Leo Fordham
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leofordham.bsky.social
Leo Fordham
@leofordham.bsky.social
3rd year PhD student studying agricultural pollinator population health at Royal Holloway and UCL

MSci at Exeter, herring gulls and otters

Otherwise- cricket, Arsenal, and animals (in no particular order)
Delighted to share this note on only the second British record of the #hoverfly Paragus quadrifasciatus, which @amaeda16.bsky.social, @ellileadbeater.bsky.social, and I found during a #pollinator survey of the @ucl-pnl.bsky.social garden lab. Read and share! 🧪
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) A second British record of Paragus quadrifasciatus Meigen (Diptera, Syrphidae)
PDF | In short note format, we report the second UK record and the first specimen for Paragus quadrifasciatus (Meigen, 1822), found in Stratford,... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ...
www.researchgate.net
November 14, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Can anyone recommend any good online ecological #bioinformatics courses? Would appreciate guidance, I don't have buckets of time so the more direct and relevant the better. Thanks in advance!
Picture for attention, copyright me
October 17, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Leo Fordham
Wasp scientists are calling for your help in a very simple survey: the next time a wasp visits your picnic, if you mark down whether it goes for protein or sugar, you can help Prof Seirian Sumner @waspwoman.bsky.social and her @uclcber.bsky.social colleagues better understand the wasp life cycle
Ham or jam? Help scientists by recording wasp food preferences
The next time a wasp visits your picnic, if you make a note of whether it goes for protein or sugar, you can help UCL scientists better understand the wasp life cycle.
www.ucl.ac.uk
August 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Whilst doing a pollinator survey, I have fortuitously discovered that taking 0.6x selfies with a marbled white (Melanargia galathea) on one's nose is a great joy of life- can wholeheartedly recommend
#butterfly #ecology #biodiversity #nature 🧪
June 19, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Fieldworking hard or hardly fieldworking?
June 13, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Hive mind- never in doubt.
The symposium was the perfect celebration of such a strong postgrad research department- well done to everyone, a privilege to be involved! 🐝🧪
Very lucky to work with these wonderful researchers! Not only did they give amazing talks and posters at our Annual @rhulbiology.bsky.social PG Symposium, they won *all* the prizes 🏆 So proud 🐝❤️ @leofordham.bsky.social @alexisggk.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social @philstevenson.bsky.social
May 1, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Had a wonderful time yesterday at the Bumblebee Working Group meeting in Cambridge and really enjoyed presenting the debut of my first chapter results! Thanks to all who came and listened, and to @sofiadartnell.bsky.social, Lynn Dicks, and @camzoology.bsky.social for hosting- great job
March 26, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Glorious day and location to teach @alexisggk.bsky.social and @cminnaar.bsky.social the art of catching (bumblebee) queens- what a ridiculous and brilliant job this is
(Caught with permission from Windsor Great Park)
March 4, 2025 at 1:32 PM
What a great year it was to run a large scale bumblebee colony survival experiment! Hoping to publish the results very soon, but spoiler- it's not looking pretty
It’s official, 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records began🚨

The latest findings from #BeeWalk, our national bumblebee monitoring scheme, have revealed bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter (22.5%) across Great Britain💔

Read on: www.bumblebeeconservation.org/british-bumb...
February 27, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Leo Fordham
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARWIN!!
Celebrating today with CEE Darwin's Birthday Debate at @nhm-london.bsky.social. Looking at 'How would Darwin do fieldwork today? Sharing science benefits equitably in ecology and evolution' #CEEDarwin2025
February 12, 2025 at 4:38 PM
@iussi-nwes.bsky.social 2024 conference at QMUL off to a very strong start with a fascinating talk by Guillaume Chomicki on what ant-plant interactions can tell us about evolution #IUSSI #IUSSI24
December 16, 2024 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Leo Fordham
Because there is still a lot of interest and the first pack is full, I made a second part to the behavioral ecology starter pack
🦅🐟🦧🐝🦎
go.bsky.app/2ZkeB2Z
I haven't seen any starter packs made for behavioral ecology yet, so I decided to create one!

If you are a behavioral ecologist (any career stage), please reply so I can add you to the list so we can more easily find each other.

go.bsky.app/9mAuB6x
December 2, 2024 at 7:51 AM
Seen lots of general and brilliant starter packs for bee/ento/invert researchers, but not yet one specifically for early career researchers- would there be interest in joining if I made one? Similarly if I've missed any then directions would be appreciated
(pic for attention)
November 25, 2024 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Leo Fordham
It seems to me that the debate over applying inheritance text to farmland has been v one sided. At the risk of making myself unpopular, a thread of observations follows:
1) For a couple leaving a farm to their descendants, the tax threshold is £3 million, not £1 million as widely stated.
November 23, 2024 at 2:41 PM