Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · 12d

Come along to the @amentsoc.bsky.social fair on Saturday for all your insect needs! 🪲 🐝 🦋 🦗 🐝 🪰 🐞

Amateur Entomologists' Society @amentsoc.bsky.social · Jul 13

🪲 Love #insects? Got art, photos, science projects or specimens to share? Book a space at the #aesfair Annual Exhibition – 27 Sep 2025 Kempton Park Racecourse, Surrey! Exhibitors get free entry! 🐜Details + booking form: www.amentsoc.org/events/listings/01112 #amentsoc

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Adam Welz @adamwelz.bsky.social · 27d

Important

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Fiji ant study provides new evidence of insects’ decline on remote islands

DNA analysis of endemic specimens in museums finds 79% of ant populations in Pacific archipelago are shrinking

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Beulah Garner

Bumblebee Conservation Trust @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social · 27d

Yesterday, the UK’s leading insect conservation charities launched the Declaration on the UK Insect Declines Crisis at the @WildSummitUK🚨

This united front calls for change across governments, land managers, businesses, and the public. @savebutterflies.bsky.social

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A close-up of a bumblebee feeding on a sunflower. Text reads: Insect crisis declared. The UK’s leading insect conservation charities launch the Declaration on the UK Insect Declines Crisis.

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · 27d

#Ento25 our workshop: how to use taxonomic keys had a lot of enthusiasm, ‘some’ frustration #whatisit but with genuine engagement. Featuring test keys: Orthoptera & Dermaptera & of course Carabidae handbook with www.royensoc.co.uk/publications... with specimens from www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/ce...

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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 28d

🌟 Huge thanks to all the incredible plenary speakers of #Ento25!

May Berenbaum, Vojtěch Novotný, Christiane Weirauch & Nicole van Dam - Your inspiring talks have been a true highlight of the conference 🐝🦋🐞

🎥 Catch up on these talks on our YouTube channel early next week

@entsocamerica.bsky.social

May Berenbaum presenting the Wigglesworth Memorial Lecture in Glasgow for Ento25

Vojtěch Novotný presenting a talk in Glasgow for Ento25

Christiane Weirauch presenting a talk in Glasgow for Ento25

Nicole van Dam presenting a talk in Glasgow for Ento25

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Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 29d

I'm really pleased that @royentsoc.bsky.social is hosting a workshop on ethics in insect research later today at #Ento25. It's an area where the UK entomology community can and should lead the way. Can't make it? You can still access my slides here: drive.google.com/file/d/1rBzi...

A slide on "ethical review for insect research".

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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 29d

Thank you to everyone that attended the #WomenInEntomology morning at #Ento25, what a fantastic turnout!

Special thanks to @ukladybirds.bsky.social, @hayleyento.bsky.social, Anna Platoni and Gia Aradottir 🐞🪴🪰🦗

Read more about women in entomology 🔽
buff.ly/9OBCyNM

WomenInSTEM #WomenInScience

Helen Roy delivering a presentation on Women in Entomology at Ento25.

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · 29d

Tropical rainforests in the SW Pacifics. Dr Novotný took us on an epic adventure featuring Terry Erwin! On the arms race between plants and insects in the tropics, and the army of people it takes at a local scale to provide the raw data for these interactional insights over decades. #Ento25

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Fabian A. Boetzl @fboetzl.bsky.social · Jun 9

Meet Harpalus politus, a predominantly granivorous #carabid beetle threatened with extinction in #Germany (RL1) that is found exclusively on dry grasslands on limestone soils 🪲. Suitable habitat management and traditional grazing regimes are needed to help the species survive 🌿🐑

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · Aug 27

New subspecies for the Madeira islands. Very nice study on Carabidae diversity mapress.com/zt/article/v...

Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of the Desertas Islands (Madeira archipelago, Portugal): description of a new subspecies and faunistic notes | Zootaxa

mapress.com

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Natural History Museum, London @nhm-london.bsky.social · Aug 8

In the last few weeks, some parts of the UK have been blessed by a veritable swarm of ladybirds in gardens and on beaches - they even disrupted the cricket (game)! 🦗

But do you know the collective noun for a group of ladybirds? 🐞

A cluster of red seven-spot ladybirds gathered on a blue tiled background.

