We just released a new open resource for studying evolution, ecology, colour, behaviour & biodiversity. OzButterflies 🦋 ✨ 4,000+ individuals 🌈 Visible + UV images 🧬 CO1 barcodes 📈 Spectral reflectance data 🏞️ 125 species doi.org/10.1093/data... @mherberstein.bsky.social @livuni-ives.bsky.social

Wow Italy - What a time it has been! From fantastic views in Lake Garda and the Dolomites, to amazing food in Bologna… Not to mention, meeting up with friends, old and new, at #ISBE2026 in Turin. It’s a pleasure, as always, to connect and talk science. See you all in 2 years in Taiwan, if not sooner

Butterflies have extraordinary patterns. Come to my talk if you want to see their potential power to confuse predators in flight! 📍Room Londra | 🕓 3:45 pm | Thursday | #ISBE2026 @isbe2026.bsky.social

Ever wondered what mosquito pupae do when they get flushed out of their aquatic habitat? The answer surprised us - and might surprise you too. 🦟 📍Room 500 | 🕓 4:45 pm | #ISBE2026 @isbe2026.bsky.social

Leaf-mimicking katydids don’t just use their funky camouflage to survive, they’re using it to find love too! 🥰🍃💘 New paper out now in #ProcB @royalsocietypublishing.org (Photo cred: Christian Ziegler): doi.org/10.1098/rspb... 1/n

Out today in @royalsocietypublishing.org - we show that crab spiders (the ones you usually see ambushing pollinators on flowers 🕷️🌸) get worse at hunting if their eyes are covered!🫣 Sounds obvious? It's actually quite surprising, here's why... 👀 (1/8) royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

New co-author paper. The angle a snake is viewed cnan have a remarkable effect on the camouflage benefits of its patterning! Hoping to follow this up more soon! doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Snake markings facilitate diverse anti-predator functions depending on habitat and viewing angle

Many snakes have bold colour patterns, but how do habitat and viewing conditions change their functions? We found that zigzag and spot patterns can disrupt

doi.org

New pre-print out, how behaviour shapes camouflage evolution for spiders! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I am hiring a PhD student to join our group in Lund, Sweden working on an ERC-funded project to untangle color and polarization vision in some amazing crustaceans – minute water fleas and pugnacious mantis shrimp! Please forward this to promising students. Apply here: lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Well this is a big one the largest paper from my PhD is finally out! We show how direct lighting influences optimal camouflage! With shadows promoting the evolution of darker, striped patterns and countershading!! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Shining a light on camouflage evolution: Using genetic algorithms to determine the effects of geometry and lighting on optimal camouflage

Visual camouflage evolution in animals depends on both light’s interaction with its surroundings and the limits of what the natural observers of the camouflage can see. Changes in lighting – such as t...

journals.plos.org

New paper out now! Biologically inspired warning patterns deter a passerine, Parus major, from digital turbine blades academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

Biologically inspired warning patterns deter a passerine, Parus major, from digital turbine blades

By mimicking the warning colours of animals that ward off birds, we can produce wind turbine patterns to which birds are averse, reducing the likelihood of

academic.oup.com

Two identical squares in the Adelson checker block illusion look different, even though they’re the same. @slowfourier.bsky.social, Ken Scott-Brown and myself showed 123 people edited variants to test how context shapes what we see. Data + stimuli openly available. doi.org/10.1177/2041...

Do males strategically associate with mating partners, and how does social context influence their choices? Excited to share my first publication!🎉 It’s been an amazing journey and thanks to @lennartwinkler.bsky.social, John Fitzpatrick & all co-authors for your hard work! doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Male Strategic Association With Mating Partners Under Varying Social Contexts in a Livebearing Fish

We found that in halfbeaks, a shoaling fish species, males preferentially associated with an opposite sex pair (i.e., a female and a male) over rival males, but showed no preference when choosing bet....

