@bb-phd.bsky.social
Lecturer in Evolutionary Ecology at University of Stirling. Wasp lover. Occasional stand-up comic and (poor) musician.
Happy #waspwednesday everyone! Here's the latest article from wasp HQ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
In a nutshell - controlling crop pests using parasitoid wasps is evolutionarily resilient to resistance evolution in pests because parasitoids are cool #science #evolution #parasitoid
Badger culling in the UK: an unnecessary evil of the hellscape that is factory farming.
@angelaeagle1.bsky.social end the cull! @teamlabouruk.bsky.social
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www.instagram.com/reel/DUi3WrU...
happy belated #waspwednesday - here's a belated wasp update from wasp HQ from *Dr* Mia McGowan. #Biocontrol of #whitefly with #parasitoids is evolutionarily resilient because resistant whitefly lay fewer eggs with lower hatching success academic.oup.com/jee/advance-...
08.01.2026 06:30 β π 1 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0These guides are a fantastic resource - I provide to all new grad students π
16.12.2025 17:44 β π 6 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Once they are done mating the male deposits the female somewhere she can burrow in the ground to find beetle larvae which she lays her eggs on and the baby wasps eat. Big legs and wings and stuff would just get in the way when she's burrowing. So hitchhiking is a tidy solution.
17.12.2025 15:36 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0These wasps are pretty weird. The male is the normal waspy looking one and the female is the blob attached to his abdomen. She doesn't need wings because the male carries her round to find food and hosts while they are in copula.
17.12.2025 15:33 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Happy #waspwednesday from me and the @evomob.bsky.social. Here is a picture of a mating pair of thynnid flower wasps I saw on my holiday to #TorresdelPaine national park in #Patagonia #Chile
17.12.2025 15:29 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
interested in learning about #wasps, #Scottishenlightenment and #pedagogy and being mildly amused - come to Bright club in Glasgow on Monday 10th November www.thestand.co.uk/performance/...
06.11.2025 19:31 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0PhD project on the evolution of animal memory now available in my research group, through the TREES DLA: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/evo.... Come and join us if you're interested in the evolution of animal minds and you want to do some cool experimental evolution!
06.11.2025 15:23 β π 29 π 24 π¬ 0 π 1I've signed up to swim 20km in August to raise money for @wwf.org.uk. If anyone is able to sponsor me it would be much appreciated - link is here
socialsync.app/fundraiser/c.... Donors will be rewarded with content featuring Panda 'helping' me with my swimming. Like this one...
During our spring field courses, we had some excellent luck with camera trap sightings. This beautiful Roe Deer doe and her fawn were recorded by our visitors from @stir.ac.uk and we couldnβt be happier to get a glimpse of this little family @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
21.07.2025 09:19 β π 4 π 2 π¬ 1 π 1
A group of twelve people smiling at the camera. They are viewed slightly from above and there is an old Mediterranean building in the background with an open courtyard.
We spent a fantastic week hosting @stir.ac.uk for their Mediterranean field course. Weβd like to say thank you to all involved, especially the students for their engagement and enthusiasm with their projects. Good luck with the rest of your studies! @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
30.06.2025 08:21 β π 3 π 3 π¬ 0 π 0Too poor to science: how wealth determines who succeeds in STEM
Thought-provoking read, especially in these times of questioning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
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Staff and students standing a long a river, holding a tape measure used to measure out a transect line.
A Speckled Wood butterfly.
A Common Swallowtail butterfly.
Students surveying butterflies along a transect line following a row of lavender.
With the warm weather, there were many butterflies on the wing and students from @stir.ac.uk designed projects to survey their habitat preferences. Shady and sunlit meadows, plus an avenue of lavender in flower. They saw a real variety of species. @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
27.06.2025 08:02 β π 2 π 3 π¬ 0 π 0
Three students stood on a river bank, looking into the water. One is wading in.
A student in shallow water at the edge of a river, deploying a weighted camera next to a Pumpkinseed Sunfish nest.
A Pumpkinseed Sunfish nest viewed from above. There is an underwater camera aimed at it, and a fake Pumpkinseed Sunfish stimulus made of a printed and laminated cutout is being presented to it.
A male Pumpkinseed Sunfish inspecting a printed and laminated cutout of a Pumpkinseed Sunfish.
