Vanessa Penna Goncalves (she/her)
@vanspidergirl.bsky.social
Postdoctoral Fellow at Macquarie University Behavioral Ecologist #spiders #brains #neuroscience
🕷️💤 New paper in time for 🎃! Do #spiders really sleep? In our new study on #Portia fimbriata we tested all behavioural criteria of #sleep and found evidence for regulated, two-stage sleep with recurring REM-like stages. Out in @pnas.org! @roesslerdaniela.bsky.social 📄 tinyurl.com/3fky8ze7 🧵1/9
How deeply do spiders sleep? Researchers from the Institute of Organismic Biology at the University of Bonn investigated this in the Australian jumping spider Portia fimbriata. The results help us understand how sleep has evolved. Read more: www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/221-... @pnas.org
The jumping spider Portia fimbriata has two distinct sleep stages, including a REM-like state with eye movements and muscle twitches—but its sleeping brain activity remains unmeasured.
Two distinct sleep stages emerge in jumping spider, including a REM-like state
Humans and other vertebrates go through various stages of sleep, including REM (rapid eye movement) sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and muscle twitches.
phys.org
Scientists video REM-like sleep in Australian jumping spider species: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-10-27/jumping-spider-rem-sleep/107309370
Scientists video REM-like sleep in Australian jumping spider species
The most comprehensive study of its kind confirms that jumping spiders go through two phases of sleep, including a REM-like state that is associated with human dreaming.
abc.net.au
The most comprehensive study of its kind confirms that jumping spiders go through two phases of sleep, including a REM-like state that is associated with human dreaming.
Scientists video REM-like sleep in Australian jumping spider species
The most comprehensive study of its kind confirms that jumping spiders go through two phases of sleep, including a REM-like state that is associated with human dreaming.
abc.net.au
Our work made it into the Science news page! So stoked :) www.science.org/content/arti...
Honey bees inject venom with a two-stroke stinger
Unlike other poisonous animals, bees use a strange set of pistons to pump toxin
science.org
Our paper on the honey bee stinger 🐝💉is out today in @pnas.org!!! You can read it here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We also put together a video to explain some of what we did, check it out!! youtu.be/Lbi4YLJlChU?...
The honey bee stinger: An unusual pump with collapsible double pistons
YouTube video by Fiorella Ramirez-Esquivel
youtu.be
Incredible work and stunning images 🤩 Congrats @fiorella.bsky.social @pipilika.bsky.social
Fiorella Ramirez Esquivel@fiorella.bsky.social · 3w agoOur work made it into the Science news page! So stoked :) www.science.org/content/arti...
Very excited to share our discovery of an engineering masterpiece from the Australian rainforest! In our latest paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social we report a hunting strategy in a spider, whose web outperforms every known biological catapult system.
Congrats @pipilika.bsky.social and @pranavjoshi8.bsky.social on a beautiful piece of work on the ballista spider out today!! www.cell.com/current-biol...
Ballistic high-powered spider webs overcome dangerous prey defenses
Narendra et al. describe in an Australian ballista spider a spring-actuated snare that is triggered by green tree ants. They show that the snare’s architecture delivers exceptionally high instantaneou...
cell.com
We have arrived in Adelaide for #ASSAB2026. We bring amazing stories of 🐝 🐜🕷️🪰, wasps and mantis shrimps. We also have brought a few hot off the press Tshirts of peacock spiders for anybody to purchase! Come find us!
I am delighted to announce that the 2026 Australian Entomological Society Conference website is LIVE & registration is open. Abstract submission closes: July 31. event.mq.edu.au/aes2026/ Logo: Gunnar Tribelhorn @austentsoc.bsky.social @animbehav.bsky.social @ausevosoc.bsky.social
It was so lovely working on this with wonderful co-authors @lucillejmrose.bsky.social (her first paper! 🥳), @vanspidergirl.bsky.social 🧠, @mherberstein.bsky.social 🕷️, and @laurensr.bsky.social 👁️ @multipleye-lab.bsky.social @mfnberlin.bsky.social (7/8)
Meet our Plenary Speaker Daniela Rößler Fueled by curiosity and a deep love of natural history Daniela discovered a REM-like sleep state in spiders and uses integrative field, lab and comparative approaches to investigate the function, ecology, and evolution of sleep across the spider tree of life.
Make sure you don’t miss our key dates for abstract submission and registration!
Such a great opportunity and an unforgettable experience to be part of this adventure with you all. I was finally able to see a Portia in its natural habitat 🤩
SLEEB Lab Bonn@sleeblab.bsky.social · 11mo ago🎬 That’s a wrap! 🥹 after a bumpy last week off grid together with the fabulous @vanspidergirl.bsky.social & @madmetazoa.bsky.social we successfully finished an incredible field season on #portia and #invertsleep in the oldest rainforest of the world. Nothing but grateful for this experience ❤️
🎬 That’s a wrap! 🥹 after a bumpy last week off grid together with the fabulous @vanspidergirl.bsky.social & @madmetazoa.bsky.social we successfully finished an incredible field season on #portia and #invertsleep in the oldest rainforest of the world. Nothing but grateful for this experience ❤️
Exciting news for #drosophila #connectomics and #neuroscience enthusiasts: the Drosophila male central nervous system connectome is now live for exploration. Find out more at the landing page hosted by our Janelia FlyEM collaborators www.janelia.org/project-team....
Male CNS Connectome
A team of researchers has unveiled the complete connectome of a male fruit fly central nervous system —a seamless map of all the neurons in the brain and nerve cord of a single male fruit fly and the ...
janelia.org
🕷️ I just talked to ABC Sydney Radio about the social spiders 🎉🎉🎉 Thanks ABC live Radio Sydney for the talk!
Wear it Purple! Raising awareness about the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ communities! 💜💜💜💜 #macquarieuniversity
✨ It’s published! ✨ 🕷️ Social spiders have bigger brains… but only in the right places! Our new study shows that in social huntsman spiders, regions for memory & vision processing are proportionally larger, supporting group living. Read more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Volumetric Comparison of Overall Brain and Neuropil Size Between Social and Non‐social Spiders: Exploring the Social Brain Hypothesis
Brain size may be influenced by the cognitive demands of sociality (social brain hypothesis). We used microCT to compare CNS and brain volumes in social versus solitary huntsman and crab spiders. Soc...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
