Nigel Jones
@lancefly.bsky.social
Entomologist. Obsessed with flies. Keen on wasps and bees. Enjoy other insects, birdsong, finding places free of cars and dogwalkers. I don't look much like my avatar image anymore. Love a pint or two of a well served pale ale in a cosy pub with no tv.
Reposted by Nigel Jones
@sarahwhild.bsky.social @earthwormuk.bsky.social @peskypb.bsky.social @rockwolf74.bsky.social @pickeletto.bsky.social @lancefly.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @beetlequeen.bsky.social
Please share widely
Please share widely
November 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Nigel Jones
NO WAYYYY! 🤯🤯🤯
Is this the COOLEST stick insect ever?? 💚
This mossy girl (Taraxippus sp.) from Peru was the most incredible phasmid I have ever seen, I could not get over how perfectly camouflaged it was on the mossy trees! 🌳
So in awe of our natural world! 🌿
Is this the COOLEST stick insect ever?? 💚
This mossy girl (Taraxippus sp.) from Peru was the most incredible phasmid I have ever seen, I could not get over how perfectly camouflaged it was on the mossy trees! 🌳
So in awe of our natural world! 🌿
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 AM
NO WAYYYY! 🤯🤯🤯
Is this the COOLEST stick insect ever?? 💚
This mossy girl (Taraxippus sp.) from Peru was the most incredible phasmid I have ever seen, I could not get over how perfectly camouflaged it was on the mossy trees! 🌳
So in awe of our natural world! 🌿
Is this the COOLEST stick insect ever?? 💚
This mossy girl (Taraxippus sp.) from Peru was the most incredible phasmid I have ever seen, I could not get over how perfectly camouflaged it was on the mossy trees! 🌳
So in awe of our natural world! 🌿
Reposted by Nigel Jones
My first Snow Flea (Boreus hyemalis) of the winter at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve today. Nice of her to pose out in the open on a fallen leaf, so didn't need to spend hours waiting for one to emerge from the Polytrichum moss! @ynuorg.bsky.social #Mecoptera #Boreidae #ukwildlife
November 9, 2025 at 3:41 PM
My first Snow Flea (Boreus hyemalis) of the winter at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve today. Nice of her to pose out in the open on a fallen leaf, so didn't need to spend hours waiting for one to emerge from the Polytrichum moss! @ynuorg.bsky.social #Mecoptera #Boreidae #ukwildlife
Reposted by Nigel Jones
@linbrice.bsky.social just updated the Website, it's been a busy 18 months dipteraid.co.uk/projects/ looking ahead to next year already. Anyone ecologists needing help with diptera backlog from this year? Or planning lots of diptera work next year, please contact me if I can help.
Please share, ta!
Please share, ta!
November 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
@linbrice.bsky.social just updated the Website, it's been a busy 18 months dipteraid.co.uk/projects/ looking ahead to next year already. Anyone ecologists needing help with diptera backlog from this year? Or planning lots of diptera work next year, please contact me if I can help.
Please share, ta!
Please share, ta!
Another fantastic Brexit "benefit" Another massive let down by this chronically anti-nature government.
You couldn’t make it up - this is the same government that promised to deliver significant nature recovery - yet once again they’re slashing key nature funding & massively undermining farmers in the process. Madness
Fund for nature-friendly farming to be slashed in UK spending review
Exclusive: Defra sources say scheme, which pays farmers to protect nature, will be targeted at ‘small farms’
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Another fantastic Brexit "benefit" Another massive let down by this chronically anti-nature government.
Please do feel at liberty to share this as much as you like.
October 27, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Please do feel at liberty to share this as much as you like.
Reposted by Nigel Jones
#Flowers that mimic the smell of injured #ants to attract #kleptoparasites as #pollinators!
Go home evolution you’re drunk!
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Go home evolution you’re drunk!
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Olfactory floral mimicry of injured ants mediates the attraction of kleptoparasitic fly pollinators
Mochizuki reports a plant that lures pollinating flies by imitating the scent of ants
injured by predators. This study reveals the first known case of ant mimicry in flowers
and uncovers previously un...
www.cell.com
October 1, 2025 at 7:10 AM
#Flowers that mimic the smell of injured #ants to attract #kleptoparasites as #pollinators!
Go home evolution you’re drunk!
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Go home evolution you’re drunk!
