iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Will Langdon

Sam Thomas @sjthomasbotany.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Phytomyza germenilicis now published in collaboration with @dan-h-n.bsky.social, Carina van Steenwinkel & Rens Hendrickx. Look out for its distinctive mines on Holly (Ilex) seedlings this winter. @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @panspecieslisting.bsky.social www.researchgate.net/publication/...

A lateral macro of a very small fly. It is mostly grey with some yellowish areas.

A composite image showing the pale, winding leaf mines of P. germenilicis on various dark green holly leaves.

Fig. 7. Larval leaf mines of P. germenilicis (a) developing or abortive mines on cotyledons of Ilex aquifolium, Denny Wood, Hampshire, UK (DH); (b) mines on seedling of Ilex aquifolium with puparium, Denny Wood, Hampshire, UK (DH); (c) mature mine on Ilex aquifolium, Meerhout, Antwerp Prov., Belgium (CVS); (d) mature mine on Ilex crenata, Kerkhoven, Limbourg Prov., Belgium, (CVS); (e) mines on Ilex crenata, Kerkhoven, Limbourg Prov., Belgium, (CVS).

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Jolyon Troscianko @jtroscianko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🦋 Butterfly wing patterns create motion illusions that protect them from predators! Our new study (8 years in the making) is out in Nature today doi.org/10.1038/s415... @grahancock.bsky.social @esbriolat.bsky.social @scienceanna.bsky.social @lauraakelley.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social

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Chris van Swaay @chrisvanswaay.eurosky.social · 02/09/2026

Since it recolonised NL in 2009, the spread north of the Mallow Skipper (kaasjeskruiddikkopje, C alceae) in the SW has been much faster than in the SE, despite having to cross stretches of water up to 5km regularly. The species prefers the clay-soils in SW and West NL and seems to avoid sandy soil.

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Harry Witts @hwitts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Very exciting to kick this up at Colne Point, Essex on Saturday, just moments after remarking how I didn’t think I’d recognise a grasshopper new to Britain. Sphingonotus caerulans, the second British, and likely first natural record. Found with @graemelyons.bsky.social and @josscarr.bsky.social

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Emilie Ellis @e-ellis1.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

🦋 I’m recruiting a fully funded PhD student at the University of Helsinki: understanding how butterflies respond to climate change across Europe. Apply by 30 Sept: Full details: jobs.helsinki.fi/job-invite/5... Please share! #ecology #job #phd

jobs.helsinki.fi

Doctoral Researcher (PhD student) in Butterfly Ecology and Climate Change across Europe

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Grippping...! Think lutatella has been found in Suffolk now (suffolkmoths.co.uk/micros.php?b...), not sure if anywhere else though as yet.

suffolkmoths.co.uk

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Butterfly Conservation Europe @europebutterfly.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Well done to all the team at Butterfly Conservation Europe for this momentous piece of work. And a huge cast of moth enthusiasts from across Europe who leant us their expertise

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

A fabulous Purple Emperor larva feeding low down in a Sallow in Epping Forest a couple of weeks ago, exposed by a UV torch at night. Extraordinary creatures and such a thrill to see them like this #Butterflies

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John Walters @johnwalterswildife.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Marsh Fritillaries Euphydryas aurinia starting to fly at some of the Dartmoor, Devon sites over the weekend. One was caught by a carnivorous Sundew but plenty survived to start the next generation of these rare and beautiful butterflies.

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Dr Marcus Rhodes @marcusrhodes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Earlier this week, I visited Poldice Mine for the annual survey of Cornwall Butterfly Conservation's experimental management plots. Created back in January 2024, it's fascinating to see how each plot is developing... 🧵

A quadrat placed in one of the (scraped) management plots at Poldice Mine. The habitat consists of pioneer-stage heathland, with young Heather plants and fine-leaved grasses recolonising the bare ground.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Well done Denise! Awesome - was that in your garden? Fantastic record.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I think it might be a beetle unfortunately, Orchestes rusci: www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Coleopt.... These start mining pretty early and always catch me out at this time of year! Similar ones on other hosts e.g. Oak too. Think bistrigella would be later + thin early gallery and larger blotch.

leafmines.co.uk

Col:Curculionidae

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

One of the first things that struck me starting in Epping Forest last spring was all the lovely old Crab Apples. With these, come rare Crab Apple feeding micros: the much-declined Argyresthia ivella tapped from a tree on a warm July morning, and Eudemis porphyrana, reared from larva in May #TeamMoth

A larva of the micro moth Eudemis porphyrana

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Peartree Plain a bit further North. There's a big Aspen here: maps.app.goo.gl/UopRzg3Jpykr..., and I netted one flying around there. Lots of other bigger Aspen stands around, so no reason they shouldn't be elsewhere! Happened to be where I got close enough to one I think - can email some locations.

