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Rory Dimond

@rdimond.bsky.social
563 followers 204 following 228 posts

Environmental charity worker, wildlife gardener, author and volunteer. Avid entomology enthusiast. Mostly speaks about the smaller thigs (bees, wasps, flies, spiders etc.) on my local patch. He/Him.

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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Great piece of artwork thanks for sharing. The insects are identifiable too: Bedstraw Hawkmoth, Marmalade Hoverfly and Marbled White butterfly.
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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
🐝 Pollinating, hunting, feeding, courting, nesting... Some of the most memorable insect photos capture behaviour in action. If you've photographed an insect doing something remarkable, it's a perfect time to enter the RES #InsectWeek Photography Competition. ⏰ Deadline: 31 October buff.ly/rdahCIp
buff.ly
Royal Entomological Society Photography Competition - Insect Week
Royal Entomological Society
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Jess Taylor @loadofolbobbins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Anyone fancy doing a poorly girl with shingles a favour by hitting repost? My @backerkit.com has 8 days left and if we hit £700 I'll be unlocking this fancy holo effect sticker sheet of beautiful bugs.... www.backerkit.com/c/projects/l... #SciArt #BugSky #Insects #ArtSky #Illustration #Procreate
Mock up of a holographic effect a5 sticker sheet filled with illustrations of different insects including woodlice, black firefly, blue carpenter bee, gooden's nomad bee, ruddy darter dragonfly, hoverflies and more.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Where are these made? Look very much like wholesale cheap jewellery from China and developing Asian nations. Responsible sourcing is important. Selling such mass produced, imported items made under questionable working conditions really isn't the way to fund ecological education..
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Yes it is a male Desert Locust. Most likely an escaped 'feeder insect'. They are one of the main species sold as livefood for exotic pets.
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HoverflySpotterM.D @hoverflyspotter.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🦟 The Great Nest Heist 🐝 Some hoverflies wear a chemical cloak to sneak inside a wasp’s nest. #Hoverflies #Flies #Insects #Nature #Knowledge #Biology #Wildlife #Science #BuzzClub #NaturalHistory #Larva #Wasps #Volucella hoverflyspotter.blogspot.com/2026/08/grea...
The Great Nest Heist of the Great Pied (Volucella pellucens)
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Fantastic! Though I can't take credit for this one. @gailashton.bsky.social wrote the soldierflies with advice from Martin Harvey and edits by Steven Falk.
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PKster @pkster101.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Footage of this newly discovered UK bee species. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDI4... #wildlife #entomology #NaturePhotography #nature #naturephotographer #bees #insects #invertefest #ukwildlife #bugsky #London #naturalscience #wildlifephotography #wildlifephotographer #Londonwildlife #Hymenoptera
youtube.com
Yellow-faced Bee (Hylaeus pictus) (A new UK species) - London, August 2026
YouTube video by Phil Booker
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
And a distinctive Hylaeus to boot! Great discovery!
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Judy Webb @judywebb.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Grapefruit skins & the search for the larvae of one of the rarest flies in the UK - the Barred Green Colonel. Larvae live in wet moss in a rare habitat - a calcareous (lime-rich) alkaline spring-fen in just one site. Great work by the SRT! @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Broke out up my colour pencils for the last day of #Invertefest to illustrate some of the lovely green #shieldbugs of Britain. Highlights of children's bug hunts and very pleasing to the eye with their geometric forms and symmetrical markings. Spot the sneaky tachinid egg..
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Helen Bennett 🌿 @helenbennett.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
A special find this week; a tiny Ladybird balloon-belly fly (Gymnosoma rotundatum)! I've never seen this in our garden before; historically rare, but it is now expanding its range! 📷 🌿 🪰 Happy Friday everyone 🕊️👋 #FlyDay #InverteFest #Nature #Insects #Invert #Scape #ECK #MacroPhotography #BugSky
A side-profile macro photograph that shows a Gymnosoma rotundatum fly (commonly known as a ladybird balloon-belly fly), resting on top of a tightly closed Aster flower bud. The fly has a rounded, bulbous abdomen with a reddish-orange hue, contrasting with its dark wings folded along its side. Its thorax is textured with speckled black, gold, and white coloration. It features large, vivid reddish-brown compound eyes and prominent dark, forward-pointing antennae. Its slender black legs grasp the purple-tipped petals of the bud. The flower bud is just beginning to open, revealing soft white and lavender-pink petals at the crown. The bud and its surrounding leaves are covered in fine, silvery hairs. The background is blurred is a pale lime-green. A subtle, hazy purple glow blurs the bottom edge of the frame from another Aster flower.  This fly is a parasite of the Common Green Shield bug.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Lovely photo Helen! I always enjoy seeing these flies at work in London.
