Stuart Wigby

🌟 I’ve recently moved to The University of Manchester!
I'm advertising several PhD projects on plant–microbe interactions 🌱🦠🪲

🧪🖥️ Projects span experimental to computational. Diverse supervisory teams, collaborating across the UK Plant Microbiome community.

Details: www.findaphd.com/phds/?Keywor...

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Eating Viceroy Butterfly https://stevecreek.com/scissor-tailed-flycatcher-eating-butterfly/

🐞🧬🦅 join us for a PhD position researching how birds evolve resistance to prey toxins. If you’re excited about wild chemical arms races, we’d love to hear from you. @shabmohammadi.bsky.social @livuni-ives.bsky.social @livuni-ismib.bsky.social @mpi-ce.bsky.social

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Hedgehog. Getty Images

Join us! We’re recruiting a PhD researcher to uncover how hedgehogs & other insectivores survive prey toxins. Dive into molecular evolution & protein biochemistry @shabmohammadi.bsky.social @livuni-ives.bsky.social @livuni-ismib.bsky.social @mpi-ce.bsky.social

🦔 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

ACCE+ DLA Programme: The impact of climate change on sexually selected traits and its consequences for evolutionary fitness at University of Sheffield on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - ACCE+ DLA Programme: The impact of climate change on sexually selected traits and its consequences for evolutionary fitness at University of Sheffield, listed on FindAPhD.com

Phd project on Climate Change Impacts on Sexually Selected Traits, lead by Alison Wright at Sheffield Uni, with supervisor team including @andrewpom.bsky.social and me. Application deadline 7th Jan

University of Liverpool Research Fellowships open for applications for 2025-2026 - University of Liverpool News University of Liverpool Research Fellowships open for applications for 2025-2026

Liverpool Research Fellowships are back, this time with a focus on AI. If you're a postdoc with ideas about "harnessing the power of AI within research", then take a look. Application deadline 1st December 2025.
news.liverpool.ac.uk/2025/10/24/u...

Not sure I'm so happy with the cover 😂, but I guess that's the point! Very excited about the book though!

Here it is! So happy to announce that my next book, Beauty of the Beasts, will be released by Bloomsbury Wildlife on Feb 26th (April 28th in the US). And I couldn’t be happier with this stunning cover, designed by Abby Cook, which works so well to show a vilified creature in a beautiful way 😍

Green butterfly sat on a flower.

I'm looking for PhD students to join the lab starting August 2026. We study the evolution of insect chemical signals so if you're interested in evolutionary biology, chemical ecology, molecular biology, behavior, or genetics, this could be a good fit for you! More info here: tinyurl.com/mrxchwfm

Ichetucknee Springs State Park, a short drive from Gainesville, FL

The Hopkins Lab (hopkins-lab.com) at the University of Florida is looking to recruit a postdoc to work on the genetics of organ function and evolution across Drosophila and beyond. Please visit tinyurl.com/vcsjpmzz or email me for more info. And please RT or send to anyone who might be interested!

2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in
@uniexecec.bsky.social
- Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
- RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
Pls share!

New out in Molecular Ecology! In which we show that small males try harder when it comes to seminal fluid proteins. w/ @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @becks-seascience.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Update – @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social got back to me with a download link to the obsolete software. Good service! (though I'm not quite sure why they don't just keep the old software on their website to save some admin).

I did message Leica but haven't heard back as yet. I saw elsewhere people complaining that they couldn't get the old software... so thought I spread bet!

Software for Mac that is (not PC)

EZ4 D Educational Stereo Microscope with Integrated LED llumination and Digital 3 MP Camera Educational Stereo Microscope with Integrated LED llumination and Digital 3 MP Camera

Anyone out there have a copy of the old @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social‬ "Firecam" software?

From the mid/late 2000s. I'm trying to resurrect a EZ4D with integrated camera, but the software for it seems to have disappeared from the internet...

www.leica-microsystems.com/products/lig...

