I am hiring a postdoc for scRNA-seq research in Lund, Sweden on the visual systems of non-model inverts as part of an ERC project on the evolution and ecology of advanced color and polarization vision. Apply here or share the link with someone who may be interested! 🧪

lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Are Toxic Butterflies More Easily Detected by Human ‘Predators’? Aposematic signals are often thought to be conspicuous and stable across environments. Yet, butterflies can have distinct colours on their dorsal and ventral sides which contradict this prediction. W...

Using an online game with human 'predators' we test if toxic butterflies are more conspicuous: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Any Bristol folks keen to learn more about the spiders we share our city with, or with curious little ones, please come along to the Bristol Spider Group's spider hunt later this month 🕷️🤸‍♂️🕸️ @britishspiders.bsky.social

GREAT PhD opportunity at La Trobe University in Melbourne: domestic Australian student only.

Deep-red vision and infrared sensing in jewel beetles. Field and lab studies, inc. electorphys, microscopy, behavioural assays. Team led by Dr Amanda Franklin.

PM me for more info!

Zebra finches in Australia; one of the study organisms for the PhD

Dwarf mongoose staring at a camera in South Africa; one of the PhD study organisms

📢Fully-funded #PhD opportunity with us

❓Quantifying animal #movement patterns & behavioural #interactions in a changing world

👥Joint position in @bristolbiosci.bsky.social & #MacquarieUniversity

📆19th April deadline
tinyurl.com/343acaev
#maths #modelling #data #fieldwork #Australia

🙏PLEASE SHARE

So excited to have received an #HFSPResearchGrant to study trilobite eyes with Luke Parry @oxuniearthsci.bsky.social and Gil Ju Lee (Pusan National University)!🥳

I'll be recruiting a postdoc @bristolbiosci.bsky.social - if 3D data, optical modelling, and fossils tickle your interest, stay tuned!

Have you ever asked yourself, how insect brains represent places? And whether insects do have place cells? Then move to Germany this summer and start your PhD in my lab. We conduct tetrode recordings from bumblebees that freely forage laboratory mazes. 🧠🐝#BeeSpace @erc.europa.eu @neuroethology.org

Excited to share my first PhD preprint! w/ Sören Kannegieser and @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social @insect-vision.bsky.social

We investigated how hawkmoths coordinate lateralized sensory and motor control for appendage guidance, revealing similar control principles to vertebrates doi.org/10.64898/202...

Come to Hamburg and do a PhD on insect/spider traits with me!

Rank Prize Stimulating and celebrating the brightest minds in nutrition and optoelectronics

Are you finishing your undergraduate degree next year?
Are you interested in animal eyes, and would you like to gain some paid research experience this summer @bristolbiosci.bsky.social?

If so, get in touch! @rankprize.bsky.social funds 8-week studentships 👇
www.rankprize.org/grants/under...

🚨New paper out in #JCP-A @springernature.com " #Electrosensitivity in #planthoppers (Insecta: Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Fulgoromorpha)" by Bräunig, Hoch and Baumgartner ↘️ doi.org/10.1007/s003... ↙️ #SensoryPits #Electropysiology #ElectricFields

This is such an important, rigorous, and beautiful paper by Rochelle - light pollution impacts both the "normal" visual cues of detecting sunset to trigger activity AND the polarised visual cues of the sky used for navigation...in two completely different animal species! 🦋🕷️🌌 Such amazing work!

You and this paper are incredible!!

True Facts: Electric Nematodes and Flying Spiders YouTube video by Ze Frank

I must admit that it's a bit surreal to hear @zefrank.bsky.social talk about my research, so fun! www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxSr...

Very happy to see our opinion article out in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social today. 🥳 We ask whether sexual signals can influence the evolutionary trajectory of naturally selected adaptations, such as protective colouration, for better or for worse 🧐 1/n
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Come and work with us in our new home @bristolbiosci.bsky.social ! This fully funded PhD opportunity is open to anyone interested in spiders/eyes/light pollution/evolution/development! 🕷️👀

⏰Deadline 15th December, online info event TODAY @2pm! Link in the PhD advert👉 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

We performed an experiment with two spider species, one web building and one cursorial species. Juveniles experienced vibrations or visual input or both or no stimuli. Their brain areas did not differ significantly. However, siblings reacted in a similar way.

Spiders that experience vibrations, visual stimuli, both or none during development do not differ strongly in the size of their brain areas. This is a surprising finding. Even more surprising is that siblings react alike. See our new publication in the J. comp. Neurology.
doi.org/10.1002/cne....
🧪🕷

Yes for sure! I would love that. And I hope I'll be there in Vancouver!

Incredible news!! So happy for you Jay

Oh that's lovely to hear! Thank you so much

Yes! It's Poppea capricornis! :)

3D model of a single chiton valve (Schizochiton jousseaumei), showing shell eye lenses coloured by their volume, which shows an increasing gradient towards the lateral edge.

Happy to see this lovely study led by @sigwartae.bsky.social and Leonie Georg @oceanspecies.bsky.social out! 🎉Although chitons are a classic example of distributed visual systems, the shell eyes aren't uniform across the body - the lenses increase in volume as new eyes are added at the shell edge!

Thanks so much!

✊🐛

Caterpillars are great for neuroethology research, and they also stand to benefit from being studied in this way! It was a pleasure to write this with friends Callum McLellan (@bristolbiosci.bsky.social), @rochellemeah.bsky.social, @benitoexplains.bsky.social and @laurensr.bsky.social 👀👂⚡🧪🔥🌎〰️

The sensory ecology of caterpillars - Journal of Comparative Physiology A Caterpillars (larval Lepidoptera) are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily significant taxa on Earth. As both feeders and food, they shape the dynamics of enumerate ecosystems on land. Key ...

Do you work (/want to work) with caterpillars? Or sensory systems? Or BOTH?! Well good golly do we have the paper for you! We explain the senses that caterpillars have, what they use them for, and how anthropogenic sensory pollution might be messing it all up 🐛 doi.org/10.1007/s003...

You're welcome :) I love them too!!

Planthopper nymph!

Perception of aerodynamical looming stimuli Clémençon et al. show that predator size and velocity are two key parameters for the perception of the aerodynamical signature of approaching predators (aerodynamical looming stimuli). They report tha...

How do animals recognise incoming stimuli as predators? In this paper from the Casas' lab, they tested aerodynamical looming, and they show that size and velocity of the incoming object activated wind-sensitive neurons in 🦗. These responses are similar to visual looming! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Very cool paper