iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Cory S. Sheffield 🇨🇦🐝🌺📸🎸🎨 @corysheffield.bsky.social · 12h

It is a cold day in southern Saskatchewan. I am afraid this #bumblebee, Bombus huntii, missed out on the chance to find a wintering site and will not become a queen next year. A late seasonal record for the province, so perhaps ending up in our museum collection is a suitable fate

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Paul Williams @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Some rare bumblebees (saltuarius, sushkini, tichenkoi) scattered across northern Eurasia appear from barcodes and morphology to be parts of just one poorly known species. Now this has a newly described sister species in the east Tibetan Plateau, B. hongyuanensis. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Bumblebee species of the genus Bombus Latreille, 1802, subgenus Megabombus von Dalla Torre, 1880, are re-assessed world-wide with a species-coalescent analysis of COI barcodes. An integrative analysis of this evidence together with morphological characters shows (1) support for the widespread Eurasian species B. consobrinus Dahlbom, 1832 including as synonyms the taxa B. yezoensis Matsumura, 1932, syn.n. (from Japan) and B. przewalskiellus (Skorikov, 1933), syn.n. (from North China); (2) support for B. tichenkoi (Skorikov, 1926) s. l. as a widespread but under-recognised species in Asia that includes as synonyms the taxa B. saltuarius (Skorikov, 1931), syn.n. (from Russia), B. sushkini (Skorikov, 1931) syn.n. (from Central Asia and Mongolia), B. morawitzianus Pittioni, 1939, syn.n. (from Mongolia), B. pseudoligusticus Podbolotskaya, 1988, syn. n. (from Kamchatka), and B. kurilensis Sakagami, 1954 (from the Kuril Islands); and (3) support for B. hongyuanensis Williams, sp.n. as a previously unrecognised vicariant sister-species from the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

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Ian Beavis @ianbeavis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Queen Red-tailed Bumblebee in Calverley Grounds - first one I've seen for a while as they've mostly all gone into hibernation

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Ian Beavis @ianbeavis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Foraging worker Buff-tailed Bumblebee (note full pollen baskets on hind legs) at ivy in Woodbury Park Cemetery.

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David Díez del Molino 🇪🇸🇸🇪🏳️‍🌈 @indianadiez.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

New research in @molecularecolup.bsky.social! Museum collections help us understand the genomic consequences of the insect biodiversity crisis 🐝🧬🏛️ We analyzed specimens spanning 150 years to track genomic diversity in the common carder bee in Sweden. OA onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

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Syd Cannings @sydcannings1.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Flew over BC's spectacular Coast Mountains again on my way back home to Whitehorse today... gorgeous as usual but my, those glaciers are getting smaller every year! #climatechange

aerial view of icefields, mountains, and valley glaciers

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Pieter Haringsma @haringsmapieter.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Bombus Consobrinus (Lushatthumla) is the bumblebee with the longuest tongue of Scandinavia. She is dependend on Monkshood (Tyrihjelmen). On the first shot she cleans her tongue. Funasdalen, Sweden, July 2026. Enjoy!

Bombus Consobrinus, Lushatthumla, Tyrihjelm

Bombus Consobrinus, Lushatthumla, Tyrihjelm
Bumblebee

Bombus Consobrinus, Lushatthumla, Tyrihjelm
Bee, Zweden

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Molecular Biology and Evolution @molbioevol.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Mullin et al. use WGS from 101 museum specimens of British/Irish moss carder bumblebees from 1894-2019 to reveal a dramatic drop in genetic diversity: ∼24.6% decrease in heterozygosity and a 2.86-fold increase in ROH 🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... 📷 Gavin Broad #societyjournal #naturalhistory

MBE | Museum specimens reveal the genomic consequences of long-term population decline in an insect pollinator

Photo: Gavin Broad

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Ian Beavis @ianbeavis.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Queens of Early Bumblebee and Tree Bumblebee at Pembury Walks and Brakeybank Wood

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Ian Beavis @ianbeavis.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This patrolling male dronefly (Eristalis tenax) was very interested in the male Buff-tailed Bumblebee scent-marking a bracken frond on its own mate-searching patrol route. It must have been detecting the bee pheromone.

