After four years, several updates and a handful of CRAN releases, 𝗹𝘁𝗰 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲 𝗥-𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗲, reached a version I feel genuinely good about sharing with the community. github.com/loukesio/ltc...
Julien Devilliers
@juliendevilliers.bsky.social
Postdoc Virginia Tech / sensory system 🦟 / molecular biology / entomology / phylogenomics / colour pattern / mimicry / vision / polarised light 🦋🇨🇵🇬🇧🇺🇲🇨🇭 https://juliendevi.github.io/
How do aerodynamic constraints and evolutionary pressures shape the diversity of flight in true flies? By integrating wing shape, wing motion and #aerodynamics, this study uncovers similarities as well as striking divergences in flight performance. 🧪 #AcademicSky #evolution plos.io/4b4LMbJ
🧵 New paper! We’re excited to release OPTICS: software that immediately predicts color sensitivity from any opsin protein sequence. In other words: give OPTICS any opsin sequence, and it predicts the wavelength of light the pigment is most sensitive to 🌈👁️ academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Accessible and Robust Machine Learning Approaches to Improve the Opsin Genotype-Phenotype Map
Abstract. Predicting phenotypes from genetic variation is a central challenge in biology. Here, machine learning (ML) offers great promise, but its use is
academic.oup.com
New paper on Biorxiv by Raphaël Dupillier, analyzing escape flight in Morpho menelaus : huge field work effort! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Invasive insects don’t find hosts by chance: They rely on specialized chemical sensing systems. By decoding the genome & gene activity of the woodwasp Sirex noctilio, researchers uncovered how this forest pest may detect pine hosts, mates & egg-laying sites. #LIBresearch © Postma et al. CC BY 1/3
IQ-TREE 3: Phylogenomic Inference Software using Complex Evolutionary Models academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
IQ-TREE 3: Phylogenomic Inference Software using Complex Evolutionary Models
Abstract. IQ-TREE (https://iqtree.github.io/) is a widely used open-source software tool for efficiently inferring phylogenetic trees under maximum likelih
academic.oup.com
charisma: An R package to perform reproducible colour characterization of digital images for biological studies. Fresh in Methods in Ecology and Evolution: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/AGQZAA... #colsci
We reviewed our knowledge on #mosquitoes #circadian clocks, highlighting tissue and species specific modulation of the clocks! kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F... @thevinaugerlab.bsky.social @lahonderelab.bsky.social @joshuabenoit.bsky.social
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kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me
Trends in Parasitology@cp-trendsparasitol.bsky.social · 3mo agoMolecular foundations and tissue-specific dynamics of the mosquito circadian clock
bifrost: an R package for scalable inference of phylogenetic shifts in multivariate evolutionary dynamics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.12.718036v1
Fascinating short history, including how "Isaac Newton’s famous Waste Book is a rare example of a physical continuity between the two cultures of notetaking: humanist and scientific." www.asimov.press/p/lab-notebo...
A Brief History of Lab Notebooks
How experimental recordings have changed, from the Renaissance through today.
asimov.press
So I pleased to announce the conceptual spawn of FigTree: PearTree (acronym still to be finalised). If you want to dive right in it is hosted as a web app here: artic-network.github.io/peartree (click the “Example...” button for immediate candy and then click every button you can find).
PearTree — Phylogenetic Tree Viewer
artic-network.github.io
Our new study is out in @pnas.org ! 🐜🌍 We show that the environment shapes how ant societies are distributed across the world. Accessible here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Environmental conditions shape the global distribution of ant societies | PNAS
Sociality has evolved several times and is a key strategy for overcoming environmental challenges and promoting ecological success. Yet, it remains...
pnas.org
Calling all OrthoFinder users! We’ve just released GLADE, a tool to infer gene gains, losses, duplications, and ancestral genomes across a phylogeny. GLADE runs directly on OrthoFinder results. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... github.com/lauriebelch/... (1/10)
biorxiv.org
A bit of a different collaboration on neurodegenerative diseases between at the time PhD students journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Glucocorticoid Treatment Dampens Kynurenine Pathway Activation and Cytokine Release in Immune Stimulated Human Microglia - Martina Esposito Soccoio, Robert P. Mason, Julien Devilliers, Roberto Feuda, ...
