🧵4/4
What seems like a quiet meadow may actually host a subtle dialogue of vibrations, signals and behavioural responses between plants and insects.
🔬 Research:
acoustics.org/can-plants-h...
🔬 Project:
goodvibes.tomsbiolab.com
🧪 Overview:
www.popsci.com/environment/...
🧵2/4
In controlled experiments, scientists played recordings of the buzzing of Rhodanthidium sticticum, a small solitary bee, near flowering plants.
The result? The buzzing appeared to trigger an increase in both the sugar concentration and volume of nectar produced by the flowers.
7-Spot Ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata). One out in the open, the others inside a fallen Beech mast (with a Common Earwig).
7-Spot Ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata) on Rhododendron buds.
7-Spot Ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata) on a wooden post on a chickenwire enclosure.
Lots of 7-Spot Ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata) in the woods at Sheringham Park yesterday.
#Ladybirds #UKWildlife
Devlin et al. developed a novel method for detecting bees in time lapse images, called BeeSAM2. Figure it out in this new methodology paper: Detecting Bees in Cherry Flowers Using Timelapse Images and Foundational Models - doi.org/10.26786/192...
It’s #Friday folks!
Have the best #weekend you can.
You know the drill:
Be #kind
Be #gentle
Be #true
Be like #bees
And be saddened and concerned by the language of media as they normalise the waging of unconscionable wars and the impersonalisation of mass murder and death.
huge couple of weeks for hilarious photos of mortified men.
Some flowers aren’t the flashiest, but they can still get a crowd. Our study shows less colourful flowers can attract as many pollinators as bright ones by getting early visitors—a floral “bandwagon effect” like a popular restaurant drawing the next wave of customers.
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
Pink flower of common stork's-bill with a tiny male bee, dark in color with many long whitish hairs
I love these striking asymmetries in plant-animal interactions. Here you have one of the most widespread European plants (Erodium cicutarium) visited by Andrena (Avandrena) baldocki, a bee species known only from the southernmost Iberian Peninsula and whose females gather exclusively Erodium pollen
The findings found that managed stingless bees can “markedly enhance coffee production”
www.gcrmag.com/brazilian-be...
Phengaris teleius (Scarce Large Blue) in a French meadow. One of the 17 species in the European Grassland Butterfly Index. Photo: Martin Warren)
The latest European Grassland Butterfly Indicator is out. It shows that grassland butterflies have declined by 47% since 1991, indicating a huge loss of grassland biodiversity. The data come from 16,150 transects & 15,000 volunteers. We are calling for urgent action. www.bc-europe.eu/documents/69...
#fungifriends #mushrooms #mycology #nature #fungi #biology #photography
Marasmius hudsonii (Holly parachutes) with raindrops yesterday, Herefordshire UK. The reflections are of the trellis behind!
A nice thing about the dark spots of C. ladanifer is that in sunny windless days they are a little warmer than the white petal area. I bet it's not by chance that the spots are the preferred standing places for ectothermic pollinators such as these flies (Stomorhina lunata and Eristalinus taeniops).
🚨 Climate & nature need action now. You can help decision-makers face the facts:
📢 Take 2 mins to ask your MP to attend the National Emergency Briefing at Westminster Central Hall on Nov 27: https://ow.ly/ZmoV50XrMHJ
National Emergency Briefing #NEB2025 #ClimateBriefing #IsYourMPAttending
Bicolored striped sweat bee
(Agapostemon virescens)
/ pulling hyssop flower
#agapostemon #beePhoto #bees #SweatBee #BeesAndFlowers #beePhotography
I cannot believe our work is finally out there and in @journal-evo.bsky.social ! This was an enormous group effort!
We provide an updated estimate of the number of buzz pollinated angiosperm species, genera, and families, look at consequences for diversification, number of transitions, and more!
Known and proposed ecological functions of aboveground aromatic emissions (i.e. constitutive volatile emissions from vegetative plant tissues) in mediating biotic interactions with arthropods, other plants, and microorganisms.
#Viewpoint: Exploring the importance of aromatic #plants' extrafloral volatiles for #pollinator attraction
Kantsa et al. 👇
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#LatestIssue #PlantScience
A chart of the different types of insect antennae First row: Setaceous (like a bristle) Filiform (like a thread) Moniliform (beaded) Serrate (toothy) Second row: Pectinate (comb-like) Bipectinate (double combs!) Clavate (club-like) Capitate (club-ended) Third row: Aristate (a nub with a hair stuck to it) Pilose (brushy) Plumose (feathery) Geniculate (bendy straw) Fourth row: Stylate (small and pointy) Flabellate (fan-shaped) Lamellate (stack of plates)
Know your insect antennae!
