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

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

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-...

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

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

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.

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

Good grief!

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

Trump has called on Congress to pass a record $1.5T defense budget.

Roughly half of defense spending goes to private contractors that routinely price-gouge the government.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has failed EIGHT straight audits.

The military industrial complex is cheering right now.

Bee sleeping on the job.

Original post

Stone bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) gyne taking nectar from Pentaglottis @cofnod.org.uk

Small Garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) gyne collecting Pulmonaria nectar.

Where's Jamie?

Great fun to meet the University of Ohio's Evolution in Darwin's World group led by Jamie Strange and Ben Philip in the NHM's bumblebee collection on a fab spring day

BBCT group at the NHM

Great to welcome Nikki Gammans' rare UK bumblebee ID workshop to the NHM for their conservation projects - an opportunity to catch up on exciting progress from this enormously valuable and successful group!

One of the most beautiful bumblebees in the French Alps: Bombus Brodmannicus foraging on Cerinthe esp. in the morning and the evening. We planned two trips to see this beauty 😍. Several days later whole are was grazed by sheep, no flowers left sadly.

The genetic basis of mimicry in the snowy bumble bee (Bombus niveatus) in Anatolia with insights from a color polymorphic gynandromorph.
March 2026 PLOS Genetics 22(3)
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012060
Tunç Dabak, Çiğdem Özenirler, Ece Kamalak...authors, Heather M. Hines.

Queen of Heath Bumblebee (Bombus jonellus) foraging at spring-flowering heather in Calverley Grounds today

First Common Carder Bee queen of the season in Calverley Grounds today

Yorkshire Dales sheep and cattle swap boosts biodiversity - studies Natural England began switching to cattle grazing at its Ingleborough site in the Dales in 2004.

"There's five times as many butterflies on cattle grazing sites compared with sheep grazed sites,"

@bcyorkshire.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Five “similar” looking #bumblebee species from one collecting event from coastal #britishcolumbia.

While identifying #bumblebees I came across an interesting male of #Bombus rufocinctus. The second image shows the normal head/face of a male, while the head in the second is quite deformed; the right eye/antennae are absent but the exoskeleton is present and is covered with hair. #beesofcanada

Two early females of the cuckoo bumblebee Bombus vestalis in Calverley Grounds today. As their host Buff-tailed Bumblebee is now winter-active, they don't have to wait for the establishment of nests in the spring.

The bee season has also begun here. Many queen bumblebees (Bombus terrestris, B. pratorum, B. lapidarius and B. hypnorum) and solitary bees (Andrena vaga, A. bicolor, Xylocopa violacea, Osmia cornuta) have been flying around Braunschweig since this week. #BeesUp

European red list of bees - Publications Office of the EU

European Red List of Bees
op.europa.eu/en/publicati...

📣The CETAF Scientific Research Working Group is organising an upcoming live webinar:

"What Defines a Species in the Molecular Age? Delimitation and Diagnosis with DNA Barcodes"

📅 13 May | 14:00–16:00 CET
👉Registration is now open:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#Taxonomy #Systematics

‘It’s now or never’: Tunbridge Wells residents race to save commons from developers Campaign launched amid fears land in heart of Kent town that has been put up for sale could be turned into flats

Disgusted in Tunbridge Wells, if Common Land developed commercially?

It looks as if the status of protections for common land are to be tested in the sale of a privately owned common in Tunbridge Wells, which includes a title of Lord of the Manor & a car park alleged to have development potential.

Sibiricobombus bumblebee 'barcodes' often appear from their reduced AT bias at the third codon position (low AT3%) to be recent low-divergence numts. These bees may have more substitutions within their barcode-primer-binding regions since their divergence from the lepidopteran source of the primers

Bombus sibiricus

Bumblebees of the Asian steppes - Sibiricobombus - our latest global revision of a bumblebee subgenus out today:
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Bombus dahlbomii visiting Vicia, photo by Marina Arbetman

The IUCN's BumbleBee Specialist Group's report on its activities in moving towards Red List assessing bumblebees worldwide and helping their conservation during 2025 is now out!
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Bumblebee on a yellow dandelion flower

Could you grow a bumblebee’s breakfast? When insects emerge from hibernation in February and March they’ll be looking for something to eat – so growing plants that produce nectar-rich flowers in early spring really helps.
Ideas: littlegreenspace.org.uk/features/bre...

"Dark Linnaeus" - a portrait of the famous biologist with scary glowing red eyes

INSECT TAXONOMY IN THE 21ST CENTURY @entsocamerica.bsky.social
Online, April 27-29! Featuring keynotes from Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social, Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, and Dominic Evangelista.
Now accepting contributed talks! Grant deadline Feb 4, abstracts due Mar 6. entsoc.org/membership/b...

Brown belted bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus griseocollis) are widespread across much of North America. They take pollen and nectar from a variety of plants, including Rocky Mountain beeplant (Cleomaceae: Cleomella serrulata). Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska, 29 Jul 2025.

Brown belted bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus griseocollis) are widespread across much of North America. They take pollen and nectar from a variety of plants, including Rocky Mountain beeplant (Cleomaceae: Cleomella serrulata). Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska, 29 Jul 2025.