On the first day of Christmas (in about 2014), @duckswabber.bsky.social gave to me - a partridge in a pear tree. Happy Christmas everyone!

Most Nature papers are published in Current Biology

Although highly topical, kleptoparasitism does not get nearly the attention it deserves! Here, a plant exploits the kleptoparasitic behavior of a fly that likes to snatch ants killed by spiders. 🕷️🐜🪰🌿 So the thief itself gets taken advantage of. Nice going, plants! www.cell.com/current-biol...

New review on how changes in cell type composition in and outside the brain contribute to the evolution of behavior. 🧪 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lihM,LqAZ...

Corey Allard et al asks how “solar-powered” slugs maintain stolen chloroplasts from their diet for photosynthesis and starvation resistance. @cellpress.bsky.social, @harvardmcb.bsky.social, @harvardmed.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

Happy to see this out now: Olfactory projection neuron rewiring in the brain of an ecological specialist: Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports... In a team effort with @bentonlab.bsky.social 's lab we establish new genetic tools in #drosophila sechellia and compare single central brain neurons.

Now out in #ProcB 🧪 Ancestral complexity and constrained diversification of the ant olfactory system 🐜 Expertly led by Simon Marty and Antoine Couto, funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk and @agencerecherche.bsky.social 🙏🏻 #socialinsects @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @cnrs.fr

A colossal squid — the largest invertebrate in the world — has been photographed alive in its habitat for the first time. And it's just a baby. www.newscientist.com/article/2476...

In our latest paper, we describe how the passing-stripe hunting display of the broadclub cuttlefish camouflages the hunting predator during the final moments of the attack. Read more here www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @drmartinjhow.bsky.social @jtroscianko.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

I know there's a 𝒍𝒐𝒕 going on right now, but I couldn’t be prouder to share this long-incubated labor of love: the complete connectome of the male 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 optic lobe 🧠🪰 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Neural circuits that link genetic variation to #behavior: This study of mate choice behavior in Heliconius cydno #butterflies shows that alterations to the peripheral nervous system, driven by genetic & gene expression differences, can alter essential behaviors 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/4iHQDRd

wild

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🎉 so excited to share my first first-author paper is out in @Nature.com, from my PhD work in the Gallio Lab! we uncover the neurobiological mechanisms that drive the evolution of temperature preference behavior in flies of the genus Drosophila 👇 go.nature.com/4i1VQn9