As a first line of defence for the central nervous system (CNS), microglia play a critical role in maintaining homeostasis within the brain. Upon detection of d...
journals.sagepub.com
Check it out! Daily fluctuations of human smell, with behavioural and molecular synchronisation of mosquitoes smell and attraction! And icing on the cake a new timeless mutant line...
Clement Vinauger@thevinaugerlab.bsky.social · 7mo agoCheck out this new preprint from the lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Lan Lou, @juliendevilliers.bsky.social, @karthikeyanc.bsky.social, @lahonderelab.bsky.social, the Tu Lab, and @joshuabenoit.bsky.social show that mosquito olfactory rhythms are synced with daily rhythms in how we smell.
Check out this new preprint from the lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Lan Lou, @juliendevilliers.bsky.social, @karthikeyanc.bsky.social, @lahonderelab.bsky.social, the Tu Lab, and @joshuabenoit.bsky.social show that mosquito olfactory rhythms are synced with daily rhythms in how we smell.
Temporal synchrony between human odor rhythms and mosquito olfactory preference shapes host attraction
For anthropophilic mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti, aligning host-seeking with human availability enhances foraging efficiency and reproductive success. Although time of day modulates mosquito activity and olfactory sensitivity, it remains unknown whether human hosts display rhythmic changes in odor cues and whether mosquitoes adjust their sensory responses accordingly. Here, we combine chemical, behavioral, genetic, and transcriptomic approaches to reveal that both mosquitoes and their human hosts in this interaction are temporally synchronized. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed systematic daily shifts in human body odor composition between morning and evening. Correspondingly, mosquitoes prefer host odors that match their own active phase, a time-specific preference abolished in timeless mutants and under constant darkness. Silencing the timeless gene further induced an aversion for the host scent under light-dark conditions. Transcriptomic analysis of mosquito heads and antennae uncovered rhythmic expression of sensory and neuromodulatory genes, driven by both circadian and light-dark cycles and which peaks during mosquitoes' active periods, with rhythmic co-expression networks collapsing in timeless knockouts. Together, these results show that mosquito attraction to humans is temporally tuned by the interplay of host odor rhythms and mosquito sensory rhythms, revealing a previously unrecognized form of interspecific temporal synchronization in vector-host interactions. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institutes of Health, R01AI155785, R21AI166633, R01AI148551 National Institute of Food and Agriculture, VA-160212
biorxiv.org
Ever wanted to know how the visual system of a long distance migratory moth looks like? Then you'll find your answers in our new paper. Finally out, after about a decade of collecting data by a group af amazing co-authors. Find it here, open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Multiple anthropogenic stressors can negatively impact species but can a single stressor also have multiple, concurrent impacts? Here we show that light pollution creates several simultaneous impacts to the nocturnal movement ecology of a moth and a spider: tinyurl.com/5eku5bff (1/5)
Learn about using the VectorByte Databases, VecTraits and VecDyn, to answer cool questions! Save the date for the VectorByte training workshop at Virginia Tech, together with EEID, May 30-June 1, 2026!!
🚨RA/PhD position available in evolutionary neurobiology 🚨 Working on a deep dive into circuit changes during mushroom body expansion in Heliconius butterflies @camzoology.bsky.social - employment benefits - 4 years funding - 1000% fun Deadline: 14/1/2026 Details: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
Spiders that experience vibrations, visual stimuli, both or none during development do not differ strongly in the size of their brain areas. This is a surprising finding. Even more surprising is that siblings react alike. See our new publication in the J. comp. Neurology. doi.org/10.1002/cne.... 🧪🕷
The earliest mature debate about animal consciousness occurred around 1900 and centred on the insects. We cover this rich history in this new article, as well as some more recent developments on the topic: royalsocietypublishing.org/.../10.../rs...
