Grafik aus dem Untersuchungsgebiet Rottenburg am Neckar zum Nachtfalter-Monitoring Baden-Württemberg (1970–2020) mit Vergleich zweier Zeiträume: 1971–2000 und 2001–2020. Oben Abbildungen von hier heimischen Nachtfaltern, viele früher nachgewiesene Arten fehlen heute. Darunter ein Foto eines artenreichen, steilen Magerrasens mit Felsen. Hervorgehoben wird: hohe Verluste in Magerrasen- und Felsbiotopen.

In Baden-Württemberg sind nährstoffarme Offenland-Biotope landesweit rückläufig. Der Zustand der verbliebenen Flächen ist oft negativ.

Die hier lebenden Nachtfalter sind an die lokalen Gegebenheiten oft seit Jahrtausenden genetisch angepasst, ihr Verlust ist unwiederbringlich!

#Insektensterben

Absolutely stunning shot! For me the beewolfs are famous because Niko Tinbergen studied this species showed about 100 years ago that they use visual memories to return to their nest.

Lady Killer!
Beewolf wasp carrying a honey bee
I’m looking forward to some different wasp species this season (I I can find some lol)
Nikon Z9 and Sigma 105mm macro
SS1/3200 F8 ISO3200 (natural light)

Excited to share a new review by @kocherlab.bsky.social and me:

Nature-inspired neuroscience

We discuss diverse sensory systems and behaviors across the animal kingdom and argue for their integration into neuroscience. New tools in diverse systems are making this possible ✨

tinyurl.com/y5y9du27

For anyone working on #lightpollution #ALAN and #animalbehaviour - just 2 weeks left to submit an abstract for our symposium on light pollution and invertebrate behaviour at ECBB this September, with @ecbb2026.bsky.social, @jimamclgalloway.bsky.social . Would be great to see you there!

Very cool! Honey bees (like may other Hymenoptera) learn visual navigation in novel environments with just a few learning flights. We are working on a similar approach and have similar ideas but with a bee-brain inspired architecture. We will dig into this work deeply.

At a time when vaccines may mean that some forms of cancer and neurodegeneration may be cured forever through vaccine technology, this is a crime against future humanity.

Sharif University in Tehran was just bombed

Founded in 1965, it is one the most elite science and engineering institutions in the world. Alumni include the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, first woman to win the Fields Medal

Here is the list of other alumni

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Professor and Department Head, Entomology - Blacksburg, Virginia, United States Job Description Virginia Tech seeks applications and nominations for the position of Professor and Head of the Department of Entomology, a tenured twelve-month academic and administrative appointmen...

We are searching for a new Department Head of Entomology at Virginia Tech. Come work in lovely Blacksburg with some pretty cool people and spectatular students.

Please repost and spread the word. Review Date 4/26/26.

jobs.apply.vt.edu/jobs/profess...

Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom - Nature Ecology & Evolution Using phylogenetic comparative methods across 237 species from disparate phyla, the authors show that species with fast-paced ecologies have higher temporal resolution of perception.

Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom www.nature.com/articles/s41... - new paper with Clinton Haarlem, Cliodhna Hynes and colleagues

Different species see the world as fast as they need to...

Quantitative Approaches to Behavior and Virtual Reality - CAJAL […]

You have until March 3rd to apply for the Cajal summer school on Quantitative Approaches to Behavior and VR at Champalimaud! Come surf and track animals with us 🏄🪰🐟🚶
cajal-training.org/on-site/quan...

Team der #UniFreiburg um Prof. Dr. @andrewstraw.bsky.social hat untersucht, wie #Honigbienen navigieren. Die Forschenden fanden heraus, dass jedes Tier eine eigene bevorzugte Route hat und diese sehr präzise abfliegt – visuelle Orientierungspunkte wie Bäume helfen dabei. ➡️ ufr.link/bienennavigation

Using our bee-tracking drone, we discovered that honey bees 🐝 have highly precise and individual routes. Now published at @currentbiology.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.

My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.