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Paul Williams @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A British bumblebee on a Sumatran mountain? The strange case of Bombus melanopoda - see www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Lateral view of the NHMUK holotype of Bombus melanopoda, described as collected in Sumatra.
The bumblebee taxon Bombus melanopoda Cockerell is known only from the holotype female. Confusion had arisen because the holotype of B. melanopoda is labelled ‘Sumatra’, appears in the Natural History Museum (NHM) accession catalogue as originating from there, and is similar in its near-all-black colour pattern of the hair to many individuals of both of the other bumblebee species known from Sumatra: B. rufipes Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau and B. senex Snellen van Vollenhoven. However, a COI
barcode obtained from this individual is identical to another from the European species B. ruderatus (Fabricius) and the morphology matches that of many British females of B. ruderatus. Therefore, B. melanopoda is synonymised here with B. ruderatus (syn. n.).
This is a salutary tale for not accepting data labels at face value without question and demonstrates again the value of COI barcodes.

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Ian Beavis @ianbeavis.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I've seen hardly any worker Tree Bumblebees this year, but now all of a sudden I'm seeing queens in several different places. This one was in Calverley Grounds today.

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Andrey P. @sibhedgehog.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

A male of Bombus modestus, mostly-Asian taiga species, feeding on oregano in my garden. July 12th, 2025.

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Cory S. Sheffield 🇨🇦🐝🌺📸🎸🎨 @corysheffield.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Two male specimens of Bombus bimaculatus Cresson, with a different colour form shown in each triplet; first three show the typical form, the next three show a male with much more yellow on the abdomen. #bumblebees #beesofcanada

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THE FAR SIDE DAILY @bot.cowtools.org · 20/08/2026

For many weeks, the two species had lived in mutual tolerance of one another. And then, without provocation, the hornets began throwing rocks at Ned’s house.

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Jenn Rose @jdrose.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Eguzkilore, a culturally important flower in the Basque Country, visited by Bombus pascuorum. I'm sure a nice treat in an otherwise unusually dry environment... 📍Aizkorri-Aratz

Eguzkilore, a low-laying ground thistle, wedged next to a rock. In the center is an orange Bombus.

Eguzkilore, a low laying ground thistle, visited by a Bombus pascuorum.

View of Aizkorri in a very dry environment.

The view from the top of the Aizkorri mountain range. Looking out to a sea of clouds.

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Pieter Haringsma @haringsmapieter.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Splendid Bombus Lapponicus (Lapphumle) males foraging in Sweden, area Funasdalen last july. Yellow on T1 and yellow hairs on the tip of the abdomen.

Bombus Lapponicus male foraging, Lapphumle, Sweden

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Pieter Haringsma @haringsmapieter.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The lovely Bombus mastrucatus (formerly named Wurflenii) shot in Sweden last july. Look at the strong jaws of this bee. It often opens the flowers at the top of the corolla stealing nectar without pollination. Beacause of this the scandinavian name is Tyvhumle wich means "stealing bumblebee".

Bombus mastrucatus foraging in Sweden
Ruige hommel, Tyvhumle

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Paul Williams @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Yes absolutely, and even more pronounced for bumblebees in the past warm climates of the lower Himalayan foothills and tropical South China

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I wrote about a reason not to use generative AI in your writing that I haven't seen anyone talking about. Once I realized this, banning GenAI in our lab's writing became a no-brainer. Feel free to share, I think this is probably useful especially for trainees: www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the...

carlsonlab.bio

The only reason you’ll ever need not to write with AI — The Carlson Lab

Over the last year, our lab has been developing a policy on AI use. To do this, we did three main things: We read a lot of academic publications and tech news. We set up an #ai channel on our la...