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Nigel Jones
Bugs to make you go “Ooooh!” 😲🤩
a question for bug enthusiasts: are there any other examples of bugs doing crazy body horror (body envy!??!) stuff like this? www.science.org/content/arti...
Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food
Puppet helps insect trick real termites into feeding it
www.science.org
September 29, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Bugs to make you go “Ooooh!” 😲🤩
I need to be more imaginative with my data labels. This is the level of labelling we should all be striving for. Absolutely top quality.
Today’s winning data label goes to this flea
I’ve no idea who collected it but I’d love to met them, sounds like they are my sort of person 🤓
#collections @nhm-london.bsky.social #fleas #databasing
I’ve no idea who collected it but I’d love to met them, sounds like they are my sort of person 🤓
#collections @nhm-london.bsky.social #fleas #databasing
September 29, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I need to be more imaginative with my data labels. This is the level of labelling we should all be striving for. Absolutely top quality.
Reposted by Nigel Jones
5/ Some wings have evolved strategies to help reduce damage resulting from collisions. For example, we learned a few years ago that wasp wings have a flexible joint that acts like a reversible crumple zone, allowing the wing tip to easily bend out of the way when it hits things...
April 16, 2025 at 5:44 PM
5/ Some wings have evolved strategies to help reduce damage resulting from collisions. For example, we learned a few years ago that wasp wings have a flexible joint that acts like a reversible crumple zone, allowing the wing tip to easily bend out of the way when it hits things...
Reposted by Nigel Jones
Excellent day in the Wyre Forest, Shropshire with fungi, ants, 60 Crossbills and the highlight a lovely female Araneus alsine (Strawberry Spider) found by Denise B on Neil's trousers (not their preferred habitat). nth try for these for me - what a belter! @lancefly.bsky.social #spiders #ukwildlife
September 19, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Excellent day in the Wyre Forest, Shropshire with fungi, ants, 60 Crossbills and the highlight a lovely female Araneus alsine (Strawberry Spider) found by Denise B on Neil's trousers (not their preferred habitat). nth try for these for me - what a belter! @lancefly.bsky.social #spiders #ukwildlife
Reposted by Nigel Jones
The @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbicymru.bsky.social announce rediscovery of Holly Fern on Cwm Idwal after going missing for 150+ years.
See markavery.info/2025/09/17/b...
See markavery.info/2025/09/17/b...
September 17, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbicymru.bsky.social announce rediscovery of Holly Fern on Cwm Idwal after going missing for 150+ years.
See markavery.info/2025/09/17/b...
See markavery.info/2025/09/17/b...
Out for a walk in Shropshire today and I chanced across a nice pile of rotting logs. Did a quick sweep and got lots of Clusiodes gentilis plus a nice Piophilid: Allopiophila luteata. Made a good walk a very good walk. Always carry a net and tubes!
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @pilning.bsky.social
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @pilning.bsky.social
September 6, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Out for a walk in Shropshire today and I chanced across a nice pile of rotting logs. Did a quick sweep and got lots of Clusiodes gentilis plus a nice Piophilid: Allopiophila luteata. Made a good walk a very good walk. Always carry a net and tubes!
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @pilning.bsky.social
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @pilning.bsky.social
Reposted by Nigel Jones
Nearing the end of a challenging job from Tenerife, just 90 Sarcophagidae to go! 😥 At least this one doesn't look like all of the others; Miltogramma aurifrons. Still available for ID and imaging projects, UK and Europe dipteraid.co.uk/specimeniden...
Please share if possible
Please share if possible
August 30, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Nearing the end of a challenging job from Tenerife, just 90 Sarcophagidae to go! 😥 At least this one doesn't look like all of the others; Miltogramma aurifrons. Still available for ID and imaging projects, UK and Europe dipteraid.co.uk/specimeniden...
Please share if possible
Please share if possible
A really snazzy 2mm wasp from a vane trap sample. Any idea what this might be @arnoldtortoise.bsky.social ?
August 18, 2025 at 8:38 PM
A really snazzy 2mm wasp from a vane trap sample. Any idea what this might be @arnoldtortoise.bsky.social ?
This is the sort of garden "pest" we want!
After a fantastic season at Cemlyn, it was a welcome surprise to come home and see 2 Death’s-head Hawkmoth caterpillars devouring the garden potatoes this afternoon! (VC49) #teammoth
August 16, 2025 at 9:02 AM
This is the sort of garden "pest" we want!
