iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Marshal Hedin @mhedin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

This won’t be for everyone An amazing aggregation of harvestman Sequoia national Park, CA

Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Do you like invertebrates with small geographic ranges? Join our symposium at this years Australian Entomological Society @austentsoc.bsky.social "Short-range endemism in Australian invertebrates: Patterns, problems, and conservation imperatives" Abstracts due July 30th! event.mq.edu.au/aes2026/

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Bob Wong @bbmwong.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Do you have a background in behavioural ecology and are you interested in doing a PhD in Australia? I’m looking for new grad students so check out our website (BobWongLab.org) or come find me in Torino at #ISBE2026. 🐟🐠

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Panorpa insolens, a scorpionfly, defends her delicious mystery lump from a patient flesh fly (Sarcophagidae). Wing-flagging in Panorpa is used for both intraspecific and interspecific communication, and in some species studied, these displays are often used to guard food from other scavengers

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Çağlar Akçay @caglarakcay.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

New preprint on the avian vampire flies in Galapagos Islands: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Ian Andrews @suillia.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Leptometopa latipes (Milichiidae)...2-3mm freeloader fly. Seem to be few records nationally, but conservative estimate of 5000 today at Bempton Cliffs, where I suspect they associate with seabird guano. They were all over the cliff edge hand rails! @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Andrew Barnes @barnesecodiv.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Published today in @nature.com, our study shows that the #foodweb trophic structure is critical for #ecosystemfunctioning. Read it here: rdcu.be/frxEl This has been an incredibly rewarding collaboration with many amazing scientists! 🌐🧪🦑🍁🌱 @waikatouniversity.bsky.social @idiv-research.bsky.social

Geographic distribution of the 318 food webs across four ecosystem types that were analysed to test how food web architecture modulates BEF relationships

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Jess Marsh @jessmarsh.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Introducing the world's only known cave-adapted spider wasp... Troglopompilus miracaecatus (Pompilidae) from the caves of the Nullarbor, Australia. A world first: Eyeless, long limbs and antennae, highly reduced wings. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #cave #wasp #biodiversity

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

A chilly 12 Celsius day in Melbourne, but the blowflies are out showing their colours off in the sun. In blue, Lucilia porphyrina. In orange, Calliphora ochracea. Interestingly - L. porphyrina (blue) is only known from the northern states. Climate change may be driving a southern range extension!!

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Sophia Anner @sophiaanner.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Happy #flyday! An ideal day to share the 1st chapter from my PhD, now published in Animal Behavior! We did a deep dive into courtship in the apple maggot fly, famous for sympatric speciation and spider mimicry @animbehsociety.bsky.social #evosky 🧪 1/2 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Mutual visual displays and female signals underpin mating success in Rhagoletis pomonella flies

Courtship is an interactive process that serves multiple functions and often involves signals and responses from both sexes. To understand how sexual …

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

How do courtship dances evolve? Paper out now in Behavioral Ecology 🪰 "Courtship choreography is stabilized among genetically isolated populations" doi.org/10.1093/behe... Video of our study species the dancing dune fly (Apotropina ornatipennis) below.

youtu.be

The courtship display of Apotropina ornatipennis (Diptera: Chloropidae)

YouTube video by Nathan

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Mary E. Fuller pioneered the field of carrion ecology. Her work was cited by Charles Elton in 1966 (The Pattern of Animal Communities) as "the only full-dress account of the whole community in natural carrion and its stages of succession".

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

ESA Journals @esajournals.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

🆕 in "Ecology": Who spreads more disease - males or females? At least in water fleas, it depends on temperature 📄The sicker sex is plastic: Thermal plasticity determines sex biases in pathogen transmission doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Some possible forms of sex-specific plasticity in each infection component and how they may lead to non-intuitive predictions for sex-biases in pathogen transmission. Using a horizontally transmitted pathogen as an example, transmission capacity through each sex depends on the sex-specific differences in host susceptibility, pathogen loads, and death rates. Hypothetically, each component could have a unique form of sex-specific plasticity – susceptibility might be plastic only for males (i.e., sex-specific), equally plastic in both sexes in the same direction (i.e., equivalent), and equally plastic in both sexes but in opposing directions (i.e., divergent). Yet considering overall disease spread would suggest a strong male-bias in transmission in environment 1, but no bias at all in environment 2, and that this shift in the extent of the ‘sicker sex’ (in regard to the sex where pathogen transmission is highest) would be underpinned entirely by plasticity in male transmission only.

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Field season wrapped for 2025! 🐌🪰🎉

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

A bugs-eye view from the forest floor 🪰🐌 Currently collecting across South East New South Wales to assess hotspots of invertebrate endemism! @heloisegibb.bsky.social @paigematheson.bsky.social

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

New preprint! Courtship choreography is stabilised among genetically isolated populations Check out the mesmerising courtship display of Apotropina ornatipennis (Diptera: Chloropidae) doi.org/10.1101/2025... with @bioblake.bsky.social, @angmcgaughran.bsky.social, @thekeithing.bsky.social, et al

youtu.be

The courtship display of Apotropina ornatipennis (Diptera: Chloropidae) from Australia

YouTube video by Nathan

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

"The house fly is a migrant, and it appears to suffer from an incurable case of wanderlust. The fly is born in a mass of filth, being, according to one philosopher, the resurrection, the reincarnation of man's own dirt and carelessness" - Murvosh & Thaggard 1966 Ann Ento Soc Am. Photo by M. Bertone

The house fly (Musca domestica). Credit Matt Bertone 2014.

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Excited to have this one published! Carrion-breeding flies of Australia and New Zealand: A review and key to adults. We summarise over a century of information on the ecology and physiology of the many beautiful carrion flies 🪰 An enormous effort led by Nikolas Johnston doi.org/10.1111/aen....

doi.org

Carrion‐breeding flies of Australia and New Zealand: A review and key to adults

Carrion-breeding flies are diverse with over 70 species in the Australasian/Oceanian region, predominantly from the families Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae. These flies play crucial roles in ecosyst....

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Nathan Butterworth @butterworthbugs.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

I'm Nathan - I research and photograph bugs. To start my bluesky account, here is a cool fly I found from Raglan, New Zealand. 🦟

A large black asiloid fly with blue eyes, white stripes on the thorax, and red-tinted legs.

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Keith Bayless @thekeithing.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

One of the #strangerthings find in the Upside Down, whoops I mean #DownUnder is the Western Clawless Upside-down fly - Nothoasteia clausa. Always facing down, they dart around inside Xanthorrhoea grass trees. I'm looking forward to exploring the mystery of their relationships to other #Diptera

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Reposted by Nathan Butterworth

Shawan Chowdhury @shawan-chowdhury.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

A dream comes true! In Feb'25, I will join @MonashUni as a group leader on Global Change Biology. Our lab's primary focus will be understanding how animals respond to global change using heterogeneous data and developing an efficient conservation plan to mitigate the impact. (1/3)

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