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Distributed System of Scientific Collections @dissco.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Good to see the #IUCN reiterate what has been our mantra all along: #NaturalHistory Collections are not repositories of the past but research-active infrastructures ready to address current and future global challenges: www.dissco.eu/iucn-natural... #biodiversity #taxonomy @eurotaxonomy.cetaf.org

dissco.eu

ICUN Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation - DiSSCo

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Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Did you know that bee buzzes on flowers are rich in harmonics? We investigated how harmonics, which give musical instruments their unique sounds, affect buzz pollination. Very happy to see this paper published @jexpbiol.bsky.social Thanks @hfspo.bsky.social for the support! doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

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Pieter Haringsma @haringsmapieter.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Recently did a 12 day bumblebee trip to Sweden, train, Flixbuzz etc. This lovely Bombus Pratorum was shot near Uppsala

Early bumblebee in Sweden near Uppsala
Weidehommel

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Our new commentary rdcu.be/ftx6h in @natecoevo.nature.com written with folks from @inaturalist.bsky.social and @cornellbirds.bsky.social shows that use of AI to manipulate existing or create new wildlife images undermines the huge value of vast citizen science databases. 🌍🪰🪶 #Ornithology 🧵 1/10

rdcu.be

Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI

Nature Ecology & Evolution - Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI

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Oliver E. Prŷs-Jones 🇺🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @opj123.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

New female reproductives (gynes) of Bombus terrestris out and about pre dormancy @cofnod.org.uk

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Paul Williams @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Superb! Amazingly have actually seen this species sitting on a bush in the garden in Tunbridge Wells!

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Paul Williams @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Our evolutionary tree for all world bumblebees paper on the cover of Insects! One conclusion: males with enlarged eyes and short antennae are evolutionarily convergent which may be associated with truly territorial mate-searching behaviour (competing for perches) www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Male of Bombus (Mendacibombus) margreiteri mate-searching in a meadow in Qinghai, China - males compete for perches, for which there is turnover in occupany - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230668921_The_Bumble_Bees_of_the_Kashmir_Himalaya_Hymenoptera_Apidae_Bobini

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Pieter Haringsma @haringsmapieter.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

In this French document www.biodiversite-auvergne-rhone-alpes.fr/documents/li... It is said that Bombus Brodmannicus isn't seen since the 1970's.

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Oliver E. Prŷs-Jones 🇺🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @opj123.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Bombus hortorum - a new gyne taking nectar from Phlomis russeliana flowers @cofnod.org.uk

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Paul Williams @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Net diversification rate - a new measure mapped for all of the world’s bumblebees and compared with species richness by overlaying them in different colours – excess of DR in green (S America) and excess of SR in blue (Himalaya/Rockies) www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Comparison of species richness (in blue, or blue/purple on some devices) overlayed with net diversification rates (in green: from summing the inverse of the internode-branch lengths on the root paths on the evolutionary tree to each species) mapped for bumblebee faunas on an equal-area grid (cylindrical equal-area projection, orthomorphic at 46° North and South of the equator, Antarctica not shown). Both colour axes are transformed to give near-uniform frequency distributions of scores among colour classes (colour-scale box, upper right: colour values represented for occupied cells on the map are indicated in the scale box with grey spots). Grid cells with high scores on both green and blue axes appear white, whereas cells with low scores on both axes appear black, while areas of intermediate and precisely covarying scores appear in intermediate shades of grey. By contrast, deviations from the overall positive relationship appear as increasingly saturated green or blue, showing an ‘excess’ of one score over the other. North pointer and scale bar representing 1100 km at the equator shown at lower left.

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Cory S. Sheffield 🇨🇦🐝🌺📸🎸🎨 @corysheffield.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

A side by side comparison of the #bumblebees #Bombus ternarius and huntii. Do you see that the latter has what looks like a mite attached to its body? #beesofcanada

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Kaz Ohashi @kazohashilab.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

I don’t think anything is missing in your dataset. I used ‘near-complete’ just in a cautious sense about wording, not as a criticism. I really find it an impressive and valuable synthesis!

