Very happy to see our new study on the evolution of eusociality come out in Evolution Letters! Our study is the first to experimentally manipulate the proportion of females that stay and help to simulate incipient sociality & assess fitness impact of helping. 🧵

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of listening to Dorothy Bishop emphasize the responsibility of editors during the 12th PCI Webinar! If you weren't able to join, you can catch her talk and the following Q&A session at this link: youtu.be/0NJ87tYE8_s

🦗 New paper in Animal Behaviour! We tested if family life shields earwig juveniles from cadmium… spoiler: it doesn’t! 😅 But social interactions still shaped many juvenile traits. Fourth paper from @r-honorio.bsky.social's ATER project at @irbi-tours.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📢NEW PAPER OUT! We investigated the short-term impact of exposure to field-realistic doses of phthalates DnBP and DEHP on the survival of Bombus terrestris workers 🐝 Find our work here: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Interested in doing a postdoc in behavioral #ecotoxicology? I have a 12-months fully-funded position to work on the effects of pesticide exposure on generalist arthropod predators. More details here: rroyaute.github.io/blog/2025/po...

Excited to share our new paper led by Jake Martin (@jake-m-martin.bsky.social) out in ES&T Letters! We show that behavioral ecotox studies often test pharmaceuticals at concentrations much higher than those found in nature! Paper: tinyurl.com/lab-to-field Data/code: osf.io/h6cde/

[RDV 16h !] On vous retrouve tout à l'heure ? On vous a préparé une émission sur l'apparition de la socialité au cours de l'évolution. Pas mal non ? 🦘🐒🐇🐀🐜 tinyurl.com/2b32abzg avec Serge Aron et Juliette Berger #ScienceCQFD

How is this possible? This ant can lay eggs of two different species, birthed by the same mother

The Path

🪲 Stage M2 – Évolution de la vie de famille chez les insectes IRBI (Université de Tours / CNRS) | Janv. 2026 La vie de famille est partout dans la nature… mais comment et pourquoi est-elle apparue ? Viens étudier cette question fascinante avec nous! Info 👉 joelmeunier.wixsite.com/researchpage...

📌North-West European IUSSI Winter Meeting 2025 We are happy to announce that our next meeting on the 18–19 December 2025 will be in Leuven, Belgium, hosted by @twenseleers.bsky.social and his team. Plenary speakers: Ido Pen & Rahia Mashoodh @rmash.bsky.social More details to follow 🐝🐜🪳🪲

Earwigs

It's interesting how this article, which is supposed to feature our recent paper, is wrong in every respect, from the IA-generated illustration to the (probably) IA-generated content. Too bad 😞

Exposure to PTFE (teflon), a commonly used microplastic in non-stick cookware, significantly reduces sperm quality in both humans and mice. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The 2025-26 Eco-Evo job list is out. Good luck to those applying! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

"I found 282 earwigs in a single night in 1996. In 2024, only 31 adults were trapped in that entire year." #insects theconversation.com/my-daily-sur...

Back from Brittany, with its magnificent landscapes. The battery is recharged for what promises to be a very busy scientific year!

“Scientists have discovered a giant new species of stick insect in Australia, which is over 15 inches long and researchers say may be the heaviest insect in the country.” Via ABC News

Fascinating read on sibling cooperation during family life in burying beetles. Congrats to @steigerlab.bsky.social and Paul for this excellent piece of work

Comparative study reports that sex differences in dispersal predict sex differences in cooperation across cooperative birds and mammals. Dispersal likely impacts sex-specific direct benefits or costs of cooperation: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... Fenner et al. @andyyoung.bsky.social

🪲 Join our Insect Parental Care symposium at #ECE2026Tours (29 Jun–2 Jul, France)! Explore parenting diversity, evo-eco roles & molecular bases. Let’s build a global community — maybe even a future conference! Info 👉 www.ece2026.org #Entomology #InsectBehaviour

Do you have expertise in Animal Behavior & in Editorial work? Open position below👇🏼

I had the good fortune to stumble upon a wheel #bug nymph that was stalking an #earwig, with predictable results! #Predation #Reduviidae #Dermaptera

Today brought both joy and disappointment. I’m deeply honoured to have been elected to the board of the Comité National de la Recherche Scientifique (CoNRS), in the new section 31! At the same time, I found out that my ANR project wasn’t funded. The academic rollercoaster never stops. 🫤

🚨 New paper out in Ecotoxicology! Can a common weed killer harm helpful insects like earwigs? We exposed them to glyphosate and found no major effects on maternal care, development, or immunity. Surprisingly resilient! @cnrsecologie.bsky.social 🔗 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Quels sont les engagements de nos candidates et candidats SNCS-FSU et @snesupfsu.bsky.social 📋 Votez et faites voter pour les candidates et candidats SNCS-FSU et SNESUP-FSU aux élections des sections du Comité National du #CNRS 👇 sncs.fr/2025/05/20/l... #ESR #VeilleESR #science

Save the date: We organise the next European Congress of Entomology from June 29 to July 3 2026 in Tours, France. More than 50 symposiums on almost all aspects of insects, including parental care !! @irbi-tours.bsky.social 📅 Registration opens 10 July 2025 🔗 Stay tuned at www.ece2026.org

And ask do you need to spend research funds on APCs?. There are many other free ways of getting your work into the public domain. Even better don’t participate in this in anyway. And complain to your research director. Funders should not be tolerating this sort of publishing behaviour.

