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Dr Will Leo Hawkes

@willleohawkes.bsky.social

2.5K followers 400 following 230 posts

🪰🐝Doctor of Insect Migration🦋🐞 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Cofiwch y pethau bach Conservation assistant at Buglife ⛰️Most content up a mountain

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Apr 2

It's published!
The largest research work I've ever undertaken:

Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important

Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz
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Screenshot from the cover page of the paper

A map of the world showing fly migration study locations and estimated routes

A close up photo of Eristalinus taeniops the stripey eyed hoverfly on a yellow flower in Cyprus

A close up photo of the locust blowfly Stomorhina lunata on a rock. My favourite fly

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Reposted by Dr Will Leo Hawkes

Nina 🌿 @ninasch.bsky.social · 13d

People have no idea how diverse spiders truly are.

The picture below shows this diversity by displaying the distribution of their eyes. Eyes are actually a quite helpful pointer to help you identify the potential family of a spider.

#spidersky #invertebrates
#spiders 🕷️🌿

🦋 Alie of the Woods 🦋 @humanbyweight.bsky.social · 13d

I think my dice are broken

A grid of 45 white squares, each of which contains six or eight black dots, drawn by me. They look kind of like Rorschach ink blot tests. They definitely aren't watching you back...

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 14d

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

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Reposted by Dr Will Leo Hawkes

David Barrie @cuttlefisher.bsky.social · 23d

No, I’m not on Desert Island Discs! Recording session for BBC RADIO 4 Rare Earth on animal #migration with @willleohawkes.bsky.social @tomheap.bsky.social and @helenczerski.bsky.social Airs on Friday 19 September at 1200 GMT

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 28d

Haha a great revelation!

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 29d

Lots of moths talked about! Especially the great silver y migration to the Euro 2016 final!

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · 29d

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

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 26

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

White moth looking at the camera with huge antennae

A moth that looks like a dead leaf on a dock flower

An orange and brown moth on some dead grass

Close up of the scarce bordered straw moth's green eye

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 23

You're very welcome!

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thanks!

Reposted by Dr Will Leo Hawkes

Ben @benjyhere.bsky.social · Aug 22

Went to my local park to check red bartsia (bottom right) for its associate bee. No joy but plenty of other treasure about - common blue, small copper, green veined white, gatekeeper, small bath and speckled wood butterflies, emperor and common darter dragonflies + more. @willleohawkes.bsky.social

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 22

This will be amazing. Hope they make it back soon!

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 22

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

Small grey and white red bartsia bee feeding from a pink red bartsia flower

Small red bartsia bee standing on top of a pink red bartsia flower

A yellow and black Blunthorn nomad bee being held v gently in my fingers

White zoned furrow bee, small and dark, feeding on knapweed

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 20

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

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 20

Thanks Jordan!

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 19

Perhaps the most beautiful rove beetle I have ever seen, Rhyncocheilus aureus, from the jungles of Trus Madi Entomology Camp in Borneo.

A mating pair of golden orange and black/white rove beetles on a brown fern

A golden orange and black/white rove beetle on a brown fern

A top down view of a golden orange and black/white rove beetle on a brown fern

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 17

Ah I so love how much you're speaking out! Way way more academics should be doing this!

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 17

Of course

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 17

A very beautiful Onocera semirubella in our moth trap near Falmouth, Cornwall yesterday.
@migrantmothuk.bsky.social @davegrundy.bsky.social

A small pink and gold moth on an egg carton

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 17

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.
🇵🇸🍉🦋

A painted lady butterfly on a pink thistle.

The text reads: Mr. G. E. Bodkin allows me to record that there was a very large flight of
V. cardui on 16th April, 1926, and several following days along the seashore
between H a f a a n d Acca. All were flying low from a northerly direction. A
strong easterly wind was blowing at the time (sirocco).
so numerous that a number were caught in the front of the radiator of a car
going along the shore. He received reports a few days later that cars pro-
ceeding from Palestine to Syria on the same d a y and on the following
had to stop a t intervals and remove large numbers of the b u t t e r t i e s from
the radiators. In some cases the entire front of the radiator was covered.
On the second day Mr. Bodkin observed large numbers of these butterflies
settled round pools of water, apparently drinking.

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 11

A very fluffy buff tailed bumblebee on knapweed. The Roseland, Cornwall

A fluffy bumblebee on purple knapweed flower. The image has a dreamlike quality

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Reposted by Dr Will Leo Hawkes

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · Aug 10

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

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Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 10

Thanks, Rob!

Dr Will Leo Hawkes @willleohawkes.bsky.social · Aug 9

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.

A green eyed bee on a pink/purple knapweed

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