Fantastic work! Great to see it all coming together 😊 Hope you’re well and to see you at some conference sometime in the near future

New paper on seeing in air and water with compound eyes!

The problem: physics

The solution: physics

Elegantly described with the dream team @tannermierow.bsky.social and @alexkingston.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

A pixie robber fly (Psilonyx annulatus) eating a fruit fly that it caught. Photo credit: Sam T. Fabian.

Pixie robber flies are merciless predators, successfully intercepting perched victims, & in their recent JEB paper, @rossonisergio.bsky.social &co reveal that the insects use their motion relative to the prey to determine the victim's size and how far off they are
doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

🚨 New paper out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1242/jeb....
Some robber flies hunt resting prey and judge their distance well despite limited vision. We show their looping flights help them estimate this via motion parallax. A neat example of active vision making up for optical limitations! 👀🪰

Predation via motion parallax in one of two gleaning insects A predator's survival is highly dependent on correctly deciding whether to attack potential prey. Pursuit predators, for example, can estimate the size of a moving target from the ratio between its an...

Predators must estimate the size of a potential prey. Size of a moving target is assessed by angular speed/size, rules that not apply for stationary prey. Unlike damselflies, pixie robber flies use motion parallax to infer prey size. @rossonisergio.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Netcasting spider of the genus Deinopis from South America. CREDIT: Abel Pérez González

Netcasting spiders hurl a stretchy net to capture prey, a net that can double in size during full extension. A study explores how the silk achieves such impressive elasticity without sacrificing strength. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/qRYu50Y5z8x

New #OpenAccess work in #RESEcolEnt

Vegetation #biomass & landscape context influence web-building #spider dietary breadth in urban vacant lots
doi.org/10.1111/een.70022

#UrbanArthropods #Biodiversity #UrbanLandscapes
@sheborg.bsky.social @robwilsonmncn.bsky.social @callomac.bsky.social @wiley.com

Gustatory sensitivity to amino acids in bumblebee mouthparts | Royal Society Open Science Bees rely on amino acids from nectar and pollen for essential physiological functions. While nectar typically contains low (less than 1 mM) amino acid concentrations, levels in pollen are higher but variable (10–200 mM). Behavioural studies suggest ...

🚨 Our study from @bethbees.bsky.social lab is out in @royalsocietypublishing.org . We show that bumblebees taste some amino acids (valine), but not others (lysine). Bees might choose flowers not just by how sweet they taste! #bees 🐝 #taste 👅 #pollen #nectar 🌺 #protein 🥩

doi.org/10.1098/rsos...