Richard 'Bugman' Jones FRES is a British entomologist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and has written many books about insects. [1]
Richard 'Bugman' Jones FRES is a British entomologist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and has written many books about insects. [1]
Jones's childhood interest in insects was inspired by his father, who was a botanist. He grew up in the South Downs and the Sussex Weald [2] and was educated at Newhaven Tideway Comprehensive School (now Seahaven Academy) in the early 1970s. [3] At university he studied biology and he then worked as an engineer's assistant on the Lewes Cuilfail Tunnel, [4] and in medical publishing, before moving back into entomology, [5] doing ecological surveys for local councils and English Nature (now Natural England). [6]
He regularly writes for New Scientist , [7] Gardeners' World [8] and BBC Wildlife , [9] as well as appearing on programmes such as Springwatch Unsprung , [10] BBC Radio 4's Home Planet [11] and Natural Histories with Brett Westwood, including the episodes "Louse" [12] and "Dung Beetle". [13]
Jones is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and of the Linnean Society. He is a past president of the British Entomological and Natural History Society. [24]
Call of Nature was shortlisted for The Bookseller's Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the year in 2018. [25]
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal species; new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting that there are between 0.9 and 2.1 million total species. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are serious agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle, while others such as Coccinellidae eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.
Michael Eugene Nicolas Majerus was a British geneticist and professor of evolution at the University of Cambridge. He was also a teaching fellow at Clare College, Cambridge. He was an enthusiast in Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and became a world authority in his field of insect evolutionary biology. He was widely noted for his work on moths and ladybirds and as an advocate of the science of evolution. He was also an enthusiastic educator and the author of several books on insects, evolution and sexual reproduction. He is best remembered as an ardent supporter and champion of experiments on peppered moth evolution.
Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. Some species of dung beetles can bury dung 250 times their own mass in one night.
Mark Carwardine is a British zoologist who achieved widespread recognition with his 20-year conservation project – Last Chance to See – which involved round-the-world expeditions with Douglas Adams and Stephen Fry. The first series was aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1990, and the second, a TV series, on BBC2 in 2009. There are two books about the project: Last Chance to See, which he co-wrote with Adams (1990), and Last Chance to See: In the footsteps of Douglas Adams (2009). He is a leading and outspoken conservationist, and a prolific broadcaster, columnist and photographer.
Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, sometimes known collectively as The Watches, are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The programmes are broadcast live from locations around the country in a primetime evening slot on BBC Two. They require a crew of 100 and over 50 cameras, making them the BBC's largest British outside broadcast events. Many of the cameras are hidden and operated remotely to record natural behaviour, for example, of birds in their nests and badgers outside their sett.
Dominic Couzens is a British birdwatcher, author and journalist specialising in avian and natural history subjects. He writes three regular magazine columns, and to date, has had more than 700 published articles and is a named author on 40 books.
Frieda Rebecca Hughes is an English-Australian poet and painter. She has published seven children's books, four poetry collections and one short story and has had many exhibitions. Hughes is the daughter of Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist and poet Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1984 until his death in 1998.
A Practical Handbook of British Beetles ISBN 0-900848-91-X is a two-volume work on the British beetle fauna, by Norman H. Joy, first published by H. F. & G. Witherby in January 1932.
Bernd Heinrich, is a professor emeritus in the biology department at the University of Vermont and is the author of a number of books about nature writing and biology. Heinrich has made major contributions to the study of insect physiology and behavior, as well as bird behavior. In addition to many scientific publications, Heinrich has written over a dozen highly praised books, mostly related to his research examining the physiological, ecological and behavioral adaptations of animals and plants to their physical environments. He has also written books that include more of his personal reflections on nature. He is the son of Ichneumon expert Gerd Heinrich.
Reaktion Books is an independent book publisher based in Islington, London, England. It was founded in 1985 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and moved to London in 1987. Reaktion originally focused on the fields of art, architecture, and design. In recent years it has broadened to include more areas and also publishes series of books.
George Francis Bornemissza was a Hungarian-born entomologist and ecologist. He studied science at the University of Budapest before obtaining his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria in 1950. At the end of that year, he emigrated to Australia. There he first worked in the Department of Zoology at the University of Western Australia for 3 years, before pursuing a career with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Bornemissza was known for his work on the Australian Dung Beetle Project (1965–1985) while working at CSIRO's Division of Entomology. He wrote scientific papers and books based on his research and contributed a collection of mounted beetle specimens to the Australian National Insect Collection and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. In 2001 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to Australian entomology.
Martin Hughes-Games is a natural history programme producer, presenter and author. He is best known for co-presenting the BBC magazine-style nature series Springwatch and its spin-offs, Winterwatch, Autumnwatch, and Springwatch Unsprung.
Erica McAlister Hon.FRES is an entomologist, museum curator and presenter in the United Kingdom. She is an expert in flies (Diptera) and is senior curator at the Natural History Museum, London. She is a past President of the Amateur Entomologists' Society.
Lindsey Katherine Chapman is an English television and radio presenter.
Amoret Whitaker is a forensic entomologist in the UK.
Melissa Harrison is an English novelist, short story and nature writer.
Marie Ann-Charlotte Dacke is a professor in the Lund Vision Group at Lund University in Sweden. She received an Ig Nobel Prize in 2013 for her work on the navigation system of dung beetles. She is also a panel member on the Swedish TV show Studio Natur, and was named best science communicator in Sweden during the 2012 Forskar Grand Prix.
Sarah Beynon is an entomologist, ecologist and presenter in the UK. She is a senior research associate at the University of Oxford and is founder of The Bug Farm.
Tim Cockerill FRES is an zoologist, broadcaster and photographer in the UK, he is Senior Lecturer at Falmouth University and has a particular interest in Insects.
Ashleigh Whiffin is an entomologist in the UK. She is a curator at the National Museum of Scotland and a specialist in carrion beetles (Silphidae).