Video New Nat Geo doc highlights alarming decline of the honeybee The new National Geographic documentary “Secret of the Bees” offers a glimpse into the world and importance of bees.

Happy Earth Day! Check out @felicitymuth.bsky.social talk about bees on this ABC segment. You may see some familiar faces as well 😊🐝

abcnews.com/video/132283...

Have you ever seen a bumblebee being born?? Pretty cool to watch this worker emerge from her pupal cell today! She will be ready to work in just a few hours after her cuticle hardens and her wings dry out. Love the new bee fluffy look though 🐝 Also check out that big beautiful queen 👑

I love spotting bumblebees in my neighborhood! Here’s a bombus melanopygus worker I saw foraging on lavender a few weeks ago

Expression of genes in the blue (top) and turquoise (bottom) modules (created using weighted gene co-expression network analysis) were significantly associated with novelty avoidance behaviour in female Eurasian tree sparrows but not in males. The graphs show an increase in the approach time of sparrows towards food paired with novel objects with increased expression of the blue module, and a decrease in approach time with increased expression of the turquoise module, in female but not male sparrows.

New paper alert! Our collaboration with @jacanamama.bsky.social & Alex Bentz found Eurasian tree sparrows, a less-successful invasive cousin of house sparrows, had distinct patterns of gene expression associated with novelty avoidance that differed by sex: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia Neophobia (the aversive response to novelty) varies considerably across species and individuals, and can impact adaptability and survival. This study assesses neophobia in 1400 subjects from 136 bird ...

It was thrilling to be involved in this multi-site, multi-bird @themanybirds.bsky.social project out today in @plosbiology.org! We examined why some bird species show more novelty avoidance than others; 2 big predictors were a specialist diet & migratory behavior: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Survival curves of sparrows' latency to feed in the presence of novel objects with and without injections of a vehicle control (top graph) or the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU486 (bottom graph). There was no difference between weeks or treatments, suggesting the effects of corticosterone on neophobia that we previously observed are mediated via a different physiological mechanism.

We previously showed corticosterone is involved in neophobia (novelty avoidance) in house sparrows; my students @marquisehenry.bsky.social & Melanie Kimball's new paper found this effect does not appear to be mediated via low-affinity glucocorticoid receptors: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/NMYI9B...

This image gives the background for the Dusang and Henry 2025 paper. The image reads: "Neophobia is often evaluated in only one context. Assumed that an animal's response to one type of novel stimulus is consistent with another". There are three images, one of a food dish with yellow coiled pipe cleaners with the label "novel objects," one of a house sparrow taking a potato chip from a bowl with the label "novel foods," and one of a city landscape with office towers with the label "novel environments." Double-headed arrows connect all three images.

A new paper from the lab led by Blake Dusang & @marquisehenry.bsky.social builds on past work & finds not all "neophobia" tests measure the same trait. Specifically, responses to novel objects & novel environments were not consistent within individuals: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Undergraduate Danna Masri receives the Undergraduate Teaching Award from the LSU Department of Biological Sciences and Dr. Christine Lattin receives the Graduate Teaching Award from the LSU College of Science.

The lab was recognized for outstanding research & teaching at this year's @lsuscience.bsky.social awards! Danna Masri won the Undergraduate Research Award from @lsubiosci.bsky.social, former PhD student Melanie Kimball the Distinguished Dissertation Award, & I received a Graduate Teaching Award ❤️