Increasing temperature reduces decision accuracy by shifting speed–accuracy trade-offs in slower individuals Abstract. Cognitive responses are linked to consistent individual behavioural variation, but the potential impact of warming on this relationship remains u

Excited to share our new paper @royalsocietypublishing.org This one took what felt like endless maze trials.

We found that even modest warming (~1°C) changed an ectotherm's behaviour such that it affected cognitive performance. Speeding them up and reducing decision accuracy.

Interested? Click here for more info!
Submission deadline is December 7th 2026!

Writing on parental care and reproductive strategies? Submit to our collection! We invite studies on the diversity, function and costs of parental care; the evolution of reproductive and mating strategies; the roles of sexual selection and conflict; and the factors that drive variation in parenting.

New study out with @steigerlab.bsky.social! We investigated male care in a biparentally caring 🪲. Why does male contribution vary so much? Turns out there are repeatable individual differences, and how much the female does only affects some male care behaviors.

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Excellent initiative!

Replication studies: a win-win for early-career training and behavioral ecology Replicating previous research builds confidence that results are real and meaningful. But close replications are rare due to limitations in resources and d

How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications.

My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/

academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

Really cool stuff, congrats to Erika, Sylvia and team!

Sick baby ants sacrifice themselves to save their colony New research shows ill pupae emit a chemical signal before ever leaving their cocoons.

A cool story about sacrifice and social immunity in ants.

Hmm. Preparing to post about a group member's nice new paper on the evolution of cooperation (out in a couple of days time), I feel regret we did not include the presence of Batman in any of the model versions.

Parental care liberates juvenile growth: a common-garden test of the evolutionary benefits of care Abstract. Effects on juvenile growth have long been considered an important benefit of parental care, but they have rarely been tested empirically. Protect

After some years in the making, I’m happy to share our new paper on the benefits of care. By breeding 17 carrion beetle species, we show that parental protection and feeding both promote faster offspring growth. Thanks to Anne, Madlen, and all the fantastic coauthors academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

🌿 This Thursday:

Prof. Wilfert (Uni Regensburg), explores how global change impacts pollinators and their health — from land use to climate effects. 🐝

www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/bayceer/en/a...

@steigerlab.bsky.social
@max-evolbio.bsky.social
@uniregensburg.bsky.social
#Pollinators #Ecology

Almost back home from the fantastic ecological immunity workshop. Good times, super grateful to Sophie, Jens et al for organizing - already looking forward to the next one! So much fun and science and good conversations in just a few days. Cheers guys!

Very proud and happy with @leo-theo.bsky.social and his poster presentation at the Ecological Immunity Workshop 2025 :) Excellent work Leon!

The EAE group really enjoyed #DZG2025 in Berlin — great talks, inspiring discussions, and lots of fun!

Was so nice to present our research and @unibayreuth.bsky.social at this DZG meeting! Glad to be talking about parental care and how it interacts with offspring immunity 🎉
Expect our upcoming paper that deals with this cool topic!🪲 @max-evolbio.bsky.social and I had a blast working on it
#DZG2025

Kinship as a double-edged sword: relatedness among burying beetle larvae enhances growth but increases mortality | Biology Letters Theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that relatedness can have complex effects on social life. While high relatedness may promote sibling cooperation and altruism through indirect fitness ...

New study on the effect of relatedness on larval cooperation in burying beetles: sibs boost growth, strangers boost survival. doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
Congrats to Paul Huber and Daniel Wittmann!

Good times! :)

Read the current issue of @jevbio.bsky.social here: academic.oup.com/jeb/issue

📸 Heiko Bellmann
Adult #Nicrophorus vespilloides #beetle in the act of feeding its
offspring atop a vertebrate carcass the beetles have monopolised.

... And it's off to the second conference in a row, this time at the Werbellinsee! Really looking forward to lots of immunity at the EIW 2025! Big thanks to Sophie Armitage, Jens Rolff, and everyone else organizing!

AI Abuse to Skirt Copyright Law - Macro Photography by Nicky Bay In the past week, a number of prominent nature photographers showed how their photographs were being stolen and mangled into "AI-nonsense", deceiving countless others into believing the made-up storie...

www.nickybay.com/ai-abuse-to-...
AI abuse on macrophotography and AI generation of incorrect captions. Here are examples compiled by wildlife photographer Nicky Bay.

Not usually into biomechanics but this was one of my favorite talks this #DZG2025 ! Great stuff - e.g. @wolffspider.bsky.social demonstrating how silk can be more flexible and stronger at the same time in certain configurations.

Amazing talk by Daniela @roesslerdaniela.bsky.social on spider sleep and possible adaptive values of rem sleep stages. Never knew spiders have sleep phases that eerily look like dream states. Traumhaft!! I wonder how many other creatures feature this behavior... Or how many don't!

Great start to day 2 of #DZG2025 with babbling bats and Mirjam Knörnschild of @mfnberlin.bsky.social!

And #DZG2025 is officially open!

Great opening event at the @mfnberlin.bsky.social - what a stunning venue! We are looking forward to a great conference!

Great session & great talks! Thanks for bearing with me while going slightly over.

Excellent talk Leon 👏

See you in a jiffy :)

After many attempts to get Beauveria fungi to actually harm and infect Nicrophorus beetles in order to test the beetle's social immunity mettle against such a threat we found that I was probably barking up the wrong tree. Check out Leon's paper to find out why!

Surviving in the fast lane: no increased mortality, but faster growth for pathogen-exposed larvae of a family-living beetle Abstract. Animal taxa exhibiting post-hatching care can be found throughout the animal kingdom. During this period, parents aggregate with their offspring

Through social immunity burying beetles protect their kids from diseases on their carcass. Can this protection ward off an insect pathogen? Researchers @steigerlab.bsky.social find out!

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

@leo-theo.bsky.social @max-evolbio.bsky.social

🔬 Last week at the BayCEER Colloquium, Dr. Maximilian Körner gave us a fascinating glimpse into the social lives of Nicrophorus #beetles 🪲

A fascinating and insightful talk that sparked great discussions!
@max-evolbio.bsky.social

Are you ready for the next talk?🌿

#SocialEvolution #Ecology