Frank Ashwood
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frankashwood.bsky.social
Frank Ashwood
@frankashwood.bsky.social
4.6K followers 700 following 660 posts
Soil ecologist & macrophotographer | Author-in-progress | He/Him | www.frankashwood.com
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frankashwood.bsky.social
The cover art is finished for my new book and I LOVE IT!

This safari tour of the life in soil and what is means to us, is now available for pre-order as ebook, soft and hardcover in the UK and Commonwealth. Published in August next year (US date soon), I hope it'll entice everyone to love soil! 🧪🪱
A book cover featuring artwork of winding roots and soil animals, entitled 'THE WORLD BENEATH OUR FEET', with roots winding around the text.
November 20, 2025 at 6:46 PM
frankashwood.bsky.social
It's week 3 of fatherhood, and today I was granted special dispensation from shopping, housework, nappies & feeding, to do some macrophotography!

The highlight was this Oribatid mite (N. spinulosa) sporting long defensive spines, which I've nicknamed the Hellraiser mite!

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪
A side-on photograph of a brown, round-bodied mite covered in long feathery spines. A face-on photograph of a brown, round-bodied mite covered in long feathery spines.
November 6, 2025 at 4:08 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
🎉 EXCITING BABY NEWS 🎉

I'm delighted to announce that I'm now a dad 🥰 We had a beautiful baby girl last Friday, named Elowyn. Mum and baby all doing really well, despite lack of sleep.

Instead of her photo (privacy), here's a cute baby springtail 😊

#Macrophotography #SoilBiodiversity #Parenthood
A photograph of a purple baby springtail walking on the surface of some water.
October 22, 2025 at 10:48 PM
frankashwood.bsky.social
This tiny jumping spider refused to surrender its hard-earned meal when faced with a camera lens, impressive!

I finally managed to get out with the camera, now I'm on parental leave. We're still waiting for the little one to grace us with her presence, it could be any day now!

#Macrophotography 🧪
A photograph of a small jumping spider holding onto a thin yellow fly that it has caught.
October 16, 2025 at 2:03 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
My (slightly late) offering for day ten of #invertober (common earthworm) 🪱

Did you know earthworms have a special lip-like first head segment called a prostomium (meaning 'before the mouth')? They use it to sense and manipulate food, and move through soil!

#SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography 🧪
A photograph of an earthworm's head pushing out of the soil surface, with a tiny half-segment at the tip clearly visible.
October 12, 2025 at 12:40 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
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.
September 24, 2025 at 6:35 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
I've been largely absent from social media lately, as I've got lot on at the moment... a draft book manuscript due in 2 weeks (Eeek!), and research work to complete before a brand new baby Ashwood arrives in 5 weeks (even more Eeek)!

Time is rather scarce right now!

🧪 #SoilBiodiversity #Fatherhood
A photograph of a yellow globular springtail, walling on the surface of a decaying log. The springtail has a cute, teardrop-shaped head and a spherical body.
September 14, 2025 at 5:49 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
An alien creature traversing a distant world, or baby mite navigating the micro-fungi strewn surface of a decaying log? Arguably it's both!

Take a closer look at the life beneath your feet, and you'll discover a whole new world of dazzling complexity.

#SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography 🧪
A photograph of a teardrop-shaped red mite nymph walking on a log surface, which is covered in small vertical fungal filaments, like many tiny hairs.
July 29, 2025 at 5:28 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
These are the beautiful spore-producing structures of plasmodial slime molds. Which is your favourite colour?

Originally considered Fungi, they are now classed as Ameobozoans - single celled organisms with thousands of nuclei... not animals or fungi but something else entirely!

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪
A photograph of a slime mold fruiting body on a log. The slime mold is a round orange blob on a transparent stalk. A photograph of slime mold fruiting bodies on a log. The slime molds are a round white blobs on transparent stalks. A photograph of slime mold fruiting bodies on a log. The slime molds are a round black blobs on red stalks.
July 21, 2025 at 7:42 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
This festival of waxy lumps is a baby biting midge, AKA a Forcipomyia larvae. Before they grow into bloodsuckers, they're surprisingly cute.

