Work with us! Join the team in Bristol studying the functional morphology of trilobite eyes 👀 ✍️ 30 months, @hfspo.bsky.social-funded, start by early 2027 🫵 looking for someone interested in developing new methods to analyse eyes in 3D and simulate vision 📆 Deadline 27. Aug ☎️ @laurensr.bsky.social

Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social · last wk.

📢 JOB ALERT! 📢 I am recruiting a 30-month postdoc to work on modelling the vision of trilobites @hfspo.bsky.social ! If you like 3D data, fossils, and functional morphology, this is the one for you! 📆Deadline 27. Aug Pls contact me with any Qs and share widely! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

🚨🦋 Thrilled to share my first PhD paper published in PNAS this week, in collaboration with Sören Kannegieser and @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social @insect-vision.bsky.social: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We found hawkmoths use a convergent visual control strategy for appendage guidance. 👁️🫳 🧵 below.

Floral handling can be energetically costly for bees, yet these costs are rarely measured. Watch #ProcB author Natacha Rossi talk about research that provides the first direct quantification of the metabolic cost of floral buzzing in bumblebees: cassyni.com/events/51q37... #ecology

Royal Society Publishing@royalsocietypublishing.org · 2mo ago

First direct quantification of floral handling costs in bees: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #ProcB #ecology

First direct quantification of floral handling costs in bees: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #ProcB #ecology

Metallyticus splendidus wishes everyone a happy pride month.

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...

And another paper out, which has just been covered by The Guardian! www.theguardian.com/environment/... original article: royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article... @bethbees.bsky.social @nicrodemo.bsky.social

‘Floral buzzing’ to collect pollen as exhausting for bees as flight take-off, study shows

Vibrating flowers uses huge amounts of energy, forcing bees to choose which plants to visit and affecting which ones are pollinated

theguardian.com

New paper on seeing in air and water with compound eyes! The problem: physics The solution: physics Elegantly described with the dream team @tannermierow.bsky.social and @alexkingston.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Pixie robber flies are merciless predators, successfully intercepting perched victims, & in their recent JEB paper, @rossonisergio.bsky.social &co reveal that the insects use their motion relative to the prey to determine the victim's size and how far off they are doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

🚨 New paper out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1242/jeb.... Some robber flies hunt resting prey and judge their distance well despite limited vision. We show their looping flights help them estimate this via motion parallax. A neat example of active vision making up for optical limitations! 👀🪰

Predators must estimate the size of a potential prey. Size of a moving target is assessed by angular speed/size, rules that not apply for stationary prey. Unlike damselflies, pixie robber flies use motion parallax to infer prey size. @rossonisergio.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Predation via motion parallax in one of two gleaning insects

A predator's survival is highly dependent on correctly deciding whether to attack potential prey. Pursuit predators, for example, can estimate the size of a moving target from the ratio between its an...

journals.biologists.com

Netcasting spiders hurl a stretchy net to capture prey, a net that can double in size during full extension. A study explores how the silk achieves such impressive elasticity without sacrificing strength. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/qRYu50Y5z8x

New #OpenAccess work in #RESEcolEnt Vegetation #biomass & landscape context influence web-building #spider dietary breadth in urban vacant lots doi.org/10.1111/een.70022 #UrbanArthropods #Biodiversity #UrbanLandscapes @sheborg.bsky.social @robwilsonmncn.bsky.social @callomac.bsky.social @wiley.com

🚨 Our study from @bethbees.bsky.social lab is out in @royalsocietypublishing.org . We show that bumblebees taste some amino acids (valine), but not others (lysine). Bees might choose flowers not just by how sweet they taste! #bees 🐝 #taste 👅 #pollen #nectar 🌺 #protein 🥩 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Gustatory sensitivity to amino acids in bumblebee mouthparts | Royal Society Open Science

Bees rely on amino acids from nectar and pollen for essential physiological functions. While nectar typically contains low (less than 1 mM) amino acid concentrations, levels in pollen are higher but variable (10–200 mM). Behavioural studies suggest ...

doi.org