#naturalhistory

The curator of our university Entomology museum, John Marris, excitedly popped into my office earlier today to share this neat new study on ant-associated beetles, by Yu-Cheng Feng and colleagues. These small beetles live inside ant nests. Not only have they evolved cunning ways to co-exist with the ants, but they have also evolved *handles* to help the ants carry them about. The phyologeny of the subfamily Chlamydopsinae suggests that these beetles have independently evolved ant handles several times. "Our findings provide direct evidence that the characteristic surface relief of chlamydopsines, at least partly or in some cases, serves as a mechanical adaptation for ant‑mediated transport" Insect Systematics and Diversity, Volume 10, Issue 5, 2026 https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixag034 #entomology #ants #beetles #symbiosis #insects #NaturalHistory #EvolutionaryBiology

Today I did my monthly biodiversity survey by bike along the Summit Road of the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. And, along it I found the first ever Canterbury record, and second South Island record, of the toatoa bud gall mite, *Aceria victoriae*. 😀 These native mites make distinctive galls on the NZ native plant, toatoa (*Haloragis erecta*). Yet, after they were described as a species from specimens collected in Wellington in 1956/57, nobody recorded them. That is, until Nicholas Martin found them in Auckland in 2012. Nicholas Martin put out the call for entomologists to look for them, yet only a few more were found, and all in Auckland. I looked and couldn't find them around Christchurch. Then, last year, Lisa Bennett on #iNaturalist found them in Wellington and Joseph Knight found them on Otago Peninsula. Inspired by their finds, I was looking carefully for them today and found one plant with the galls. It's a mystery why they've been so cryptic as their host plant is common. I think it underscores how little we still know about the little creatures that live in NZ with us. https://www.inaturalist.nz/projects/hunt-for-the-toatoa-bud-gall-mite #NZ #NaturalHistory #entomology #mites #discovery #CitizenScience

Some thpughts on invasive and noninvasive insects and whether you should "control" them. "If a species is reducing the resilience of a site we’re managing, we have an obligation to mitigate that." #Ecology #NaturalHistory #Conservation https://prairieecologist.com/2026/07/23/those-bugs-are-eating-my-flowers-what-do-i-do/

It's only two months now until the UK/Commonwealth and EU release of The World Beneath our Feet, and the US release is just a month after that! It's all feeling very real all of a sudden. I'll be back in the UK in September, with lots of exciting book promotion on the horizon. Pre-orders are SUPER IMPORTANT, so if you or someone you care about would like a book about soil and the incredible life it contains, please go reserve a copy from your preferred book seller now! (PS: It's got lots of my macrophotography in it too) #TheWorldBeneathOurFeet #Soil #SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography #Nature #NatureBook #booksbooksbooks #AuthorLife #NaturalHistory #NonFiction