Tardigrades, often called water bears, are microscopic, eight-legged animals famous for their almost superpower-like ability to survive extreme conditions. They can endure complete desiccation, freezing temperatures, and even massive doses of radiation. Most commonly found in mosses and lichens, tardigrades actually inhabit a wide range of environments, across both terrestrial and marine habitats. In this talk, Witold Morek will explore how these remarkable survival abilities evolved and reveal the genetic secrets behind them.
Category Archives: entoLIVE
Unwelcome Guests: How Insect Pests are Impacting Britain’s Forests
Climate change and global trade are driving rising threats to British forests from insect pests, with impacts ranging from reduced timber yields to losses in biodiversity and carbon storage. Drawing on a comprehensive assessment of 56 pest species, this presentation highlights the origins, impacts, and management of both native and non-native pests, identifies tree genera most at risk, and examines the role of trade, climate, and management in shaping outcomes. This talk will highlight several high-impact pests, including large pine weevil and bark beetles and advocate for a systems-level Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to strengthen forest resilience and anticipate future threats.
Discoveries After Dark: How Insects Connect Us to Nature
Although the benefits of connecting with nature during daylight hours are well established, comparatively little is known about the psychological and behavioural outcomes of engaging with the natural world after dark. This talk presents a series of innovative studies that examine how nighttime nature experiences – focusing on moths, crane flies, and other invertebrates – may enhance connection to nature and the night sky, promote conservation-oriented behaviour, and support well-being. The research was conducted in collaboration with partners at Buglife and the Environmental Education Project at Rosliston Forestry Centre.
Participants were invited to take part in one of three nighttime events: Curious Crane Flies involved constructing environmentally friendly light traps to illuminate the often-overlooked beauty of crane flies; Buglife Safari used guided torchlight exploration to reveal the hidden lives of nocturnal invertebrates; and Nightwatch offered a broader range of evening activities – including bat walks, stargazing, and moth discovery sessions – designed to celebrate the wonders of nature after dark.
Across these studies, our findings indicate that relatively simple nighttime encounters can evoke curiosity, strengthen participants’ sense of connection with the natural world, enhance wellbeing and motivate greater engagement in its protection.
The Search for German Hairy Snails
This presentation will share an overview of the Great German Hairy Snail Survey, a collaborative project between Citizen Zoo and the Conchological Society of Britain and Ireland, which is leading the first ever large-scale structured survey for this rare mollusc across London. We’ll explore how the species is faring in the capital, what we’ve learned from the survey, and the recommendations we’re putting forward for its conservation. You’ll be introduced to this fascinating snail, hear how you can get involved in future work, and discover yet another example of the remarkable creatures living in London.
Can Infiltrators be Indicators? Understanding Cuckoo Bumblebees
Cuckoo bumblebees are obligate parasites that must successfully invade and gain control of a host bumblebee colony to achieve reproductive success. As apex species, these cuckoos have been considered as potential indicator species of healthy bumblebee habitat for some time. However, our limited understanding of cuckoo bumblebee ecology makes it difficult to understand their full impact on host populations and the challenges they face as a group. In this talk, Sofia describes this fascinating host-parasite relationship and presents experiments she has conducted to unravel the complexities of the cuckoo bumblebee lifecycle.
Friend, Foe, or Freeloader? The Flower Crab Spider
The Flower Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) is a camouflage expert when it comes to hiding out on flower heads to capture prey. In this talk, Rose will introduce the ecology of these spiders, why it is important to study these types of interactions, the many different techniques she’s utilising to do that, and how you can get involved with helping to decipher the choices these spiders make.
Underexplored Freshwater Habitats in Ireland: Case Studies Using Riverflies
Ireland’s freshwater landscape encompasses over 12,000 lakes and extensive river networks, primarily shaped by Pleistocene glaciation. Standard aquatic surveys consistently target riffle zones, boulder substrates, and macrophyte beds, systematically overlooking specialised microhabitats such as seeps, temporary streams, turloughs, and those with groundwater sources including springs and the hyporheic zone of rivers that may harbour unique invertebrate communities.
Using Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), and Trichoptera (caddisflies) as focal taxa, this talk examines distributional gaps and discusses species found in some of Ireland’s specialised aquatic habitats, based on recent surveys carried out at various locations across Ireland.
Pan-Species Listing: How to Become a Super-Naturalist
Pan-Species Listing (PSL) is an exciting initiative encouraging naturalists to record ALL the species they have seen in the UK in a friendly and competitive way that promotes general wildlife recording and biodiversity in the process. In this talk, Graeme Lyons will introduce the PSL approach, describe the benefits of the framework, and then take us on a whistle-stop tour of the relevant ‘groups’ of wildlife in the UK (how to get into them, where to start, etc.). The talk will be sprinkled with lots of nice photos and anecdotes from Graeme’s storied career as an entomologist and pan-species lister.
Backyard Bees: Private Green Spaces and Pollinator Diversity in Cities
Private green spaces, such as gardens and allotments, have an important role in supporting pollinator diversity within cities. This webinar explores the environmental factors that shape pollinator communities in these spaces, including the influence of both native and non-native plants. We will also examine whether gardens and allotments differ in their ability to provide resources for pollinators and identify which plant species are most frequently visited. This research aims to highlight the importance of private green spaces for sustaining pollinators in urban environments and inform strategies to make cities more biodiversity-friendly.
Revealing Insect Pest Pathways
All plants and animals carry a natural chemical signature shaped by the environment in which they grow and feed. This signature comes from stable isotopes – naturally occurring forms of elements that differ slightly in mass but do not decay over time. The relative abundance of these isotopes varies predictably with factors such as climate, geography, and diet. Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) is a powerful analytical technique based on this principle. It measures these subtle differences in isotope ratios, allowing samples to be “fingerprinted” according to their origin. Over the past several decades, SIRA has been widely used to trace the production and movement of biological materials. This presentation introduces the principles behind stable isotopes and SIRA, and explores how the technique can be applied to identify insect pest pathways. Case studies include house flies and wood-boring beetles, such as the invasive Asian longhorn beetle and Ips typographus.