Dr Simon Leather
Born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, in 1955, Simon spent his first ten years in Ghana and Jamaica (where his father was working as a plant pathologist for the Colonial Service), followed by three years in Hong Kong, before returning to Yorkshire to attend Ripon Grammar School. He studied agricultural zoology at Leeds University, and then earned a PhD for research on aphid ecology at the University of East Anglia. After two post-doctorate appointments (pest investigations in Helsinki, Finland, and cereal aphid studies back in the University of East Anglia), he spent a decade conducting research in the Entomology Branch of the Forestry Commission at Roslin, Scotland. He moved to Imperial College at Silwood Park in 1992, where he is now Reader in Applied Ecology and Director of Postgraduate Studies. He has been an editor of various RES publications for 18 years and is currently the Editor of the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity. His research interests centre on problems in applied ecology across a wide range of insect pests of temperate and tropical agricultural and forestry crops.
Good evening Simon
you should have been with me searching for garden chafer eggs in turf on a very large farm in the Fens. On a day such as this there was no better place to be!
Bye for now
Alan the entomologist
Thanks Alan
nice to know that you were outside enjoying yourself!
Hi Simon,
Your recent comment about having “lost will to live messing about with JeS system” made me laugh so hard I almost spilled my afternoon coffee!
Bravo, and good luck with the rest of the BBRSC proposal.
Cheers,
Sam
I wanted to leap to the defence of ladybird larvae which you state “are not very bright” but…I have to agree – mostly. Seven-spot ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata) are particularly bumbly in my mind but if you haven’t watched a harlequin ladybird larva foraging then it is certainly worth it – far more exciting than the World Cup!!!
Helen
I have some bad news for you Simon – we have recent evidence, from the UK Ladybird Survey, that orange ladybirds will eat aphids in addition to mildew! Not often but your aphids aren’t entirely safe when there’s an orange ladybird lurking! We have a great photo on the survey site:
http://www.ladybird-survey.org
The larvae are exquisite.
Helen
Oh no, – what a disaster, and I thought they were so cute! I too think that the larvae are very striking.
Simon