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Reposted by Frank Ashwood

Chrissie Painting @cpaintingnz.bsky.social · 7d

A new special issue on soil & litter invertebrates is calling for submissions at NZ J Zool under this fabulous editorial team. See below for details!

Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 14d

Are you researching the conservation, ecology or taxonomy of soil & litter invertebrates?

Submit your paper to this Special Issue of NZ Journal of Zoology, edited by me, @carlosbarreto.bsky.social & @barnesecodiv.bsky.social!

More info: www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/nzjz-so...

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪

A screenshot of a webpage making a call for papers announcement for a special issue of the New Zealand Journal of Zoology, focussed on soil and litter invertebrates. The page has a banner image photograph of a globular springtail facing towards the camera, with its head down, feeding on fungi on a decaying log.

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 14d

Are you researching the conservation, ecology or taxonomy of soil & litter invertebrates?

Submit your paper to this Special Issue of NZ Journal of Zoology, edited by me, @carlosbarreto.bsky.social & @barnesecodiv.bsky.social!

More info: www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/nzjz-so...

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪

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Reposted by Frank Ashwood

New Zealand Ecological Society @newzealandecology.bsky.social · 22d

📢 New publication out today in NZJE!

Vegetation-environment relationships in the regenerating shrubland of Remus Hill, Cass, in the eastern South Island high country 🌱

Lead author: Sarah Wyse (University of Canterbury)
@frankashwood.bsky.social

newzealandecology.org/nzje/3613

newzealandecology.org

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 24d

Well thank you kindly, Mr P! I hope you're doing very well yourself 😊

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 24d

I've been largely absent from social media lately, as I've got lot on at the moment... a draft book manuscript due in 2 weeks (Eeek!), and research work to complete before a brand new baby Ashwood arrives in 5 weeks (even more Eeek)!

Time is rather scarce right now!

🧪 #SoilBiodiversity #Fatherhood

A photograph of a yellow globular springtail, walling on the surface of a decaying log. The springtail has a cute, teardrop-shaped head and a spherical body.

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Aug 6

Welcome aboard 😊

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 29

An alien creature traversing a distant world, or baby mite navigating the micro-fungi strewn surface of a decaying log? Arguably it's both!

Take a closer look at the life beneath your feet, and you'll discover a whole new world of dazzling complexity.

#SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography 🧪

A photograph of a teardrop-shaped red mite nymph walking on a log surface, which is covered in small vertical fungal filaments, like many tiny hairs.

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Reposted by Frank Ashwood

regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · Jul 21

They vary widely

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 21

These are the beautiful spore-producing structures of plasmodial slime molds. Which is your favourite colour?

Originally considered Fungi, they are now classed as Ameobozoans - single celled organisms with thousands of nuclei... not animals or fungi but something else entirely!

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪

A photograph of a slime mold fruiting body on a log. The slime mold is a round orange blob on a transparent stalk.

A photograph of slime mold fruiting bodies on a log. The slime molds are a round white blobs on transparent stalks.

A photograph of slime mold fruiting bodies on a log. The slime molds are a round black blobs on red stalks.

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 15

This festival of waxy lumps is a baby biting midge, AKA a Forcipomyia larvae. Before they grow into bloodsuckers, they're surprisingly cute.

My good friend @mesofauna.bsky.social has a whole webpage dedicated to them - so go check that out! www.chaosofdelight.org/forcipomyia

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪

A photograph of a cream-coloured fly larvae on a dead log surface. The larvae has a series of waxy trumpet and balloon-shaped secretions erupting from its dorsal surface.

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 12

Why would anyone offer advice, the tiny pike idea is perfect.

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 11

That’s excellent news, well done for taking on the mantle. It’s great to know Peter Shaw’s work will continue on into the next generation! If you haven’t got the springtail records from my research group at Forest Research then let me know and I’ll put you in touch with them 😊

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Reposted by Frank Ashwood

James McCulloch @jamesimcc.bsky.social · Jan 21

Send me records: I am excited to be taking on the role of national springtail recorder. I have huge shoes to fill, but I hope to continue the progress Peter Shaw made in understanding the taxonomy and biology of the UK's #springtails.

www.brc.ac.uk/scheme/colle...

Orchesella flavescens, one of the UK's largest springtails. It's an elongate springtail, with long antennae, often with a differing number of segments on each antenna (but with a maximum of six). It can be identified by the pattern consisting of parallel longitudinal dark lines running the length of the abdomen, contrasting against a paler ground colour. This is a relatively scarce woodland species.

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Reposted by Frank Ashwood

James McCulloch @jamesimcc.bsky.social · Jul 11

This coming Tuesday lunchtime!
I’m looking forward to talking springtails, speciation, and cryptic diversity.
Sign up! ⬇️

Biological Recording Company @biologicalrecording.co.uk · Jul 4

🔬 Coming soon: British Springtails – How Many Species Are There?
Join @jamesimcc.bsky.social to explore how genomes & citizen science are reshaping UK biodiversity.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1359900281...

@royentsoc.bsky.social @fieldstudiesc.bsky.social @nbntrust.bsky.social @britentsoc.bsky.social

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 10

Yesterday we had earthworm cocoons, today I bring you springtail spermatophores!

Springtails, like many soil invertebrates, reproduce by a male leaving these structures (sperm-rich fluid on a stalk), which the female will sniff out and collect to fertilise her eggs. Romantic!

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪

A photograph of a springtail spermatophore: a thin transparent stalk with a glob of clear fluid on the top.

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 9

Yup, earthworms are hermaphrodites (both male and female) and exchange sperm with each other during mating!

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 9

Did someone bury a tiny lemon? Nope, this is an earthworm cocoon!

After mating, both earthworms will produce small cocoons like this, each containing a fertilised egg. Inside, a baby earthworm will grow, before hatching out the end like a tiny pink noodle!

#SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography 🧪

A photograph of an earthworm cocoon partially buried in soil. The cocoon is oval, yellow and has a little knot on the end.

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 6

Congratulations! We’re expecting our first in October - fingers crossed for a good sleeper 🤞😅

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jul 4

Predatory flatworms are found in damp habitats, such as under logs. They have eversible tube-like throats, which externally digest their prey alive!

Here's one feeding on a land-hopper, a type of exclusively terrestrial shrimp found in the Southern Hemisphere.

#SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography🧪

A photograph of a flatworm wrapped around a little pink shrimp-like animal, digesting it alive.

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jun 30

Happy to support such a great effort and cause, well done!

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jun 27

I do, in an earlier chapter about topsoil 😊 thanks!

Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jun 27

Thanks Vincent, I'll do my very best!

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jun 27

please do!

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jun 27

Thanks Walter 😊🪱

Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · Jun 27

Ooooh thanks!!! I wasn’t aware of this - just the Nematode Trapping Fungi. That’s going in, along with an acknowledgment! Let me know if you want to go by a different name 😅

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