Entocast

Insect Declines Nov 12, 2018

What's happening to all the insects? And what can we do about it? Join Nick as he interviews Brad Lister, who recently published an article showing dramatic insect declines, and Helen Roy, a conservation biologist in the UK, as they discuss this important topic.

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Show Notes

German insect declines article

Brad’s paper

Washington Post Article

The State of Nature report

Hope in conservation biology

Helen Roy on Twitter

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Get in touch!

**The Weird and the Wonderful** Aug 13, 2018

In this episode Liam and Nick discuss their favourite weird and wonderful insects. From Phasmids to Parasites we traverse the insect group finding the best oddities.

Show Notes
Twisted Wing Flies (*Strepsiptera*)
Brazilian Tree Hopper (*Bocydium globulare*)
Oil Beetles (*Meloe spp.*)
Spiny Flower Mantis (*Pseudocreobotra wahlbergi*)
Hyperparisitoids
Giant Prickly Stick Insect (*Extatosoma tiaratum)*
Scorpionflies (*Panorpidae*)
CATERPIE (*Papilio glaucus*)

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Bonus: National Insect Week is here! Jun 19, 2018

We were at the launch of the National Insect Week learning more about this great event!

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Show Notes

National Insect Week Events

All about Carim and his artwork

M.G. Leonard and her fantastic books

Get involved!

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Horny Longhorns Jun 18, 2018

We're joined by Will Heany from the Longhorn Recording Scheme to discuss an awesome group of beetles the Longhorns!

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The longhorn beetles

Harlequin Beetle

Macrodontia cervicornis

The Asian Longhorn Beetle

Happy Birthday Entocast! May 08, 2018

It's been a whole year of entocast! To celebrate we're awarding some new awards to exceptional insects.

Show Notes

Strongest Insect

Paper finding the strongest insect

Hardest Insect

Insects and Human history

Lice defeated Napoleon

Cochineal facts

Ancient beekeepers

History of sericulture

Malaria

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Fun with Flies! Apr 03, 2018

Think you know flies? Think again! We're joined by fly fanatic Erica McAlister (@flygirlNHM) to learn more about this misunderstood group. From fearsome Phorids to flightless flies we're going to take you on a fun tour of this fascinating group.

Show Notes

Erica McAlister

Erica's book - The secret life of flies

Flies as pollinators

The Fearsome Phorids

Conopid flies parasitising bumblebees

Hoverflies eating maggots

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Bonus: Fieldwork diaries Feb 14, 2018

Last year we went on another brilliant podcast, fieldwork diaries, and we thought you guys would love it too!

They've got loads more episodes, so check them out at: https://www.fieldworkdiaries.com/

**Garden Entomology** Jan 29, 2018

This time Nick and Liam take a trip to the RHS headquarters in Wisley, where the ento team tells us all we could ever want to know about Garden Entomology. We're joined by principal entomologist Andrew Salisbury (@AndrewSalisbur2), entomologist Hayley Jones (@Hayleyento), and nematologist Magdalena Boshoff. If you're a gardener interested in helping wildlife or an entomologist interested in gardening then this episode is a **must** to listen to!

Show Notes

RHS Ento Team, from left: Hayley Jones, Magdalena Boshoff and Andy Salisbury

What is the RHS?
Entomology at the RHS
Advice on gardening for wildlife
Andy's research on Native and Non-native plants
Hayley's work with slugs and snails
Full list of RHS Ento team publications
Greening Grey Britain

Part of the RHS collection of *Lepidoptera*

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Christmas Special: Insects in Antartica Dec 22, 2017

Jes's twitter and instagram

Previous episode on insects and Winter

Paper discussing invasion risk of E. murphyi's in Antarctica

Polypedilum vanderplanki the world's most freezable insect

Arctic Woolly Bear Moth (Gynaephora groenlandica) and it's cool lifecycle

Bonus: Ento 17! Dec 04, 2017

Show notes

Interviewees:

Jasper Hubert (+Koppert)

How to grow a bee Dec 04, 2017

Show Notes

Osmia bicornis

Nick's industrial partner - Biobest

Rearing Osmia spp.

