Out vacationing on the east coast. I saw my first spotted lanternfly almost instantly! I doubt it will be the last!

Our paper on central complex evolution in Heliconiini butterflies is now available as reviewed preprint at @elife.bsky.social 🎉🎉. Please check out the helpful and constructive reviews which we are going to address in the next weeks 🤗 elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre... @ebablab.bsky.social

The RFID-enabled automated bird feeders are coming along!

Happy to announce that @ajblake05.bsky.social’s JEB paper was selected as this month’s Editors Choice article. This article discovered that mosquito color/wavelength preferences shift depending on the odor they experience.

In a survey of nearly 1,400 scientists released this week, 83% said federal government policies since January 20, 2025, had caused an "extremely negative impact" or "irreparable harm" on their field of science.

Throughout this week, I am taking a nostalgic look at school supplies in Canada. When you ask for a duotang elsewhere in the world, you may get some confused looks. But in Canada, most Canadians are going to know exactly what you want. This is Canada's story of duotangs! 🧵 1/5

Opportunity: Arthropod Taxonomic Specialists (10 positions) at the University of Guelph 🪰🐝🪲🕷️🦂

Had to try this out with insects and HOO BOY is this embarrassing.

🚨Our new paper is out NOW in @jexpbiol.bsky.social 👀 Here we show that cuttlefish use visual contrast cues to inform their 3D camouflage, but these contrast cues can derive from true background features as well as exposure to dynamic lighting patterns. 🦑🔆 🔗 doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Details on a fly‘s head, incredible details revealed at high magnification. Usually unexpected… that‘s what i love about macrophotography.

Kyle Bobiwash explains the importance of pollinators AND provides some perspective of integrating Indigenous perspectives into your work. Two questions he asks us to think about when integrating Indigenous perspectives: 1. Why do you want to integrate? and 2. Who have you talked to? /1

In case you have not seen it! New #Aedes genomes for the community.

🫐SFU Biological Sciences is scaling up indoor berry production research with $5M grant from the Weston Family Foundation. Professor Jim Mattsson and his team is advancing sustainable, year-round blueberry, raspberry & blackberry production. Read more on our New page: www.sfu.ca/biology/news...

Among insects, lepidoptera 🦋 show one of the most diverse photoreceptor types 👁, explaining diverse spectral sensitivities including a convergent evolution of red vision. Lu & Kronforst review the lepidopteran eye evolution. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

“…Canada 🇨🇦 continues to lag behind other countries in R&D spending; it spent 1.8% of GDP on research in 2024, placing it sixth in the G7 industrialized nations and well below the 2.7% average among the 38 nations that are members of the OECD.” 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

I am thrilled to present the Mosquito Cell Atlas! We analyzed 367K nuclei from 19 tissues in male & female mosquitoes, creating a comprehensive resource for vector biology & infectious disease research. Plus we made some surprising discoveries! 🦟🧵 biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/n

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...

ICYMI Elucidating nanostructural organization and photonic properties of butterfly wing scales using hyperspectral microscopy: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #JRSocInterface #biotechnology #nanotechnology

Dr Craig Montell reviews the #sensory #arsenal #mosquitoes use to find us. #Olfaction #Vision #Taste #Thermosensation #Infrared @ucsb.bsky.social‬ @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social‬ www.cell.com/trends/paras...

Adaline Bisese, recipient of a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, represented the lab and @vtbiochemistry.bsky.social at the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium yesterday. Stay tuned for exciting results on how mosquitoes choose where to land on our bodies!

We are looking for a Postdoc (up to 5 years) who wants to study neural mechanisms of spatial memory in honeybees. This includes tetrode recordings in behaving honeybees. Application Deadline is 1st of October 2025. More details: www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/services/...

really appreciating the onion as physical media.

Happy Friday! The female adult fly brain-and-nerve-cord (BANC) connectome is now LIVE! Explore the data here: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

My paper "Social media for fisheries science and management professionals: How to use Bluesky and Instagram, and why you should" is formally published in an issue. It's a how-to guide to using Bluesky, the first ever published in the scientific literature! 🧪🦑🌎🐟 academic.oup.com/fisheries/ar...

