iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Excited for our lab to present our work at #IUSSI26 @uissi-social.bsky.social! #zombiewasps #weaverants Looking forward to catching up with all our social insect peeps in Freiburg 🐜 🐝

Flyer for presentations by the Uy social insect lab at #IUSSI26

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TropBioLab @tropbiolab.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Super honored to receive this award from @amornith.bsky.social with my close and dear friend Rebecca Jo Safran #AOSAWARDS

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TropBioLab @tropbiolab.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Introducing the Yato Protected Area -- the largest federally protected conservation area of the Solomon Islands! We are humbled to have been given the opportunity to partner with indigenous communities in Makira to save threatened ecosystems. #conservation #SolomonIslands #biodiversity

Yatop Protected Area, the largest protected forest of the Solomon Islands

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TropBioLab @tropbiolab.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Want to hear more about how twisted-wing insects hack their hosts to their own benefit? Checkout this fun podcast with @avispatica.bsky.social talking about her work on these biohackers!!

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Lan Nhi /ˈlanniː/ @lannhiphung.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Super last minute as I’m on my flight to #AOS25 — I will be talking about my work on bowerbirds on Wednesday morning in Genomics 2. Looking forward to seeing everyone and sharing this incredible dataset 🐦‍⬛

Comparative genomics reveal positive selection underlying mating signal diversification across bowerbirds
Lan-Nhi Phung, Gerald Borgia, J. Albert C. Uy
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
University of Maryland, College Park, MD

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TropBioLab @tropbiolab.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Interested in how new sex chromosomes evolve in birds? Our NSF-funded collaborative work with the (Daven) Presgraves lab at @urochester.bsky.social is out this week in @pnas.org. Check it out! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Honored to be a plenary speaker for #ABL2025! #wasplove

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Animal Behaviour Live @animalbehaviour.live · 24/07/2025

We’re excited to announce @avispatica.bsky.social (Univ. of Rochester) as a plenary speaker at #ABL2025! 🙌 Dr Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy’s talk will explore how parasites reprogram social wasps—revealing deep insights into plasticity, manipulation & coevolution. 🐝 #HostParasite #Parasitism #Coevolution

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

After >20 years of working with wasps, I like them even more now! And a ⭐️ team that’s rocking this season and experimental infections with twisted wing parasites! #wasplove #strepsiptera #fieldseason #ProudPI #teamwasp

Team wasp PI holding a Polistes fuscatus

Team wasp in our wasp rearing room with experimental colonies

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Well, this is a first! And much appreciated! It’s usually Dr. and Mrs. Uy, even though we’re both academics 🥴

Envelope addressed to Mr. And Dr. Uy for the first time! We’re both academics

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

I find myself missing fieldwork in the tropics! Here is some Polistes stigma from the Solomon Islands for much-needed #wasplove The female with dark eyes has recently emerged, and her eyes will lighten in a few days. Some of the tiniest Polistes I've seen! Images by Al Uy @tropbiolab.bsky.social

Polistes stigma from the Solomon Islands in their nest

Close-up of a Polistes stigma's yellow face, from the Solomon Islands.

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

🌟 Graduation party for our three undergrad stars from #teamwasp @tropbiolab.bsky.social ! 🌟 Grateful for mentoring an amazing team of rising scholars. The party included some 🦅🐝🐜 watching... & the most unesthetic piñata, decorated with early figures from our graduates! #proudPI

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Tis’ the season that generous naturalists start to send me wasp pictures! This “booty” pic 🤣 shows the foundresses of Polistes dominula, native to Europe. It’s invasive here and in many other places in the world. #teamwasp #teamxenome @tropbiolab.bsky.social is ready, experiment time! #wasplove

Three Polistes dominula wasps in their newly built nest, showing their abdomen and some eggs inside the cells.

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

🌟Congrats to undergrad researcher Natasha Vacca @nvacca08.bsky.social for being awarded the NSF-GRFP! 🌟 We're also thrilled that Natasha is not tired of us and will continue as a doctoral student with #teamwasp @tropbiolab.bsky.social @urochester.bsky.social #wasplove #addictedtostrepsiptera

Student with a wasp shirt while holding a wasp

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TropBioLab @tropbiolab.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Trop Bio lab alumnus, Dr. Diego Ocampo, published the final chapter of his amazing dissertation on hybridization in #birds of #Neotropics. Through field experiments, we find that plumage traits distinct between populations are not used in species recognition. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Male variable seedeater of the Neotropics

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

My heritage is critical to me, so I asked my department if we could change my office sign to my whole name. Today I walked in and voilà! I am excited for the same when my lab renovations are done. Little actions can have strong cascading effects! 🌟

Office sign showing a whole name for an assistant professor, as support to her heritage. Sign also has a rainbow-themed wasp sticker that says diversity on it.

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

#teamwasp 2024, including our mascot Rocky the yellowjacket @urochester.bsky.social! #ProudPI Wrapping up my first year as a TT professor! Mil gracias (a thousand thanks) to everyone who has supported me. Those of us from non-traditional trajectories and minoritized backgrounds belong in academia!

Team wasp from Trop Bio Lab in Biology at the University of Rochester posing with our mascot, Rocky the yellowjacket.

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

🐜-sitting for the Glastad lab. Always loyal to #wasplove, but these girls are amazing!

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Happy holidays from @tropbiolab.bsky.social! We enjoyed our ugly sweater-themed farewell party for wonderful Elsie and Ferro. Grateful for #teamwasp and #teambird!

Trop Bio Lab Holiday gathering. Ugly sweater theme.

Trop Bio Lab’s team wasp takes a holiday picture

Trop Bio Lab’s team bird takes a holiday picture

Holiday and farewell party for Trop Bio Lab

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TropBioLab @tropbiolab.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

🧪 Our new paper explores the #genomics of recent contact between two #SolomonIslands #birds. We find that sections of the genome behave differently, with the female sex chromosome moving only from the invading into the endemic species. Check out our work in PLoS Genetics! tinyurl.com/yc5x7nfk

The cardinal honey-eater Myzomela cardinalis. This species recently colonized Makira Islands (in the Solomon Islands), and now hybridizes with the Makira endemic Myzomela tristrami. Photo taken by (and copyright belongs to) Adam Fenster, University of Rochester.

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Michelle Franc Ragsac, PhD 🇵🇭🇺🇸 @mragsac.com · 14/11/2024

@acescicomm.bsky.social and I met here and realized we both were looking for more #SciSky #PinoyScientists 🇵🇭🧪! So, we joined the starter pack bandwagon ... 😅 We also want to highlight folx and what they do ✨ Please fill out the form if you're interested in joining: forms.gle/h4WUpE1T9jHt...

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Seirian Sumner @waspwoman.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Pls share! We have started a Wasp Starter pack! Message below to be added! And follow all these awesome waspy folk to chat about the wonderful world of wasps! go.bsky.app/3u5XkrS

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

¡Hola! Excited to see old and new friends from the scientific community here. I'm an Assistant Professor who studies social evolution & mechanisms underlying parasite-induced manipulation in social wasps. We'll share updates from #teamwasp #strepsiptera here and @tropbiolab.bsky.social

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TropBioLab @tropbiolab.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

First post here, filled with hope! Introducing the Yato Conservation Area, #SolomonIslands. We are in the final stages of declaring a federally #ProtectedArea that will #conserve 30K acres of rain & cloud forest. A collaboration led by indigenous communities of Makira Island. Photo by Adam Fenster

Drone image of the Yato Protected Area taken by Adam Fenster (copyright)

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