maps.app.goo.gl

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

It had vaguely crossed my mind as a possibility the other day, but wasn't really expecting to see one! Fingers crossed it (or others) re-appear, I'll certainly be looking. Btw worth looking out for Light Orange Underwing around Aspen too - I saw one on Peartree Plain last spring.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

I'm aware of one from Wanstead Park in 2022 (irecord.org.uk/record-detai...), otherwise most recent in 1980s from the same location I think, but need to do a bit more digging into the historic stuff.

irecord.org.uk

Record of Nymphalis polychloros

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

The sort of butterfly moment you dream of today - wandering around the office (Epping Forest) in the late afternoon sun when I flushed a lovely old Large Tortoiseshell from the sunny wall next to this old plum - just wonderful. Seems to be the second recent record from the forest #Butterflies

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Rob Edmunds @vc28nature.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

New leafmine site update. Parornix atripalpella early stages seen for first time. Dicladispa testacea newly arrived in UK. Col prunifoliae - elusive species! Stigmella spinosissimae seen. Such an interesting update! leafmines.co.uk/html/updates...

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

It was taken at Sydlings Copse in fact :)

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Butterfly Conservation @savebutterflies.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

This rather dapper moth is the Liquorice Piercer (Grapholita pallifrontana), our Species of the Month. ✨ The Liquorice Piercer is so named because its caterpillars pierce Wild Liquorice seed pods. 📷️: Will Langdon #MothMonday #MothsMatter #TeamMoth

A micro-moth with dark brown wings with two creamy-yellow stripes horizontally across the middle and a series of short creamy-yellow stripes along the wing-edges. The moth is perched on a green leaf and is casting a shadow.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Recently finished totting up my moths in Epping Forest last year - 671 species of which 277 were new for our database, 79 nationally scarce, and 4 new for Essex. Wonderful first year, so many exciting and rare species reflecting the forest's fantastic mix of habitats. Some highlights below...

The whacky larval case of Coleophora saturatella (Broom Case-Bearer) made from fragments of Broom leaves. This species was found at both Wanstead and Leyton Flats in good numbers. The last south Essex records were also from Wanstead in the 1970s.

The micro moth Crambus uliginosellus (Marsh Grass-veneer) found by day in a bog in the north of Epping Forest. This was the first Essex record of this species which feeds on sedges and grasses growing through Sphagnum moss, confirming the importance of our small areas of Sphagnum bog.

The whacky thumb-print like mines of Leucoptera lotella (Trefoil Blister Moth) on Greater Bird's Foot Trefoil (Lotus pedunculatus). This is a rare species in spite of its rather common foodplants. It proved reasonably common in damp grasslands in the forest. This was the second Essex record.

An adult of the mysterious tineid moth Stenoptinea cyanimarmorella (Cyan Marbled). This species is rather poorly known, but comes to the HYL lure (for Raspberry Clearwing) as this one did in late summer.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Not to say releases aren't occurring occasionally of course! I guess trickier question is whether populations are self-sustaining/permanently established. I think there have been larvae/clusters of adults indicating breeding in several counties in each of the last few years...

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

As Pieter says I think there's good evidence that recent increases (and actually past good years) are caused by immigration. Peaks in 2007/8 correspond with good years in France (when our arrivals were mainly on S coast) and more recently NL/Germany/Belgium (when there were lots on the east coast).

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Owen Lewis @owentlewis.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Excellent to see this first paper from Will's PhD in print! Nice summary thread photos too!

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Thanks James that's very kind! I did some more work on Small Copper (and a couple of other species) and their response to variation in the nitrogen content of their foodplants, so watch this space (hopefully...)

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Thanks very much, Martin! Hope all's good with you.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Super excited to get my copy of this work. The images are fantastic, the text meticulously researched, and a number of very tricky rare micro species have their early stages described and illustrated for the first time. Set to be a game-changer!

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Big thanks to my supervisors @owentlewis.bsky.social and @richardfoxbc.bsky.social from @savebutterflies.bsky.social for their support in this work and throughout my PhD!

An image of the study site for the paper discussed in the thread, a lowland meadow in early summer, with Buttercups in flower.

A Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) plant with a Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) larvae and eggs visible on the plant.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

This highlights the importance of this natural soil disturbance for maintaining species of early successional habitats in more eutrophic grasslands under nitrogen deposition, in line with previous work on leps: link.springer.com/article/10.1... and plants: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

link.springer.com

The role of a mound-building ecosystem engineer for a grassland butterfly - Journal of Insect Conservation

Both land use intensification and abandonment within grasslands lead to a homogenisation of vegetation structure. Therefore, specially structured microsites such as vegetation gaps with bare ground pl...

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Interestingly, some host plants were both high quality and warm – those growing on bare ground created by mole disturbance, and these were very popular host plants.

