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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Finally got the Bogong moths here in Armidale, a few days later than the rest of NSW! Hundreds fluttering through our backyard tonight, nectaring on Eremophila and Pittosporum #ozinverts #threatenedspecies

Large brown Bogong moths on a flowering Eremophila plant. Scene is at night, lit up by torchlight

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Chuffed to start 2026 with news I've been elected a Fellow of the @royentsoc.bsky.social, one of the oldest entomological societies in the world doing amazing work to support insect science and conservation around the world. Look forward to the future of insect conservation!

An insect pollinator community feasts on white eucalypt blossoms.

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Our backyard has another 'first' record for an insect species in Armidale @inaturalist.bsky.social, Amphirhoe sloanei(?). So many possible reasons for 'firsts', eg few people looking; less common species; dispersal from the coast (random or migration)... we'll probably never know #wildoz #ozinverts

A glamorous longicorn beetle sits on a white buddleia flower head, drinking nectar. The beetle is elongated and black, with tan pinstripes, swollen segments on the very long legs, and ridiculously long red antenna.

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Social spiders! Found this huge communal web, shared by five visible adult female orb weavers, strung across a popular walking path at Mooloolaba Beach #ozinverts #wildoz

Huge communal spider web, with five large orb weavers sharing the space, visible against the blue sky background

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Glorious spring day in the New England gorge country near Armidale. Local endemic Ingram's wattle having a glow up #wildoz #ozplants

Clear blue sky, underlined by a rugged cliff face covered in trees. Flowering wattles glow gold among the green and brown

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Biggest snow fall in decades here in Armidale NSW. We usually get an occasional flurry that doesn't settle. Heavy snow fell all day, around 40cm+ in drifts around our yard. Lots of fun, but also lots of trees cracking and falling, not used to the weight. Some birds struggling to fly!

Snow covered street curving away from the camera. Everything is white.

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Congratulations Ashley Darst, winner of the #RESInsectConsDiv early career research paper award 2024! Ashley's research impressed us as a great example of direct conservation benefits from on-ground collaboration between researchers and land managers 🌏🧪 www.royensoc.co.uk/res-journal-...

A researcher in hi-vis yellow vest and hat is standing in a patch of flowering plants next to a major road. She has a notebook in hand and is recording observations from the plants she is looking at.

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

*New paper* Denialism campaigns are growing in attempts to discredit science, scientists, and the scientific process generally. Biodiversity loss denial is a new phenomenon that needs our attention. -With @alexanderlees.bsky.social + Eliza Grames! #CommSky 🧪🌏 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Figure 2. Measuring changes in insect biodiversity (centre column 'Metrics' and 'Trends') can be achieved by focusing on drivers that directly or indirectly impact insect biodiversity metrics and trends (left column 'Drivers of Change'). Where data on insect populations specifically are unavailable, data from other species and ecological processes can provide inferential support for changes in insect biodiversity (right column 'Indicators of Change').

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Great to be back in the lab, working with Carmen looking at insect samples from threatened #DynamicLagoons for her PhD. First time doing insect ID since parent life...I'd forgotten where most things were, and discovered I need to replenish my lab consumables!

Three bees lying in a Petri dish on a microscope deck

Scientist Carmen working with a sample of insects and a microscope. She is holding a Petri dish of samples on the microscope deck with her right hand and transferring a damselflies to another jar with her left hand

Scientist hands holding a Petri dish of damselflies on the microscope deck

An unnamed insect lies on a Petri dish in the microscope light, waiting for identification

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Seeing lots of Christmas beetles (Anoplognathus spp.) around the Northern Tablelands NSW this summer. Plenty of defoliated trees too! #wildoz #ozinverts

A collection of brown shiny Christmas beetles lying in leaf litter, surrounded by dead eucalyptus leaves of mixed sizes and colours and a few tufts of green grass

A skyward view of a stand of Eucalyptus trees, with their defoliated canopies contrasting against the blue sky and white clouds

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Lots to learn about insect detectability & biodiversity records can help. Found this hawkmoth (Theretra inornata) on a morning walk after very windy night. First record for NSW according to iNaturalist (seen one before but didn't get pic). Was it a blow-in? Are they around but not seen? #ozinverts

Large beige coloured hawkmoth lying in short grass. To the left, a thumb and forefinger is gently pulling the topwing open to make the underwing visible, which has dark brown shading.

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

It's not often you are lucky enough to see both host and parasitoid in action! A couple of weeks ago we saw a potter wasp (Delta latreilli)make a nest on our front stairs. This week a cuckoo wasp (Chrysididae) parasitised it #ozinverts #wildoz #urbanecology

Large orange and black wasp pushing a paralysed caterpillar into her freshly built mud nest. The nest sits on a cement stair with a brick wall behind it.

Iridescent green wasp laying eggs in a hole she just drilled in the same nest as previous picture

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

This species (Cyclochila australasiae) comes in multiple colour morphs. Here's a Masked Devil morph we found just emerged on our neighbourhood walk this morning #wildoz #ozinverts

A large orange cicada with black markings rests on the ground among grass and clover leaves

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Our first firetail (Yoyetta ignita) for the season! Currently chirping on our window screen. This species was only named recently, here's a little story about the value of recording biodiversity observations 👇 #wildoz #ozinverts 🌏🧪

A small cicada sitting in the palm of a person's hand, facing away from the camera. It's body is mostly black with a fiery orange abdomen.