My good friend @mesofauna.bsky.social has a whole webpage dedicated to them - so go check that out! www.chaosofdelight.org/forcipomyia

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪
A photograph of a cream-coloured fly larvae on a dead log surface. The larvae has a series of waxy trumpet and balloon-shaped secretions erupting from its dorsal surface.
July 15, 2025 at 4:28 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Yesterday we had earthworm cocoons, today I bring you springtail spermatophores!

Springtails, like many soil invertebrates, reproduce by a male leaving these structures (sperm-rich fluid on a stalk), which the female will sniff out and collect to fertilise her eggs. Romantic!

#SoilBiodiversity 🧪
A photograph of a springtail spermatophore: a thin transparent stalk with a glob of clear fluid on the top.
July 10, 2025 at 6:29 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Did someone bury a tiny lemon? Nope, this is an earthworm cocoon!

After mating, both earthworms will produce small cocoons like this, each containing a fertilised egg. Inside, a baby earthworm will grow, before hatching out the end like a tiny pink noodle!

#SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography 🧪
A photograph of an earthworm cocoon partially buried in soil. The cocoon is oval, yellow and has a little knot on the end.
July 9, 2025 at 9:14 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Predatory flatworms are found in damp habitats, such as under logs. They have eversible tube-like throats, which externally digest their prey alive!

Here's one feeding on a land-hopper, a type of exclusively terrestrial shrimp found in the Southern Hemisphere.

#SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography🧪
A photograph of a flatworm wrapped around a little pink shrimp-like animal, digesting it alive.
July 4, 2025 at 11:03 PM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Like all arthropods, springtails need to shed their exoskeletons to grow - a process called 'ecdysis'.

I recently got very lucky to find a giant springtail that had just moulted! I don't know if anyone's ever photographed this before!

#SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography #Invertebrate 🧪📸
A photograph of a giant springtail - a soft-bodied blue invertebrate covered in soft spines - standing on top of a pale moulted exoskeleton.
June 26, 2025 at 9:37 PM
frankashwood.bsky.social
I’m writing a popular science book about the incredible world of soil - lucky me!

Writing flat-out at the moment, so I’ve not been active on socials. A change is as good as a rest, so I’ve taken a writing retreat to tackle the next chapter!

I love Kaikōura, where the mountains fall into the sea 🧪
A photograph of an office desk with a large window behind it, showing a view of the Kaikoura coastline A pile of popular science books by Ed Yong, Merlin Sheldrake, Thor Hansson, Robert Macfarlane, George Monbiot and Thomas Halliday
June 12, 2025 at 6:35 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
I bring you exciting news... I FOUND THE FIRST EVER GIANT SPRINGTAILS IN CHRISTCHURCH!

The closest population before this were at Arthur's Pass, but now we can add the Port Hills to their distribution.

Definitely my best observation from the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge.

#SoilBiodiversity🧪
A photograph of a giant springtail: a soft bodied, blue invertebrate with yellow spines on its dorsal surface. A photograph of a giant springtail: a soft bodied, blue invertebrate with yellow spines on its dorsal surface.
May 4, 2025 at 9:36 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Excuse the radio silence from me lately, it's been a very intense University teaching semester.

On the plus side, I've done LOADS of entomology lecturing, which has been great fun! Naturally, I've squeezed in some soil invert content, like this bizarre not-quite-an-insect Proturan!

#Invertebrate 🧪
A photograph of a proturan - a yellowish, six-legged invertebrate with a conical head lacking eyes.
March 24, 2025 at 8:22 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
This gorgeous creature is the prickly stick insect (Acanthoxyla prasina), one of New Zealand's 23 species of stick insect.

Huge thanks to @morganemerien.bsky.social for pointing this out on a recent University of Canterbury field trip - it's great fun teaching entomology!

#Invertebrate 🧪
A photograph of a brown stick insect standing on a tree stump, with its head and front legs raised in the air. A photograph of the head of a brown stick insect, with its black and yellow patterned compound eyes in focus.
March 8, 2025 at 9:59 PM
frankashwood.bsky.social
We've all been there: You've been hunting a moth all morning, and when you finally land the killing blow, you overcompensate and savage it so violently, you get its wing scales all up in your eyes. Then a human comes along with a camera to immortalise your embarrassment. Typical!

