Here are just a few of the many fish I painted this year (not to scale). It's fun to stick a bunch of them together into a collage and see some of the incredible diversity of body shape and color patterns. Merry Fishmas! 🐡🐟🐠

We are thrilled to announce the first official release (v0.1.8) of #𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗿, the successor to one of our flagship tool, #𝗯𝗲𝗱𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀! Based on ideas we conceived of long ago (!), this was achieved thanks to the dedication of Brent Pedersen. 1/n

🚨RA/PhD position available in evolutionary neurobiology 🚨 Working on a deep dive into circuit changes during mushroom body expansion in Heliconius butterflies @camzoology.bsky.social - employment benefits - 4 years funding - 1000% fun Deadline: 14/1/2026 Details: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

🚨New paper! 🚨 @jasminealqassar.bsky.social led this work on the silk glands of the pantry moth. These two long tubes inside the caterpillar continuously make a ton of silk How does this special organ work? www.cell.com/iscience/ful... @cp-iscience.bsky.social 🧵THREAD🧵

Beautiful work, as always

Hey Lep researchers! "Given the risks of transgene remobilization and instability associated with piggyBac transposases of lepidopteran origin, we urge researchers interested in developing transgenesis in moths or butterflies to consider using Minos-based tools."

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Interested in doing a PhD in how extinction processes can inform conservation? Do you see yourself working at the intersection of genomics, museums, conservation and butterfly biology. If so consider applying for the ILESLA PhD programme at Oxford Brookes: www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/rese...

Check out the recent publication in Annual Reviews of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics where the authors explore genomic species delimitation in depth. You'll see a number of #sciart figures I created to help explain some of the concepts! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity! We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have: (1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs) (2) better hand dexterity (3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵

Really like this paper, led by @ficusorganensis.bsky.social, the supplementary videos aren’t up yet but will post them when I’m back in the office!

Latest work out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social We find the fly development gene bicoid is much older than previously thought (~20 million yrs older!) 🪰🧬 To pinpoint its origins we tackled the Diptera phylogeny, providing some resolution (many open questions remain). 🔗 tinyurl.com/2vyuevpy

Evolutionary geneticists: I need your help! Can you think of examples of recurrent introgression of different alleles at the same locus into a single recipient population/species? ie Allele A is introduced to taxon 1 from taxon 2, then allele A’ is introduced to taxon 1 from taxon 2

I'm recruiting graduate students! If you're interested in the genetics and physiology of seasonal plasticity in butterflies and moths, feel free to reach out! I'm looking for one or two students for the fall of 2026. Also check out my website: www.vanderburglab.com

This only happens to you once

🌍🦋 Across 6 continents, 21 sites & 15,000 paper moths, we joined a worldwide experiment led by @wlallen.bsky.social & Iliana Medina, showing how ecological context shapes the evolution of animal colouration. Proud to be part of this global team effort: doi.org/10.1126/scie...

up-to-date Youtube link here youtu.be/Kunvn2GDq8o?...

Only single cell sequencing of the all these post docs will reveal why

Hey ecologists and evolutionary biologists! Is this you? ➡️ "This concept is way too complicated to show in a way reviewers and readers will understand" Ask for help! Life Science Studios is here to create engaging figures that clearly explain your research. 🧪 #academicsky #evolutionarybiology

I'm looking for PhD students to join the lab starting August 2026. We study the evolution of insect chemical signals so if you're interested in evolutionary biology, chemical ecology, molecular biology, behavior, or genetics, this could be a good fit for you! More info here: tinyurl.com/mrxchwfm

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

miRNA biology folks, this is about the craziest endeavor to assign the phenotypically critical targets of a miRNA (13-way mutant). while it only gets you part of the way, this is truly a heroic genetic experiment. and also scary, no way i can see us doing it ... kudos to @lcochella.bsky.social lab!

Excited to advertise a shared PhD position at KU Leuven (Belgium) and Mondsee (Austria) with @markusmoest.bsky.social on the genetic basis, plasticity and evolution of melanization in Daphnia from alpine lakes. Apply here: www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...

