New preprint: 338 coleopteran genomes reveal exceptional rearrangement variation compared to other insect orders. Big congrats to @arf-mln.bsky.social, for getting this giant piece together. Big collaboration of @joanameier.bsky.social's and my groups. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.64898/202...

A glimpse of our work on the population genomics of the critically endangered Alcon blue (Phengaris alcon) in Czechia. Many thanks to Jihoceska televize for featuring our research! 🦋

(2/3) Great talk by @charlottewright.bsky.social from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, one of our coordinators, on widening participation in genome generation! @10klepgenomes.bsky.social is scaling Lepidoptera genome curation across Europe: 30 trained curators, 14 countries, 120+ genomes curated 🦋👀

Enjoying an excellent Entomology Congress #ECE2026 in Tours, France. Jean-Michel Drezen and I hosted a genomics symposium. Lots of @projectpsyche.bsky.social members here. @pedrogribeiro.bsky.social gave an excellent talk on the @10klepgenomes.bsky.social COST Action.

If you are interested in the sequencing and analysis of the genomes of European butterflies and moths, do visit the @10klepgenomes.bsky.social website and get in touch! It is a great opportunity to be part of an exciting community driving timely and interesting research! 10klepgenomes.eu

Marcin Wiorek@marcinwiorek.bsky.social · last mo.

After Monday's teaser in the session dedicated to COST Actions, @pedrogribeiro.bsky.social just presented an inspiring update on the outputs and progress of @10klepgenomes.bsky.social and @projectpsyche.bsky.social in the Genomics and evolutionary novelties 3 session at @ece2026tours.bsky.social! 🦋

@pedrogribeiro.bsky.social gave a wonderful talk about our initiative with @projectpsyche.bsky.social and #LepEU at @ece2026tours.bsky.social panel dedicated to COST Actions. Our goal is to sequence reference genomes from all European Lepidoptera. #10kLepGenomes #Lepidoptera #ECE2026Tours

Here at the @ece2026tours.bsky.social to talk about the amazing @10klepgenomes.bsky.social COST Action and how we are collaborating with @projectpsyche.bsky.social and #LepEU to obtain reference genomes of all European moths and butterflies!

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

People. @ksamuk.bsky.social and others have made this argument before. There’s good software to do this right. Here’s the argument again: Invariant sites matter! They’re not in your standard vcf and many programs pretend they are anyway. academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

A Recipe for a Good π. How to Properly Estimate Population Genetics Summary Statistics and Why we Should Systematically Report Them

Abstract. Many long-standing questions in population genomics can now be addressed through comparative analyses and by leveraging the vast amount of genomi

academic.oup.com

Very happy to announce a big new paper from the lab, led by grad students @smishra677.bsky.social and Laia Pomar-Pallarès (in collaboration with @roblanfear.bsky.social). We introduce a new way to study introgression, with accompanying software (DAFT) 1/n 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are very glad to introduce a new method for designing phylogenetically informative target-enrichment datasets that leverages recent whole-genome alignment methods to identify thousands of shared and homologous regions across a broad range of reference taxa! Please, check out Benjamin's preprint!

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A new method based on genome alignments provides a highly resolutive target enrichment set for weevils (Coleoptera, Curculionoidea) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.09.724036v1

Finally we know where the enigmatic Caribbean genus Calisto goes in the tree of life, thanks to the amazing work by Rayner Nunez! Mixture models seem to be the way to go! doi.org/10.1111/syen...

Mixture models unveil the origin of the enigmatic Satyrinae butterfly genera Calisto and Llorenteana (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)

We provide the first reliable hypothesis on the phylogenetic position of Calisto and Llorenteana within the tribe Satyrini, based on genomic data representing all subtribes. We apply for the first t.....

doi.org

Excited that the first genome assembly of a Lonomia spp. moth has been published @genetics-gsa.bsky.social by first authors @diler.bsky.social + @samridhi.bsky.social w/our wonderful colleagues at Universidad de los Andes led by Dr. Camila Gonzalez (thanks @cdanielcadena for introducing us!). 1

My ANDV #Hantavirus @nextstrain.org phylogenies now pull directly from @pathoplexus.org to incorporate all seqs I'll continue to improve them, & will keep them updated Change the Tip Labels in the left-hand menu. You can see links to all builds, plus tanglegrams at: nextstrain.org/groups/hodcr...

@pavelmatosm.bsky.social has a PhD position for someone to work with comparative genomics of rapid evolution in Andean butterflies! If you are looking for a PhD, do apply!

