Alexander Haverkamp

Time flies! It is already three weeks ago that Lorenzo Corsico started his PhD on finding novel deterrent plant compounds to protect crops from hungry caterpillars 🌱 🐛! Welcome again Lorenzo, and thanks to all collaborators at InsectSense, Wageningen Plant Research, Bayer Crop Science and Bejo.

Very happy that Camila Fornaguera joined the lab of Entomology this week! Camila will be looking into the effect of the nectar microbiome on pollinator behavior as part of the @micropresearch.bsky.social team 🐝 🦋 🦠 🌼. Welcome Camila!

It is a sign of hope that the populations of common moths' species have been stable in some areas (cities and agricultural land) in the Netherlands 🐛🦋. However, we should be careful not to except these still low numbers as the new normal #mothsmatter!

We are looking for a technician to support our sensory ecology lab 🐛🦋🌺! Would you like to help discovering how insects perceive their environment, and do you have a background in insect physiology / neuroscience or chemical ecology? Then please apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/t...

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? ✈️🦋

Caterpillars use their sense of olfaction to find food and avoid natural enemies🐛🌱: The version of record of our @elife.bsky.social article has been set: doi.org/10.7554/eLif.... The work has been driven by Qi Wang with great support by many coauthors @dickemarcel.bsky.social, @w-u-r.bsky.social

Check out the newest episode of our podcast "In the Swarm"!

Have you ever wondered how tiny insects navigate the world? In this episode, @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social explains how the tiny but mighty insect brain controls behaviour of stunning complexity.

www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/collective-b...

Sometimes working in entomology is like being in a Sci-Fi movie full of fantastic creatures 👽 👾, like this amazing #hawkmoth caterpillar 🐛!

It is world brain day 🧠! Maybe a good opportunity to remind us that we are not the only species with a brain, but that even small animals like insects have sophisticated nervous systems 🪲 🐝 🦋. Here the bain of a caterpillar with its vast network of dopaminergic neurons 🐛:

We just had the last lecture in our Insect-Plant interaction course at @w-u-r.bsky.social on the topic of #pollination 🦋🐝🌺🌻. Our #hawkmoth with its 8cm proboscis was the star of the show, but the discussions also very much emphasized our need to save #biodiversity and reduce #pesticides!

Today the registration for the Postgraduate course Chemical Communication in the Anthropocene has opened! The course will take place from 17-21 November in the Netherlands and offers a great opportunity to dive deeper into the roles of chemicals in biotic interactions:
www.pe-rc.nl/Chemical_Com...

Great to see the revised version of our eLife article online, which highlights the importance of olfaction in the life of a caterpillar 🐛 🌱! doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

We have an opening for a 4-year PhD position on the influence of the nectar microbiome on pollinator-plant interactions in the Lab of Entomology at @w-u-r.bsky.social and I would be delighted if you could share this with potentially interested candidates:

www.wur.nl/nl/vacature/...

We are looking for talented #PhD candidates who would like to study insect-plant-microbiome interactions @w-u-r.bsky.social. If you would like to unravel the role of #microbes in #pollination or #plantdefenses against #rootflies and #aphids, please check
bit.ly/4jxyHtw
bit.ly/4juizJb
bit.ly/434JEwI

Beach at Hotel Cormoran in Sardinia, Italy.

Dear colleagues fascinated by olfaction and taste! 👃🏾👅
We are happy to announce that the registration has started for the upcoming ESITO 2025 meeting taking place September 19-24, 2025 in Sardinia, Italy.
Please register and submit your abstract here: events.gwdg.de/e/esito2025
Deadline: July 1st!

Deadline approaching! If you are interested in doing a PhD in chemical ecology check out the projects and apply here:

www.ice.mpg.de/296548/curre...

jobs.ice.mpg.de/en/jobpostin...

Neuroecology of alcohol risk and reward: Methanol boosts pheromones and courtship success in Drosophila melanogaster Flies increase pheromones and mating success with alcohol, but methanol is toxic; thus, the brain must balance risk versus reward.

✍️🧠🪰 New paper finally out! Neuroecology of alcohol risk and reward. Different neural pathways with opposite valence for the same odor are combined to balance attraction and aversion based on physiological state. Natural history of alcohol and the fly. www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Pollinators deliver one of the most important ecosystem services for free! Yet, one out of five North American pollinators is at risk. Maybe they should start charging us, so we understand how much we owe them 🐝 🦋

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...