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Paul Williams @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

In my interpretation of bumblebee species world-wide based on integrative analysis from morphology and species gene coalescents it is complete - I would be very interested to know what do you think is missing?

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Paul Williams @paulwilliamsnhm.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

New evolutionary tree for all of the world's bumblebee species, from (1) slow-evolving nuclear genes, (2) fast-evolving mitochondrial genes, and (3) results from genomic data, to provide a complete starting point for comparative studies of all bumblebees www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Evolutionary tree for all 289 extant accepted published bumblebee species from 93 million MCMC generations (post convergence) by BEAST 2 for two mitochondrial genes, four nuclear genes, and ge-nomic-supported group priors, with outgroups removed. Bayesian posterior support values for each node are shown with node and descendant branch colours indicating values from blue for high values to red for low values. Selected groups are indicated with larger spots: pale blue LT/LG for long-tongued Lowland Grassland species; pale green ST/MG for short-tongued Montane Grassland species; black spots for parasitic or ‘cuckoo’ species that lack workers, including the subgenus Psithyrus and B. inexspectatus, B. hyperboreus, B. natvigi. Subgenera are named in the outer grey ring. Taxon names not appearing in this figure are interpreted as synonyms (see text).

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Mark Brown @markjfbrown.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

It’s World Bee 🐝 Day! A day to celebrate these amazing insects, and to reflect on how we can support wild populations of 🐝 🐝 for the future. Museum collections are key in showing where bees used to be, setting baselines to understand impacts of stressors and set restoration/conservation targets

A tray of pinned bumblebee specimens from the UMZC

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AlinaHagen 🌊🎨📸 🥾 @alinagrafik.eurosky.social · 20/05/2026

#WorldBeeDay My lone photo of a bee to honor World Bee Day today, August 20th. 🐝 #EastCoastKin #ECK #Macro #Bee #Bloomscrolling

Close up image of a large, fuzzy bee sitting in the center of a bright yellow flower that has tinges of pink/orange on the ends of the petals. The center is a dark maroon with bright orange stamens. Dark purple/blue leaves are in the background as well as a few bright green leaves.

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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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Ian Beavis @ianbeavis.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Garden Bumblebee queen at Greater Periwinkle, Bryher, Scilly. 25 April

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Samantha Brennan @samanthabrennan.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Bumblebees are buzzing with Bluetooth trackers at the Arboretum Fifty queen bees are being tracked with Bluetooth technology as part of a research project to determine behavioural differences between commercial and wild bees www.guelphtoday.com/grounded/bum...

guelphtoday.com

Bumblebees are buzzing with Bluetooth trackers at the Arboretum

Fifty queen bees are being tracked with Bluetooth technology as part of a research project to determine behavioural differences between commercial and wild bees

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TRG @q4nwspunk.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Back to the simple natural order of things…….. not human arrogance based on destruction of our water,air, environment for profit…… for the 1%

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Nigel Raine @nigeleraine.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Les reines bourdons peuvent survivre et respirer sous l'eau pendant des jours. Découvrez comment Sabrina Rondeau a découvert ce phénomène et ses récentes recherches révélant la physiologie qui permet aux reines de survivre immergées sur @theconversation.com: theconversation.com/comment-les-...

Une reine bourdon accumule des réserves nutritives en prévision de l’hivernage. Lucas Borg-Darveau

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richardcomont.bsky.social @richardcomont.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Lovely to see Brown-banded Carder back on the allotment, examining the compost heap and nectaring on Red Dead-nettle

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Olivia Bernauer, PhD @oliviabernauer.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Shocked to report that my first bumble bee of the season was a rusty patched queen! What a delightful surprise

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Cory S. Sheffield 🇨🇦🐝🌺📸🎸🎨 @corysheffield.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

I collected this #Bombus terricola in 2015 on the Îles de la Madeleine, an Archipelago in #Québec - I knew of no previous records. Today I found an 1890 publication of Léon Provancher and it was one of two bee species listed. We now know there are at least 5 other #bumblebee species there too.

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Good grief! How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/u...

nytimes.com

How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran

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