Mark Brown

PhD project is available via @treesdla.bsky.social with @evolecollab.bsky.social and @kratina.bsky.social to study trophic interactions between invasive mosquitofish, their prey, competitors, and predators 🐟 www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/tro...

CASE PhD project is available @treesdla.bsky.social with @fabrizia-ratto.bsky.social and Mark Lee @rhulbiology.bsky.social on reintroduction of the Black-veined White butterfly in the UK www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/rew...

Is this bumblebee knitting?🧶 Female bumblebees collect pollen by brushing the fine grains out of their hair and into the pollen baskets on their hind legs. Still, how cute would it be to see bumblebee queens wrapped in tiny woolly jumpers as they settle down to hibernate over winter?

Wonderful plenary at the Ande-Caribbean IUSSI Congress by Prof Favizia Freitas de Oliveira - I had no idea that stingless bees could have this kind of impact #firebees @iussi-nwes.bsky.social @uissi-social.bsky.social @ceiussi.bsky.social @iussi-nas.bsky.social

Cool talk by Nataly Foreró Chavez on how geometry impacts cooperative transport in ants at the Ande-Caribbean IUSSI XV. If you want to contribute to a global study, check out the qr codes 🐜 🐜 🐜 @iussi-nwes.bsky.social @uissi-social.bsky.social @ceiussi.bsky.social @iussi-nas.bsky.social

Very excited to be in Tarapoto, Peru, for the XV Colloquium of the Ande-Caribbean Section of the IUSSI. Looking forward to lots of science about 🐜 🐝 wasps and termites 🤩😍 @iussi-nwes.bsky.social @ceiussi.bsky.social @iussi-nas.bsky.social

After months of planning, our bumblebee colonies are out at Thursley National Nature Reserve and surrounds to test the impact of Heathlands as nature's pharmacies for bumblebees. HUGE thanks to @naturalengland.bsky.social, @nationaltrust.org.uk and all the public volunteers for hosting our colonies!

Are you part of a social insect lab group? Is your lab proudly displayed on our shiny new map of all the social insect labs around the world? If not, why not?! Add your lab here! www.socialinsects.org/map #IUSSI

I have been tasked by @markjfbrown.bsky.social with making sure that all social insect groups go up on the map. If for some inexplicable reason you're not yet on the map, be warned - I might ambush you in the IUSSI poster session 🤣 #IUSSI2026

The early bird

Munch munch munch

Cinnabar moth caterpillars doing their work on the ragwort

Very important new paper out! The coffee berry borer beetle is the worst pest of ☕️ worldwide, and in Mexico is attacked by the wasp Cephalonomia hyalinipennis. That wasp is supposed to be in Hawaii, so why doesn’t it attack CBB here? Turns out neither are actually C. hyalinipennis!

If you’re thinking of applying for Senior Research Fellowships to be hosted at a UK university, check out our sponsorship scheme @camzoology.bsky.social Don’t contact me about the scheme, I won’t be able to help. Follow the instructions on the webpage instead 😉 www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/senior-...

🧪🐛🐝🐜🦋Come work with me! @romtoronto.bsky.social is hiring a Curator of Insects & Arachnids!!! #insects royalontariomuseum.applytojob.com/apply/mdMTpA...

One of the things I love about coming to Burgundy is seeing the high density of martins and swallows, and their nests. Reminds me of my childhood in England when we still had lots of insects

Which wombat? Wonderful and contrasting examples of taxidermy based on different evidence bases at the Great North Museum

Happy Pride! Great fun judging the Neighbourhood Pride Bake-off - and for a great cause! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈🧁🍰🥮

Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Month! The natural world is full of diversity, and I’m delighted that @zoologymuseum.bsky.social we celebrate this and can show you some highlights beyond the binary. Come and visit!