Lengthening Megachile rotundata diapause

P roblems of commercialisation

Overwintering is not good for lipids

iRecord app

BWARs Website

Some of the problems with recording

Nest site fidelity of Osmia bicornis

**Halloween Special!** Oct 30, 2017

Mwahahaha... it's time for the Entocast Halloween Special! This time Nick and Liam discuss the freakiest insects they can find. From flesh-eaters to mind-controllers the insect world has a variety of spooky bugs!
Music as always by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com, we use vanishing, this house, and breath, along with the normal disco medusae intro!
Extra halloween-esk music from Bensound.
Show Notes
Kissing bugs - *Triatominae*
Darwin had Chagas?
Ant wearing assassin bug - *Acanthaspis petax*

*Acanthaspis petax*
By Orionmystery - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Note, for some reason Nick had in his head these guys were from Malaysia, they're actually from East Africa.
David Attenborough discusses *A. petax*
Study looking at use of ant corpses as disguise from spiders
Ant decapitating flies - *Pseudoacteon spp.*
Ant decapitating flies in action

*Ampulex Compressa*
By Muhammad Mahdi Karim - Own work, GFDL 1.2

Emerald Cockroach Wasp - *Ampulex compressa*
The cockroach wasp attacking it's cockroach host
Zombie ants - infested with *Ophiocordyceps unilateralis*
David Attenborough and Zombie ants
Human bot flies - *Dermatobia hominis*
*Warning gruesome content* Bot fly being removed from a girl's scalp
Africanised Honey Bee - *Apis mellifera scutellata* Lepeletier
Japanese Giant Hornet - *Vespa mandarina japonica*
Giant hornets destroy a honey bee hive

Ant infested with *Ophiocordyceps unilateralis*

Native Japanese bees defend against giant hornets
The origin of the Halloween genes
Blog with picture of halloween genes on them

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**Insect Outreach** Oct 02, 2017

This time we're letting the public do the talking for us! We're chatting to people at the insect festival in York all about insects. We also have an interview with Fran Sconce, who talks to us all about outreach in entomology. There's also some of the usual waffle from us.
Music as always by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com, he also provides graph paper which is nice.

*Heliocopris colossus*

Show Notes
What's Outreach and what's the point?
Fran Sconce's Profile
Fran's Twitter
National Insect Week
York Insect Festival
Eat Bugs!
Riverfly Partnership
Buglife
Urban Buzz Project
Yorkshire Museum

All of our rubbish:
Entocast.com
Entocast on Twitter
Contact us by email
Check out our instagram
Or our facebook!

**What's the point of wasps?** Aug 28, 2017

*Chrysura refulgens -* cuckoo wasp
By Alvesgaspar - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

I've asked it, you've asked it, we all have! What is the point of wasps? Well this time Nick and Liam try to answer it with help from Dr. Seirian Sumner and discover that wasps are more than just pests.
Intro music is by the lovely Kevin MacLeod at incompetech, find more of his music here.
Show Notes
Liam's blog on 'what is the point of wasps?'

Dr. Seirian Sumner

Wasps eat hundreds of kilos of insects
The big wasp survey

How to make a trap

Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS)
Seirian's work on sociality

Lotka-Volterra

Wasps out-compete New Zealand Birds
Wasps as pollinators - Chiloglotis orchid
Plants attracting wasps
Yeast overwintering in wasps
Ancient Chinese inspiration for paper

**Entocation Entocation Entocation** Jul 31, 2017

Simon Looking cool posing in the EntoHub at Harper Adams

Get your Entocation! This time Nick and Liam are joined by the EntoProf, Prof. Simon Leather, as they discuss teaching in entomology. From Pokémon to Victorian Gentlemen Nick and Liam will take you through everything you wanted to know about entomological teaching.
Intro music is by the lovely Kevin MacLeod at incompetech, find more of his music here.
Show Notes
Paper on teaching entomology
Kids better at identifying pokémon than animals
What's the point in studying entomology?
Simon's twitter
Simon's blog - don't forget the roundabouts
Entomology at Harper Adams
Entomology at Reading
Entomologists are well-paid!

Is winter coming? Jul 01, 2017

Insects are incredibly dependent on the surrounding temperature and environment, so how on earth do they survive winter? Where do they all go? That's what we're trying to find out this episode, and helping us with it is our supervisor Dr. Scott Hayward.

Show Notes

After interviewing our supervisor Scott he drank from a spiffing mug #podcast #marketinggenius

A post shared by Entocast (@ento_cast) on Jun 21, 2017 at 12:55pm PDT