🦗Crickets! 🔊Vibrational stimuli! 🚧Sensitization! 👥 Individual variation! Our #EditorsChoice for the #AnimalBehaviourJournal: “Trait-specific responses to repeated stressor exposure reveal context-dependent learning in wild crickets” Read here: doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2026.123607

🕷️〰️ Proudly presented my work on energy expenditure during vibrational spider courtship at #ISBE2026 today! 〰️🕷️ It was a great poster session, and I absolutely loved all the amazing conversations - I am looking forward to many more in the next days✨

The #Australian ballista #spider (Propostira sp.) uses its silk's elastic energy storage capacity to build the most powerful snare and selective in the #animal kingdom. Read about our discovery here: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... Video by Ajay Narendra. Recorded with 3,000 fps, playback 100x slowed down!

Very excited to finally have this out in the world! The first paper from my PhD (and my first first-author publication) makes the case for a new entrant to the world of long-lived animal models: Heliconius butterflies. Out now in @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/10)

Evolution of increased longevity and slowed ageing in a genus of tropical butterfly - Nature Communications

Studying long-lived species across the animal kingdom could provide insights into healthy ageing in humans. This study reveals long lifespans and slowed ageing in Heliconius butterflies, identifying t...

nature.com

🕷️ A #spider for #MacroMonday. This is a six-spotted fishing spider, Dolomedes triton, in my goldfish pond. #macro #photography #spiders

New paper alert!🕷️✨ Tiny spider. Shiny abdomen. Suspiciously wiggly bum. In our new study, we asked what abdomen bobbing in this jumping spider is really all about: Cute? Yes. Meaningful? Let’s find out...! [1/8] @unibonn.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-026-03745-1

📄New Paper!📄 Multimodal courtship in Nursery web spiders involves a nuptial gift AND vibrations. Do males adjust their investment in the vibratory signal based on how nice their nuptial gift is? Out now in @behavecol.bsky.social academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

Adult Nursery Web spiders, in their various patterns and colours, can be seen throughout the UK at present. They live in a variety of habitats but perhaps the best place to find them is amongst banks of bramble, nettles and other tall plants. Later, watch out for females carrying their egg sacs.

Finally answered the "should we start a podcast" call that waits for us all... Episode 1 of Inside Geroscience is out now! Tune in for conversations about the biology of ageing with leading scientists in the field. Brought to you by the Academy of Geroscience, available on all podcast platforms.

Nature vs. Nurture with Uri Alon

open.spotify.com

Markus Knaden et al. from the Odor-Guided Behavior Group in collab. with @yukoulrich.bsky.social report in PNAS that ozone destroys colony-specific odors causing attacks within the colony – a dramatic example of how human pollution can disrupt social systems in nature. www.ice.mpg.de/530492/PR_Ji...

Air pollution causes social instability in ant colonies

A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has shown in a new study that ants returning from habitats affected by air pollution are attacked when they re-enter the colony. The ...

ice.mpg.de

News on the function of tremulation: Female Pisaura mirabilis spiders are not appeased by the courtship tremulations of males - at least in our playback setup. Result of Stefan ter Haar's internship from Groningen led by @monikaeberhard.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

No Appeasement Through Vibrations: Male Vibratory Pre‐Copulatory Courtship in the Cursorial Spider Pisaura mirabilis Does Not Affect Female Predatory Response

Male courtship can serve various purposes such as species recognition, mate localization, or advertisement of individual quality and physical condition. In predatory species such as spiders, courtshi...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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

Arthropod Photo of the Week: October 29, 2025 Net-casting spider Asianopis sp. Araneae: Deinopidae By Dennis Botterbusch, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany #arthropodPOTW

Xylethrus superbus is a fabulous species of orb weaving spider from the Amazon rainforest. While she looks a bit like a strawberry, eating her is not recommended. #Arachtober Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022

Getting close to wrapping up a big Paraphidippus aurantius 🍊video featuring courtship behavior, silk production, possible mate-guarding, cannibalism and more 🫡 here's a big female w/ a lot of orange scales - July, 2021, NE Oklahoma

