A flat, small and mostly black true bug, perhaps 7mm long, that has a distinctive orange-coloured diamond-shaped splotch in the middle of its abdomen. It is walking across dry, cracking soil, with a few blades of grass visible.

A medium sized solitary bee (a bit under a cm long) inside a glass tube for observation. Its head and thorax are covered in pure black hairs, and it has a cute little face. Its legs have some orange-gold hairs on, and its abdomen is covered in glorious tawny-gold hairs in sort of bands. The underside of the abdomen has a pollen scopa that is dusted with yellow pollen. It's lovely and looks really dapper!

Chalk grassland today - a new species for me, Aphanus rolandri, a groundbug - and one I haven't seen for a while, Osmia bicolor, which nests in old snail shells. Both seem to be into the orange-and-black colour theme! #Entomology #Insects #ChalkGrassland

I just wanted to say that I am currently reading the first book in the series and I love Anneke with an absolutely huge love and hope there is more of them to come, and it really shows how much you love your characters too. 🙂

Have done wonderful outings with @kentfieldclub.bsky.social where it's taken nearly an hour to get out of the car park because there have been *so many interesting things* to observe - plants, insects, etc.!

A rainbow arcing across the cloudy sky, over a partly blossoming tree and (less prettily), a damp car park. There are trees and bushes in the background, and if you look really closely, the primary rainbow is a stacker with a baby rainbow underneath, and there is a faint secondary rainbow above it too. The grass between the car park and rainbow is lit by spring sunshine. It is a very April scene overall.

Excellent rainbow over @niab-uk.bsky.social East Malling site today! I really do get to work in a beautiful place.

If it glows visibly to us under UV-blacklight, that'd be fluorescence (as emits in human-visible range). To demonstrate normal UV reflectance you need something that can detect UV wavelengths, like a spectrophotometer or the eye of a bumblebee!

I assume one of the problems is that a lot of working age adults are squeezed and very, very tired? I would love to do more with Kent Field Club and several other local community/cultural groups! But I also need to not burn out again. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.

+1 for loving Andrenas! So varied, and also IDing them is only "difficult" rather than "nigh-on impossible unless your microscope is good" like Lasioglossums, and they are sweet and fluffy! And varied enough that you can Pokemon your way through spring with them.

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FISH DOORBELL IS BACK ON MARCH 2!!!
visdeurbel.nl/en/

A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies Background Light pollution could represent one of the main drivers behind the current biodiversity erosion. While the effects of many light components on biodiversity have already been studied, the in...

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... Good that this is being studied in the context of light pollution too.

The flicker fusion frequencies of six laboratory insects, and the response of the compound eye to mains fluorescent ‘ripple’ ABSTRACT. The ERG response of the compound eye to single, brief, light pulses, to sustained stimulation for 2 s, and the dark adapted flicker-fusion frequency (FFF) under stroboscopic light was meas...

OK, yeah, so obviously I had to go and look this up and yes, there is loads of variability depending on taxonomy, eye structure and diurnal v nocturnal lifestyle. resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Been a while since I looked into it in detail (but need to revisit it), but I think some species can detect higher flicker frequencies than others, yes.

...seems reasonable that some more sensitive humans would similarly be thrown if they could detect the mains flicker or any other flickers that are coming off them.

Really interesting - when doing behaviour work with insects, you have to consider the flicker-fusion frequency of the lights and whether that could compromise your experiment (and if necessary fit some extra kit to increase it beyond what an insect would detect)...

It's a deal!

Sorry, I'm one of those weirdo ones who gets dysregulated by rooms that aren't bright enough...! Give me all your all Big Light. (As long as the colour temperature isn't too cold.)

A bright yellow shaggy-petalled dandelion flower on which a medium sized golden-orange bee is sitting. She has impressive flowing orange hairs on her hind legs, a more tawny thorax and her abdomen has tawny-interspersed-with-more-blond hairs on. She looks dopey but tidy and fresh, and she is a real live bee on a flower in February!

I know you folks in eastern USA are still wrapped in your woollies (stay safe!), but here in the UK it is getting warmer and brighter and the first solitary bees are out! Andrena bicolor female today! #SolitaryBee #Entomology #FirstBeesOfSpring #Bee #Pollinator

A microscope image of a small but not tiny ladybird (3mm), black all over on the back, but covered in short pale hairs. And because it's a bit hairy, it's snagged a few bits of light detritus as well - fibres, bits of crud, that sort of thing. The centre of its elytra are less hairy and lightly punctured.