I am so excited to share new work on a TE insertion that regulates iridescence in swordtails, led by fantastic grad student @nadiahaghani.bsky.social and with help from many coauthors! In a time that has been so difficult to navigate, this & other projects have kept my spirits up: shorturl.at/NE65A
Insertion of an invading retrovirus regulates a novel color trait in swordtail fish
For over a century, evolutionary biologists have been motivated to understand the mechanisms through which organisms adapt to their environments. Coloration and pigmentation are remarkably variable wi...
shorturl.at
Please drop me a line is you are interested to work in my lab and are eligible for the CSC funding!
InsectNeuroLab@insectneurolab.bsky.social · 9mo agoWe are looking for candidates interested in (and eligible for) CSC-funded PhD positions, for the project " AI-powered system to monitor biodiversity and study behaviour of key wild pollinators" www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Please contact Lena by email for informal enquiries.
Do you work (/want to work) with caterpillars? Or sensory systems? Or BOTH?! Well good golly do we have the paper for you! We explain the senses that caterpillars have, what they use them for, and how anthropogenic sensory pollution might be messing it all up 🐛 doi.org/10.1007/s003...
The sensory ecology of caterpillars - Journal of Comparative Physiology A
Caterpillars (larval Lepidoptera) are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily significant taxa on Earth. As both feeders and food, they shape the dynamics of enumerate ecosystems on land. Key ...
doi.org
Check out our newest paper on mosquito sugar feeding! 🦟🌸 This study was led M. VanderGiessen, F. Upshur & M. Cartadena-Guzman. A great collaboration with L. Escobar & @thevinaugerlab.bsky.social! @globalchangebio.bsky.social @vtbiochemistry.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jme/article-...
Effect of landscape heterogeneity on mosquito abundance and sugar feeding behavior
Abstract. Mosquito-borne diseases pose a dire threat to humanity, claiming over 700,000 lives annually. At the local scale, the interplay between several e
academic.oup.com
Excited to announce the final version of the Mosquito Cell Atlas is out now in @cellpress.bsky.social!! 🦟🩸 There is SO much left to find & investigate in this dataset (& the rich biology of the Aedes aegypti mosquito)! We hope this helps scientists in many fields! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
A single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of the adult Aedes aegypti mosquito
A comprehensive single-nucleus RNA-seq atlas of >367,000 nuclei from male and female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reveals sexual dimorphism in sensory systems and brain cell types and widespread co-expres...
cell.com
🌷New Research highlight showcases Arrowsmith et al. (2025), which shows that temperature alone can shift pollinators’ floral choices in diverse plant–pollinator communities. Such thermally-driven species interaction rewiring may have important consequences. ➡️ buff.ly/i5QrFjd @blancaac.bsky.social
Does #SexualSelection fuel #Speciation? Our new #meta-analysis of comparative studies finds support for a positive relationship, but the rather moderate global effect suggests it’s not necessarily a dominant force. doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Sexual selection and speciation: a meta-analysis of comparative studies
Abstract. Understanding the drivers of biodiversity is a central goal in evolutionary biology. In particular, sexual selection has long been proposed as a
doi.org
🚨 New paper out in #JCP-A @springernature.com "Divergent sensory transcriptomic profiles in positive and negative learning in Bicyclus Anynana butterflies" by Yi Teng Ter & Erica Westerman #Neurogenomics #VisualLearning #Lepidoptera 🧪🧠🦋 ↘️ link.springer.com/article/10.1... ↙️
Divergent sensory transcriptomic profiles in positive and negative learning in Bicyclus Anynana butterflies - Journal of Comparative Physiology A
Journal of Comparative Physiology A - Mate preference learning, where individuals learn to prefer or avoid specific phenotypes during mate selection, is pervasive across animal taxa and influences...
link.springer.com