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Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. Insect flight behaviour and visual guidance strategies.🐜🪲🪳🪰🐝🐞🦋
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Recent posts
Our new paper reveals that #dragonfly dogfights follow one simple rule: stay just behind and slightly below your opponent. This simple principle produces loops, spirals, and rapid role-swaps that mirror human fighter-jet tactics.
Our subject species, the crimson marsh glider, pull 6g turns, deliberately avoid top speed to stay agile, and flip between chaser and evader in just tens of milliseconds.
Our work was only made possible by a collaboration between @lovetaipeizoo and @imperialcollege
Read all about nature's dogfighting masterclass at @theroyalsociety Interface.
Link: doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2026.0131
#insect #wildlife #fieldwork #slowmotion
01 Jul 2026
Our new paper is out! 🪲
Male mayflies form huge swarms and chase anything flying overhead, regardless of shape, size, or colour. Yet somehow, males almost never accidentally chase each other. The secret is in their iconic bobbing dance.
While females fly horizontally overhead, males oscillate vertically, climbing, then parachuting down. Using field recordings and computer simulations, we show this vertical oscillation is specifically tuned to help males distinguish other males. In a dense swarm, identity is encoded purely by movement.
But we also stumbled onto something unexpected: mayflies use dynamic air brakes. While tracking pursuit flights, we found males deploy their long tail filaments and hind wings mid-chase to improve turning performance.
These wonderful insects, flying for only a few days, are solving complex guidance challenges during long summer evenings.
Full paper available for free in Journal of Experimental Biology: https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-lookup/doi/10.1242/jeb.251579
#Entomology #Biology #AnimalBehaviour #Mayfly #NewPaper #Science #Fieldwork #Insects #Evolution #Biomechanics
26 Mar 2026
Ever notice that the lenses of #insect eyes aren't all the same size? It means that they're likely tuning part of their eye for resolution, or for sensitivity. When you see this adaptation, it tells you something fundamental about that insect's vision. There's something important the insect wants to see, and they want to do it at range, in dim light, or with extra detail.
Some simplifications for necessary brevity.
#wildlife #science #scicomm #nature
02 Aug 2026
Might need a new spot for this one.
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#wildlife #trailcam #wildlifegarden #fox
22 Jul 2026
The hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes) is the harbinger of spring. One of the first large bees in the garden, I've been watching their behaviour for the last few years. It took a long time to get enough footage together, despite them being such charismatic subjects.
The long hairy feet of the males are used to bring pheromones forward onto the females antennae during copulation.
Next spring listen out for the distinctive high-pitched buzz in your flowerbeds, and you might just see one of these wonderful pollinators.
All filmed on my @chronoscameras 2.1-HD at 1000 fps
#wildlife #nature #insect #pollinators #entomology
22 Jul 2026
The banded demoiselle, Calopteryx splendens, is a jewel of Britain's lowland rivers. Come with me to film them in slow motion and reveal how they fight, hunt, and ensure the next generation. #wildlife #insect #macrophotography #nature #photography
14 Jul 2026
Mayflies are some of our most underappreciated #insect #wildlife. They're real oddballs and their adult lives are still poorly understood. Mayflies split from the rest of the insects extremely early, and since then they've been doing their own thing. I'll always be glad for the time I got to work with them, and I'll never go another summer without appreciating their vertical bobbing flight patterns. I hope these slow motion videos help you see their neglected beauty.
We have no need to invent fairies 🧚♀️, eldritch creatures beyond our comprehension already abound, and they've been here a lot longer than we have.
#macrophotography #mayfly #nature
02 Jul 2026
Now is a great time of year to go and watch dragonflies (in the northern hemisphere). When you do so, you'll see them flick their heads to track incoming prey as it's silhouetted against the sky. It's a neat bit of visual behaviour you can see with the naked eye.
To support and learn about UK dragonflies, I can't recommend joining @britishdragonflysociety enough. They have excellent resources to help you ID what you see.
#wildlife #insect #dragonfly #nature #macrophotography
30 Jun 2026
The incredible blue jewel #damselfly (Heliocypha perforata) of Taiwan is something of a show off. This species uses incredible visual displays to signal confrontation and dominance. All this pomp means that conflict rarely escalates to physical violence. #insect #wildlife #slowmotion #macrophotography
29 Jun 2026
I'm a little late to the #insectweek party, but I've been stuck marvelling at dragonflies in my garden. This female broad-bodied chaser #dragonfly is laying eggs from a hover, which is no easy task. Only in slow motion, at 1000 frames per second, can we appreciate the subtle control dragonflies have over their flight.
#wildlife #insect #macrophotography
27 Jun 2026
The golden-tailed blunt-horn bee 🐝 🐝 🐝 has highly specific tastes in accommodation. Bellflowers of the genus Campanula provide a place to hang out, sleep, and shelter from the elements. This bee species is such a fan it visits no other flower in my garden, giving the bellflower a very dedicated pollinator relationship. #bee #pollinators #wildlife #insect #wildlife
19 Jun 2026
Happy #worldrobberflyday to some of the very best flies you can find. Robberflies are wonderfully effective predators, with some even catching dragonflies. They combine remarkable vision, rapid reactions, and fast acting venom. Every #robberfly is a treat to find.
I found the one pictured in the highland forests of Costa Rica, hunting midges from a swarm.
30 Apr 2026
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