Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Torsten Dikow

Mariposa Nature Tours @mariposanature.bsky.social · 5h

Aren't robberflies amazing? Large, fast, predatory flies that inject their prey with a paralysing and digestive neurotoxin, then suck out the liquified contents. Yum.

We saw this fine example on an #orchid in Rhodes this year. Looking forward to what we find there next spring...

Bee-mimic robberfly Laphria aurea resting on Serapias carica tongue-orchid © Jon Dunn

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Simon Knott @sjbknott.bsky.social · 18h

Soldierflies are much less well known than hoverflies but some species are highly colourful.

Sargus bipunctatus ♀ today in Bengeo garden, large attractive woodland species & last soldierfly to appear during year. @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social #Stratiomyidae

Sargus bipunctatus female showing red & blue abdomen

Sargus bipunctatus female showing small discal cell on wings

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Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · 18h

invasive Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula, Fulgoridae) is heavily feeding on the introduced Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima, Simaroubaceae) at my house

Spotted Lanternfly on bark of Tree of Heaven tree

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 12d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 12d

with the official IUCN listing for the slender-billed curlew now being Extinct here is the rather sad piece I wrote about what went into this decision

I tried to include everything we know about their behaviour and biology, which is tragically little 🪶🧪
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

A picture of two slender-billed curlews in the Natural History Museum's collections.

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Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · 19d

#OTD 3 Oct 1990 35 years ago - Germany reunited - I grew up in East Germany what became then Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state - beautiful place in north-east on Baltic Sea coast - I view vistas of sea to symbolize freedom, democracy + opportunity that changed my life profoundly

#TagderDeutschenEinheit

chalk cliffs + Baltic Sea, Rügen Island, 1995

East German watchtower to search for people escaping East Germany at Baltic Sea, Kühlungsborn, 2023

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Steffi Lemke @steffi-lemke.de · 19d

20 Jahre Darßer Naturfilmfestival-im Oktober sind Naturschützer und Kreative an der Ostsee,um Natur zu bewundern und hieran zu erinnern:

„1990 war eine Sternstunde des deutschen Naturschutzes.
5 Nationalparks, 6 Biosphärenreservate und 3 Naturparks entstanden auf 4,5% der Landesfläche der DDR.“

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Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · 21d

beautiful day in Washington, D.C. - sunny, 15C/60F right now, 23C/73F high - U.S. government shut down last night - Smithsonian museums will remain open until Monday (Oct 6) - after that, all museums will be closed to visitors + staff - employees will be furloughed

beautiful morning on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

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Nathan Harness @nathanharness.bsky.social · 21d

I found this rove beetle friend on the rainforest floor. They are so so fast, you can imaging me chasing it around with my camera just rolling around in the leaf litter. Just unbelievable colors. In person the rainbow iridescence is stunning. It’s hard to say much here beyond just wow.

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Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · 25d

#FlyFriday

Apiocera pica Norris, 1936 (Apioceridae, USNMENT00832111) from Wandoo National Park, Western Australia collected in 2011 - more info here n2t.net/ark:/65665/3...

#asiloidflies #USNMDiptera

fly specimen on insect pin in frontal view

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Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 26d

Each year more content moves into the #publicdoman and hence @biodivlibrary.bsky.social can make more articles freely available. Today I've added articles from the Annales of @socentomolfr.bsky.social 1923-1928 to BioStor biostor.org/issn/0037-9271 and these will appear in BHL shortly.

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WildCRU, Oxford @wildcru.bsky.social · 27d

Lions across Africa are under threat from habitat loss, poaching, and wildlife trade.

A continent-wide survey of 132 lion subpopulations was conducted in collaboration with landscape managers and lion researchers to determine perceived threat severity.

[1/2] @biology.ox.ac.uk

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Wildlife Conservation Society @wcs.org · 27d

Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean, but support 25% of marine life + nearly 1 billion people. They’re at risk, but not lost. 🪸 🌏

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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 28d

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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Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · Sep 19

#FlyFriday

one of my favorite assassin flies - Sisyrnodytes subater Oldroyd, 1957 (Asilidae: Willistonininae, USNMENT00870084) - collected in north-western South Africa near Pella - more info here n2t.net/ark:/65665/3...