So very excited for the magnum opus of my #PhD to finally be out in @pnas.org. 🎉🎉 We demosntrate that mutualistic co-mimicking tropical butterflies not only converge in light microhabitat but, as a consequence, have also converged in visual system morphology! 1/n😀 www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Preprint alert from the lab @jasminealqassar.bsky.social led this elegant study of gene expression in the silk glands of our favorite alternative "silk worm", the pantry moth. Mega-polyploid cells with thousands of genome copies just to express a handful of proteins doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Transgenic Plodia larvae expressing the very bright mBaoJin (mStayGold variant) in its silk glands. Also some gorgeous 3xP3:mCherry staining of larval ocelli and glia. (see revised preprint) by pantry moth wizards @donyaniyaz.bsky.social & @lucalivraghi.bsky.social doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Our study on a male-essential microRNA and the evolution of other dosage compensation mechanisms in birds is now out in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 Super exited to see our paper on the inheritance and genetic basis of guppy color variation come out in @natecoevo.nature.com‬ rdcu.be/eugWV Guppy males have enormous variation in color patterns, with many combinations of ornamental spots and stripes. But where does all this variation come from?

Very excited about this paper led by Erika Castro. She has shown that Heliconius were ancestrally plastic in how they acquired their cyanogens, but some species have lost the ability to biosynthesise toxins, and have lost genes involved www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨Postdoc opportunity🚨: LepEU postdoc: comparative population genomics of European scale adaptation in butterflies 2 year, full-time PD in my group, Stockholm Univ. Applications assed on rolling basis, deadline: 23 August 2025. Planned start 1 Oct. Details: christopherwheatlab.wordpress.com

A truly colossal amount of work my Ling and co!! Congrats all!

Wiring the sexes: @evolvwing.bsky.social &co use CRISPR knockouts & single-nucleus transcriptomics to decipher the regulatory logic of #SexualDimorphism in sulphur #butterflies, where males display bright UV colors thanks to specialized iridescent scales @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/445Iz7d

🚨Anyone want a job?🚨 We have two #postdocs up for grabs! 🧪 - cell developmental biology/#evodevo/#neuroevodevo - bioinformatics and molecular biology Both working on brain evolution in Heliconiini butterflies Details below! Please repost 🙏 1/n

While helping out on a cool genomics project recently, I came to realise I’d been taught a pretty big inaccuracy about the events that occur at fertilization. I suspect that almost everyone reading this has the same misapprehension, so let’s do some learning together: 1/

Great opportunity in a very successful lab, lots of data behind the project and lots of cool stuff to follow up on! 🧪

Now published!!!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A ridiculous amount of very careful work by @jahemker.bsky.social and coauthors gave a clear answer - one needs ultra-long and not just long reads to call SVs correctly in Drosophila. Now we are ready to quantify evolutionary impact of Drosophila SVs. Let us know what you think!

Really excited that our DFG grant on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size variation in *Heliconius* has been funded :) In the next weeks, I will post an advert for a PhD, but if you know of good students, please suggest they get in touch. Please repost.

Hot off the presses and so so thrilled. Thanks to @inaturalist.bsky.social + computer vision we found something beautifully simple: Red and orange flowers bloom later than all the other colors in the eastern United States. Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kwzh3QW8S...

Here are the original butterfly paintings that were used for the intro of the video! I made these using watercolors, and it was really fun getting all the little details down. #sciart #scienceillustration #🧪

I love the video, @lucalivraghi.bsky.social! Such a cool study, and it’s a fun way to use the #sciart paintings.

WOW!!! A deep dive into the evolution of butterfly wing patterns, consistent with a model in which hybridization introduces novel regulatory polymorphisms in a key transcription factor 🧪 and a remarkable video primer

What a wonderful way to explain science, beautiful

Awesome new paper by @lucalivraghi.bsky.social et al. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... in @currentbiology.bsky.social on the evo-devo of a butterfly color variation enjoy the show!

Preprint! Minos-mediated transgenesis in the pantry moth www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... By @donyaniyaz.bsky.social

The Lepidoptera Genomics meeting July6-12 in Crete is going to be amazing and they extended the abstract deadline. I wish I could go (most of the team is going) events.gwdg.de/event/880/

Exciting cluster hire of post-docs and PhD students at U Puerto Rico, on Butterfly Functional Genomics and more. Spread widely evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

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

Lepidopteran scale cells derive from sensory organ precursors through a canonical lineage Read this #OpenAccess Research Article by Ling Loh, Joseph Hanly @hanliconius.bsky.social and colleagues: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Thrilled to share that this paper is out now in Development! journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...