A graph showing how temperature around Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) plants is negatively correlated with the size of their leaves - a proxy for plant nitrogen content (plants with larger leaves have higher nitrogen content). Where bare ground is created by soil disturbance however, this negative correlation is flattened, and warm situations are created around plants with high nitrogen content.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

This underlines how thermally constrained Small Coppers (and other grassland insects) can be and suggests that impacts of excessive atmospheric nitrogen deposition on these warmth-loving species are more likely to be via changes in habitat structure than host quality, see: doi.org/10.1111/j.13...

doi.org

Global warming and excess nitrogen may induce butterfly decline by microclimatic cooling

Global warming may explain the current poleward shift of species distributions. However, paradoxically, climatic warming can lead to microclimatic cooling in spring by advancing plant growth, an effe...

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Female Small Coppers seem to prioritise warm hosts - the main driver of egg-laying was temperature, even in summer when ambient temperatures are higher, potentially allowing use of relatively cooler, higher quality hosts.

A graph showing the temperature around Common Sorrel plants used for egg-laying by Small Copper butterflies, and the size of their leaves (a proxy for nitrogen content - plants with larger leaves have higher nitrogen content). It shows that plants that were chosen for egg-laying are much warmer than those which were not, but their isn't much difference in their nitrogen content.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

We did indeed find that nitrogen-rich host plants tend to grow in cooler microhabitats, a trade-off that could be common for warmth-loving grassland insects at the leading edges of their range.

A graph showing how the temperature around Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) plants is negatively correlated with the size of their leaves - a proxy for plant nitrogen content (plants with larger leaves have higher nitrogen content).

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

We thought this trade-off might arise from the simultaneous effects of soil nitrogen on plant nitrogen content and vegetation structure. High levels increase plant nitrogen content (higher host quality), but also vegetation growth around the host plant (denser vegetation and cooler microhabitat).

A graphical representation of how variation in soil nitrogen levels can create a negative correlation between the temperature around a host plant and its nutritional quality, via its direct effect on plant nitrogen content, and its indirect effect on microclimate around host plants (mediated by its effect on plant growth).

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Excited to see one of my PhD chapters now published! We found a trade-off between the quality of host plants and how warm they were for a declining grassland butterfly (Small Copper, Lycaena phlaeas) and looked at how this shaped their egg-laying choices: doi.org/10.1111/een....

A female Small Copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas) egg-laying on Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)

Two eggs of the Small Copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas) on Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Eagerly awaited here too! Looks absolutely amazing...

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Should say that after I wrote this I was told by Tymo Muus that R. cripsus was actually found as foodplant in Denmark a long time ago (70s!), but doesn't seem to have made it into the English literature at all. Every day's a school day...

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

As Rob says, coastal shingle in a couple of different areas, and also on drier parts of saltmarsh (close to sites with coastal shingle). Not sure people have looked that widely - only found by a couple of people. Paper here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

researchgate.net

(PDF) Coleophora hydrolapathella (Hering, 1921) (Lep.: Coleophoridae) breeding on Rumex crispus L. in southern England

PDF | Coleophora hydrolapathella (Hering, 1921) is reported breeding on Curled Dock (Rumex crispus L.) at Rye Harbour NNR (East Sussex) and Dungeness... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...

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Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde @caloptilia.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

New Caledonian Forests are full of hidden natural treasures! 🌿🦋 Our new ZooKeys paper (led by Antoine Guiguet) describes two spectacular new species of Caloptilia moths—C. augeas and C. ceryneia—discovered in the Parc des Grandes Fougères. zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1738...

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Richard Fox @richardfoxbc.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

New research from Belgium doesn’t support the ‘lost generation’ theory for the decline of the Wall, but does show reduced survival with warming temperatures 🌍 nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... (📷 Mark Searle)

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Dr Marcus Rhodes @marcusrhodes.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Britain has gained a new butterfly! The long-anticipated arrival of Southern Small White (Pieris mannii) has been confirmed.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

An exciting Epping Forest micro from last week - a couple of Dichrorampha sylvicolana flushed from their Sneezewort foodplant in one of our damp grasslands. Last found in the forest, Essex and (seemingly) SE England by Maitland Emmet in the 70s, it's great to know it's still here.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

Dystebenna stephensi was right at the top of my Epping Forest moth bucket list when I started working here, and so very pleased to have found lots of them on oak trunks in the last couple of weeks - rare, beautiful, and associated with fabulous old oaks. What's not to like! #TeamMoth

The micro moth Dystebenna stephensi on an oak trunk

Two adults of Dystebenna stephensi on an oak trunk, circled in red.

Habitat of Dystebenna stephensi with old oaks, 10 individuals were found on the trunks of the two nearest oaks.

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Will Langdon @wlangdon12.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Thrilled to get acquainted with my first Epping Forest Purple Emperor the other week, found next to its empty pupal case in a UV-torch powered search after dark, which revealed three other (unhatched) pupae high in the Sallows, magical! #Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social

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