Never too late to say that I had a fantastic time at the @35theca2025.bsky.social conference in gorgeous Zadar a few weeks ago! I met many incredible arachnid enthusiasts, presented about biotremology in a symposium on sensory biology, and was honored to be recognized with 2nd prize for my talk! 🕷️

Our journal congratulates @ortizmovliavc.bsky.social l for her award at @35theca2025.bsky.social ! Her work, “Winter warming increases metabolic stress and mortality in an overwintering spider,” got her a free publication in a @pensoft.net journal. zookeys.pensoft.net/news/993

PhD student Carolina Ortiz Movliav wins Best Oral Presentation at European Congress of Arachnology

Carolina Ortiz Movliav, a PhD student at the University of Greifswald, has won the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 35th European Congress of Arachnology for her work “Winter warming inc...

zookeys.pensoft.net

new paper, led by Lin Yan from the Elias Lab at UCB Latent preference for red ornamentation drives interspecific mating in nascent jumping spider species (Habronattus americanus group, F. Salticidae) Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Thanks @animal-prattle.bsky.social for reminding me to post about this project🐋🎵 Mia Davitt (+ col), musician from 🇺🇸, attempted to transcribe whale sounds in Western musical style. Turns out to work quite well, so we #preprint ed these interesting results: osf.io/preprints/os... #OSF #bioacoustics

animal prattle@animal-prattle.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Interesting pre-print up on OSF from @lsburchardt.bsky.social and co-authors on "Rhythmic notation and musical analysis of sperm whale vocalizations" 🐋 "[we found that] transcription of codas very closely resembled human music" osf.io/preprints/os... #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics

A likely Leiobunum sp. harvestman. Striking colors against the background here. I wish more people looked past the blur of those long legs to see the beautiful animal behind them. #bugsky 🪲🪳🌿

Better together: sibling cooperation matters! Burying beetle larvae consistently benefited from growing up with siblings, both with & without parents. Huber et al. show that sibling interactions can play a key role in the evolution of family life. Read now! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

My photo made it onto the cover of @pnas.org! 🎉You can read the related article about the amazing morphologies of treehoppers increasing their sensitivity to static electricity here: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Velvet Ants of North America! 🐜

The first chapter of my thesis is out now in Journal of Ethology! Check it out if you're interested in taking a deep dive into the vibrational signal of a very cute spider 🕷️〰️ Variation of vibratory performance during courtship of a cursorial spider: doi.org/10.1007/s101...

Successful hunting for these two Thomisus onustus from Dorset. I love the variation in colour of these spiders - everything from white, through various shades of pink, deep burgundy and purple or even bright yellow🩷🤍💛💜 @britishspiders.bsky.social #om-1 #dorsetwildlife #ukwildlife #macrophotography

silver garden orb weaver #spider #spiders #gardenorbweaver #orbweaver #cool #art #digitaldrawing #digitalpainting #digitalart #artmoots #smallartist #ibispaint #green #vibes #sunset

PhD position open with Dr. Jutta Schneider and @mherberstein.bsky.social in Hamburg, on sub-social behavior in crab spiders 🕷️ It even includes field work in Australia! Application deadline is 15 July, more info at the link: www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenan...

The exteriors of spider eyes are part of the exoskeleton, so can't move. But in jumping spiders, the internal parts of the large central eyes have muscles that can swivel and twist to help the spider aim its eyes from inside the head. This is a 4-frame.gif showing that internal movement. 🌿🐙🕷️👀

I recently gave an interview for the SNSF magazine about the fascinating world of black widow spiders. Here it is! 🕷️🕸️🦗 www.horizons-mag.ch/2025/06/05/h...

How spiders make high-pressure decisions

Horizons - In brief

horizons-mag.ch

🕷️🌍🕸️ Spiders aren't creepy crawlies—they're ecosystem heroes! From pest control to biotech inspiration to key figures in our collective culture, a new review reveals the many services spiders provide: 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/brv.... (drawing by @jmalumbresolarte.bsky.social)