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Green grocer cicadas are out for the summer! We haven't had these in our yard for a few years #ozinverts #wildoz

Large lime green cicada resting on an open hand, with palm facing up. The cicada reaches almost the full width of the hand.

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Some of the diversity in our poppy patch ❤️ Today it feels even more important to remember what they sacrificed for #RemembranceDay

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 06/11/2024

Some cool genes in our Flanders poppy patch 🌏🧪

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 18/09/2024

Got my copy! Thanks @hpwaudby.bsky.social for inviting me to be part of this awesome collection of stories highlighting the diversity of experiences working with nature. Hope this book inspires more readers to explore ecology and conservation opportunities! 🌏 publish.csiro.au/book/8128/

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 14/09/2024

We experienced a huge emergence of moths recently with the unseasonally warm winter weather. They were mostly noctuids, plus others, many nectaring on flowering trees during the day #ozinverts #pollinators 🌏

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 30/08/2024

The blogosphere is valuable to science communities (or any discipline), but we need more recognition of how readers and writers benefit. Thanks @robinheinennl.bsky.social for invitation to contribute to this piece! #scicomm #commsky #academicsky onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 07/05/2024

Spectacular new fungi-mimicking beetle genus discovered by James Tweed on a camping trip in southeast Queensland rainforest. Despite an extensive history of entomological collecting & research at this location, it is completely new to science #ozinverts www.taxonomyaustralia.org.au/_files/ugd/1...

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 14/03/2024

The Ecology & Conservation of Urban Insects SI, now published! A great set of papers covering a range of taxa and urban locations around the world! #urbanecology #insectconservation 🌏🧪 resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17524598...

Journal issue cover for the Special Issue featuring a large insect hotel wall in front of a high-intensity urban apartment block.

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 14/01/2024

"Implementing global risk reduction measures is equivalent to providing a global public good." World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2024: - Manipulated information most severe short term risk - Environmental collapse most severe long term risk 🌏🧪 www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The...

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 19/11/2023

Invasive Asian paper wasp feasting on flowers at a local nursery (Armidale NSW) #insects #InvasiveSpecies

Black and yellow Asian paper wasp feeding on a white flower

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 08/11/2023

Wild Pollinator Count is still on hiatus! But you can look for #ozpollinators any time, wherever there are flowering plants. Our site has lots of resources to help ID what you find #citizenscience wildpollinatorcount.com/2022/11/11/u...

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 04/11/2023

The mystery bulloaks at Dangars Gorge near Armidale are dead, might need to change sign. First pics from 2017, last pic from today #wildoz

National Parks interpretive sign explaining ecology of the Dangars Gorge bulloaks

Healthy living bulloaks at Dangars Gorge

Same stand of bulloaks at Dangars Gorge, dead

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 03/11/2023

UWA disease expert Dr Zoe Hyde: "I think [Aus] governments have just given up on covid. I think they hope if we all get it a few times, it will become like a cold. But that's not going to happen." Australia the only OECD country with outdated vaccines twitter.com/loobylouwale...

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 29/10/2023

A native resin bee checking out potential nest holes in our old railway sleeper garden edges #wildoz #ozinverts #ozpollinators

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 26/10/2023

Still waiting 6pm. Third time this spring forecast has gone around us, starting to feel a bit droughty

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

Removing non-crop flowers within orchards promotes the decline of pollinators, not their conservation: A comment on McDougall et al. (2021) #insectconservation resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Two comparison images showing an orchard with thick flowering ground cover and a different orchard with bare ground between trees

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 23/10/2023

Butterfly biodiversity increases with prairie strips and conservation management in row crop agriculture #InsectConservation 🌏🧪 resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly in a flowering prairie strip adjacent to cropfields

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 23/10/2023

#CitizenScience project records 22 species of wild bees and digger wasps nesting in urban pavements in Brussels, Belgium #UrbanEcology 🌏🧪 resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 22/10/2023

Male bees are often overlooked as pollinators, but they can pollinate too! Here's a male wood boring lithurgine bee enjoying our pumpkin flowers #ozinverts #ozpollinators 🌏

Male Australian lithurgine bee, with pollen on his back, being chased out of a pumpkin flower by a tiny ant

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

Evolution is amazing. These spiders (Celaenia excavata) pretend to be bird poop to avoid predators and also pretend to be pheromone-emitting female moths to attract their prey #ozinverts 🌏🧪

A bird dropping spider huddled on a leaf looking exactly like a little blob of bird poop

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 16/10/2023

Fire weather and sheep graziers warning in the same day!

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

First native bee this season in our garden! A golden browed resin bee (Megachile aurifrons) stocking her nest from our New England teatree #ozpollinators #ozplants #ozbees

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

My research wordcloud! (cool app 👉 shiny.rcg.sfu.ca/u/rdmorin/sc...)

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Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

#Academic wheel of privilege is a good resource to reflect on. One thing I think that isn't covered in the career segment is 'access to internal power/information'. This isn't always correlated with career stage or other factors, but can have a disproportionate impact on people's success #academia

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