Meet Chrissie Painting the new ASSAB president! @cpaintingnz.bsky.social is a Senior Lecturer and behavioural ecologist at the University of Waikato. Her research seeks patterns in animal behaviour and morphology, with a particular focus on insect and arachnid mating systems. 🪰🕷️🪳

Interested in Australian scorpions? Apply to come to @flindersuniversity.bsky.social for a PhD with Dr Russell Bicknell, Professor Mike Lee and I: www.flinders.edu.au/scholarships... Project and scholarship fully funded by the ARC. [Amazing photo of Urodacus manicatus by Panduka Amarasekara]

#AES2025 Day2, Jackson Randell discusses the importance of understanding genetic purging and its implications for trapdoor spider conservation 🕷️ @austevolsoc.bsky.social @brunobuzatto.bsky.social @rowanlym.bsky.social @reneecatullo.bsky.social

Following funnel-web spiders — amazing work by Caitlin Creak: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Study initially by @braxtonjones.bsky.social, Danilo Harms and I (funded by NatGeo and AusGeo), taken up by Caitlin with Russell Bonduriansky and Mike Kasumovic. Congrats all, especially Caitlin! :)

My legendary students Incheol Shin and Seb Hayden published a fantastic study on kin recognition and the evolution of lethal fights in bulb mites, well done guys! academic.oup.com/evolut/advan... Media attention here: econews.com.au/67589/meet-t... www.ecovoice.com.au/meet-the-tin...

Last week at CEB, Jackson discussed the conservation and population genomics of south-western Australian trapdoor spiders. Such genomic approach is important for their conservation.🕷️ @reneecatullo.bsky.social @rowanlym.bsky.social @brunobuzatto.bsky.social #LeighSimmons #ConservationGenomics #UWA

It’s 2025, we’ve got to stop barbaric methods of wildlife management, there are far better ways. Some comments from me in this article by @michaeldahlstrom.bsky.social. au.news.yahoo.com/australian-a...

Wanna come work with me? We're advertising a fixed term Lecturer in Animal Behaviour at Waikato. We're especially keen on someone who works on birds, reptiles, bats etc. Let me know if you have questions! www.seek.co.nz/job/83279795...

Amazing work on Fijian bees by Tricia Slattery! :)

Sperm transfer in spiders is complex and sometimes dangerous. Our latest paper is trying to figure out what behavioural and morphological traits affect sperm transfer doi.org/10.1111/1749...

My legendary students independently made a bunch of stickers for the lab with this logo (which they also created; art by Diego Solano-Brenes). I'm so lucky to have this crew — check their projects out here: www.buzatto.info/people Special thanks to Tricia Slattery and Diego!

✨International fieldwork bee/fly Honours degree opportunity✨ I am happy to be able to share an opportunity with myself and a few others at the Uni of Wollongong to undertake an Honours research degree with field work in Fiji! You will get a scholarship on your CV but must be an Australian Citizen 🧵

First paper of 2025 — the Sydney funnel-web spider is actually at least three different species: bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... @flindersuniversity.bsky.social @uni-hamburg.de

📣New paper📣 We estimate the number of extinctions of Australian #invertebrates, plus the ongoing #extinction rate … Both figures are far higher than those currently recognised, pointing to alarming gaps in #conservation of an important area of #biodiversity 🪳🕷️🐌🪰🪲🪱 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...