Pável Matos@pavelmatosm.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New PhD position: Butterfly Evolution at High Elevations 🦋⛰️🧬 The project aims to understand the rapid evolution and adaptation of Andean white butterflies using genomics. DEADLINE: May 8, 2026 Start: Autumn 2026 (Czechia) More info: pavelmatos.wordpress.com/join-us/

Excited to share our new paper on pollen foraging in Heliconius himera @behavecol.bsky.social! 🦋🌼 academic.oup.com/beheco/artic... We explored how female and male H. himera differ in pollen foraging & sensory traits. 1/6🧵👇

Sexual dimorphism in pollen foraging and sensory traits in Heliconius butterflies

Male and female butterflies often face different ecological and sensory demands, yet how this shapes their foraging behaviour remains unclear. In Heliconiu

academic.oup.com

Working on entomology research? Join us from 29 June to 3 July in Tours, France, for the European Congress of Entomology. The abstract submission deadline was extended to 31 January. If you are interested in genomics and evolutionary novelties, apply for our symposium on this topic. www.ece2026.org

ECE 2026 - XIII European Congress of Entomology

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to Tours, France, in the heart of the Loire Valley, from June 29 to July 3, 2026.

ece2026.org

One of the coolest databases (and most important) in ecology and evolutionary biology

Benoit Nabholz@benoitevol.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly journals in ecology and evolutionary biology url: academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

Some butterflies may seem more beautiful than others. And believe it or not, this is influencing their conservation and researchers' interest! - Take this 10-min test to contribute to a research into our perception of butterfly beauty: www.unveiling.eu/en_US/introd...

@pavelmatosm.bsky.social has a PhD position to work on rapid evolution and adaptation of flight in high altitude butterflies. Fieldwork in Peru + behavioral experiments! If you are looking for a great PhD opportunity, read the position at the link below and contact Pável! pavelmatos.wordpress.com

Matos Lab

Visit the post for more.

pavelmatos.wordpress.com

I very excited we finally made a new version of #smudgeplot: Skylight. Much faster, improved inference and interface and finally, we have a new experimental features that might be fun toying with. github.com/KamilSJaron/...

Release Skylight · KamilSJaron/smudgeplot

What's Changed Lots of bugfixes in the interface and documentation (@samebdon and @KamilSJaron ) Add JSON report and PNG default plot format to output by @jgrg in #215 Fix bug in estimation of err...

github.com

Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on. (Please repost to reach a broad audience.)

Finally out in Elife @elife.bsky.social : well done @joledamoisel.bsky.social ! Convergent iridescence and divergent chemical signals in sympatric sister-species of Amazonian butterflies doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Truly great report by Glenn Zorpette at @spectrum.ieee.org on one of the most exciting scientific EU-level projects going on, the @10klepgenomes.bsky.social COST action alongside with @projectpsyche.bsky.social. Sequence all leps in Europe and make discoveries a landmark in genomics and lep biology!

IEEE Spectrum@spectrum.ieee.org · 9mo ago

In July, our reporter traveled to the Italian Alps and to Barcelona, Spain, to observe researchers capturing moths and butterflies and then sequencing their genomes. It was all part of the most ambitious biology project ever: to sequence every species on Earth.

A fantastic writeup by Glenn Zorpette from @spectrum.ieee.org. Glenn joined us in Italy where we collectively sampled hundreds of new species for @projectpsyche.bsky.social. Shoutout to Luigi Avantaggiato for the spectacular photos and @costprogramme.bsky.social funding for bringing groups together.

IEEE Spectrum@spectrum.ieee.org · 9mo ago

In July, our reporter traveled to the Italian Alps and to Barcelona, Spain, to observe researchers capturing moths and butterflies and then sequencing their genomes. It was all part of the most ambitious biology project ever: to sequence every species on Earth.

That's it! On Monday I defended my PhD working with the genomics and evolutionary history of the relationship between butterflies and Wolbachia, with a comment on the use of genomics to conservation! Thanks a lot to @pavelmatosm.bsky.social for supervising and mentoring!

Pável Matos@pavelmatosm.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Our lab is celebrating! 🥳 Pedro Ribeiro @pedrogribeiro.bsky.social has excellently defended his PhD thesis: theses.cz/id/9gnm91/ Pedro has used genome data to study the evolution of butterflies and their endosymbiont bacteria Wolbachia. We wish you all the best, Dr. Pedro! 🦋

@pavelmatosm.bsky.social has a new PhD position opportunity to work with conservation genomics of European butterflies! The project involves very cool collaborations with @projectpsyche.bsky.social, @10klepgenomes.bsky.social and the LepEUConsortium! Deadline Sep 12 pavelmatos.wordpress.com/join-us/

Join us

Opportunities Below are the positions currently open in our lab. PhD position (full-time doctoral funding) We are seeking a highly motivated PhD student to join our team. The goal of the project is…

pavelmatos.wordpress.com

This month's ERGA BioGenome Analysis & Applications Seminar will feature a talk by speaker Pío Sierra about a new tool, pantera, which allows faster identification of Transposable Elements in genome assemblies. www.erga-biodiversity.eu/post/faster-...

Faster identification of Transposable Elements in full genome assemblies

This month's ERGA BioGenome Analysis & Applications Seminar will feature a talk by speaker Pío Sierra about a new tool, pantera, which allows faster identification of Transposable Elements in genome a...

erga-biodiversity.eu

Anybody out there with BayesAss2 experience? I think we are not understanding each other about how the input file has to look like!

🚨Postdoc opportunity🚨: LepEU postdoc: comparative population genomics of European scale adaptation in butterflies 2 year, full-time PD in my group, Stockholm Univ. Applications assed on rolling basis, deadline: 23 August 2025. Planned start 1 Oct. Details: christopherwheatlab.wordpress.com