One impressive bee: www.flickr.com/photos/nico_...
Xylocopa latipes
Xylocopa (Platynopoda) latipes male (Hym. Apidae), 9.viii.2025, Kaen Makrut, Huai Kha Khaeng (HKK) Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand.
www.flickr.com
August 11, 2025 at 1:47 PM
One impressive bee: www.flickr.com/photos/nico_...
Reposted by Nigel Jones
When you feel something crawling on the back of your hand and look down to find what turns out to be one of the UK’s rarest Sawflies mistaking you for a Willow leaf it’s helpful to be standing a few feet away from a local and national Sawfly Recorder: the beautiful Arge enodis (Clophill Lakes, Beds)
August 7, 2025 at 5:05 AM
When you feel something crawling on the back of your hand and look down to find what turns out to be one of the UK’s rarest Sawflies mistaking you for a Willow leaf it’s helpful to be standing a few feet away from a local and national Sawfly Recorder: the beautiful Arge enodis (Clophill Lakes, Beds)
Reposted by Nigel Jones
Female black darter rising moon taken back in 2018- Highly Commended in British Wildlife Photography Awards. Sadly in the last week I have only found 2 up on the Long Mynd - bog pools nearly dried up and this lovely species in decline. @omsystem.bsky.social @britishdragonflies.bsky.social
August 6, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Female black darter rising moon taken back in 2018- Highly Commended in British Wildlife Photography Awards. Sadly in the last week I have only found 2 up on the Long Mynd - bog pools nearly dried up and this lovely species in decline. @omsystem.bsky.social @britishdragonflies.bsky.social
Reposted by Nigel Jones
More flies; Coenosia ruficornis (Muscidae), Empis femorata (Empididae) & Hybos culiciformis (Hybotidae). #flies #dipteraid #dipteraimaging Available for ID and imaging projects, please see dipteraid.co.uk/specimeniden... dipteraid.co.uk/macrophotogr... Please share if possible
August 4, 2025 at 8:29 AM
More flies; Coenosia ruficornis (Muscidae), Empis femorata (Empididae) & Hybos culiciformis (Hybotidae). #flies #dipteraid #dipteraimaging Available for ID and imaging projects, please see dipteraid.co.uk/specimeniden... dipteraid.co.uk/macrophotogr... Please share if possible
Good grief, tinier and tinier
It boggles the mind that these are parasitoids of thrips eggs!!!
One of three beautiful 0.22mm long female Megaphragma noyesi wasps found in the old meadow at Great Dixter this morning. These tiny wasps are parasitoids of the eggs of thrips, but we don't yet know which species. There is always more to discover!
#UKWildlife #wasps #HighWeald #Trichogrammatidae
#UKWildlife #wasps #HighWeald #Trichogrammatidae
August 4, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Good grief, tinier and tinier
Good. The decision 8 years ago by the BBC to part company with the Met Office was lamentable. I'm very happy at this news
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
BBC reunites with Met Office for weather forecasts
After eight years apart, the BBC wants the Met Office to help provide
www.bbc.co.uk
July 31, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Good. The decision 8 years ago by the BBC to part company with the Met Office was lamentable. I'm very happy at this news
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Nigel Jones
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber emphasized the importance of critical thinking and developing a generalist skillset for the AI era.
Bluesky's CEO warns you shouldn't 'fully outsource your thinking' to AI
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber emphasized the importance of critical thinking and developing a generalist skillset for the AI era.
www.businessinsider.com
July 29, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber emphasized the importance of critical thinking and developing a generalist skillset for the AI era.
I don't want advice like this, based on a study of just 10 people. What use is that? Bloody stupid. Guardian, you must do better!
July 20, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I don't want advice like this, based on a study of just 10 people. What use is that? Bloody stupid. Guardian, you must do better!
For a change a well done story regarding the banking sector. My bank HSBC alerted me to several transactions for over £800. The payments were blocked until I could confirm or deny them. They were fraudulent and a phone call to an actual human soon got the payments deleted. Good work HSBC!
July 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
For a change a well done story regarding the banking sector. My bank HSBC alerted me to several transactions for over £800. The payments were blocked until I could confirm or deny them. They were fraudulent and a phone call to an actual human soon got the payments deleted. Good work HSBC!