gailashton.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

A new #bee for me! A male White-faced Mason Bee (Osmia cornuta), one of several drinking from Mahonia in a pub garden in St Margarets, Herts. Never managed to spot one in London but nice to see them spreading into the home counties. As good an excuse as any to yoink myself back into social media.

submitted 6 hours ago • 0 comments

Close encounters with cave spiders in the Peak District today. Meta menardi is a scarce and highly specialised spider that lives close to the entrance of caves. The egg sacs are beautiful, silken teardrops that suspend from the ceiling and ledges. #CaveSpider #MetaMenardi #spider #PeakDistrict

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Marram grass appreciation post. • Stabiliser of cliffs and dune systems. • Safe harbour for invertebrates, birds, reptiles and mammals. • Harvested to make fishing nets, house roofs and even shoes. • Looks, sounds and feels amazing. #marram #grass #coast #nature

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Spring spring spring spring spring spring spring. Black Oil Beetle out in the late February sunshine. #MeloeProscarabaeus #BlackOilBeetle #BeetlesOfBluesky

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

I’m outside. In February. Without a coat. (Yes, Northern Hemisphere.)

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Did u know? We mustn't all panic this season when aphids appear in our gardens. Leave these little sap suckers be, because they're re food for everything else - Ladybirds, Lacewings & Wasps AND they feed young nestlings. Don't spray, celebrate. Whoop! 🙌🌱🌿🌍🪲🐦‍⬛🐙

submitted 20 days ago • 6 comments

Flat-footed Flies might be tiny at 3 to 4 mm in length, but they're amazing little flies - the bright orange Agathomyia wankowiczii was seen #BBOWT's Bowdown Woods #FliesofBritainandIreland bit.ly/4dqQI8Z #gail_in_nature @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Mission: Bee-fly 1. Look out for bee-flies. 2. Photograph bee-fly. 3. Identify bee-fly species observed. 4. Submit record to Bee-fly Watch. Disperse and observe biological recorders.

submitted 29 days ago • 3 comments

My first cherry plum blossom of the year, in Bedfordshire today. #wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

My colleague Sue Taylor has arranged a Women Entomologists Networking Day, in association with @britentsoc.bsky.social, taking place in Buckinghamshire on 10 May - contact Sue to find out more.

submitted 31 days ago • 3 comments

I am giving a talk this Thursday 6 February 2025 on the Secret World of the Undergrowth featuring leafcutter bees, Beachcomber Beetles, Iberian Spoonwings and Puss Moths at Buckland-in-the-Moor Village Hall near Ashburton, Devon TQ13 7HW at 7.30 pm All welcome.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Do you know Daisy Roulland-Dussoix? She is one of the discoverers of restriction enzymes, who’s findings paved the way for the development of recombinant DNA and cloning technologies. Accordingly, the finding was rewarded with a #NobelPrize. But the prize didn’t go to her. 🧵👇

submitted 37 days ago • 7 comments

Happy Imbolc you lovely people of Bluesky. In the Pagan calendar, Imbolc celebrates the halfway point between Winter solstice (Yule) and the Spring equinox (Ostara) in the Northern hemisphere, as tiny daily increments of increasing daylight pull us out of the long dark.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Pet owners accidentally poisoning garden birds. Our latest research finds pet flea treatments (fipronil and imidacloprid) in 100% of blue tit and great tit nests, with nestling mortality higher in the more contaminated nest. @SongBirdSBS @SussexUni @CannelleTassin

submitted 42 days ago • 21 comments

January artifacts. 🍂 🧊

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

Early morning moonset accompanying us as we journey into the west. 🌙

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

#FliesofBritainandIreland – You can now pre-order our A Photographic Guide to Flies of Britain & Ireland, to be published Autumn '25 from bit.ly/4dqQI8Z @stevenfalk.bsky.social @gailashton.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @bbowt.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

submitted 47 days ago • 1 comment

‘We fetishise anything touched by famous literary hands; why do we not work harder to preserve the landmarks they wrote about?’ Excellent by @marthagill.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Jane Austen’s plates or the woods near her home? I know which I’d rather save | Martha Gill

