Morning! @nhm.org looking lovely before the hordes arrive 🤩

A paper for the #eDNA crowd, in particular those using flies for terrestrial biomonitoring. We show that massive pooling works well, reducing costs + time, bringing us a step closer to scalable terrestrial eDNA biomonitoring. doi.org/10.1002/edn3...

Wonderful to see this, and a hugely deserved honour. Dave was an inspiration to students and an amazing mentor and community builder @rhulbiology.bsky.social He is sorely missed since his retirement (which is also well-deserved!)

Always fun to change up the commute - heading to Kew Gardens for our @royalholloway.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social collaboration committee

Fantastic phenotypic plasticity - flowering blackberries in the last week of October!

Applications for the MEME programme (www.evobio.eu ) are now open! MEME is a research- and mobility-oriented master’s in evolutionary biology (& I’m a proud alumna!), jointly run by the Unis of Groningen, Uppsala, Montpellier, and LMU Munich, with Harvard and Lausanne as partners. Spread the word!

PhD applications are now open @treesdla.bsky.social for 2026 intake. Have a look at a project on effects of forest diversity on floral reward production for pollinators that we advertise with @philstevenson.bsky.social. Do apply/get in touch if you are interested! www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/eff...

🎵 The woods are alive with amazing fungi 🍄‍🟫 #WildWebsWednesday

Lovely footage of some mammals at @royalholloway.bsky.social campus captured by one of @rhulbiology.bsky.social students as part of their final year research project 🦡 🦌 www.linkedin.com/posts/royal-...

Postdoc Opportunity - Interested in plant scaling, quantitative botany, or theoretical plant biology? join our group to explore how plant form, function & scaling principles connect across levels of organization www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons-postdoctoral-fellowships-in-plant-biology🧪🌾🌐

Always nice to have an excuse for a lab lunch off campus - thanks @morganmorrison73.bsky.social

Research assistant + postdoc position on a NERC funded project working w @darrenobbard.bsky.social and collaborating with @savebutterflies.bsky.social on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of the virome of UK moths @uniexecec.bsky.social. Descriptions below and links here benlongdon.com/join/

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Apple robots at work @restpoll.bsky.social

Industrial apple washing @restpoll.bsky.social

Pink Lady apples in smart fresh storage - they can keep for a year in this low oxygen low temperature environment - this is one way we have apples in supermarkets all year round

The Cambridge crew living their best lives and enjoying the @restpoll.bsky.social 🍎 🍏 production tour @camzoology.bsky.social @zoologymuseum.bsky.social @globalfoodcamb.bsky.social

Fascinating to learn about the integration of biodiversity with apple production in Spain as part of the RestPoll Living Labs @restpoll.bsky.social AGM

@romanzug.bsky.social and @socialinsectlab.bsky.social thinking about colony dynamics! Resource variation can mask tradeoffs, but here we show that even if that *doesn't* vary, lucky starts in colony life can lead to better trajectories and if so, a tradeoff is often undetectable despite being real.

“Across land types, urban land comes with the highest #opportunitycosts, followed by arable, pastoral, and forestry land. We envisage this new opportunity cost layer to be particular useful for broad-scale European conservation prioritisation analyses.” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

University of Gothenburg announces a strategic professorship in biodiversity with an interdisciplinary profile academicpositions.com/ad/universit...

3 prof positions open in Helsinki! 🧬Human genetics and genomics (open rank, DL 10.10) 🧬Cellular physiology (TT, DL 17.8) 🏙️ Ecological restoration of urban environments (open rank, DL 17.8) www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/... Come and join us in the happiest country in the world 5 years running!