This sounds amazing - can’t wait to read it. I remember writing essays about pigeon-homing as an undergraduate, when it was all (excuse the pun) up in the air. Exciting that we’re still learning more about it nearly 40 years later 🐦 🧲

This is a wonderful book - totally recommend for anyone interested in zoology and museums

Whoop whoop! My first book, Animal Kingdom: A Natural History in 100 Objects is out again in a new reprint! 🤩 It explores the *astonishing* things we can learn about the natural world from incredible specimens in natural history #museums. Go get your hands on it! #OneHundredAnimals

Ant Course is back! This year, in Mexico:

Parenting is 24/7

Prepping for another roasting day!

New evolutionary tree for all of the world's bumblebee species, from (1) slow-evolving nuclear genes, (2) fast-evolving mitochondrial genes, and (3) results from genomic data, to provide a complete starting point for comparative studies of all bumblebees www.researchgate.net/publication/...

It’s World Bee 🐝 Day! A day to celebrate these amazing insects, and to reflect on how we can support wild populations of 🐝 🐝 for the future. Museum collections are key in showing where bees used to be, setting baselines to understand impacts of stressors and set restoration/conservation targets

Spring joys

To celebrate International Day of Families, a reminder from @zoologymuseum.bsky.social that families come in all shapes and sizes. From life-mated sea horses with paternal care, through oil bird nuclear families, to the mostly female families of social insects, to brooding male sea spiders, & beyond

Hi everyone. Please respond to @morganmorrison73.bsky.social if you have info on this, or repost to your networks if you don’t. Thank you 🤩 🐝 🦋🪰🪲

My morning commute has been heralded by these glorious singers for weeks - sound on 🤩

Happy 100th Birthday to Sir David Attenborough from the @zoologymuseum.bsky.social He studied here, re-opened us after our renovation in 2018, loaned his famous reconstructed elephant bird egg to us to share with visitors, and has inspired us all to love and protect biodiversity around the globe 😍

A May Day swarm 🐝 There’s a queen 🫅 in there somewhere!

Happy Beltane! As well as 🔥 this ancient Gaelic festival is associated with animals, including cattle, hares, swallows, and honey bees - all signs of spring, food, and fertility. Cultural associations like this shape how we think and feel about animals. What do these museum specimens do for you?

What a beautiful morning 😍

Two dance flies (Empis tessellata) in a hedgerow. The male hangs by his front legs as he copulates with a female who is feeding on a nuptial gift (a bibionid fly) he has caught and offered her as a prelude to mating...I watched the whole event..transfixed!

It’s Earth Day. This year’s focus is community action, so let’s look at specimens where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The amazing architecture of corals and wasp nests emerges from combined actions of many individuals. Let’s be inspired by nature to make the world a better place!

I was lucky enough to spend some time with our Entomology collection this week, and sometimes it’s the small things that stick. This is a case of ladybirds 🐞 collected by Alfred Russell Wallace (www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who...) who co-discovered the idea of natural selection and evolution. Just wow 🤩

📢We need you!📢Volunteers are essential at the Museum from providing a warm welcome to visitors, to getting hands on with our specimens. No zoology knowledge is needed, just enthusiasm! Different times & days available. Get in touch 🙂University of Cambridge Museums https://ow.ly/EB4i50YJPIZ

Homes and a cloud of sand martins - always uplifted by how small interventions can have big impacts on biodiversity. Great work at Webbs Hole Sluice - incorporate their homes in your industrial architecture and they will come. So, what small thing can each of us do to make a difference?

@cubotanicgarden.bsky.social looking lovely today 😍

Cambridge histories through blur plaques

I’ve been thinking about scale this week. And that’s something zoology museums are great at helping us grasp. Many of our public specimens are arranged to help people understand the physical range of closely related animals, so I thought I’d share some of my favourites @zoologymuseum.bsky.social

It’s Family Day at the Museum, with lots of fun activities. Having a great time being a volunteer for the day @zoologymuseum.bsky.social

Really important work by @aclassen.bsky.social and colleagues, demonstrating the importance of long-term ecological studies - climate change will drive the disappearance of alpine meadows 🌼🌸🪻😢 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Today is the International Day of Happiness, a chance to reflect on what makes us happy. Right now, working with all my amazing new colleagues @zoologymuseum.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social makes me 😍. This leopard seal is also very happy, and would love to have you visit. What makes you happy?