It’s spring queen time! Here’s my first for the season - Vespula germanica - hope she survives the cold nights…and builds a nest in my garden!
#WaspLove

Beginning to wonder whether this will be my toughest audience yet….
Persuading pest controllers to adopt a more wasp-positive approach in their work.
#PestEx2026
#ExCel

pestex.org/Agenda

#waspLove #BPCA @uclcber.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social

While I can be of no help, but what a spectacular metasoma! Wasps are so often so unnecessarily beautiful! #hymenoptera #wasps #wasplove

Season 3, Episode 6 - Why We Should Love Wasps, featuring Professor Seirian Sumner More than just picnic pests, wasps are vital to our ecosystems, but are deeply misunderstood. Joining Professor Philip Schofield in this episode is Professor Seirian Sumner, Professor of Behavioural E

I love doing podcasts!
Here’s my latest one – on wasps of course - with UCL’s Professor Philip Schofield, Director of the Bentham Project on his #Climate Extinction Politics podcast series, with @uclpress.bsky.social

soundcloud.com/uclsound/why...

#WaspLove #Biodiversity
@uclcber.bsky.social

Waspy dressed visitors flank UCL’s wasp woman Seirian Sumner in front of Peter Ayres’ wasp nest sculptures in the Grant Museum of Zoology.

It was buzzing in @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social today with #WaspLove on full display with a visit from Shona and Tam Reppe and @waspwoman.bsky.social herself! See World of Wasps exhibition before it closes on Jan 24.

Yeah! Some #wasplove on the cover for our article on complementary sex determination. Photo from Nicolas Vereecken.

There’s no place like home All around you, animals are building, burrowing or stealing dwellings for themselves and their families. For others, home is a state of mind.

Alison Cree & I were interviewed for an article that just came out in New Zealand Geographic! The graphics are brilliant.
#WaspLove
@zoologyotago.bsky.social
@nzgeo.bsky.social
www.nzgeo.com/stories/ther...

@patrick-kennedy.bsky.social talks about so many fun social evolution dramas at @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting #wasplove

So much #wasplove at the @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting!! Probably at least 50% of talks/posters.

Synoeca! Or warrior wasps! They drum inside their nest if threatened. Can be quite aggressive, but aren’t they beautiful? #WaspLove

Warm welcome to RJ Millena, pictured with some team wasp members!

Despite all challenges, I'm feeling so grateful for my team & their amazing research progress.

Also, thrilled that Dr. RJ Millena @entomolrj.bsky.social has joined #teamwasp as our inaugural departmental postdoc fellow! #wasplove #strepsipteralove

It was an honour to bring some #WaspLove to the #Oxford @naturerecovery.bsky.social last week, in the framework of the natural capital of wasps and their contributions to people. What a fabulous audience 🥰.
Thanks to @ymalhi.bsky.social for the invite!
@uclcber.bsky.social

Speaker Idris Adams, PhD student at UCL CBER Sumner Lab in front of slide presentation screen showing images of the work of an entomologist.

Fabulous talk today by @idrisadams.bsky.social in @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social all about why we should all love wasps - especially solitary wasps 🐝! #WaspLove #WorldOfWasps

Looking forward to giving this talk later today @naturerecovery.bsky.social!
What better way to end the week than with a dose of #WaspLove!
@uclcber.bsky.social

Wonderful to hear about this use of parasitoid wasps as pest control! 👏👏 #WaspLove

A cretaceous fly trap? remarkable abdominal modification in a fossil wasp - BMC Biology Background Carnivorous insects have evolved a range of prey and host capture mechanisms. However, insect predation strategies in the fossil record remain poorly understood. Results Here, we describe †...

I missed this paper before but it’s pretty wild

“Sirenobethylus was probably a koinobiont parasitoid wasp, the unique grasping mechanism at the tip of the abdomen possibly being used for temporary host capture.”
#wasps
#wasplove
#Cretaceous
#amber
#fossil

bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

I saw them in Brittany & Normandy this year. Didn’t seem aggressive while I was watching & photographing them.

Don’t know if I would go right up to a nest to film them, as I have for V. crabro and V. orientalis, as I have read that they are more aggressive near nests?

