New dragonfly and damselfly species are discovered every year. In 2026, the Yalomi red sprite came to the attention of scientists as they unboxed several pinned specimen, hidden away in a museum for over 60 years.
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The Maldives is thrown like a string of pearls to the middle of the Indian Ocean. Being known for white, sandy beaches, palm trees and colourful reefs, few would raise their eyes to the sky, where high above the archipelago a diverse trans-oceanic insect migration is taking place every autumn. Determined to unveil the secrets of this aerial movement, we set out to the island of Gan to study the powerful fliers, wind-riders and miniscule stowaways of the Indian Ocean Flyway.
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Hard Is The Journey
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In early March 2023, reports started coming in of vagrant emperor dragonflies spotted along the coast of southern Spain. Now, a month later, they have arrived to the UK!
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After three long years, I am finally back at the museum
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In migratory birds, some populations remain separated both during breeding and wintering, a phenomenon known as migratory connectivity. Our new publication explores whether this concept is also applicable to migrant insects.
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Who collected insects for museums back in the day? Were they adventurers, zoologists or no different from grave robbers?
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A visit to Bonaire to study squids, lead to a chance discovery and research publication on an extraordinary dragonfly
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Using stable isotopes, the large scale pattern of Europe’s migratory dragonflies is to be revealed!
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"Unlike the world’s human population, the year 2020 is no different to migratory animals….”
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“When man, after much toil and a great expenditure of mental energy, succeeds finally in reaching some new goal … in all probability, he would be forced to come to the humiliating conclusion that the little insect was there before him”
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2019 was an exciting globe skimmer year: the first ever recorded breeding in Europe occurred, and I had the pleasure of seeing my first ever (live) specimen!
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Dragonflies were probably the first animals that took to the skies some hundreds of millions of years ago. These ancient dragons, with three pairs of wings, and grew to be the largest insects that ever lived.
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Bonaire is a tiny island in the Caribbean Sea, but here you can find beautiful hummingbirds, pink flamingos, endangered parrots and the charismatic troupial
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The vagrant emperor is the only dragonfly species ever reported on Iceland, and sightings from South America and the Maldives suggest that this formidable migrant may often cross the Atlantic as well as the Indian Ocean!
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She travelled the world in the beginning of the 1900s, and became a leading expert in Odonatology, but still, I had never heard of her…
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Today is Halloween and what better way to celebrate is there than acknowledging the Halloween pennant (Celithemis eponina)!
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On the pins underneath each specimen were little paper notes, indicating information on species, location, year, collector’s name, who had determined which species it was etc. Sometimes, great snippets of history was preserved on those small pieces of papers, and it was absolutely amazing finding them
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Although conspicuous, beautiful and known to most, dragonflies is a group of insects that few people collect
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