iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Jolyon Troscianko @jtroscianko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🦋 Butterfly wing patterns create motion illusions that protect them from predators! Our new study (8 years in the making) is out in Nature today doi.org/10.1038/s415... @grahancock.bsky.social @esbriolat.bsky.social @scienceanna.bsky.social @lauraakelley.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social

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Judith A.H. Smit @judithsmit.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Hola! Interested in doing a 3-month research #internship on treehopper vibrational communication with me at STRI in Panama? 🤩 More info: stri.si.edu/academic-pro... Application deadline Oct 15. Also many other cool projects! #AnimalBehavior

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Kim L. Holzmann @kimholzmann.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Big effort, exciting results - our paper on the constraints of thermal limits in tropical insects is now out in @nature.com! 🦋🐝🪰🪲🦗 @ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social @biologie-uniwue.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de

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Judith A.H. Smit @judithsmit.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Caterpillars eat plants, right? 🌿 Not always, some are carnivorous! 🥩🐛 Our new paper documents the life history, behavior, and vibrations of Juditha odites. It feeds on treehoppers, then moves into ant nests to consume ant brood! 🐜🐛🦋 link.springer.com/article/10.1... @insectessociaux.bsky.social

link.springer.com

An insect-eating caterpillar associated with arboreal ants: life cycle, diet, social integration and substrate-borne vibrations - Insectes Sociaux

Herbivory is the predominant feeding strategy in Lepidoptera, whereas carnivory has evolved rarely. The life cycles of carnivorous species, however, remain poorly documented. Here, we confirm that Jud...

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Aramati Casper @aramaticasper.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Why is there "no consensus" about sex in biology? Turns out, we're using seven different concepts. In "Evolution, development and the incoherence of sex" we name & elucidate these concepts. With Karen Warkentin and Jay Falk @jjinsing.bsky.social @sicbjournals.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

The cover of the article, in Integrative and Comparative Biology. The image caption is "Examples of seven biological phenomena sometimes called sex and the evolutionary relationships among them. The seven sex concepts are depicted with images: 0) horizontal gene transfer, 1) meiosis and syngamy, 2) anisogamy, 3) the gametes produced by an individual, 4) traits often associated with gamete production, 5) processes that bring gametes in proximity to facilitate syngamy, 6) processes/behaviors/traits derived from sex5.

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Dr Hannah M. Rowland @hannahmrowland.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

We just released a new open resource for studying evolution, ecology, colour, behaviour & biodiversity. OzButterflies 🦋 ✨ 4,000+ individuals 🌈 Visible + UV images 🧬 CO1 barcodes 📈 Spectral reflectance data 🏞️ 125 species doi.org/10.1093/data... @mherberstein.bsky.social @livuni-ives.bsky.social

examples of database images. (B) Disassembled RGB. (C) Disassembled UV. (D) Pinned dorsal RGB. (E) Pinned dorsal UV. (F) Pinned ventral RGB. (G) Pinned ventral UV.

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Pushkar Wagh @pushkar1701.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

New paper out in @thermal-biology.bsky.social! (Actually not so new now, I am super late on this one) In this study, we determined the thermal tolerance limits of the Asian Common Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) found in India and found that these limits vary significantly across ontogeny.

sciencedirect.com

Tough toad ahead: ontogenetic variation in thermal tolerance defines life-stage vulnerability in Duttaphrynus melanostictus

Environmental temperature can critically impact the performance and survival of ectotherms. Assessing the ability to tolerate increasing temperatures …

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Luca Livraghi @lucalivraghi.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

New pre-print with some updates on ivory:miR193 in a highly polymorphic moth. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We mapped ivory (again!?) this time controlling aspects of camouflage in Anticarsia gemmatalis. Mapping, SVs, Expression and Function. Comments/suggestions welcome!

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Pushkar Wagh @pushkar1701.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Frogs and the city! In a recent study, led by the amazing K. S. Seshadri, we looked at the anuran species composition across the heavily urbanized city of Bengaluru in India. Our results suggest that the anuran assemblages in Bengaluru appear to be resilient to urbanization (at least for now!)

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Barbara J. King @bjking.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

"The project that was terminated was on this hummingbird, the white-necked jacobin....I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary." Researcher @jjinsing.bsky.social interviewed by @carlzimmer.com #birds #nature #science #fundscience #nonbinary 🧪

nytimes.com

He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males

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Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

How do light and noise pollution impact selection on sexual signals? We tested mate attraction and bat predation on túngara frogs. Light and noise interact in complex ways, and light pollution shifts selection on male calling: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... @andrewdcronin.bsky.social et al.

doi.org

Noise pollution and artificial light at night alter selection pressures on sexual signals in an urban adapter

Abstract. Human-induced environmental changes can have major impacts on how individuals communicate. Species using sexual signals may experience especially

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Science Magazine @science.org · 25/09/2025

Researchers in Science report a globally replicated experiment that uncovers which factors explain the relative success of warning coloration and camouflage as antipredator color strategies. Learn more in this week's issue: scim.ag/4mBCl6i

A white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) decides whether to consume a warningly colored white-barred acraea butterfly (Telchinia encedon).

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Nature @nature.com · 03/09/2025

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

go.nature.com

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

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Journal of Animal Ecology @animalecology.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

"In our study, we find that urbanization speeds up tadpole development and increased behavioral plasticity. However, exposure to urban conditions also decreased tadpole size, which may cause adult frogs to become smaller and less attractive for mates" Read the full paper here: buff.ly/FxGf8KD

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Journal of Experimental Biology @jexpbiol.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

In her Perspective, Emilie Snell-Rood discusses the value of basic science, using the Morpho butterfly as an example of how this type of research has driven later innovation & highlights the value of government and institutional support for basic research journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

A photo of six butterflies which depicts the many different colours and patterns of butterflies in the genus Morpho. The top left is Morpho menelaus, the top middle is Morpho helenor, the top right is Morpho cypris. On the bottom left is Morpho rhetenor, the bottom middle is Morpho sulkowskyi, and the bottom right is Morpho hecuba. Photo credit: Emilie Snell-Rood.

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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 06/05/2025

New #RSOS paper investigating chemical defences and visual signals in a wasp #moth. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @hannahmrowland.bsky.social @amatageorgeii.bsky.social @liisahamalainen.bsky.social @kateumbers.bsky.social @mherberstein.bsky.social @jmappes.bsky.social

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