Insects

Over the course of 50 years, populations of terrestrial insectivorous birds have declined by about 2.9 billion individuals (Tallamy & Shriver, 2021). Recent research suggests a strong [...]

Perhaps because of their elongated shape, members of the fly family Therevidae have acquired the common name “stiletto flies.” This is a smallish fly family, widespread but said to be [...]

Human travel and commerce have completely rewritten the book on wildlife distribution. Deliberately or by accident, humans have transported many thousands of species from their native ranges to [...]

With 4 million contributors, more than 67 million records, and a third of a million species documented, iNaturalist might seem like a complete archive of biodiversity. But with an estimated […]

An interesting species was added to the BWorks Martha’s Vineyard Atlas of Life project on iNaturalist last weekend: Vespula vidua, sometimes known as the widow yellowjacket. A queen or [...]

Flies — the order Diptera — tend to be either ignored or reviled by humans. But this diverse group of insects, with about 17,000 known species in North America, is […]

An alert observer and the power of iNaturalist (iNaturalist.org) recently combined to add a regionally important insect record on Martha’s Vineyard! iNaturalist observer abgeorge found the [...]

With mild weather finally forecast for this week, odds are good that the year’s earliest butterflies will be on the wing. Invariably, the mourning cloak is the first butterfly species […]

The winter ant, Prenolepis imparis, appears to be a fairly common and widespread species on Martha’s Vineyard. But it’s unusual in that it is active mostly during cold weather. [...]