🚨🦋 Thrilled to share my first PhD paper published in PNAS this week, in collaboration with Sören Kannegieser and @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social @insect-vision.bsky.social: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We found hawkmoths use a convergent visual control strategy for appendage guidance. 👁️🫳 🧵 below.

Preparations are in full swing, and the excitement is building for our Lepidopteran Satellite Meeting @neuroethology.org #ICN2026 with @alexhaverkamp.bsky.social and Simon Sponberg 🦋🐛

Our new paper is out in @nature.com! We uncovered how a naked mole-rat queen 👑 controls an entire colony: a natural contraceptive scent that suppresses reproduction in other females! A remarkable mammalian parallel to bees and ants! 🐝🐜 @garyrlewin.bsky.social youtu.be/enfv3zJrWKM?...

Naked mole-rats are ruled by a queen: this chemical puts her in power

YouTube video by nature video

youtu.be

Save the Date! SIP19 will bring the international insect-plant interaction 🌱 🐛 community to @w-u-r.bsky.social, 22 to 26 August 2027: event.wur.nl/sip19/home Keynote Speaker: @nkwhiteman.bsky.social, Christelle Robert, @adsteinbrenner.bsky.social, @sunsicker.bsky.social, @enricfrago.bsky.social

I am very happy that Lotte van Lingen - Williams started her PhD this week in the Lab of Entomology at Wageningen Plant Research. Lotte is the frist to join our VIDI project on the function and regulation of butterfly taste receptors 🐛 🦋!

Delighted that our review on taste in butterflies and caterpillars still made it into the special collection of "Neuroethology in Lepidoptera" 🐛 🦋: lnkd.in/epXNNK_z This article, led by Dimitri Peftuloglu, gives a great overview of how these wonderful insects detect plant metabolites 🌱.

Last week we were looking back at our late summer teaching and the great Ecophysiology course at Wageningen University & Research. It was a great experience observing butterfly behaviour outside with the students and even measuring the neuronal response of the butterfly antenna to plant odours 🦋 🌱

Still 4 more days to apply 🌱🐛🦋!!!

Alexander Haverkamp@alexhaverkamp.bsky.social · 11mo ago

How did host plant specialization evolve in insect herbivores 🌱🐛🦋? If this is a question that bugs you, we have the perfect PhD-position to offer: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...

By comparing differently tuned glomeruli, this work shows that the brain uses different circuit layouts for specialised vs general smells, offering new insight into how odour meaning is encoded. buff.ly/XDmo4Ue

Nice paper showing a major effect of wing morphology on diptera flight by Camille Le Roy, Florian Muijres and collegues! doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

How did host plant specialization evolve in insect herbivores 🌱🐛🦋? If this is a question that bugs you, we have the perfect PhD-position to offer: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...

Very excited about our upcoming course "Chemical Communication in the Anthropocene" with wonderful speakers such as Markus Knaden, Meredith C Schuman, James Blande, Jeremie Topin, Niels Verhulst, and Jocelyne Vreede! There are still a few places available 👃 🦋 🌱 🪻.

Time flies! It is already three weeks ago that Lorenzo Corsico started his PhD on finding novel deterrent plant compounds to protect crops from hungry caterpillars 🌱 🐛! Welcome again Lorenzo, and thanks to all collaborators at InsectSense, Wageningen Plant Research, Bayer Crop Science and Bejo.

Very happy that Camila Fornaguera joined the lab of Entomology this week! Camila will be looking into the effect of the nectar microbiome on pollinator behavior as part of the @micropresearch.bsky.social team 🐝 🦋 🦠 🌼. Welcome Camila!

It is a sign of hope that the populations of common moths' species have been stable in some areas (cities and agricultural land) in the Netherlands 🐛🦋. However, we should be careful not to except these still low numbers as the new normal #mothsmatter!

Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek @cbsstatistiek.bsky.social · last yr.

Tussen 2014 en 2024 zijn grotere en zeldzamere soorten nachtvlinders iets afgenomen, terwijl kleinere en veelvoorkomende soorten gemiddeld juist zijn toegenomen. Het totale gewicht van 719 soorten nachtvlinders is in die periode stabiel gebleven. @vlinderstichting.bsky.social Meer lezen? 👇

We are looking for a technician to support our sensory ecology lab 🐛🦋🌺! Would you like to help discovering how insects perceive their environment, and do you have a background in insect physiology / neuroscience or chemical ecology? Then please apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/t...