One student project from @stir.ac.uk involved assessing the behaviour of Pumpkinseed Sunfish in response to intrusion. Larger and smaller βmalesβ approached the nest and the students monitored the nest-owner's response using our underwater cameras. @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
27.06.2025 08:36 β π 3 π 3 π¬ 0 π 0Always exciting to see the delicate first moments of emerging adult cicadas.
21.06.2025 08:05 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0πFully funded PhD position on cooperative sustainabilityπ³
Are you curious about
π§ developmental,
π cross-cultural
𦧠species comparative
research on cooperative sustainability?
All info here or dm me with questions!
career2.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...
Please share! π
Please share.
We have a fully-funded PhD position on animal migration. If interested, please apply by 27 July. More about us: shawanchowdhury.com. @idiv-research.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social @uq-cbcs.bsky.social
#PhDposition #Ecology #Conservation #Migration #Rstats #AcademicTwitter
Wonderful week on the @stir.ac.uk field biology course at the amazing @meropsfieldcentre.bsky.social. Good bugs, good chat and good food. Students and staff all agree 10/10. Massive thanks to @sophiemowles.bsky.social and Fabrizio!
25.06.2025 20:33 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
A group of people examining something on the ground in a pine forest.
A Black Arches moth perched on a tree branch with green leaves in the background.
A newly emerged cicada sitting on its exuvium.
A group of people examining wild animal footprints at the edge of a river.
Day 1 with staff and students from @stir.ac.uk and weβve fitted a lot in. Weβve toured the habitats, and trialled project ideas. Highlights were Black Arches moths in our moth trap, and newly emerging cicadas. Itβs starting to get loud out here!
@bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
A student looking through a telescope in a reedbed.
A Squacco Heron on a fallen tree in a pond.
A European Pond Terrapin.
A student taking photos of Greater Flamingos with their mobile phone.
We spent day 2 with @stir.ac.uk exploring the Camargue. We were lucky to see 7 species of heron including Squacco Herons and even Little Bitterns in the reedbeds. Further south, we saw the famous flamingos and had great views of a European Pond Terrapin @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
23.06.2025 08:16 β π 5 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0
A Booted Eagle carrying a Western Green Lizard.
Students and staff examining flowers in a short meadow.
Staff and students looking through telescopes and binoculars on a viewing platform. There is a cliff rising in the background.
A male Przewalski's Horse with some grass in its mouth.
We took staff and students from @stir.ac.uk to the Causse MΓ©jean to experience this unique site. We had an impressive vulture fly-by as well as seeing a Booted Eagle carrying a lizard. On to the Przewalski Horse breeding area, where we had great views. @bb-phd.bsky.social @zarahpattison.bsky.social
24.06.2025 05:57 β π 4 π 3 π¬ 0 π 0
and instead of doing my work, on Wednesday afternoon I made an album cover for Reputation: Wasp's Version. The #wasps are in their #reputationera
30.05.2025 12:14 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
The Courier even wrote an article about it brnw.ch/21wT0Hr - dizzy heights.
30.05.2025 12:11 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Warning - shameless self(wasp)-promotion coming up: On Wednesday I got to do a duet about wasps and how great they are with Greg James on the Radio 1 Breakfast show. You can listen here www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... at about 38 minutes in.
30.05.2025 12:11 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 1
Undergrad in the life sciences? Want to do a research placement over the summer but also need a job - NERC are running the REP scheme again, paid summer research placements to widen participation in the life sciences. Details here iapetus2.ac.uk/new-rep-sche...
10.04.2025 07:45 β π 3 π 4 π¬ 1 π 0Anyone interested in #entomology #insects #genetics #evolution I'm hosting a 6-8 week project through the scheme involving #fieldwork with parasitoid wasps in the UK - details here iapetus2.ac.uk/wp-content/u... feel free to DM if you have questions
10.04.2025 07:45 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Undergrad in the life sciences? Want to do a research placement over the summer but also need a job - NERC are running the REP scheme again, paid summer research placements to widen participation in the life sciences. Details here iapetus2.ac.uk/new-rep-sche...
10.04.2025 07:45 β π 3 π 4 π¬ 1 π 0
Malin Ah-king in front of a slide reading Production of ignorance about females in sexual selection A repeated pattern of male-centric investigations first Loss of acquired knowledge Undermining the authority of certain knowers Widely acknowledged citation hierarchy/taxonomic ignorance
Fascinating #ASABWinter2024 plenary talk this morning by Malin Ah-King, tracing the history of perception of females in evolutionary science. It took surprisingly long for researchers to discover active female sexual strategiesβοΈ
Her book on the topic here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