Look - it's a new preprint! Predatory attacks change bee visual perception and decision-making, making bees better prepared to detect threats. Excellent work by the brilliant Olga Procenko for her (prize-winning) PhD with us! #bees #vision #predation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨New research paper 🧪📄 out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social by @ajblake05.bsky.social and @riffelllab.bsky.social on "Spectral preferences of mosquitos are altered by odors" 🦟🟢 ↘️ doi.org/10.1242/jeb.... ↙️ This article is ✨️highlighted✨️ ↘️ doi.org/10.1242/jeb.... #InsectVision #Olfaction #SensoryIntegration

“New York’s hottest club is The Skeeter Disco. With full spectrum lighting and DRENCHED in body odor, you’ll find yourself asking: ‘how soon can I leave?’”

Our new paper is now out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social!!! We had all sorts of fun generating LED stimuli for mosquitos to investigate their visual preferences in the presence of different odors. The paper is open access and available here: journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

We welcome the 2nd plenary speaker at #ABL2025. 🙌🙌 @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social‬ from @uni-konstanz.de‬ reveals how insect pollinators interpret floral patterns to guide foraging. From hawkmoth vision to neural templates—this talk will bridge behaviour, neuroethology & sensory biology. 🦋🪻

Insects, including fruit flies and butterflies, have memories and can learn. Wasps recognize nestmastes' face patterns.

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? A majority of the world’s insect species have no living expert who can identify them.

Hardly any #insects can see the colour red. However, two #beetle species from the family #Glaphyridae from the Mediterranean region are an exception, as an international research team shows @jexpbiol.bsky.social ➡️ www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-...

Hello from the Biology Department! Follow us for news, research highlights and a peek into the life sciences✨🌱

Join us!! 🧪 #academicSky #PhDsky

Congratulations to @sfubiosciences.bsky.social Dean's Convocation Medal recipient Brett Hodinka. Thesis Title: Inactivity, adaptive mass regulation, and the physiological basis of costs of reproduction ow.ly/lWqx50W5PNw #MySFUGrad

The exteriors of spider eyes are part of the exoskeleton, so can't move. But in jumping spiders, the internal parts of the large central eyes have muscles that can swivel and twist to help the spider aim its eyes from inside the head. This is a 4-frame.gif showing that internal movement. 🌿🐙🕷️👀

Head of a small chalcid wasp at scale of 50:1. On the left you can see part of the compound eye, on the right an ocelle and at the bottom right part of the antenna.

We interrupt your doomscrolling for a brief rant about scientific journal publishers apparently still not realizing that lots people share scientific journal articles online. Please enjoy "why do so many scientific journal articles still display weird when shared on social media? 🧪

🦟 Cette semaine, découvrez les ornementations uniques de Culex tritaeniorhynchus Giles, 1901 ⬇️! Voir les détails et la distribution sur le GBIF🌱: https://www.gbif.org/species/1653127 . Fascinante diversité des #moustiques ! Photos de @nil-rahola.bsky.social #Entomologie #Biodiversité

A new article published in #RESMedVetEnt shows morin hydrate reduces survival and fertility, delays development and weakens lipid reserves in #AedesAegypti 🦟 Read the #OpenAccess article now🔽 doi.org/10.1111/mve.12805 @wiley.com

New paper out by my talented former student Limarie (now Dr. Reyes-Torres) on how nutrient vary and may influence Aedes aegypti across urban-rural gradients in Puerto Rico. 🧪🦟🇵🇷 academic.oup.com/jme/advance-...

Further: It takes more than money to support *meaningful* research. Good research is a community effort – communities of scholars working with and in the communities where they live. Helicoptering in a few big-money, high-flier Americans to "quietly cure ass cancer" is not working in community.

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs. Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng Custom Lab Hardware Turn Key Genetic Design Please repost for reach 💚

The average Canadian has 3 friends

Is anyone here a wildlife rehabilitator who knows about songbirds? Or do you know someone who is? I'm working on a revamped version of a chart I made that helps people figure out what to do if they find a baby bird, and I want to make sure my advice is up to date.

Every Canadian has only three friends

Every Canadian has only three friends

We are hosting a day of science and invite you to join us! Families and science enthusiasts of all ages are welcome. UW Biology Open House UW Life Sciences Building Saturday, May 17, 2025 10 AM to 2 PM For more information, visit this link: tinyurl.com/UWBioOpenHou...

Cevapi is maaaaagic: youtu.be/PLVfJ8EjlXg

Cluster fly, Artic fly, Pollenia sp. Since they sometimes hibernate in large numbers in or on buildings, some of these flies can be observed early in the year. Here, too, a closer look reveals a masterpiece of nature.