Beautiful work by @ronjabigge.bsky.social and Rebecca Grittner is out 🥳 How do the statistics of natural visual scenes and the relevance of these stimuli for the moths' flight safety shape the integration of parallel pathways for flight guidance? ✈️🦋

Visual Insect Neuroethology Group@insect-vision.bsky.social · last yr.

New work from the lab - final version out: #parallel #processing #optic_flow #flight #vision In hummingbird hawkmoth flight control, natural input prevalence shapes the visual field partitioning of two parallel pathways, but safety relevance determines the integration hierarchy. tinyurl.com/bdfsxea2

Caterpillars use their sense of olfaction to find food and avoid natural enemies🐛🌱: The version of record of our @elife.bsky.social article has been set: doi.org/10.7554/eLif.... The work has been driven by Qi Wang with great support by many coauthors @dickemarcel.bsky.social, @w-u-r.bsky.social

Check out the newest episode of our podcast "In the Swarm"! Have you ever wondered how tiny insects navigate the world? In this episode, @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social explains how the tiny but mighty insect brain controls behaviour of stunning complexity. www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/collective-b...

Sometimes working in entomology is like being in a Sci-Fi movie full of fantastic creatures 👽 👾, like this amazing #hawkmoth caterpillar 🐛!

It is world brain day 🧠! Maybe a good opportunity to remind us that we are not the only species with a brain, but that even small animals like insects have sophisticated nervous systems 🪲 🐝 🦋. Here the bain of a caterpillar with its vast network of dopaminergic neurons 🐛:

We just had the last lecture in our Insect-Plant interaction course at @w-u-r.bsky.social on the topic of #pollination 🦋🐝🌺🌻. Our #hawkmoth with its 8cm proboscis was the star of the show, but the discussions also very much emphasized our need to save #biodiversity and reduce #pesticides!

Today the registration for the Postgraduate course Chemical Communication in the Anthropocene has opened! The course will take place from 17-21 November in the Netherlands and offers a great opportunity to dive deeper into the roles of chemicals in biotic interactions: www.pe-rc.nl/Chemical_Com...

Great to see the revised version of our eLife article online, which highlights the importance of olfaction in the life of a caterpillar 🐛 🌱! doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

We have an opening for a 4-year PhD position on the influence of the nectar microbiome on pollinator-plant interactions in the Lab of Entomology at @w-u-r.bsky.social and I would be delighted if you could share this with potentially interested candidates: www.wur.nl/nl/vacature/...

We are looking for talented #PhD candidates who would like to study insect-plant-microbiome interactions @w-u-r.bsky.social. If you would like to unravel the role of #microbes in #pollination or #plantdefenses against #rootflies and #aphids, please check bit.ly/4jxyHtw bit.ly/4juizJb bit.ly/434JEwI

Dear colleagues fascinated by olfaction and taste! 👃🏾👅 We are happy to announce that the registration has started for the upcoming ESITO 2025 meeting taking place September 19-24, 2025 in Sardinia, Italy. Please register and submit your abstract here: events.gwdg.de/e/esito2025 Deadline: July 1st!

Deadline approaching! If you are interested in doing a PhD in chemical ecology check out the projects and apply here: www.ice.mpg.de/296548/curre... jobs.ice.mpg.de/en/jobpostin...

✍️🧠🪰 New paper finally out! Neuroecology of alcohol risk and reward. Different neural pathways with opposite valence for the same odor are combined to balance attraction and aversion based on physiological state. Natural history of alcohol and the fly. www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Neuroecology of alcohol risk and reward: Methanol boosts pheromones and courtship success in Drosophila melanogaster

Flies increase pheromones and mating success with alcohol, but methanol is toxic; thus, the brain must balance risk versus reward.

science.org

Pollinators deliver one of the most important ecosystem services for free! Yet, one out of five North American pollinators is at risk. Maybe they should start charging us, so we understand how much we owe them 🐝 🦋 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...