The DNA barcode reference library for European ants is out! 🐜🧬 doi.org/10.1111/1755...
Checklist of 650 species, ~78% covered 🧬, +6,500 COI 🧬, plus species genetic maps & trees, see Supp. Inf. "Atlas" tinyurl.com/antdnaeuatlas
A framework for species discovery, biosurveillance, and phylogeography!
Delightful archive finds! Or, literally, in this case a 1764 book called "A delight for the eyes and the mind, or, A general collection of the different species of seashells found in the sea" by Georg Wolfgang Knorr, a German engraver. The book features colourful and finely drawn (cont.)
Encoelia furfuracea ex Corylus avellana
#Encoelia #Encoeliafurfuracea #Corylus #ascomycete #FungiFriends
The Complete Fungi: Evolution, Diversity and Ecology by David S. Hibbett. A richly illustrated natural history of fungi.
The Complete Fungi by David S. Hibbett presents a broad and accessible overview of fungal diversity, evolution, and ecology.
Available 5 May!
Preorder yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Fungi #Mycology #Nature
Grassy area with darker, taller lines of grass
Two whitish mushrooms in grass
Sometimes the fairy rings caused by St. George's mushroom - Calocybe gambosa, are fairly obvious. Showing where to look for them #FungiFriends #MushroomMonday #UKwildlife
Book cover: metaverse for dummies
Remember when everyone was trying to convince us the metaverse was the future?
Toothwort (Lathraea squamaria), Wychbury Hill fort
Apparently their main hosts are: "Soft shield-fern (Polystichum setiferum) and male-fern (Dropteris filix-mas), but are also found on Hartstongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium)"
Yeah, they make little houses out of the spores, so look for roundish blobs of spores
A small greenish caterpillar with a darker brown head on a leaf
This is the tiny caterpillar of a Common Fern Moth (Psychoides filicivora). It lives in the spores on the underside of fern leaves, in this case the Hartstongue Fern #UKwildlife
Sunday book review: Fungi and Human Life by Nicholas Money
Review: markavery.info/2026/04/19/s...
Publisher: @princetonupress.bsky.social
"a very good popular science book"
#fungi #funbook @britmycolsoc.org.uk @newyorkmyc.org
A dark fly with legs visible, sat on a rock
The Spring Heath Robberflies (Lasiopogon cinctus) are out in south Staffordshire #UKwildlife @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social
A moth with metallic wings and very long antennae
Many Green Longhorn moths (Adela reaumurella) in the woods and hedgerows #UKwildlife
A metallic green weevil on a leaf
Saw some nice insects today, like this sparkly Phyllobius weevil #UKwildlife
Today's #CrapColourisation with added AI slop.
The unwonted copper roof to the church tower, the vastly extended pond (which doesn't reflect the 'new' roof and reflects the church weirdly), an extra telegraph/phone pole...
Yeah, it's horrible isn't it
A patch of grass with many dandelions in front of a glass building
Love these Dandelions in front of Millennium Point, Birmingham
First time I've seen AI used like this: "Illustrations were produced after tunning four iterations on a large language model (OpenAI 2025), by prompting detailed written taxonomic descriptions together with the upload of a minimum of 2 field photographs per species"
🌿 One week to go until the City Nature Challenge! 🌿
Check out the events happening across Birmingham & the Black Country via our 2026 events poster.
Event details & links on our CNC webpage (link in comments).
Grab your phone, head outside, and spot local wildlife! 🌍📸
This looks good:
University of Birmingham have a live feed for the nesting Peregrines on the Old Joe clock tower.
www.youtube.com/live/4dsZIFf...
Firstly, it's very easy to avoid fines: don't break the law and secondly doesn't Birmingham City Council need the money? Raising income from wealthy motorists seems good to me
Coming soon! The Glow-Worm by John Tyler 📖
This richly illustrated volume describes the life of Lampyris noctiluca and provides a comprehensive summary of the latest Glow-worm research.
Learn more ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/csunu6uc
#glowworm #lampyridae #beetles #bioluminescence
🎨 🦟 Beautiful illustration by Amedeo J. E. Terzi (buff.ly/rJpBWjq ) in Edwards' "Mosquitoes of the Ethiopian Region, Part III" (1942)
#entomology #mosquitoes #taxonomy 🧪 🌍️ 🌐
🌳Its officially 10 days until the start of the City Nature Challenge!🌳
This year its running from the 24th-27th April.
You can take part by taking photos or recording sound of any wild species and uploading them to iNaturalist by 10th May.
Stay tuned for info about planned CNC recording events!
‘Without them there is no life on Earth’: why interest in fungi conservation is mushrooming www.theguardian.com/environment/...