A few takeaways from our recent Nature Communications study on diel patterns in insect communities. Pls share with any folks working on #insect #biodiversity #ecology 🌎🦋🌘🌞🐜

Open Access paper: nature.com/articles/s4146…

Fascinating discussions and stunning butterflies at the Natural History Museum today. Many thanks to Blanca Huertas for the butterfly tour!

The shady passageway by our house has just a single small patch of nettles, but these nettles are home to lots of Snout and Mother of Pearl moth caterpillars. Last year, Red Admiral & Comma butterflies bred here too. Scruffy urban corners like this are so important for nature.

Excited to find a case of Coleophora binderella on Hazel the other day - only 11 previous Devon records of this species. It’s a widespread species nationally, but probably greatly under-recorded.

Moth Monday: Vestal (Rhodometra sacraria) is an increasingly frequent immigrant moth in the UK. It is most common during Sept & Oct in southern Britain. The colours of each Vestal reflect the temperature in which it developed as a pupa. #MothMonday 📷Iain H Leach, Peter Maton

The very aptly named Stitchwort Flower Moth, Coleophora lutarea, doing what it does best in a local hedge today. Book says it flies in May but here in Devon it’s on the wing throughout April and May

Huge congrats to Emily Hickinbotham! First- first author paper! Proud supervisor here!
Drivers of moth phenology in England and Wales University of Stirling Newcastle University
link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Met this caterpillar today - I think it’s a young Oak Eggar but would welcome confirmation from anyone please. It was about 3cm long and in scrub edge habitat in south Devon.

It’s official - as ecologists have long suspected, insects are more active at night. The effect is largely due to strongly nocturnal communities of aquatic insects. In terrestrial ecosystems, especially in temperate regions, insects are mainly day-active nature.com/articles/s4146…

Data is the foundation of conservation. Having skills & experience in data collation are a great asset when applying for jobs in conservation & undertaking a citizen science survey with Butterfly Conservation 🦋 this #MicroVolunteeringDay is a great place to start! c-js.uk/43IJxpn