"Nature’s ultimate weapon repurposed! We discovered that certain mantises wield their hunting legs not just to catch prey—but to shield themselves from predators! Read the full study in Proc. R. Soc. B: royalsocietypublishing.org/d…

By collaborating with the @Hines_Lab and @PaulWilliamsNHM, we deciphered the evolutionary history of the most colorful bumblebee mimicry complex in southeast Asia. Our study is just published on Science Advances, and more excitingly, our bee is on the COVER! @ScienceAdvances

The genetics of color pattern diversity of a SE Asian bumblebee is uncovered by our work on MBE! HOX loci is AGAIN implicated! Together with our previous work on a north American species, we show that hox loci are genomic hotspots for color radiation in Bombus! @Hines_Lab .

In SE China, early blooming rhododendrons are important source of pollen and nectar for spring bombus queens. In late April at Fu'e Mountain near Shaoxing, hundreds of big, fat but stunning B. bicoloratus queens can be spotted visiting Rhododendron pulchrum, starting from 6:30am.

China has the richest bumblebee diversity in the world, here is just a small portion of our 2020 collections. In contrast to their stunning coloration, their biology and threat status have yet to be studied.

iPhone-made short video showing egg laying by queen of Bombus lantschouensis.

Portraits of some bumble bees collected from a sub-alpine meadow of west Beijing. ID entirely based on color patterns so some mis id are expected. Any one help me confirm species name?