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · Aug 1

I think so. Not 100% as there’s photo is not high definition enough for me to see the characters / whether the head is elongate.

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · Jul 24

Natural history museum San Jose, Costa Rica delivered ALL the insects. So great to see so much of Costa Rica’s diversity on display 🪲 🦋 #CostaRicaBiodiversity

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Ashlesh Pattanaik @orthopterizzt.bsky.social · Jul 22

Tree crickets build megaphones, called "baffles", by chewing holes in leaves to attract mates. For my PhD, I am studying the evolution of baffling. Lil bit of phylogenetics, lil bit of citizen science. Follow the link to my new project on @inaturalist.bsky.social
www.inaturalist.org/projects/baf...

Baffling in North American tree crickets

This project aims to collect data on “baffling” behaviour in tree crickets (subfamily: Oecanthinae). Baffling is a strategy used by males to make themselves louder. They do so by calling from leaf edg...

www.inaturalist.org

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RES Publications @respublications.bsky.social · Jul 22

A new #ShortComm in #RESInsectConsDiv reports that urbanization imposes declines in flying insect #biomass through the loss of large-bodied species
doi.org/10.1111/icad.12859

#UrbanInsects #Biodiversity
@katriendewolf.bsky.social @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social @manusaunders.bsky.social @wiley.com

Monitoring set-up; photo credit: (c) Katrien De Wolf

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London Wildlife Trust @ldnwildlifetrust.bsky.social · Jul 22

🌸 Wildflower walks in London! 🌸

Step outside and enjoy a peaceful stroll surrounded by beautiful blooms.

Plan your visit via the link below
ow.ly/bT8u50WnvmF

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · Jul 14

I was only trying to make friends but don’t mess with the Bess! Bess beetles (Passalidae) are of the few beetles that care for their young and live communally. This encounter in the mid-elevation tropical forest of Costa Rica.

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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · Jul 13

Got a chance to photograph one of North America's most beautiful dung beetles, Copris arizonensis, at the Bugshot course in Portal last month. The various textures and shapes on this animal are amazing.

Macro photograph in oblique side/front view of a large shiny black beetle walking on a rock. The beetle's head has a shovel-like ridge at the front and a single tall horn, the pronotum is bulky with molar-like forward projections, and the elytra are deeply ridged.

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Jim Labisko💚🐸🦎🐍🐢🦇🐆🧪💙😷4/4 @jimlabisko.bsky.social · Jul 13

Quality of scientific papers questioned as academics ‘overwhelmed’ by the millions published

Widespread mockery of AI-generated rat with giant penis in one paper brings problem to public attention

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Beulah Garner

Lukas Large @lukaslarge.bsky.social · Jul 13

Nature book challenge. A book per day, in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best nature books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, #Books #Nature #Naturewriting #naturebooks #conservation #naturebookchallenge #booksky

Book cover: the natural history of an English forest by Norman E. Hickin with line illustrations of a fix, caddisfly and fish

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · Jul 12

Some wet weather collecting at Pocosol Camp, Costa Rica. Seamlessly combining Katydid and beetle hunting 🌳 🪲 🦗

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · Jul 8

Carcinophora americana being a good mama. Brood care in Dermaptera is cool cool cool! 🖤 what a privilege to view this behaviour close up in Costa Rica 🌳

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Beulah Garner @beetlequeen.bsky.social · Jul 7

Night night from the night light

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · Jul 6

Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa following ideal breeding conditions in late 2024 and early 2025, raising fears of major locust infestations moving south into the Sahel later this year.

Agencies race to prevent new food crisis as locusts return to northern Africa

NAIROBI — Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa. With unusually heavy rains in late 2024 supporting growth of vegetation, and rising temperatures since February 2025…

news.mongabay.com

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George McGavin @georgemcgavin.bsky.social · Jul 4

Until we value the natural world above all else and put it at the heart of all we do there will be only one result - our demise. Why don't governments get it? It's capitalism stupid...
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-06...

New global index puts nature at the heart of human progress |

Researchers from the University of Oxford, alongside international partners including the United Nations Development Programme, have proposed an optimistic, practical approach to inspire stronger

www.ox.ac.uk

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