#hornets
#WaspLove

Thank you for your kind words! So glad you learned new things about the secret world of wasps and look upon wasps with a little more love! #WaspLove

Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) feeding on nectar of Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus). Quite a good iPhone photo of the face.

Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) feeding on nectar of Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus). Side view showing detail of the markings on the gaster.

Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) feeding on nectar of Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus). Side view showing detail of the markings on the gaster.

Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) feeding on nectar of Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus). Side view showing detail of the markings on the gaster.

So it’s #Invertober Day 12 and I have found my second #AsianHornet (Vespa velutina) record in France in the last few days. This time in the Pays de la Loire.

Yellow leg tips, dark head+thorax, thin yellow band on abdomen, yellow/orange 4th segment on abdomen.

#hornets
#WaspLove
#wasps

Looking forward to sharing some #WaspLove at #UnknownWales2025 in #Cardiff today #AmgueddfaCymru.

museum.wales/cardiff/what...

@uclcber.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social
@jimlabisko.bsky.social - your gorgeous wasp photo continues its travels around the world 🥰

Vespa crabro the European Hornet laps nectar from ivy (Hedera helix flowers). A very wasp-like hamster in black and yellow. The thorax and head are reddish brown with huge beautiful eyes.

Vespa crabro the European Hornet laps nectar from ivy (Hedera helix flowers). A very wasp-like hamster in black and yellow. The thorax and head are reddish brown with huge beautiful eyes.

Vespa crabro the European Hornet laps nectar from ivy (Hedera helix flowers). A very wasp-like hamster in black and yellow. The thorax and head are reddish brown with huge beautiful eyes.

The European #Hornet, Vespa crabro feeding on #ivy, Hedera helix flowers behind our campervan in France.

Ivy is a really important food source for #invertebrates into the Autumn, so don’t hack it off your trees!

#WaspLove

An Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) foraging among washed up seaweed or algae on a beach in Brittany.

An Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) foraging among washed up seaweed or algae on a beach in Brittany.

An Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) foraging among washed up seaweed or algae on a beach in Brittany.

An Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) foraging among washed up seaweed or algae on a beach in Brittany.

Asian #Hornets! That’s exciting, Vespa crabro _&_ Vespa velutina in one day in Brittany, France.

Yellow leg tips, dark head+thorax, thin yellow band on abdomen, yellow/orange 4th segment on abdomen.

A pair seen foraging actively in a bank of washed up seaweed.

#AsianHornet
#WaspLove
#wasps

Here’s one for @waspwoman.bsky.social and all lovers of #wasps & their relatives.

A fallen pine tree in Brittany exposed the root disk. Vespa crabro (European #hornets) have set up home.

As I approached they came out and flew gently around me. More curious than threatening.

SoundOn!🔊
#wasplove

Macro photograph of a tiny wasp found under a wet leaf in a Staffordshire garden.

I found a tiny little wasp (~2-3 mm) under a wet leaf on the lawn this morning (was looking for springtails actually). #WaspLove #Staffs #macro #photography

A social wasp worker collecting nesting material from a wooden post.

Still lots of social wasp workers collecting nesting material in our #Staffs garden. #WaspLove #macro #photography

Macro photograph of a Field Digger Wasp leaving her nest hole.

Female Field Digger Wasp (Mellinus arvensis), leaving her nest hole in our #Staffs garden. They're out hunting early today! #WaspLove #macro #photography

These Wasps were rocking the New England Aster... literally and metaphorically.
They went at it for quite a while... at least 2 minutes. Long enough that I took photos of other insects and came back to this happening couple.
#wasplove #macrophotography

Macro photograph of a tiny wasp with an even tinier parasitic mite on it.

Nice and damp in the garden this morning so thought I'd do a little springtail hunting. Didn't find many, but DID find this tiny (~2mm) wasp with a minuscule parasitic mite on it! #wasplove #acari #Staffs #parasitism #macro #photography

Despite the rapid onset on autumn, wasps are still building their nests! The show goes on! #WaspLove

An old video, so I haven’t added it to this year’s data but a reminder of this gentle little wasp taking ham from my fingers.

#WaspLove