The same ladybird under a microscope, but zoomed out. This shows the slight shininess at the top of the elytra and the fine pale hairs over most of it. The shape is oval but not as elongate as some of the smaller micro-ladybirds.

The same ladybird (3mm long, otherwise black, under a microscope) rolled on to its back, showing that the abdominal sternites are bright orange-red.

Fun surprise this week - this delightful ladybird dropped out of a bush at work while beating some foliage. Having not met one before, I assumed it was a massive Scymnus, but no, it's Rhyzobius forestieri, an introduced species from Australia, just hanging out. Rather exciting! #Entomology #Ladybird

They're adorable! I did see some on a cabruca farm in Bahia. And being used to pollinate strawberries in Atibaia. Stingless bees have so much potential as part of agri-systems as they're so diverse - just need to understand their needs and ecology more.

I do really want to explore whether the smallest species of stingless bee can play a role in cocoa pollination - Jatai I think might be on the limit of being small enough. When I was in Ghana there were some even smaller ones nesting in a doorframe in the village that I think might work if reared!

Yeah - it's been nice to see solid yields coming in from in-project farms in an otherwise very challenging production period!

A cocoa tree in dappled light, with its trunk absolutely covered in pale creamy-white flowers, each about 1cm across and coming straight out of the trunk, not on twigs or anything.

We're also studying more about pollinators' use of breeding substrates on farms so we can improve recommendations to boost pollinator numbers on-farm. Project funded by the Joint Cocoa Research Fund & Mondelez, & includes scientists from KNUST(Ghana) & Niab, Durham University & NRI (UK). [21/21]

We are now trying to understand how well trees can keep up the high yielding if you manually pollinate same trees year-on-year. Does it exhaust them? Early data implies it doesn't, but we don't have all the data we want yet. (Erratic climate in cocoa-producing countries affects research too!) [20/]

The trunk of a cocoa tree that is very heavily covered in developing pods, close to maturity, but not quite there (pods green and have some growing to do). Credit: Michael Adjaloo

But does manual cocoa pollination work? Ohhhh yes! We've seen big boosts in pod number/size from trees getting manual pollination, even on farms that are low-input and the trees are old/not in the best condition. Economics depends on labour-cost by country & market prices. [19/]

Manual cocoa pollination requires a steady hand, good dexterity and good close vision - so it may be best to consult a specialist if you wanted to try but are not confident. It's not for everyone, and some countries do it more than others. [18/]

This is fiddly as cocoa flowers are small and delicate, but involves taking the male reproductive parts (anthers) and touching the to the female reproductive parts (stigma) of a flower from a different tree (and different variety - cocoa is quite particular about its pollen compatibility). [17/]

What else can cocoa farmers do?

One option that, to an entomology nerd like me, feels a bit "cringe" initially, is to supplement natural cocoa pollination with hand (manual) pollination... [16/]

A Brazilian cabruca farm, with the cocoa trees almost an afterthought amongst towering shade trees and other plants everywhere. It is very lush and verdant, with many plant species present.

Sciaridae: Damp soil & rotting vegetable matter again!

Parasitoid wasps: Need something to parasitise e.g. aphids, caterpillars, leaf-mining fly larvae, mealybugs. Also need nectar sources. So plant diversity probably good! Need research into which species use cocoa flowers in each country. [15/]

A rather odd looking midge under a microscope, about 3mm long perhaps, with very long gangly legs, quite long antennae, and wings with only 2 main veins really. The fly is pale, almost transparent in places, with prominent halteres and a head that is dominated by big dark compound eyes.

Cecidomyiidae: These have a range of lifestyles, but many are gall-formers that grow inside plant material. So most likely...plant diversity will be good, as will be moist soil for some life cycles. [14/]

A clearing in a cocoa farm, with banana trees around the edge and a shade tree in the middle. At the base of the shade tree is a big pile of fresh, yellow cocoa pods. Around that is a ring of old, rotten, blackened cocoa pods.

What do cocoa pollinators like?

Ceratopogonidae: Moisture is key: the larvae mostly develop in rotting slimy plant material like cocoa pods and banana pseudostem, also moss clumps, leaf litter, etc. If it dries out, they are not interested. Drought is not their friend. [13/]

A tiny parasitoid wasp under a microscope - probably barely over 1mm long in real life. But magnified, it has long, elbowed, clubbed antennae, and a cool abdomen that is yellow with dark brown stripes.

But this is just Ghana! Results from other countries with different systems may show, e.g. more parasitoid wasps as pollinators, even on cultivated cocoa. No reason all countries will be the same. [12/]