Last week to apply! nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies...

Short-term increases in rival number improves single mating productivity in male Drosophila Abstract. In variable environments, animals can change their reproductive behaviours and physiology to maximise reproductive returns. Natural environments

New paper led by Lily Amos, with @stuartwigby.bsky.social and myself- very rapid changes in male Drosophila mating behaviour in response to multiple stressors (academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...).

Could Scousers have the best gut health? - BBC Sounds A new science hub in Liverpool could be the reason why.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

A 5 minute listen: @jojofoth.bsky.social describes exciting work at the Microbiome innovation Centre at the University of Liverpool

£9 million investment fuels groundbreaking bioscience research From unlocking the secrets of animal movement to tackling antimicrobial resistance, UK’s brightest bioscience minds are pushing the boundaries of innovation.

Delighted to have been awarded a BBSRC Fellowship to look at the genetics of how insects have adapted to living in freshwater habitats 🧬🦋🪰🪲🌊

Extremely grateful to all who have supported me over the years and excited to be at Liverpool with some great colleagues!

www.ukri.org/news/9-milli...

Meet the twerking pollinator with a bum-bag: the dark-edged bee-fly Bombylius major, the thieving, deceiving, fluffy flying narwhal-like insect, that is a harbinger of spring

Morning folks - it’s that time PLEASE vote for the bee-fly. They are majestic marvels.

@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @amentsoc.bsky.social @entcollnet.bsky.social @entsocamerica.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

PAPER ALERT: Inbreeding can be detrimental causing inbreeding depression resulting in lower fitness. Here, we track its consequences on sperm, testes, body, lifespan in a 🪲 doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
#mattgage @jevbio.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social @uniofexeteresi.bsky.social

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

We're recruiting a postdoc urban climate & environmental modelling at UCL Institute of Environmental Design and Engineering. You will be part of an established urban climate and health group working on active projects. Looking for someone with regional climate (pref WRF) modelling. Please share!

Masud has nailed it here. "Each of the administrative burdens that we are confronted with on a daily basis might seem small on their own but cumulatively they amount to a ‘mountain of small things’ that is killing academia"

Men with higher-quality sperm live longer, study finds Research suggests difference in life expectancy between men with highest and lowest quality is nearly three years

My comments in @theguardian.com about a new study which suggests that men with higher quality sperm live longer www.theguardian.com/science/2025... courtesy of @iansample.bsky.social

An image of a fruit fly created by collage.

Rethinking the relationship between the sex ratio and sexual selection
doi.org/10.1093/evle...

Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @gcmcdon.bsky.social, @daniedmunds.bsky.social, @stuartwigby.bsky.social, and @jennyperry.bsky.social

📷: Dani Edmunds

Collage of a fruit fly credit @daniedmunds.bsky.social

Huge credit to @daniedmunds.bsky.social and everyone else for this work, and Dani's Drosophila Collage!

Manuscript image

Image of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) credit: Sanjay Acharya

Does the ratio of males to females predictably influence the ability to monopolise mating partners? Is male sexual selection more intense when femaleIs are rare? 🪰

We investigated by manipulating sex ratios in polyandrous fruit flies in our new #OA manuscript published in @evolletters.bsky.social

No evidence for Peto’s paradox in terrestrial vertebrates | PNAS Larger, longer-lived species are expected to have a higher cancer prevalence compared to smaller, shorter-lived species owing to the greater number...

Peto's Paradox—that cancer does not increase with body size of mammals—was wrong.
A new, comprehensive study of 263 species documents higher cancer prevalence with increasing body mass. Some large animals (e.g. elephants) have some built-in genetic adaptations
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @pnas.org

Current reading. I rather like it! 🤓

Oh, this is us! With Tracey Chapman, Emily Fowler and Lucy Friend at UEA we have been trying to work out fine scale egg laying decisions by Drosophila females. Turns out it’s more complex than we thought (again)…🪰🧪