doi.org

Our BehaveAI paper has just come out! Easy & effective tracking & behavioural classification, even with tiny (2px), fast moving, camouflaged objects. Paper: doi.org/10.1371/jour... Download: github.com/troscianko/B... @uniexecec.bsky.social @kevinjgaston.bsky.social @jimamclgalloway.bsky.social

Work brilliantly led by #ECR @sammatchette.bsky.social With @nadia-hamilton.bsky.social @christiandrerup.com #JeroenSchneider @sandrawinters.bsky.social @marinebehavecol.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social #predator #marine #fish #ocean doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Predators hide against similarly coloured species to camouflage on the move

Abstract. Many predators aim to approach prey without being detected or identified. Ambush predators often achieve this through camouflage, such as backgro

doi.org

New bowerbird paper out, we asked whether male great bowerbirds care about the light environment around the bower where they display to females. Short answer: not really. What they do care about is having a display arena with strong visual contrast on the ground. 🐦 tinyurl.com/2v7rycdz

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 Need to #camouflage on the move? Easy - simply seek out something that's coloured like you and move along with it! 🐠 Read the latest #trumpetfish instalment here: tinyurl.com/4tb5h5hk @royalsociety.org #shadowing #predator #experiment #marine #movement

🚨NEW paper alert🚨 Latest instalment in the #trumpetfish story: colour polymorphic individuals choose to ‘shadow’ non-predatory fishes of similar colour, gaining them a hunting advantage Led by the wonderful @sammatchette.bsky.social Out today in @royalsocietypublishing.org doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Had a great first day at #ASABWinter2025! Many fascinating talks and intriguing posters. If you didn’t manage to swing by and see me and have any questions about the recent research I’ve been doing, please get in contact!

We are delighted to announce our second ECBB 2026 Plenary Speaker! 🥁 🥁 🥁 The amazing Professor Tim Caro! #ecbb #ecbb2026

Larger frogs are better mimics but are more risk-averse in a nontoxic poison frog #Aposematism #WarningSignals #Ampibian doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Very happy to see our opinion article out in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social today. 🥳 We ask whether sexual signals can influence the evolutionary trajectory of naturally selected adaptations, such as protective colouration, for better or for worse 🧐 1/n doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

We hope everyone is getting excited for #ASABWinter2025 !   To kick off the conference on Dec 15, we will be having a public lecture by Prof. Innes Cuthill about an interdisciplinary approach to the study of camouflage. So make sure you’re not late ⏰

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

Evaluating the roles of signaling and camouflage in the evolution of iris color in Tyranni passerines. Evolution doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Evaluating the roles of signaling and camouflage in the evolution of iris color in Tyranni passerines

Abstract. Iris color is a conspicuous and diverse trait across animals, but its evolutionary drivers are poorly understood. In over 1000 species of Tyranni

doi.org

BehaveAI is live! Our biologically inspired video analysis tool sees motion as colour. Track animals or objects, classify their behaviour, and handle complex natural scenes with ease. Semi-supervised annotation, no GPUs required, user-friendly, free & open source. Pre-print tinyurl.com/BehaveAI

Leaf? 🍃 Or katydid? 🦗 Our new @plosbiology.org paper sheds light on how these incredible mimics evolved their disguises, and what this reveals about how complex adaptations arise. We find that coordinated evolution between traits might be the answer… plos.io/4oUE741 1/n

Functional and evolutionary synergy of trait components can explain the existence of leaf masquerade in katydids

The evolution of complex adaptations often involves synergistic changes in multiple traits that lack standalone function. This study shows that leaf masquerade in katydids evolved through concurrent m...

plos.io

#ISBE2026 Call for Abstracts is now open! Submit your abstract by 15 December 2025 on www.isbe2026.com @behavecol.bsky.social

Interested in vocal #communication? How animals provide referential #information about danger? Then see our 🌟NEW🌟 paper by brilliant ANU #PhD student Chun-Chieh Liao out today in @asab.org Animal Behaviour. 🎉👏 #birds #choughs #fieldwork #ECR With Rob Magrath and Rob Heinsohn doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...