I think I need to water my office-friend 🌵…

Delighted to see Hannah’s penultimate PhD paper come out today www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Strong evidence against the ‘warmer, sicker world’ hypothesis. Parasites 🪱🦠 and their hosts are just very variable! Another great collaboration with @juliakoricheva.bsky.social @rhulbiology.bsky.social

Valley of the Butterflies in Rhodes is really Valley of the Moths, but a nifty way to get the punters in. There were still enough tiger moths their today, at the end of the season, to give some idea of what a natural spectacle it must be at its peak

This morning’s catch - possibly Distoleon annulatus and a lovely praying mantis

And that's how you integrate digital elements into an exhibition. Part of the temporary "China's Dinosaur World" at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, China. Closing this November. Video source: Shanghai Let's Meet

Dutch solar parks approach pollinator & plant biodiversity levels of extensive grasslands, but only on the surface not covered by panels. Soil-emergent arthropods and butterflies lack behind. Proud of Timea for leading besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @jappliedecology.bsky.social

2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in @uniexecec.bsky.social - Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... - RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... Pls share!

Our Career Development Fellowships are now for applications. This scheme provides talented early career scientists from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM with research funding and training opportunities to build a successful research career: #RSGrants royalsociety.org/grants/caree...

My husband rescued this beautiful ant lion adult from the pool (we’re on holiday in Lardos, Rhodes) - web resources aren’t great, so species ID help much appreciated. Have given it a tree to camouflage against, so hoping it makes it until tonight when it can fly again 🤩

Really enjoying the Mediterranean snakelocks anemones 🤩

A lovely nest of Messor 🐜 getting their day started #AntsAtWork IYKYK

Very cool (pun intended) fanning behaviour by Vespa orientalis nesting in the wall of the medieval Hospital of the Knights of St John in Rhodes #socialinsects @waspwoman.bsky.social

#OnThisDay in 1858, a seminal journal article comprised of papers by Alfred Russel Wallace FRS and Charles Darwin FRS on the theory of evolution by natural selection was published by the Linnean Society, the first public announcement of the theory of evolution. bit.ly/3k8fq4u

Please share — Michigan State Plant Biology is searching for an Herbarium Director! Tenure stream, open rank faculty position balancing research, teaching, service, and admin responsibilities. Join us! Reach out to me or @emjo.bsky.social with questions! plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...

📢We’re recruiting! 🌳Assistant Professor in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation A permanent teaching-focused position in our vibrant, welcoming and intellectually stimulating academic community. Deadline: 7 September. Apply here: bit.ly/3HKtNeZ

Associate Professor position in animal physiology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (to replace me basically). An amazing permanent position at a great university! Please spread widely 🙏 www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Interested in joining the lab? The Killam Postdoctoral Fellowships are designed to bring outstanding scholars from around the world to UBC. I can nominate one person, and help with application materials. More information at www.postdocs.ubc.ca/award/killam... DM if you are interested!

Thank you! And what an honour to be appointed Director of the amazing @zoologymuseum.bsky.social Sad to leave @rhulbiology.bsky.social after a wonderful 16.5 years, but very excited by this new challenge and amazing opportunity. I can’t wait to get started!

The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring! We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.

Assistant Professor position in Traditional Ecological Knowledge at Stanford University. Applications due Sept 30, 2025 facultypositions.stanford.edu/en-us/job/49...

Could swimming pools act as a vast landscape-scale pan-trap network?

I do love a good carpenter bee 🥰

Excited to be in Brussels with @planbee.bsky.social to talk about pollinators 🐝 and pesticides and ways forward for biodiversity

Love a hoopoe

Thoroughly enjoying seeing our garden table becoming a home for a population of leaf-cutter bees 🥰

🦋 Happy #PollinatorWeek from WildPosh! This week is dedicated to pollinator-related education and advocacy, celebrating the important roles that #butterflies, #bees, #moths, and other pollinators play in our ecosystems. 💡 Learn about WildPosh's work supporting wild pollinators: wildposh.eu/about

We're hiring two PhD and two postdoc positions! Interested in pollinators, soils, agroecology, pesticides? Then come and work with us and with collaborators and all over Europe! stanleyecologylab.org/vacancies #findaphd Please share!

A very bad video (it was windy… 🤣) of a shrill carder bumble bee queen foraging - sound on for the shrill buzz! @rhulbiology.bsky.social @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social