Glad it’s worked out!

Let me know if I can help with the ex pat stuff! (Or anything else…j

I just saw this now -- congratulations on the move! Big news!

Assistant Professor without Tenure (WOT), Marine Invertebrate Organismal Biology University of Washington: Academic Personnel & Faculty: College of the Environment: Aquatic and Fishery Sciences Location Friday Harbor Labs, WA Open Date Dec 12, 2025 Description The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) and Friday Harbor Labs (FHL) at the University of Washington (UW) invite applications for the Riddiford – Truman Endowed faculty Chair, a position in the Without Tenure (WOT) track at the Assistant rank with specialization in marine invertebrate organismal biology. The successful candidate is expected to develop a collaborative, extramurally-funded and nationally recognized research program based at FHL that leverages FHL’s unique marine research infrastructure and natural setting. We especially welcome candidates whose scholarship in natural systems advances fundamental knowledge and contributes to environmental stewardship. All University of Washington faculty engage in teaching, research, and service.

Looking for a faculty job at one of the world's great research stations?

We're looking for a marine invertebrate biologist at UW's Friday Harbor Labs.

apply.interfolio.com/178804

Thanks for the thread. I’m looking forward to reading this!

The diversity of lepidopteran spatial orientation strategies – neuronal mechanisms and emerging challenges in a changing world - Journal of Comparative Physiology A The Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths, display an astonishing diversity of spatial orientation strategies essential for survival, reproduction, and ecological success. These spatial orientation strat...

Nice review, congratulations and thanks to all authors! And nice complement to the following recent review (with many authors in common on both publications): link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A summary figure for a NeurIPS competition where AI agents compete with mice in a visual foraging task.

Mice learn these tasks and are robust to perturbations like fog. Now, we invite you all to make AI agents to beat mice.

We present our #NeurIPS competition. You can learn about it here: robustforaging.github.io (7/n)

Locating nests of endangered bumble bees: Lessons from field trials in northern Germany Tracking bumble bees to find their nests using coloured strips of paper stuck to their thorax proved to be the most suitable method, while radio transponders were too heavy. Tracking times of up to .....

We discuss various strategies for locating nests of the rare and endangered above-ground nesting bumblebee species Bombus muscorum. Although we did not find any nests, we were able to track bees marked with paper strips for up to 800 m.
@jki-research.bsky.social
@nabu.de

doi.org/10.1111/icad...

We'd bee happy about that!

The tracks are 3D. We have stereo cameras on one drone. But indeed more drones would be better and help with occlusion.

That's a cool idea!

Thanks and you're welcome! So far it's just a preprint and I already confirmed that our granting agency is (grudgingly) willing to pay open access frees.

Many contributed directly or indirectly! Authors: Rachael Stentiford, Michael JM Harrap, Victor V. Titov, Stephan Lochner. @ttvodoan.bsky.social was instrumental in creating fast lock with a @hfspo.bsky.social fellowship. @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social @uni-freiburg.de. @brainworlds.bsky.social
9/9

Photograph of multicopter drone and bee hive.

This work is a technical demonstration that multicopter drones can track honey bees in 3D across landscapes with trees and other structure.

Huge thanks to the @volkswagenstiftung.de who believed in our original "high-risk" idea. Also to @dfg.de for later funding to improve tracking precision.

8/9

Heat map showing the proportion of flight aligned to the target "Inbound - Gap", at different angular thresholds when the trajectories are divided into 20 segments.

Relating to the waggle dance, @freelyflyingbees.bsky.social, @schuemaa.bsky.social, and others have shown this dance is somewhat imprecise. Our results suggest this dance imprecision is not constrained by limits in bees' spatial representation. (Maybe, like me, they are just bad dancers.)

7/9

Scatter plots of bee trajectories crossing planes at select locations along their route.

The precision with which the bees repeatedly fly the same route surprised us. At one location near a prominent tree, we measured for each bee a spread of just 50 centimeters around the median. Elsewhere, over a cornfield, the trajectories were more variable.

6/9