Dr Will Leo Hawkes
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willleohawkes.bsky.social
Dr Will Leo Hawkes
@willleohawkes.bsky.social
🪰🐝Doctor of Insect Migration🦋🐞
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Cofiwch y pethau bach
Conservation assistant at Buglife
⛰️Most content up a mountain
Tune in to my radio show at 5pm BST today to hear the fascinating Rosa Dyer from @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social telling us all about her research into the usage of bird feathers by indigenous people of South America!
I'm so excited!
Listen live or catch up here: www.thesourcefm.co.uk/listen-again
September 24, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Very happy to be asked on Radio 4's Rare Earth today to talk all about animal (especially insect) migration alongside such great people.

The episode airs 19th September!

@tomheap.bsky.social @helenczerski.bsky.social @cuttlefisher.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Some beautiful moths from our moth trap on the Roseland Cornwall last week

1) a male Black Arches, he uses his antennae to sniff out females
2) Dusky thorn
3) Frosted orange
4) the eye of a scarce bordered straw
August 26, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Last week I found 3 bee species I'd never seen before!

1) v rare Red Bartsia Bee, Melitta tricincta which has returned to sites in North Cornwall due to the work Buglife have been doing. 📸1,2

2) Blunthorn nomad, Nomad flavopicta 📸3

3) white zoned furrow bee, Lasioglossum leucozonium 📸4
August 22, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Some dreamy insects (and a spider) from home in the Ceiriog Valley, North Wales last weekend.

1) Chrysotoxum arcuatum hoverfly
2) male red tailed bumblebee
3) marmalade hoverfly
4) a beautiful Garden cross spider
August 20, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Perhaps the most beautiful rove beetle I have ever seen, Rhyncocheilus aureus, from the jungles of Trus Madi Entomology Camp in Borneo.
August 19, 2025 at 8:04 PM
A very beautiful Onocera semirubella in our moth trap near Falmouth, Cornwall yesterday.
@migrantmothuk.bsky.social @davegrundy.bsky.social
August 17, 2025 at 12:46 PM
In April 1926 there were so many painted lady butterflies migrating through Palestine that cars had to stop to remove them from their radiators to prevent overheating.

From C. B. Williams' records.

Free Palestine always. What Israel is doing is truly evil.
🇵🇸🍉🦋
August 17, 2025 at 11:26 AM
A very fluffy buff tailed bumblebee on knapweed. The Roseland, Cornwall
August 11, 2025 at 7:21 PM
A green eyed flower bee female - Anthophora bimaculata - found on the Roseland, Cornwall, this week.

Look at those green eyes!!

These bees also have a much higher pitched buzz than other species.
August 9, 2025 at 8:00 AM
A blue bee! This is the blue carpenter bee, Xylocopa tumida.

I was SO excited to find this animal just before dawn at Trus Madi Entomology Camp in Borneo.

So full of beauty.
August 8, 2025 at 6:29 PM
A meadow brown butterfly amongst the knapweeds on Roseland, Cornwall yesterday.
August 7, 2025 at 1:44 PM
The beautiful moth diversity from Trus Madi Entomology Camp in Borneo.

Look at those Malaysian moon moths!
July 27, 2025 at 7:40 AM
As an insect conservationist, these are my absolute favourite messages to receive!
July 19, 2025 at 10:03 AM
The mantises of Trus Madi jungle in Borneo were gorgeous. Here is a little Pachymantis species.
When boxer mantises encounter one another, they wave their forearms displaying the patterned interior faces to each other. This is believed to be a way of preventing the same species eating each other!
July 12, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Pigeons are so great. Here is one nesting in a drainage grate in Falmouth (there's a hole to the outside they can crawl through)!
July 11, 2025 at 8:15 PM
If you look carefully, you will see that not all leaves are as they seem...

The incredible camouflage of Xantia borneensis, the sickle bearing katydid, deep in the Trus Madi jungles of Borneo.
July 10, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Here is a photo of this amazing animal
July 8, 2025 at 6:41 AM
The incredible camouflage of an Olcinia species of Katydid, found deep in the jungles of Borneo at Trus Madi entomology camp
July 8, 2025 at 6:37 AM
This is cool! A cinnabar moth caterpillar is on the left and the big parasitic wasp is Barylypa propugnator who will lay her eggs inside the caterpillar!!
The little wasp larvae are clever cos they eat the least vital organs of the caterpillar first, so they remain fresh for longer!
July 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Just finished my most favourite radio show so far!

Played lots of music (incl. by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social) told stories about termite mimicking beetles, flies that fly in caves ~1km below the surface, & heard Malaysian folktales!

Would love you to listen www.thesourcefm.co.uk/show/music/w...
July 2, 2025 at 7:08 PM
It was so great teaching years 7s and 8s about insects today. But what was interesting was that compared to the year 5s, the initial enthusiasm for insects and nature had decreased hugely!
It was easy enough to unearth again, but I do wonder what happens to make children change! Societal pressures?
June 30, 2025 at 9:58 PM
!! A very playful stoat on my run today in Cornwall!
If you turn the sound on you'll hear me confidently misidentify her as a weasel 🤦 I'll stick to insects...

So slinky!
June 28, 2025 at 6:23 PM
The best summer solstice.
Cornish beach, many friends, and finding Britain's most magic filled animal - the glowworm.
June 22, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Ocean going midges (📸Danwei Huang), Stag beetles and underground flowers this week on my radio show!
Featuring stories inspired by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social and music by @cosmosheldrake.bsky.social & @spellsongs.bsky.social

Listen here: www.thesourcefm.co.uk/show/music/w...
June 19, 2025 at 5:21 AM