work.in
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Colton the fish sp💀💀ker 🐟🪴📚🏕️🐝 @fishsqueezer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Flies are underappreciated and maligned as pollinators, but they really can be quite interesting and beautiful! Watch a beautiful fly with Batesian mimicry go BLEP BLEP BLEP on a blanketflower for day three of #Invertefest #nature 🌱 #nativeplants
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
*elfin mad
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Graeme Lyons @graemelyons.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Here's the full story of what we believe to be the start of the colonisation of yet another new orthopteran to the British Isles.
analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com
Team cricket - how we found a cricket new to the British Isles
This following italicised sections were written by Matt Phelps, who first heard this unusual cricket...  I strolled over to Sussex Wildlif...
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
That's bEcause they are. Wrong ID.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
YES! The @amentsoc.bsky.social Annual Exhibition and Trade Fair in London. It's amazing and I'm sure you'll do well there. www.amentsoc.org/events/exhib...
amentsoc.org
AES Annual Exhibition and Trade Fair - Amateur Entomologists' Society (AES)
Details of the exhibition and trade fair held by the Amateur Entomologists' Society (AES) annually
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Brilliant! I adored this book series when I was in school (plus the videos).
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John Walters @johnwalterswildife.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
The Sea Snout cranefly Geranomyia unicolor does high speed push-ups when it feels threatened in an attempt to make itself almost invisible to potential predators such as the local Rock Pipits. East Prawle, Devon
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
This is wonderful thank you Mark! So glad you are enjoying the book and finding it useful. I remember meeting at the first Walk for Wildlife and you complimented my sign featuring the Bog Dronefly!
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Fantastic to have another glowing review of the Flyble from such a big name in ecology and conservation. Thank you @markavery.bsky.social ! Yes I wish I'd had our book for my lockdown 'backyard bioblitz' too!
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Struggling to sleep in this heat but I've spotted one of my home's nocturnal residents - a Spitting Spider (Scytodes thoracica). Have seen at least 3 in the house this weekend.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Varroa mites don't live on bumblebees, only honeybees. Those would have been parasitellus mites, which are actually helpful by feeding on debris in the nest. They just hitch a lift on the adult queen bees and join them in their overwintering chambers.
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KetrinaDrawsALot @ketrinadrawsalot.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
"Whose Larva Is This?" A quick guide to figure out what you're looking at when you find something that resembles a worm or a Zerg unit crawling around. #insect #bug #education #SciArt
A flow chart to help identify insect larvae
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I'd never made the connection, thanks! Also gives rise to one of my favourite scientific names, Columba palumbus, the Woodpigeon.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Is it just me who's really enjoying the British weather lately? I like proper heavy rain to give everything a good soak and make everything glisten, with sunny spells to warm up and draw the insects back out. Maybe I am secretly an amphibian..
static.klipy.com
Anime Frogs in Rainy Pond
ALT: Anime Frogs in Rainy Pond
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Exactly! There is a great reason behind it too. "Ribbit" comes from the call of the Pacific Tree Frog, which lives around Hollywood studios so forms the background frog chorus in movies (which people now take to be a standard frog sound). "Croak" comes from the European Common Frog Rana temporaria.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This is a great phonetic spelling for the call of European water frogs (Pelophylax spp.) youtu.be/bM8r_Vae9js?...