submitted 56 days ago • 5 comments

Here are some images from my new photographic project, ‘Entomoscapes’. It is art of my MA in Photography at @falmouthuniversity.bsky.social, which aims to explore the human-insect relationship. View the full project here: www.gailashton.co.uk/entomoscapes #Masters #Photography #Insects

submitted 56 days ago • 1 comment

Fabulous #flies – a male Hairy-legged Horsefly (Hybomitra bimaculata) at Westhay Moor NNR on the Somerset Levels ... hairy eyes too Our Guide to #FliesofBritainandIreland to be published Oct 25 bit.ly/4dqQI8Z #StevenFalk1 #gailashton #Ecoentogeek #flygirlNHM #SomersetWT

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

New product alert! Head over to BugTees, my online store, to see the new Inverted Stag Beetle oversize tee, and new colours for the Undertaker Beetle too! bugtees.teemill.com #beetle #entoart

submitted 59 days ago • 1 comment

Ladybirds are resilient little beasts. This Seven-spot was hanging out in 3°C today. #ladybird #winter #nature

submitted 60 days ago • 1 comment

A gorgeous fly collected from @opwallscience.bsky.social trip to Honduras in 2023 Ormia sp. are very special Tachinidae as they have ‘ears’ on their prothorax that they use to listen for the hosts (Orthoptera) for their offspring to live in and consume 😎🤓 @dipterists.bsky.social

submitted 62 days ago • 1 comment

Last night’s snow is tonight’s saturated ground and the earthworms are out in force, scavenging on the surface and leaving their large, nutrient-rich casts behind.

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

Who knows what this year has in store, but randomly finding this little beauty on my bed this morning felt like a good sign. Happy 2025 to you all x

submitted 67 days ago • 1 comment

As usual, invertebrates are paying the ultimate price for our dissonance 😞 I have just finished writing about an alternative scenario, in which we embrace leatherjackets and chafer grubs in our #garden soils, to bolster the natural food web and help our birdlife. Magpies welcome here!

submitted 89 days ago • 0 comments

Just finished laying out the last few Hoverflies pages for our Photographic Guide to #FliesofBritainandIreland – to be published October 2025. Pre-order here bit.ly/4dqQI8Z #StevenFalk1 #gailashton #Ecoentogeek #flygirlNHM #BBOWT #TVERC1

submitted 110 days ago • 1 comment

This is amazing!! #TeamMoth

submitted 97 days ago • 1 comment

Suffolk, this morning. #Sunrise #FirstBirdofMyDay

submitted 98 days ago • 1 comment

Too many negative perceptions of true #flies, #Diptera, but they're SUPER diverse! Take a moment to appreciate a few of the many wonderful forms: bee #fly; #Bombyliidae: #Ogcodocera peacock fly; #Ulidiidae: #Callopistromyia flat-footed fly; #Platypezidae: #Bertamyia crane fly; #Tipulidae: #Orimarga

submitted 99 days ago • 2 comments

Thank you, #HortWeek for this lovely review of #AnInsectADay! ☺️🪲 www.hortweek.com/book-review-...

submitted 99 days ago • 0 comments

Anyone else in the northern hemisphere really missing these guys? 🥹 #insects #bugs #bugsky

submitted 100 days ago • 3 comments

It's #BlackFlyDay so here is a classic 🪰 youtu.be/qjLBXb1kgMo?...

submitted 101 days ago • 2 comments

Wetland hoverfly for #blackflyday, Tropidia scita from garden in May.

submitted 101 days ago • 0 comments

#BlackFlyDay you say? Well it'd be rude not to then. Zophomyia temula (a tachinid fly), Choerades marginatus (the Golden-haired Robberfly), Satyramoeba hetrusca (an enormous species of Beefly) and Odontomyia tigrina (the excellent named Black Colonel) for your delectation.

submitted 101 days ago • 4 comments

How many tiny bits of paper does it take to collage a Common Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)……

submitted 101 days ago • 1 comment