Tag: Parasitoid

Posted on

Butterflies and their sensational parasitoids | Digital Collections Programme

The Museum’s Sensational Butterflies exhibition is host to over 500 butterflies each year. Each morning, work in the Museum’s butterfly house starts two hours before the exhibition opens because it takes constant attention to maintain the ideal environment for these butterflies to flourish. One of the aspects that needs to be attended to is pest control.

an image of the sensational butterfly exhibition
Pest-free foliage in the Sensational Butterflies exhibition

One of the most significant pests that needs to be kept under control in the butterfly house are Aphids.

Continue reading “Butterflies and their sensational parasitoids | Digital Collections Programme”

Posted on

03 Wasps: 100,000 species and counting | #NHM_Live

In this episode of #NHM_Live, Gavin Broad, Curator of Hymenoptera, talks to Alison Shean about the huge variety of wasps in nature and why they are so undeserving of their bad reputation. Learn about wasps that build nests, make honey and even practise mind control.

If the show piques your interest, you can take part in a wasp-based citizen science project through Miniature Lives Magnified. See the Take Part section of our website for more information and ways you can get involved with science projects from the Museum.

Series 1 of #NHM_Live was broadcast in February 2017. We’d love you to join us for our next series which will start in June. Watch this space for more details.

Posted on

Going digital! New crowdsourcing project launched | Miniature Lives Magnified

Be a digital volunteer for the Museum and help transcribe scientific data from microscope slides… We are so very excited to launch our latest citizen science project Miniature Lives Magnified.

As part of our Digital Collections Programme,  we have imaged 100,000 microscope slides of some of the world’s smallest insects and we need your help to unlock the data from the specimen labels, so that we can uncover more of nature’s secrets.

Rectangular glass microscope slide, with old handwritten labels.
Spot the wasp: we have 6,000 microscope slides of Chalcid wasps, that we would like you to help us to transcribe data from.

In partnership with our good friends from the online crowdsourcing platform Notes from Nature, today we launch our first collection called ‘The killer within: wasps but not as you know them’.

Continue reading “Going digital! New crowdsourcing project launched | Miniature Lives Magnified”

Posted on

Beetah, Carabus violaceous Linnaeus, 1758; D.O.D: ii.2015 | Curator of Coleoptera

The date in the title of this post marks the sad passing of one of the Museum’s tiniest volunteers: in early February I discovered Beetah, my Carabus violaceous, lying still on her coconut substrate and to be honest, a little dried out.

'Beetah', my Carabus violaceous
‘Beetah’, my Carabus violaceous

My little pet worked hard in life to inspire the public with entomological wonder of what living gems can be found in local parks, let alone the wider world, so I think it’s only fair to take time and reflect on her life and service upon her passing. Continue reading “Beetah, Carabus violaceous Linnaeus, 1758; D.O.D: ii.2015 | Curator of Coleoptera”