@jinvertpathol.bsky.social please share to the SIP network!

@royentsoc.bsky.social and @isme-microbes.bsky.social - please share!

PhD opportunity!! 🍄🥜🍄‍🟫🪲🪰We have a fully funded position available at La Trobe Uni in Melbourne, for an exciting project in #insect #pathology! The student will explore combining #entomopathogenic #fungi with #RNAi as a novel biological pest management approach. See details in the attached flyer

PhD opportunity!! 🍄🥜🍄‍🟫🪲🪰We have a fully funded position available at La Trobe Uni in Melbourne, for an exciting project in #insect #pathology! The student will explore combining #entomopathogenic #fungi with #RNAi as a novel biological pest management approach. See details in the attached flyer

Tell me about the people examining these theses though. They're complicit - because there are clear signs when someone has relied too much on LLM.

Scholarship: $37,000 (tax free) (2025/26 rate) up to three and a half years. Based at AgriBio, the Centre for AgriBiosciences, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Successful applicants must meet the La Trobe University entry requirements for a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Check your eligibility here: https://www]atrobe.edu.au/study/apply/research/doctor For enquiries and to apply, please forward a covering letter, your curriculum vitae (please include evidence of research writing) and academic transcripts to: Kendra Whiteman Higher Education Manager Agriculture Victoria Research kendra.whiteman@agriculture.vic.gov.au Closing date for applications: until filled Title: Insect microbiomes and their role in biocontrol: a journey from field collection to invasive weed management PhD Project Aims • Explore the microbiome composition of biocontrol insect/s and host plants collected from the field in their native range • Understand the impact of lab quarantine protocols, mass rearing, and release under conditions on insect microbiome and fecundity • Develop methods to preserve or supplement beneficial microbes to cultured insects The successful candidate will be supervised by A/Prof Paul Cunningham, Dr Aimee McKinnon and Dr Francesco Martoni and Dr Raelene Kwong. With potential opportunities to travel internationally and collaborate with experts at the Bioeconomy Science Institute, New Zealand, this PhD will shape the future of biocontrol programs in Australia and internationally.

✨ ✨ ✨ #PhD POSITION ✨ ✨ ✨
Insect microbiomes and their role in biocontrol: a journey from field collection to invasive weed management. @aimeeemac.bsky.social @cescomartons.bsky.social

U.S. scientists’ lives and careers are being upended. Here are five of their stories As the second Trump administration sends U.S. science into upheaval, countless researchers are fighting for their futures

It was a privilege to help tell the stories of U.S. scientists whose lives have been upended during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration in this recent piece for @science.org

Cool! That looks really similar to the epizootic outbreaks of Beauveria that I find on lissid beetles down here in Vic, also under eucalyptus bark - it shows how the fungi can form sort of plaques, when sheltered like that!

Aye they're hefty. The huhu grubs are edible too, they reportedly taste like peanut butter. I wonder what zombie fungi claims them too

A massive insect study may have made a huge mistake The debate surrounding biodiversity loss highlights the fact that science is always a work in progress

Beyond the clickbaity headline...a good science story on the complexities of ecology and why scientific debates over HOW we measure insect decline are important, with some comments from me 🌏🧪 #scicomm www.sciencefocus.com/comment/inse...

Assistant/Associate Professor of Public Health Entomology APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

📣 🪰 We're hiring a new Assistant/Associate Professor of *Public Health Entomology* at Penn State. Research areas are broad, covering pest management, pesticide resistance, epidemiology, and interactions of arthropods with microbial pathogens and symbionts.

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

A dual insect symbiont and plant pathogen improves insect host fitness under arginine limitation | mBio Unlike obligate symbionts that are permanently associated with their hosts, facultative symbionts rarely show direct nutritional contributions, especially under nutrient-limited conditions. This study...

New study from my lab and former grad Dr. Kwak shows Liberibacter psyllaurous, a dual insect symbiont and plant pathogen, boosts psyllid fitness by providing essential nutrients like arginine. A rare case of nutritional benefits from non-obligate symbionts #symbiosis journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

We have a few fantastic #entomology PhD opportunities available in our team at Agriculture Victoria, in association with La Trobe University, Australia 🇦🇺 😄

An applied #entomology #job in North Carolina is advertised currently: jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/214...

Very cool paper! Thanks for sharing. I asked whether the mechanism was verified because it's always been a bit fuzzy/theoretical with endophytic EPF, but I'm not so familiar with Ophiocordyceps! This is certainly getting close to solving it

A photograph of a velvet worm - an orange and purple-patterned invertebrate composed of many soft segments and tiny spined legs. The velvet worm has long, segmented antenna and a pair of organs on its head which squirt glue for prey capture.

A photograph of a velvet worm - an Blue and yellow-patterned invertebrate composed of many soft segments and tiny spined legs. The velvet worm has long, segmented antenna and a pair of organs on its head which squirt glue for prey capture.

Introducing New Zealand's latest Bug of the Year- the magnificent Ngāokeoke / Velvet Worm!

NZ has two genera: one lays eggs (Ooperipatellus, 1st photo) and another gives live birth (Peripatoides, 2nd). They also deposit sperm which burrow through their partner's skin, but that's another story! 🧪

How do you know it passively transmits to insects through the endophytic phase? As in, by what mechanism?

Hi Timothée, I'd like to be added please, my orcid: orcid.org/0000-0002-45...

Amazing photos!! Welcome Francesco to #bugsky

please add @cescomartons.bsky.social 🙏, an ento-nerd, new to bluesky!!

Dam this is so rubbish!!! Sorry to hear. I have no doubt you'll find your feet somewhere soon, and so your great research will surely continue 🥲

His Google Scholar is interesting to read through, you can see him having an epiphany, over time, on what gets citations - and he credits publishing polarising material, and then see him adopt it as a method to gain power/influence, esp during covid

Amphipsalta zelandica, New Zealand's chorus #cicada, is gorgeous. It's funny how when you return to your home country, you realise that the cicada sounds are unique and, therefore, #nostalgic #bugsky

A beautiful mycosed #moth too

Also, on the hiking track, here is a magnificent New Zealand Huhu beetle, likely infected with #Beauveria sp., though still early stage infection - there appears to be conidiophores on the left antenna 😍

Cordyceps sinclairii is an #entomopathogenic fungus that infects #cicada nymphs in soil, I found a few of these while hiking in Abel Tasman NP in New Zealand, and just had to dig one up, to see the host! It's like digging up a tiny potato 🥔 #fungi

So who wants to see some #zombie #fungi? I cleared some camphor saplings and lantana vine over weekend. The amount of #entomopathogenic fungi I found was getting really annoying. Ugh put down tools, get out camera, take photo for the wonderful bluesky people, pick back up tools. Repeat #fungifriends

Transmission of transgenic mosquito-killing fungi during copulation - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Transmission of transgenic mosquito-killing fungi during copulation

Thrilled to share this paper with whomever has taken refuge on this platform. 🎊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Brilliant 👏, we should chat sometime about translating these ideas to tephritid fruit flies 😄