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Jessica Foley

@jessicafoley14.bsky.social

111 followers 120 following 33 posts

Postdoc at Tufts University studying sociality and ageing in fruit flies (previously 🦋). Evolution of ageing, insect neurobiology, and creative science communication. she/her

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Jessica Foley @jessicafoley14.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

While the shorter-lived, closely-related Dryas iulia shows a decline in grip strength with age, we found no impact of age on performance in Heliconius hecale – either with the pollen or without. So not only do Heliconius live longer, they also show evidence of delayed physiological ageing. (7/10)

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Jessica Foley @jessicafoley14.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

We next wanted to know – how might physiological ageing differ in these long-lived butterflies? With help from @dinalab.bsky.social, we built a device called "The Pullinator" to measure butterfly “grip strength” across the lifespan. (6/10)

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Jessica Foley @jessicafoley14.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

But results from pollen-deprivation experiments show that this lifespan extension is not purely down to the plastic nutritional benefits of pollen. Even without it, Heliconius live nearly twice as long as some of their close relatives – indicating evolved, heritable mechanisms of longevity. (5/10)

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Jessica Foley @jessicafoley14.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Moving beyond maximum lifespan (a notoriously problematic metric), we also show evidence for longer median lifespans, reduced baseline mortality, and slowed rates of ageing in Heliconius, associated with their transition to a pollen-feeding behaviour. (4/10)

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Jessica Foley @jessicafoley14.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

We collate data from the literature, commercial butterfly houses, and our own insectary experiments to reveal maximum lifespans of up to 348 days in Heliconius hewitsoni, representing a 25-fold lifespan extension over some of their closest Heliconiini relatives. (3/10)

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Jessica Foley @jessicafoley14.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Heliconius biologists have known about their lengthy lives for decades, often citing a maximum lifespan of around 6 months – but this remarkable longevity has received surprisingly little scientific attention. Distracted by those dazzling wing patterns, no doubt… Photo by @eahodge.bsky.social (2/10)

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