Yummm! These seven flowering herbs are loved by bumblebees🌿🐝
🍽️ Add heaps of flavour to your meals.
🪴 Great for containers and small spaces.
👌 One of the easiest things you can grow.
💛 An absolute favourite of many bumblebees!
Discover our best bumblebee-friendly herbs: https://ow.ly/uesg50YLbHi
🐝 Pollinator Spotlight: Today we’re talking about the genus Xylocopa! Did you know there are over 9 species found across Europe? Swipe to learn more about this fascinating genus! What is your favourite species of Xylocopa? Tell us in the comments! 👇
#Pollinatoracademy #PollinatorSpotlight #Xylocopa
El mismo sírfido ya con la cámara. Diría que esta belleza es una Eupeodes.
Blueberry Buzzzzzzz!
🫐🌼 Operation Violet Beauregarde is underway!
At Viseu’s Agricultural Station, we’re testing how pollination affects blueberry yield and fruit quality, comparing open, cross and self-pollination.
A hands-on experiment led by Helena Castro during Cleyton Tenório’s research stay in Portugal 🐝
🐝🌍 Portugal’s Pollinator Action Plan is now featured in @apimondia.bsky.social.
This is an important step not only for wild pollinators, but also because the Plan includes concrete actions to safeguard the honey bee and support the beekeeping sector in Portugal.
🔗 apimondia.org/uncategorize...
Tres machos de Eucera rufa (Apidae) no entienden qué pasa: la hembra que buscan copular está paralizada por una Danacosa merlini (Lycosidae). Cuando intenta llevársela, reaccionan y se enfrentan a ella. Naturaleza pura: instinto, confusión y lucha.
Laguna del Ojillo (EBD) 🕷️vs🐝
@ebdonana.bsky.social
Plano de acção para reverter declínio dos polinizadores foi aprovado com verba para dois anos. Zero aplaude documento, mas lamenta falta de “músculo” político e financeiro.
🐝🪰🦋 O Polinizadores em Ação: Plano para a Conservação e Sustentabilidade dos Polinizadores foi alvo de destaque no @publico.pt, com declarações de Helena Ceia, do ICNF, Sílvia Castro, coordenadora da polli.NET e do PolinizAÇÃO, e Paulo Lucas da ZERO.
Leiam abaixo!
www.publico.pt/2026/04/12/a...
De esta pequeña visitante de las coles de al lado estoy más seguro de que es Lasioglossum.
One month of sampling completed in the urban area Coimbra for BeeConnected SUDOE 🌿🐝
We surveyed pollinator diversity, floral resources and nesting resources across 16 urban green spaces. Now it is time to process samples and analyse the first data.
We return in May for the second sampling month.
João Loureiro (@jloureiro13.bsky.social), co-PI of the FLOWer Lab, spoke with Wilder about the approval of Portugal’s Action Plan for Pollinator Conservation and Sustainability 🌼
Find out more at the link below.
wilder.pt/historias/po...
Já estão disponíveis na página WEB do ICNF as versões finais, ilustradas, do Polinizadores em Ação e do respetivo resumo para stakeholders 🐝🌼
Consulta aqui:
www.icnf.pt/noticias/con...
Obrigado a tod@s @s envolvidos, com destaque para a equipa PolinizAÇÃO e para a designer Maria Carlos Oliveira 🙌
Um marco para a conservação dos polinizadores em Portugal 🐝🌼
O Polinizadores em Ação foi oficialmente aprovado e publicado hoje (Despacho n.º 4214/2026).
Um esforço coletivo da polli.NET e de muitos parceiros no território.
🧾 diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/d...
First flowers are now blooming in the restored beds at Pátio das Químicas, University of Coimbra 🌸
The first pollinators are here too, including a male and a female Anthophora plumipes, and we are now starting pollinator monitoring with the FITCount citizen science app 🐝
Los mirones de las abejas en los canteros de la Universidad! Também tu podes ser um mirone de las abejas! Instala o FITCount e vem espiar as abelhas e outros polinizadores connosco!
Meet the expert… Hugo Gaspar 🐝
Read more about Hugo in this post! Do you have any questions for him? Let us know the comments 👇🏻👇🏾
#PollinatorAcademy #Meettheexpert #Pollinators #Bees #Taxonomy
An unrequited love story between an Andrena bee and Ophrys fusca 💔🌸
A classic case of sexual deception, where the orchid mimics female cues to attract pollinators, not always successfully.
🍎Did you Know? Apples depend on honeybees, wildbees and bumblebees for pollination🍏
𝗔 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝘁
Join a session to know more, to contribute to finalising this first version of a citizen science competency framework.
𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
First nocturnal moth sampling at the Station of the Botanical Garden of the Universidade de Coimbra 🌙🦋
A total of 9 individuals recorded, belonging to 6 different species.
🌍 Join us for #InsectHour!
Our free online talk series is open to everyone, everywhere, making #InsectScience accessible across the globe. Join leading researchers as they explore the fascinating questions shaping our understanding of insects today.
More to be announced 🔽
A new Assets page is available at our website!
It features our pollinator entomological collection, with about 25,000 insect specimens, including ~20,000 bees and ~1,000 hoverflies, as well as the flow cytometer used to estimate genome size and ploidy in plants.
ucpages.uc.pt/flowerlab/as...
🎙️🐝 Hugo Gaspar from FLOWer Lab joined the podcast Palavra de Cientista to discuss the 2nd IUCN European Bee Red List.
The assessment covered 1,928 species and found 171 threatened with extinction, while reducing Data Deficient species from 57% to 14% since 2014.
🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/2SWr...
🦋 First butterfly transect of the FLOWer Lab!
As part of the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, a citizen science initiative coordinated by TAGIS, we surveyed our site in Souselas.
Despite marginal weather conditions, we recorded Gonopteryx sp., Pieris rapae and Callophrys rubi. A promising start! 🌿
Last Thursday, Biology students from @ucoimbra.bsky.social visited the Entomological Collection of the Department of Life Sciences (CE-DCV).
The visit was part of the course Natural History Collections, and was hosted by Hugo Gaspar. CE-DCV houses ~25,000 insect specimens, including ~20,000 bees 🐝
🌍🐝 World Wildlife Day
Plant–pollinator interactions are at the heart of biodiversity.
Every flower visit sustains ecological networks that support wild plants, crops and ecosystem functioning 🌸🦋
Conserving wildlife means conserving these connections.
