iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Fly zombies on the fennel? Some sort of entomopathogenic fungus? #diptera

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Lovely morning @kneppwilding.bsky.social watching the last of this year's purple emperors with Matthew Oates!

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Parasitised aphid on the back door 👀

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Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Pond dug, first raised bed of veg planted and small patch of lawn mowed for last time for a month - the rest is being left… The pond is 3m by 3m and its clay. My arms ache..

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Picked up a couple of books from the #Knepp store this afternoon. Can't wait to get into them!

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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Our #BigGive campaign aims to: 🐜 Upskill volunteers to monitor Large blue sites 🐛 Monitor how #ClimateChange affects populations & new sites 🦋 Increase distribution & resilience via re-introductions Make double the difference this week 22-29 April 🔽 buff.ly/BpXY1hY

The Large blue was declared nationally extinct in 1979. Thanks to the unique expertise of our conservation science team we have reintroduced this rare species to Gloucestershire and Somerset.

We now need your help to support the butterfly's survival, increasing its populations in a changing climate.

This iconic butterfly is a globally endangered species. The caterpillar is a parasite of a Red ant, and the butterfly cannot survive without thriving ant colonies on each site.

Over the course of the last ten years there have been several extreme weather events which have seen the populations of these and associated species decline. We can counter climate change impacts by adaptations to land management, and by identifying new Large blue introduction sites with greater climate change resilience

Our team will carry out in-depth surveys of Large blues, ants and associated species to help us identify population trends and give evidence-based advice to land managers.

We will use temperature dataloggers to measure soil and air temperature on both existing and potential Large blue sites. This will produce vital evidence of the impacts of extreme weather and help to prioritise new sites for introductions into landscapes with greater flexibility to prosper under a changing climate.

Upskill volunteers to use the Coreo wildlife survey app, with data gathered feeding into our decade-long climate and species monitoring across Large blue sites.

Monitor how volatile weather events and a warming climate affect populations using surveys and temperature data loggers to help make recommendations for reintroduction sites.

Determine whether existing populations are robust enough for future re-introductions to new sites to increase the distribution and resilience of the species.

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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

The endangered #LargeBlue butterfly has a bizarre life cycle. Its caterpillar feeds on thyme plants and mimics the Myrmica sabuleti ant who then cares for it as their own for the next 10 months. Double your donation from 22-29 April with #BigGive 🔽 buff.ly/BpXY1hY @gloswildlife.bsky.social

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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

There's still time to show your support for insect #ConservationScience with #BigGive. Your generous donations will support the next generations of the #LargeBlue in the UK & beyond 🦋 Double your impact before midday 29 April 🔽 buff.ly/lyGUtQ7 @gloswildlife.bsky.social @biggive.bsky.social

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George McGavin @georgemcgavin.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

The bark bug, Aradus depressus (Aradidae). If you see one get a shot before it scuttles off into a bark crevice...

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Nice to be back in Buckinghamshire. Thought I'd make the most of the weather today and wander over to the Royal Standard.

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George McGavin @georgemcgavin.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Lawn's turned out nice...

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

It's been a pleasure to have spent the week filming at #Knepp. Many thanks to @mostlyscarce.bsky.social and Ryan Greaves from @kneppwilding.bsky.social for their support (and for the tour of the beaver enclosure). Can't wait to visit again soon! Photo credit (left): Olly Cummins

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Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Double book launch for my wonderful museum-hubby @jackdashby.bsky.social - Wild and Nature’s memory Such a super friend with a huge passion for natural history & communicating about it

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VC40Ladybirds 🐞 @vc40ladybirds.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

A surprise Scymnus interruptus (Red-flanked Ladybird) out of grasses with 16-spot and 22-spot Ladybirds, at lunchtime today! Not had one from grasses before! #VC40Ladybirds #MicroLadybird #AlwaysExpectTheUnexpected

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

The first events from my new job at buglife are coming up soon! If you are Cornwall-based and would like to learn how to ID pollinators and plants, then please sign up here to our free workshops (with free lunch!): Pollinators: trybooking.com/uk/ESPH Plants: trybooking.com/uk/ESPI Hope to see you!

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Nice to see some oil beetles (Meloe sp.) on the coastal path near Coverack today!

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Josh Boe @entomolojosh.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Had a great walk around Macclesfield Forest today. Brought out the EMP lure & despite being incredibly windy, had 3 Emperor #Moths to it within 5 mins. NFY, & truly amazing species I'd happily see every day. A new favourite of my girlfriend, as well. #entomology #insects #mothsmatter #teammoth #vc58

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

First ashy mining bee (Andrena cineraria) of the year! 😄

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Dr Marcus Rhodes @marcusrhodes.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

I’m delighted to see the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Nature Recovery Strategy published! This collaborative project has been two years in the making with thousands of individuals contributing to the vision. We have the blueprint, now we must focus on delivery. letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/hub-page/nat...

A map of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly highlighting strategically important opportunities to create and restore habitat.