Today, a lot of earwig research was presented at the French-speaking section of the #IUSSI in Paris. Special rounds of applause to Laura Pasquier and Simon de Wever for their excellent presentations on their PhD projects.

Léo Korst finished his master's project in my group this week. Much to my surprise, he gave me a wonderful painting of an earwig. He is clearly talented in both science and art! Thank you so much Léo!

New paper out: "Alternative reproductive strategies in two cryptic species of the European earwig complex" rdcu.be/eqfpM F. dentata invests before egg-laying, F. auricularia after. Same egg number, different trade-offs -> hidden paths to reproductive success. @irbi-tours.bsky.social

My villain week continues. This earwig‘s name is Uriah. About eight years ago one of these bastards pinched me on my tongue. Remember, kids, always check your straws #earwig #pincherbug #entomology #insect

#NextGenSci asked young scientists to write a rule that all principal investigators should be required to follow to improve the experience of young scientists in their lab. Check out their answers on #NationalHigherEducationDay: scim.ag/45zsFEr

Planning to apply for #research #funding from the ERC? From the next application rounds, expect changes to the: • proposal structure • evaluation process • extra funding you can request • eligibility for Starting & Consolidator #Grants (from 2027) More 👇 europa.eu/!RPHWvv

#EarwigFunFact 25 — In some orchards, earwigs are pests; in others, they’re valued as natural allies. So scientists tried moving them between orchards … with mixed success so far! 🪳🌍🧪 More info 👉 www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/14...

Tool use in insects: Assassin bugs apply resin to their forelegs before a stingless bee hunt. This makes the bees attack the bug in just the right position to be caught! Videos will worth watching www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

An interesting read, nicely illustrating how our community is split on the question of AI use to write or review papers. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

It was a real pleasure to talk about our recent data on the earwig microbiota at the REID meeting in Lyon, France.🐛🐜🐞🦠🔬🧪 Lots of interesting talks, many old friends, and a fantastic opportunity to meet a very promising generation of new scientists!

🚨 Save the date! 🚨 Symposium on "INSECT PARENTAL CARE" at the next European Congress of Entomology #ECE2026 (29 June–2 July, Tours 🇫🇷) 🐞🪲🪰 Our goal? To lay the foundation for a recurring meeting on this fascinating topic. Interested? Feel free to reach out—and stay tuned for more! 👀

Special Issue 🦋 A glimpse into a little-known world: Organisms associated with social arthropods Deadline for submission: 31 March 2026 link.springer.com/journal/40/u...

#EarwigFunFact 24 — Earwig mothers have a reputation for being devoted, but they’re also selective: they invest more care in high-quality offspring than in weaker ones. Tough love in the insect world! 🧪 ❤️ More info 👉 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Earwigs have the coolest wings of any animal and you’ll never change my mind. I mean, just look at this gal! 📸 FUMIHIKO HIRAI

Dreaming of a postdoc adventure with earwigs? ✨ Dive into insect behavior, parental care, social immunity, population genomics, microbiota, ecotoxicology, and many other exciting topics! Got a crazy or just a vague idea for a postdoc project: Let's chat and make it happen! 🌟 #Postdoc #Europe #earwig

New paper: “The clonality window: relatedness and the group covariance effect in the evolution of division of labour”, with @kztwyman.bsky.social #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/evol... @journal-evo.bsky.social #Image: #ChatGPT #Evolution #OA

If you're a new PI within 5 years of your first faculty position, here are two fantastic grants to help develop your research: the Kickstart Travel Grant and ECR Visiting Fellowships Find out more at biologists.com/grants/#jeb The next application deadline is 6 June Please repost

Thrilled to see our special issue of "Insectes Sociaux" out, showcasing the amazing diversity of social lives in insects (including earwigs, of course)! 🧪 Edited with J. Quezada-Euan and @richardsmiriam1.bsky.social Check out the editorial here 👉 doi.org/10.1007/s000...

#EarwigFunFact 22 - European earwigs pack a stinky surprise with their defensive spray! Harmless but smelly, and watch out - it can leave a dark stain on your fingers if you handle too many (>100). This stain will take several days to disappear! 🌈👃🧪

Do you have hours of videos📹with animals? Speed up your watching by using BEHAVE - a user-friendly, open-source, free, zero-install tool for coding animal behaviour in video recordings! Try BEHAVE here: behave.claude-apps.com Read more: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Yes, that's exactly what I do, and it works every time. We're only blocked by paywalls because we decide to be. #openscience