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- To celebrate #InsectAdvent looking back to Dragonfly season, the balmy days of, er, last week. A ridiculously late record of 19th December on Brownsea Island! @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social @britishdragonflies.bsky.social @georgemcgavin.bsky.social
- 🎄 Celebrating Christmas Eve's #InsectAdvent order: #Strepsiptera, bizarre & brilliant parasites, and RES mascot since 1833. Their morphology & history mean they’re rarely seen. Many entomologists describe them as one of the strangest insect orders. 🔗 buff.ly/U7pmiwX
- Day 24 of #InsectAdvent and the flying reindeer have arrived! Oh no they haven’t… It’s a Ricardia sp (Richardiidae) that I collected from Honduran Cloud Forest, one of the many species of antlered flies. @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- Day 23 of #InsectAdvent As the angels spread their wings, so do the flies. Rhamphomyia marginata (Empididae) are found across Europe & unusually for animals, it is the females that form the flirty swarms. Maybe not such angelic behaviour 😉 @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- Day 21 of #InsectAdvent Christmas is a time of over-eating. But we're not the biggest feasters. Hermetia illucens (Black-Soldier fly) larvae are capable of eating up to 2x its own body mass in food per day - the best bio recyclers consuming our waste @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- Day 20 of #InsectAdvent Nearly there, eyes on the prize of Christmas Day. Talking of eyes, some of the best eyed creatures are stalk-eyed flies including Plagoiocephalus latifrons (image @bertonemyia.bsky.social) we saw in Costa Rica @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- Day 19 of #InsectAdvent Santa has a sac full of presents, so does Villa cingulata but hers is full of sand. Her sac is at the end of her abdomen & here she is twerking to get the sand to coat her eggs (on exit) to prevent desiccation - cool mum 😎 @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- Day 18 of #InsectAdvent - LET IT SNOW Chionea (Limoniidae) are a genus of wingless craneflies commonly called Snow flies (not found in UK but 'strongly suspected' that they are here...). Adults can be seen scuttling across the snow in the winter @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- Day 17 of #InsectAdvent.. Big day is almost upon us. Have you hung your baubles yet? What about this specimen belonging to the most bauble of flies Celyphidae (beetle flies or beetle-backed flies). Mostly metallic with their enlarged scutellum grown over their abdomen @royentsoc.bsky.social
- Day 16 #InsectAdvent The Nativity story is set in a stables in Bethlehem where the People were surrounded by animals, not all of them welcome. The stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans (Muscidae) gives the gift of a painful 'bite' to all attending mammals @dipterists.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social
- Day 15 #InsectAdvent And even the flies are getting festive. Sporting massive antlers akin to Moose or Reindeer, Phytalmia sp (Tephritidae) males, will use them to fight for their right.......to PARTY (with the opposite sex...) @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- Day 14 #InsectAdvent & Christmas cards are being sent/ received Can you imagine having to write a card to this soldierfly - Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides. It has the longest name in the Animal Kingdom. Luckily the address is short.. @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- Day 13 #InsectAdvent & have you decorated the tree yet? What about this tree? This in fact the hairy whorls of a male Chaoborid or Phantom midge’s antennae. Packed full of sensors, this ‘tree’ is more than a mere decoration @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social
- 🎄 Jump into Day 6 with #Orthoptera - grasshoppers, crickets, bush-crickets 🦗 #FunFact: #Stridulation is the sound made by rubbing wings or legs, & is key for reproduction. Some species of fish, snakes & spiders can stridulate as well. 🔗 buff.ly/n3AjE3K #InsectAdvent
- 🎄 For #InsectAdvent Day 5, meet #Mecoptera 🦂 #WinterFact: ‘#SnowFleas’, a #Mecopteran of the family #Boreidae, aren't actually fleas - The name is often used for a species of #scorpionfly ❄️ #WorldSoilDay: Their presence is an indicator of healthy soil rich in organic matter.