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

So pleased to see this article about the incredible migration of flies on @theconversation.com! Fly migration is so vitally important to humans but massively under-appreciated. I'd love to spread the word further - could anyone help? theconversation.com/flies-are-ma...

theconversation.com

Flies are masters of migration – it’s about time they got some credit

Flies are the most ecologically diverse and important migrant group. We just had no idea.

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Just found a Pseudeuophrys jumping spider living in the bathroom

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Out trying to record tawny owl calls tonight.

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Dr Marcus Rhodes @marcusrhodes.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

I'm genuinely speechless! I've just seen a Large Tortoiseshell at Penryn Campus!

A Large Tortoiseshell butterfly (orange with black spots) basking amongst woody debris on a cleared patch of ground.

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Lovely to see a pair of green woodpeckers in the woods today! Looks like this tree has been used a few times.

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Had a fantastic recce at Knepp yesterday ahead of our long lens assignment. Special thanks to Matt Phelps @mostlyscarce.bsky.social, Ryan Greaves and Paul Stevens for showing us around! Photos by Irina Patrut, Ed Prendeville and Hannah Wise. Rove beetle (Platydracus sp.)

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

First orange ladybird (Halyzia sedecimguttata) I've seen in quite a while 😊

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Currently down here in Tarifa, S Spain. Hoping to see insects migrating across the straits from Africa into Europe. @exeter.ac.uk @koralwotton.bsky.social

A coastal landscape at sunset with two figures admiring it in the middle distance

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

We saw the most incredible wonders in Borneo, @bardseyben.bsky.social and I have just released our new podcast episode all about them! Here is Will and Ben, the Wildlife Men: Quest for the Ogre-Faced Spider. Listen here: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/willandbenthewildlifemen 1/x

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Phil @phil-binnie.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

I found this when moving an old wood pile. It's a our 12mm in diameter. I guess it the fruiting body of fungi within the old wood. It reminds me of Brain coral 🤔

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Between 2014 & 2016, I studied the Chequered Skipper in Scotland. One memorable encounter was watching a larva spin silk between the edges of a leaf. As silk dries, it contracts, and this pulled the leaf edges together to create a protective tube. Amazing! More at www.dispar.org/reference.ph...

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

One of the main things that inspired me to become an entomologist was watching the BBC's Lost Land of the Volcano & specifically @georgemcgavin.bsky.social standing on the volcano edge surrounded by the most wondrous moths! I've just been lucky enough to travel w my family to Trus Madi mountain 1/x

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Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Sir Tim Smit is talking about the impact of buildings on the average person - How some of the bleakest buildings have such a negative impact on folks walking past them. Planning needs to be sensitive to all these aspects of human health and the wider environment

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

My family and I have just got back from the most amazing trip to Borneo. I had always hoped to see one of these Rafflesia flowers, & we had the incredible luck to find one flowering nearby! 'Rafflesia' is steeped in colonialism, being named after Stamford Raffles, a Dutch East Indies governor. 1/x

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Our first stop during our Bornean adventure was the Trusmadi Entomology camp a Singapore-sized region of secondary forest complete with a camp specifically set up for insects - see drone photo of the camp & the amount of forest around. We had messaged before arrival & this really paid off... 1/x

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Female hoverflies are WAY better than males at migrating! At the beginning of their 1000km+ migrations in Denmark the sex ratios are 50:50, but by the time they get to Spain it is 90% female! On flight sims females flew 9x further and have better immunity and lifespan! @flygirlnhm.bsky.social

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Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Here is @yukihaba.bsky.social and I underneath London collecting mosquitoes - very happy little researchers So fresh natural and the historic material in the @nhm-london.bsky.social collections were sampled (along with a lot more..)

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Josh Boe @entomolojosh.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Had an amazing workshop with John Girdley on #Moth dissection! Taught the whole process from specimen prep, dissection, and making slides! I even dissected and IDed my own specimen, which I now know to be a Saltern Ear. Had so much fun, and learned lots! #entomology #insects #moths #mothsmatter

One of John's Mottled Willow (of some kind) specimens from Spain. I can't remember the exact species, but this is the female genitalia

Another of John's Spanish specimens. This one is the male genitalia of Scarce Bordered Straw (Helicoverpa armigera)

This is my own specimen - what I now know to be the male genitalia of a Saltern Ear (Amphipoea fucosa)

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Here is a link to the first insect migration starter pack on Bluesky, eventually it will be full of people who study and post about the wonders of insect migration. Please add any people you can think of! go.bsky.app/RuU8aNS

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Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

An amazing life history strategy by the fly (you are obvs just seeing the pupal stage) Excellent capture @wizentrop.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

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Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Some funky entomological jobs going at #Monach involving some innovative research in entomological AI and chemistry jobs.ashbyhq.com/monarchcrops @entsocamerica.bsky.social @entsocontario.bsky.social

jobs.ashbyhq.com

Monarch Jobs

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Miles Binnie @milesbinnie.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Thoroughly enjoyed springboard last week. Looking forward to getting stuck into the course tomorrow!

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