Anna Stöckl

New paper out on the decision strategies of bumblebees. When using visual cues to make flower choices, they switch strategy with sensory context, learning as much as necessary, but as little as possible. Based on their training time, we propose a mechanism for this switch. tinyurl.com/2r9d4jrs 🌸🐝🧠

Excited to share my first PhD preprint! w/ Sören Kannegieser and @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social @insect-vision.bsky.social

We investigated how hawkmoths coordinate lateralized sensory and motor control for appendage guidance, revealing similar control principles to vertebrates doi.org/10.64898/202...

Big thank you also to everyone who supported us on this project: Nadine Kaiser and Madita Naumann, Christian Stigloher, Atsuko Matsushita, @stanley-heinze.bsky.social, and Valentin Gillet

New paper from the lab, led by @ronjabigge.bsky.social, in collaboration with Kentaro Arikawa. We reconcile contrast and spatial processing functions of lamina monopolar cells by integrating 3D morphology, connectivity and neurophysiology in the hummingbird hawkmoth. tinyurl.com/mvnh3325
For more 👇

Visiting the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart for our science-art collaboration with the Akademie and @zukunftskolleg.bsky.social Konstanz. Excited to see the final student projects inspired by vision in insects after this field trip!

Season's Greetings from the Lab in our most - Christmas party award winning !! - festive attire. 🎄👼🐮👑🐑⭐
With animalistic support from @jjfosterlab.bsky.social

Happy holidays and a great start into the New Year to you all!

extra Christmassy stars to anyone who guesses what we are 😉

Great fun to participate in the #UniKonstanz Open Science Slam 2025 🎤✨🤓
Presented insights of our "market research" on insect preferences for flowers - with support from citizen science. Lineup of fantastic speakers and an amazing audience !
Big thanks to the #TeamOpenScience for organising.

YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior Lochlan Walsh | Insect sensory biology

How do insects use vision to interact with flowers? IMPRS-QBEE student @lochlanw.bsky.social, working with @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social tells us more about his work on hummingbird hawkmoths and how they interact with flower patterns

@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

youtube.com/shorts/juEhw...

Best audience ever - 100+ children at a live show of the BR Lachlabor radio show, where I was invited for expertise on animal questions. 🤓🐆🐦🦗
What I learned: we should also have dance breaks for adult events!

I asked AI for a suggestion: "Bugging Out: How to Suck at Research"

We had a rather unexpected presenter at our lab meeting this morning 😄🪲🎓

Thanks to this #hummingbird #hawkmoth, which enjoyed a late season snack of ornamental salvia, I have collected proof that insects are input-output systems 😂💦!
#insect
#nature
#photography

Very excited to take part in #ABL2025 👇

Our findings on bees' photoreceptors are now officially published in Biology Letters of the Royal Society Publishing!! Thanks again for a productive collaboration @jjfosterlab.bsky.social and @gregoeur.bsky.social !!
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Bit of an orgy going on at the moment 😆... Every other Scabiosa flower is hosting one or more six-spot burnets (Blutströpfchen in German). I was wondering why they are mating this late: it is the caterpillar stage that overwinters in this species 🤓🦋❄️!
#insect
#nature
#photography

Dressing up fancy for a day out?
This little guy made sure to match his flower background with a smashing yellow "moustache". 🐝🌸
Drone of Bombus lapidarius, the red-tailed #bumblebee (Steinhummel).
#photography #insect

Beautiful work by @ronjabigge.bsky.social and Rebecca Grittner is out 🥳 How do the statistics of natural visual scenes and the relevance of these stimuli for the moths' flight safety shape the integration of parallel pathways for flight guidance? ✈️🦋

After days of torrential rains, we had a few hours of sunshine today - which were enjoyed by humans and insects alike 🌸🐝 there is a great number of large hoverflies around - any idea what species these might be?
#insect #pollinator #hoverfly #photography

It was a pleasure to be part of this wonderful podcast!
I can highly recommend to check out all episodes (there is a whole first season to explore as well 🤓).

Float like a hawkmoth and drink like one too! What better way to understand insect behaviour? 🍹🦋🍹
An exciting evening of science outreach by the lake, by @cbehav.bsky.social ‪‪‪@excinequality.bsky.social‬
With moth impersonators:
@emmarusconi.bsky.social @manel-a-pama.bsky.social ky.social‬

Congratulations to @ronjabigge.bsky.social to an awesome #PhD and a great defense at Würzburg University! #proudPI
She was welcomed home and celebrated in style with @insect-vision.bsky.social and the whole neurobiology community in Konstanz.

Really excited for our research to be featured in this beautiful #preLight article about our study Bumblebees flexibly adjust learning and decision strategies to sensory information content in a foraging task by Tim Schwanitz & Cemre Coskun. 🐝

I'm really happy to share the first preprint of my PhD work in @jjfosterlab.bsky.social! During a fruitful collaboration with @gregoeur.bsky.social, we uncovered a surprising feature of bees' eyes!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I guess that's why we call them POLLEN-ators! 🐝

#insect #pollinator #photography #spring

Spotted the first hummingbird #hawkmoth of the season
- and many adorable #bee-flies!
Long-tongued hover power squared 🐝🌸🦋

#insect #pollinator #photography #spring

We are excited to have Aruna visit our lab over the summer as part of her PhD! She is investigating how hawkmoths actively shape their flight trajectories to better sense the spatial layout of their environment while working towards a 3D tracking system to accurately capture their movement!

Lepidoptera lovers in full support for these charming creatures! Cousins in spirit and looks to our dear hawkmoths.

Welcome to the LAB: Emma Rusconi @emmarusconi.bsky.social

We are excited that Emma has recently joined us as a research assistant! She is currently investigating how bumblebees generalize visual patterns, and will soon investigate how nocturnal moths navigate in different light conditions.

New review about "Path integration and optic flow in flying insects" doi.org/10.1007/s003.... One of the questions asked, where in the visual field insects perceive optic flow, is addressed and discussed in our recent work: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

So excited to see all of this hard work coming together, as @ronjabigge.bsky.social has finalised her thesis and is submitting today 👏🥂#submission #PhDthesis