youtu.be
WWT London: Marsh frogs calling
YouTube video by WWT
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
All right cockers? I got home for Cockchafer o'clock tonight! Great to see these big, bumbling beetles around. Likely emerging from the neighbour's lawns. You can see where they've been munching the young ash leaves too.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Yes indeed. Male B.vestalis. by far the most common cuckoo bumblebee in gardens.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Think it might just be Geography unfortunately. The local garden I work in has 5 species of Campqlanula all doing well for over 10 years, but no Melitta. I have C.persicifoliq in my garden from Rosybee plants which has weathered our spring drought.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
May look like it but isn't AI. They've been running this ad for a couple of years. It's from an Aardman animation. Still annoyingly biologically innacurate though. www.aardman.com/latest-news/...
aardman.com
Aardman creates animated film for RSPB Legacy | Aardman
Aardman has created a majestic watercolour film 'Time Flies' to celebrate the RSPB during Remember a Charity Week.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Lovely! I yearn for them in my garden. Plenty of Small Scissor Bees though.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
It's one of few plants I consider ugly but it has a firm place in the garden for its wildlife value. Love seeing these sawflies, Median Wasps on the flowers and Mullein Moth caterpillars on the leaves.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Rather enamored with the big Banded Damoiselle nymphs that kids caught on our river dips in the Stort today for #HertsRiversWeek Also gratifying to find shedloads of Blue-winged olive mayfly nymphs and several caddis and Bullheads, showing that the water here is still of decent quality.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
It's been said time and time again. The simple matter is once they've eaten/drank/got pissed on/ inhaled the contents they're done with it. Unfortunately since someone has to clean it up later and they know it, they don't even get the consequences of having to live with the mess they created.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Absolute belter!
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Maybe not the world famous meme, but it's this one that always gets me! Phil Fletcher is a brilliant puppeteer and comic, overshadowed by his own creation. youtu.be/3diGkPQy4xc?...
youtu.be
CBBC| Iain & Hacker- Skeleton Shambles.. Outtake
YouTube video by SavvyTimelord
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
My sincerest thanks and condolences to all the staff and volunteers who cleared up Britain's greenspaces today after the heatwave bank holiday madness! Fighting the real, physical, shameless blight on the country. This pic was far from the worst - at least the culprits bothered to find a bin.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Meanwhile, lizards reduce the incidence of Lyme, but more pheasants will mean fewer lizards too!
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
They do, but only use them in self-defense as a last resort.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Do you know that this was staged? The guy slotted it into an existing nest hole. Still faurly impressive strength and problem solving abilities though.
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NatureBureau @naturebureau.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The Green Forest Fly Caliprobola sp;eciosa, a large & rare hoverfly - one of the gems of the New Forest where it can be seen around the base of old trees & stumps. Get into the world of flies with our 'flyble' bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @bbowt.bsky.social @tverc1.bsky.social
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THE FAR SIDE DAILY @bot.cowtools.org · 18/05/2026
“Calm down, Edna. … Yes, it’s some giant, hideous insect … but it could be some giant, hideous insect in need of help.”
“Calm down, Edna. … Yes, it’s some giant, hideous insect … but it could be some giant, hideous insect in need of help.”
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Messing about by the river today helping to build up a brash berm in the Stort with the Friends of Castle Park. These features create a more dynamic flow, reduce soil erosion, vegetate into bankside habitat and offer refuge for fish and aquatic invertebrates. All with entirely natural materials.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Recently gave a talk to BTO Youth on starting out with identifying insects in Britain and Ireland. Pleased to see how keen young ornithologists are to engage with the world of insects! I'd be happy to give this again if any natural history groups are interested- it was a lot to put together!
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Dave Goulson @davegoulson.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Petition: gardenorganic.org.uk/glyphosate-campaign
gardenorganic.org.uk
Garden Organic | Help us ban glyphosate
Boot glyphosate out of gardens and growing spaces by joining our ‘Growers Against Glyphosate’ campaign - and call on the government to ban this dangerous…
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Lovely to find my first nest of the shell-nesting Red-tailed Mason Bee (Osmia bicolor) on a Herts Invertebrate Project outing to Sheethanger Common yesterday. One of a few nice finds on this former golf course near Hemel Hempstead, now owned and managed for nature by the Boxmoor Trust.
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Rory Dimond @rdimond.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
EDIT: Mottled Shieldbug. A first for me! Thanks @sjbknott.bsky.social for the ID.
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