Erica Maul holding her badass log nest

Erica Maul with LOG NEST 2026!
@ericamaul.bsky.social

(somehow, they don't sell these as standard beekeeping supply)

Persist or give up? Fire ants motivated to search for a high-quality food source even if they don’t know how to find it - Insectes Sociaux Insectes Sociaux - Finding resources for the colony is one of the most difficult and risky tasks for a social insect worker. A worker on a foraging trip can face a number of challenges, including...

Paper alert 🚨🐜! Fire ant foraging looks remarkably robust until you perturb their communication. @dornhaus.bsky.social and I tested how fire ants respond to disruptions in pheromone trail communication during foraging. More in the thread below 🧵(1/6).
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A New Toy for Serious Science Allows for Individual Honey Bee Forager Tracking. Read about exciting work from Stentiford, Harrap et al. from the Straw lab that delivered a decisive one–two punch to the long-standing challenge of tracking foraging honey bees.

authors.elsevier.com/a/1mkeE3QW8S...

This is insanely cool.
Congratulations!!!

Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!

preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵

Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1/9

My main issue with this work is that they don't mention how cute drones are with white eyes.

Like, not even a single figure devoted to the cuteness factor?

White-necked jacobin, a hummingbird, perched on a branch

Here's my latest contribution to the "Lost Science" series at the New York Times: Jay Falk, a scientist who studies why some female hummingbirds look just like males. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qF7Qje

Members of the Smith Bee Lab holding David Boa (a snake) with Ummat Somjee. He's a big snake.

Nothing says "dinner party" like a large boa constrictor!

Great to have Ummat Somjee @the-bug-hut.bsky.social as the DBS seminar speaker this week.

(btw, we ate tacos, not David Boa)

Do peeps have suggestions for where to advertise postdoc positions broadly?

Have done eco-evo, and evo-dir, but would welcome applicants from all sorts of fields (maths, physics, computer science).

Thanks! (can I do a PhD in YOUR lab???)

link to advert: drive.google.com/file/d/1p52h...

Advertisement for applying to the Smith Bee Lab

The Smith Bee Lab is HIRING! 🐝🐝🐝
- Postdoc (2-4yrs, flexible start-date)
- 1-2 Graduate Students (to start Fall 2026)

No prior experience with honey bees needed, we encourage people from diverse research areas to apply!

(no jerks, plz)

Why have ONE party tent, when you can have TWO?!?

(thanks Andrew for snapping the pic!)

Cientifico Latino is an awesome program, AND yes, you should definitely apply for the NSF GRFP (even if it's a tight deadline!)

Superefficient teamwork in weaver ants / Curr. Biol., Aug. 12, 2025 (Vol. 35, Issue 17) Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

In humans, bigger teams often mean less effort per person — the #Ringelmann effect. Weaver #ants 🐜 flip the script: #teamwork makes them superefficient!

Video + paper out now in Current Biology!
@cellpress.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/44yrvp6m
tinyurl.com/3jnnevfn

Bee researchers at lab

A week ago we were told via YouTube that USDA-BARC and our Bee Lab will be closed. BARC has had a productive 90 years but is aging and I trust there is a longterm vision behind this decision. The largest loss will be the people, who are 100% devoted to bees, beekeepers, science, and this country.

Ugh, I'm so sorry to hear this.

Yes, good idea! Please add me, if possible.

Made it to Baltimore for #ABS2025 !! Come to my talk in the Dietary Decisions section Thursday at 3:00 (spoiler: it’s not about dietary decisions!!), and message or find me if you want to chat about research or my experience in @smithbeelab.bsky.social (recruiting grad students!).

ONE LIKE!!!

...Jay Falk, it's you and me...

Current google search:

"Will I have any friends at #Evolution2025 in Athens, GA?"

Perfect day for beekeeping. 10/10.

(Thanks to Erica and Andrew for keeping it cool!)

PhD wins can feel few and far between, so I’m thankful for this week! Not only did I finish my quals and become a candidate, but I also was awarded a Wellesley College Graduate Fellowship! Had to celebrate in @smithbeelab.bsky.social tradition.

Any chance anyone gets hard copies of Current Biology?

(looking to get a copy from 16 Dec 2024)

Check out this wild resin forager in her natural tree nest. She has tree resin packed on her back legs where pollen is typically stored. It will be made into propolis to coat the cavity for antimicrobial protection and water sealing. Shot with the Laowa 24mm macro probe.

Come learn how honey bees organize their nests in 3 dimension across time today at 11:30 in salon 10 #SICB2025

@aztecacecropia.bsky.social has developed incredible techniques for watching the change in time of every cell of a honeybee nest. Cells are specialized, clustered, and polarize their function!

How much?

KZLab is Seeking a Lab Technician! The Zamudio Lab (zamudiolab.org) in the Department of Integrative Biology at UT Austin seeks a highly motivated and detail-oriented laboratory technician to play a key role in supporting the resear…

Friends, plz repost and share! We are hiring a lab technician with exp in mol biology and general lab management. BS or MS degree and good org skills are required. Deadline Feb 1, 2025. We are a welcoming and equitable lab community. Details at link below. 🐸🐢🐍🦎

zamudiolab.org/2024/12/18/k...

Our architectural symmetry paper made the cover of Current Biology! Congrats to @smithbeelab.bsky.social and the team. Check out the form, function, and evolutionary origins of honeybee nest symmetry here: www.cell.com/current-biol...