It’s Insect Week 2025 – an opportunity to celebrate the small creatures that run the world and encourage public interest to help bridge gaps in scientific data and knowledge.
Insects are the Earth’s dominant form of animal life, providing humans and wildlife with pollination, food, and recycling services but, despite concerns about population declines, little is known about how 99% of species globally are faring.
Citizen science is essential for helping increase our knowledge, and this Insect Week, the Royal Entomological Society is calling on everyone to pledge to discover, observe and protect insects in all their fascinating glory.
While there is consensus that climate change and human activity are driving biodiversity loss and a decline in beneficial insect species, there is an urgent need for more data and more widespread reporting of insect diversity and abundance, across the full range of urban and rural settings, so scientists can build a greater depth of knowledge. Local data gathered by people in their own gardens, parks and other green spaces helps build a national picture of insect prevalence and supports scientific knowledge, advice and innovation which can in turn boost insect populations and restore biodiversity.
The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS), led by UKCEH and JNCC, is an exemplar citizen science scheme that is gathering essential data, which will help build a long-term picture of UK insect pollinator abundance and diversity.
The PoMS Annual Report 2024, published on 23 June to mark the beginning of RES Insect Week 2025, highlights the importance of supporting a wide range of plants and habitats to provide essential feeding and sheltering for pollinating insects. This means anyone with access to growing space – including window boxes, doorstep pots and balconies – can help increase biodiversity and boost beneficial insect populations even in the most urban areas.
The report also reveals several insect species that were reported on PoMS surveys in 2024 for the first time since the scheme began in 2017:
Photo (c) Steven FalkLittle Blue Carpenter Bee (Ceratina cyanea)
Little Blue Carpenter Bees live in warm, dry habitats in south-east England such as chalk downlands and heathlands, and can also be found on some brownfield sites. They visit a wide range of flowers for nectar and pollen and nest in hollowed-out plant stems, but the adults can be elusive to spot.
Variable Nomad Bee (Nomada zonata)
Nomad bees are kleptoparasites who lay their eggs into nests of other solitary bees. The nomad bee will then consume both the host bee’s egg/larva and the pollen supply intended for the host. The host for the Variable Nomad Bee is the Short-fringed Mining Bee, Andrena dorsata.
Photo (c) Steven Falk
Photo (c) Steven FalkGolf-club Duckfly hoverfly (Anasimyia transfuga)
This hoverfly, aptly named after the markings on its abdomen and shape of the ‘snout’, is associated with wetland habitats, especially coastal marshes and river valleys where emergent plants such as Sea Club Rush, Branched Bur-reed or Reed Sweet Grass grow at the edges of water bodies. Golf-club Duckfly is fairly widespread in Britain but is localised and not commonly recorded.
Variable Pufftail hoverfly (Sphegina sibirica)
This European hoverfly was only discovered in Britain relatively recently. Adults of Variable Pufftail visit a range of flowers including Rowan, Elder and various umbellifers, and the larvae develop on old trees.
Photo (c) Steven FalkSeveral other citizen science schemes, supported by the RES, are in place to aid and encourage public reporting including:
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