#asiloidflies

fly specimen double-mounted on insect pin, frontal

fly specimen double-mounted on insect pin, dorsal

fly specimen double-mounted on insect pin, lateral

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Torsten Dikow @tdikow.bsky.social · Sep 19

@nhmdk.bsky.social is advertising a PhD fellowship in collection-based Natural History Research focused on dark taxa and unknown species, preferably including representatives of Danish flora, fauna or geology

deadline 5 October 2025

candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

PhD fellowship in collection-based Natural History Research

Natural History Museum Denmark Faculty of SCIENCE University of Copenhagen   Natural History Museum Denmark invites applicants for a PhD fellowship in coll

candidate.hr-manager.net

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Menno Schilthuizen @schilthuizen.bsky.social · Sep 19

Yesterday was the 130th anniversary of the #ICZN, the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature. It was founded during the zoology congress in Leiden, organized by the then director the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Frederik Jentink.

black and white group photo of the international zoological congress, taken at the statue of Van der Werff, in the Van der Werff Park in Leiden in 1895.

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Tapani Hopkins @tapani-hopkins.bsky.social · Sep 17

@gbif.org is amazing. And so is Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris), for photographing and putting online so many of their African wasps.

I can sit at home in Finland, and get a first impression of how well my Ugandan wasps fit a Madagascar species whose type specimen is in France. 🧪

Occurrence Detail 1019732979

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

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Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social · Sep 14

The BHL online collection just hit 200,000 titles! A title could be a single rare book or an entire 200-year journal run, so 200,000 titles is huge (63+ million pages!). Check out BHL's MAMMOTH collection here: www.biodiversitylibrary.org 📖 🧪 🦣 #OpenAccess #OpenScience #ILoveBHL

A large orange-red shaggy mammoth with big white rusks, walking through the snow. There are trees and a rhino in the background.

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Volker Quaschning @volkerquaschning.bsky.social · Sep 15

Unsere #Klimaschutzpolitik reicht nicht mal mehr für das eigene #Klimaschutzgesetz. Die #Erderhitzung eskaliert – und die Regierung schaut weg 😡
Zeit für klare Stimmen bei der #Klimademo am Samstag! ✊
#Scientists4Future #FridaysforFuture

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Siobhan Leachman @siobhanleachman.bsky.social · Sep 9

My amazing #Wiki colleague @tiagolubiana.bsky.social has released this lovely video on the #BHLImageExporer. This tool (bhl-gallery.toolforge.org) explores @biodivlibrary.bsky.social images in #Wikicommons. It facilities image reuse in the #Wikiverse. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK9i... #ILoveBHL

The BHL Image Explorer — A search tool for public domain biodiversity images

YouTube video by Tiago Lubiana

www.youtube.com

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Dr. Jessica L Ware @jessicalwarelab.bsky.social · Sep 6

AMNH is hiring a #curator! We are searching for an “Assistant Curator in #Climate #Physics: #Atmosphere or #Ocean”! Join us! careers.amnh.org/postings/4579 #academicjobs #tenuretrack

careers.amnh.org

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Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · Sep 3

Been a while but well done @nytimes.com for todays #taxonomicfail (and @bfly52.bsky.social for pointing this out)

Do love a Spelling Syrphid Forum..

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Siobhan Leachman @siobhanleachman.bsky.social · Aug 30

So very pleased and proud to announce that our paper "Revealing hidden figures within natural history collections by empowering students with data sleuthing skills" has been published! #Wikidata #Bionomia #HiddenFigures acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Revealing hidden figures within natural history collections by empowering students with data sleuthing skills

Natural history collections document biodiversity and environmental change, supporting research, education, and conservation. Attribution in natural history collections is often inaccurate due to na...

acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Jürgen Zimmerer @juergenzimmerer.bsky.social · Aug 13

Wenn in Hamburg...
Heute abend läuft im Freiluftkino an der Uni der Film "Morenga", basierend auf dem gleichnamigen Roman, einer tollen, frühen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Genozid an den Herero und Nama Vorher gibt es eine Einführung von mir, und danach können wir diskutieren!

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