#Invertebrate 🧪
A photograph of a jumping spider which has caught a silvery moth in its mouth parts and is looking up towards the camera. A cropped photograph of a jumping spider which has caught a silvery moth in its mouth parts and is looking up towards the camera. The image is zoomed in to show many silver moth wing scales scattered all over the surface of the spider's eyes.
March 7, 2025 at 10:33 PM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Now Bug of the Year is over, normal service can resume!

Here's an incredibly feathery velvet mite (Chyzeriidae) from New Zealand. These active predators wander the forest floor, looking for springtails to ambush and drink dry using their piercing mouthparts! Beautiful but deadly.

#Invertebrate 🧪
A photograph of a large red mite, with a soft body covered in long feathery digitation on its back.
March 4, 2025 at 7:26 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Introducing New Zealand's latest Bug of the Year- the magnificent Ngāokeoke / Velvet Worm!

NZ has two genera: one lays eggs (Ooperipatellus, 1st photo) and another gives live birth (Peripatoides, 2nd). They also deposit sperm which burrow through their partner's skin, but that's another story! 🧪
A photograph of a velvet worm - an orange and purple-patterned invertebrate composed of many soft segments and tiny spined legs. The velvet worm has long, segmented antenna and a pair of organs on its head which squirt glue for prey capture. A photograph of a velvet worm - an Blue and yellow-patterned invertebrate composed of many soft segments and tiny spined legs. The velvet worm has long, segmented antenna and a pair of organs on its head which squirt glue for prey capture.
February 24, 2025 at 8:26 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Podium finish for the Giant Springtail - thanks for all the support!

Congratulations to the Velvet Worm for a well-deserved win. Having two soil inverts in the top three is great awareness raising for soil biodiversity!

Nice to see my photos in the Guardian too: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...
An image of a finalists podium, with the velvet worm as gold medalist, nz praying mantis as silver, and giant springtail in bronze. An infographic with a pie chart and map showing the breakdown of votes for the bug of the year contest. A screenshot of a news article on The Guardian newspaper online, detailing the big of the year contest with one of my photographs of a velvet worm as the header image.
February 20, 2025 at 8:53 PM
frankashwood.bsky.social
We're all on tenterhooks waiting for the results to be announced tomorrow for the NZ Bug of the Year competition!

Here's a few of my favourite contenders. Now voting is over I'll admit I have been quietly rooting for the velvet worm too - they're amazing animals!

Good luck #TeamGiantSpringtail!
A photograph of a giant springtail on a decaying log. The springtail has soft blue skin, and is covered in soft, pointy yellow spines. A photograph of a velvet worm on a decaying log. The velvet worm has many legs, soft blue skin, and is covered in beautiful orange dots scattered randomly over its body. A photograph of a pair of leaf-veined slugs on a decaying log. One is orange and the other is green, and both have a leaf vein-like branching depression running down the midline of their bodies, giving them a leaf-like appearance. A photograph of a manuka chafer beetle walking on a bright yellow sheet. The beetle is beautifully iridescent green with orange-brown legs.
February 20, 2025 at 8:15 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
ONLY THREE HOURS LEFT TO VOTE!

Anyone in the world can vote in the Bug of the Year contest - It's quick and easy! Please go vote for the Giant Springtail RIGHT NOW!

bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20...

If it wins, I'll get one as my first ever tattoo!!

#Invertebrate #TeamGiantSpringtail 🧪
A photograph of a giant springtail - a blue skinned, soft-bodied invertebrate covered in long yellow spines.
February 17, 2025 at 7:55 AM
frankashwood.bsky.social
Only 24 hours left to vote for Giant Springtails to win Bug of the Year!

If I haven't convinced you yet, perhaps this photo I took of one DEFENSIVELY BLEEDING will win you over. So metal.

We need every vote we can get, so please vote now: bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-20...

#Invertebrate 🧪
A photograph of a blue invertebrate covered in yellow spines, curled up and secreting two blobs of white blood from its head and back.
February 16, 2025 at 7:09 AM