southerner, this fly's now bounding northward in the UK. #flysky #bugsky #UKwildlife

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Bonus six-spot burnet for the Lepidoptera fans. Basically, everything likes knapweed it seems. #noweeds #florasky #mothsky

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Usually see one or two marbled whites a summer - there were hundreds of 'em in Kiplingcotes reserve yesterday. Restoring old industrial sites works. #bugsky #buttersky #conservation

Marbled white butterfly on knapweed flower

Marbled white and ringlet on knapweed flower

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Nothing says 'England during a World Cup' like a badged-up empty American beer can rammed onto a spike on a brick wall. #patriotism #WC2026 #ThreeLions

Someone's shoved an England football branded Budweiser can onto a spike

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

This is also ace, and sums up my own feelings on the tarnished beautiful game. #poem #poetry #football

Short excerpt from Joe Dunthorne poem, taking about football

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

My main commentary on Milton Keynes is that its ornamental lavender plantings are proving a first-rate host to one of Britain's cutest rapacious invasive species. #bugsky #beetles #MK #NewTownBiodiversity

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Crocodile? Juggling a clipart football? Magesi FC, you spoil us all with your graphic design prowess.

Magesi FC badge, a true work of art featuring a crocodile juggling a clipart football on a blue background

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Shout out to this proud foliage growing on the roof of a condemned building in Sheffield. #plantsky #urbanbotany #inspiration

Foliage sprouts from roof, blue sky in background

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

First indoor bumblebee rescue of the year, always a big moment #bugsky #wildlife #spring

Bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, in a glass

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Gary W Hartley @garybugsyou.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

If the Mancunians are sticking with this self-identification as hard workers, can they at least start putting the right number of wings on their emblematic honey bees? #bugsky #UKPolitics

Manchester's endemic two-winged honeybee painted on a wall

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