#insects #bugs #antennae #entomology #education #art #SciArt
Our new research reveals one of the more surprising ways that climate change can impact on bumblebees:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
This photograph captures Sir David Attenborough seated outdoors on the rugged terrain of Skomer Island. Behind him, the ocean and coastal cliffs form a scenic backdrop under a clear sky. Sir David, dressed in a khaki jacket and light trousers, looks towards the camera with a gentle expression, exuding a sense of warmth, calm, and wisdom. Around him, puffins can be seen flying and perched on the rocky ground, illuminated in rays of golden sunlight as the sun sets behind the cliffs.
Happy 99th birthday to the man who gave voice to the wild. 🎉
Sir David Attenborough, thank you for a lifetime dedicated to the natural world, and for sharing its story with wisdom, wonder, and grace.
You've inspired generations to fall in love with nature.
Nice coverage of the pet flea treatments in bird's nests issue by @channel4news.bsky.social www.channel4.com/news/scienti...
Two bee-fly-like insects with fuzzy brown and yellow bodies are mating on a rough asphalt surface. Their wings are outstretched, and one insect is perched directly behind the other in alignment.
A close-up side profile of two bee-fly-like insects mating on a textured ground. Their long proboscises are visible, and their fuzzy bodies and transparent wings are highlighted against the low-angle background.
#Bee-flies are back—now it really feels like spring!
A female solitary bee taking nectar from the white flower of a Mirabelle Plum tree. The bee's thorax has brown hairs on the top and paler ones on the sides and the abdomen also has pale hairs. The pollen collecting hairs on the hind leg are pale orange.
A solitary bee with a black haired head and chestnut haired thorax on the white flowers of an Amelanchier. The shiny black abdomen has white hair patches on the sides of the 2nd and 3rd segments.
Starting to see a few more #Solitarybees in the garden this week with the warmer weather. Female Andrena tibialis on Mirabelle Plum and female Andrena nitida on Amelanchier.
#Pollinators
Andrena flavipes
#solitarybees #pollinators
A rather dark solitary bee sitting on a pale green leaf, facing right. The bee's abdomen is almost black, shiny and with sparse pale hairs fringes on the segments. The thorax is dark but dull with pale hairs. The mandibles are rather long. The striking feature of this bee is the long thin genal spine that projects downwards from the bees head next to the base of the mandibles.
A very nice male Andrena trimmerana posing for the camera, showing off his fine genal spine. Earlham Cemetery, Norwich.
#SolitaryBees #Pollinators
A male Andrena trimmerana sitting on a shiny Cherry Laurel leaf. His abdomen is dark and shiny with sparse pale hairs fringes on the segments. His thorax is dark but dull with pale hairs and he has rather long mandibles. He has a long thin genal spine projecting downwards from his head by the base of his mandibles.
A male Andrena trimmerana sitting on a shiny Cherry Laurel leaf. His abdomen is dark and shiny with sparse pale hairs fringes on the segments. His thorax is dark but dull with pale hairs and he has rather long mandibles. He has a long thin genal spine projecting downwards from his head by the base of his mandibles.
A male Andrena trimmerana sitting on a shiny Cherry Laurel leaf. His abdomen is dark and shiny with sparse pale hairs fringes on the segments. His thorax is dark but dull with pale hairs and he has rather long mandibles. He has a long thin genal spine projecting downwards from his head by the base of his mandibles.
A male Andrena trimmerana lifting off from a shiny Cherry Laurel leaf. His abdomen is dark and shiny with sparse pale hairs fringes on the segments. His thorax is dark but dull with pale hairs and he has rather long mandibles. He has a long thin genal spine projecting downwards from his head by the base of his mandibles.
A male Andrena trimmerana (Trimmer's Mining Bee) sunning himself on a Cherry Laurel leaf.
Yesterday afternoon in Norwich.
www.flickr.com/photos/63075...
The title of the paper published in Functional Ecology, "Realized flower constancy in bumble bees: Optimal foraging strategy balancing cognitive and travel costs and its possible consequences for floral diversity," authored by Kentaro Takagi and Kazuharu Ohashi.
Flower constancy helps pollinators avoid the cost of switching search images or handling skills. But in nature, where flowers grow in clusters, could it also increase travel costs? If you've ever wondered about this, check out our latest paper in @funecology.bsky.social #Ecology
bit.ly/3QtUVzK
(🧵)
How urban spaces support #pollinators – a new study just published
#ecology #bees #biodiversity
jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/02/20/h...
A reminder that we'll start seeing the first Anthophora plumipes of the new spring in the next couple of weeks if we're lucky. Adorable, busy, charismatic little bees visiting all the long-tubed spring flowers they can find.
(What crop flowers have you seen them using? I've seen them on haskap.)
If you've noted the massive failure to mention climate change in mainstream coverage about the LA fires, here is a piece that specifically discusses how climate change has exacerbated wildfires in California in the last decade. The current fires will likely go down as among the most destructive.
