Joël Meunier

⚠️ Open science action on the day: Use OpenAlex (openalex.org) instead of Web of Science! 💪

The CNRS has taken the bold step of unsubscribing from WoS! This means €1.4 million will go back into open science initiatives. 👏👏👏

www.cnrs.fr/fr/actualite...

Some possible forms of sex-specific plasticity in each infection component and how they may lead to non-intuitive predictions for sex-biases in pathogen transmission. Using a horizontally transmitted pathogen as an example, transmission capacity through each sex depends on the sex-specific differences in host susceptibility, pathogen loads, and death rates. Hypothetically, each component could have a unique form of sex-specific plasticity – susceptibility might be plastic only for males (i.e., sex-specific), equally plastic in both sexes in the same direction (i.e., equivalent), and equally plastic in both sexes but in opposing directions (i.e., divergent). Yet considering overall disease spread would suggest a strong male-bias in transmission in environment 1, but no bias at all in environment 2, and that this shift in the extent of the ‘sicker sex’ (in regard to the sex where pathogen transmission is highest) would be underpinned entirely by plasticity in male transmission only.

🆕 in "Ecology": Who spreads more disease - males or females? At least in water fleas, it depends on temperature

📄The sicker sex is plastic: Thermal plasticity determines sex biases in pathogen transmission
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Got some nice work about ant foraging? Can't decide where to send it? We have a special issue just for you!

And, as a bonus, it's in (afaiac*) the best journal in the world @insectessociaux.bsky.social

link.springer.com/collections/...

*As Far As I Am Concerned

Yesterday, Laura Pasquier successfully defended her PhD thesis, which focused on environmental and endocrine disruptions in parental care, using the European earwig as a case study. After 3 years of hard work, the outcome was fantastic!! Congrats Laura, and all the best for the future!

Sounds good, doesn't it?

("The predicted demise of scientific publications?" - a special day of discussion organised by the CNRS)

Harmony in the hive? Think again! 🐝⚔️

Insect societies are famous for cooperation, but beneath the surface lies a brutal conflict over who gets to wear the crown!

Our new review in Biological Reviews explores the evolutionary battleground caused by such caste fate conflict. 🧵

Pauline Domenech, illustratrice indépendante à Toulouse, a fait de supers dessins lors de la conférence grand public sur les forficules que j'ai donné le WE dernier. Un talent incroyable pour capturer les petits moments et mettre en image les anecdotes amusantes. Bravo, Bravo, Bravo (et merci) !! 👏

A macro photo of a mother earwig guarding a cluster of her tiny, pale babies, all of them on damp earth.

#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Who wants another baby earwig update? Everyone? Thought so. The babies are now two days old and slightly darker than when they hatched. Mama is guarding them and will stay on the job until their second molt. Btw, in the earlier post, the newly-hatched babies only had--

Lots of Earwig activity at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve today, with individuals burrowing into the sandy turf, leaving just the formidable pincers exposed. Common enough, but actually rather extraordinary things. @ynuorg.bsky.social #ukwildlife

Soutenance de thèse Laura Pasquier
Date(s) - Le 26 novembre 2025 à 14h
Lieu(x)- amphi 030 du bâtiment E1

Perturbations environnementales et endocriniennes des soins parentaux : le cas du forficule européen / Environmental and endocrine disruptions in parental care: the case of the European earwig

A macro photo of a group of just-hatched baby earwigs along with some still-unhatched eggs. The babies are transparent, except for orange-brown on their compound eyes and their mandibles. Those pigmented structures are visible through the shells of the yet-to-hatch eggs.

--in which you can better see the eyes and mandibles on the new babies, plus see both structures clearly showing through the shells on the still-unhatched eggs. (Btw, mama earwig was close by in a burrow. She didn't want to come out into the light, so I carefully replaced the rock.)

Socially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers Taku Shimada and colleagues show that socially parasitic queens of two ant species spray their respective host queens with chemical signals that trigger host workers to kill the resident queen.

Very cool study: matricide in ants as a maniputing behaviour favouring social parasitism! 🤯🤯

->Socially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers. Current Biology. www.cell.com/current-biol...

AI image generated using Google's Gemini.

New paper: "A formal theory of group-level adaptation for obligate eusociality", with Kalyani Twyman (@kztwyman.bsky.social) #OpenAccess

academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

#Image #GoogleGemini @jevbio.bsky.social #OA

This weekend, I was invited by the association A.L.L.E.E. in Toulouse to present earwigs to a broad and curious audience. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our work, highlight why fundamental research matters, and spark new appreciation for these often-misunderstood insects. 😃😃😃

Amis Toulousains : C'est demain ! Venez nombreuses et nombreux 😄👍🐛

Je donnerais une conférence grand public sur les perce-oreilles à Toulouse.

Venez découvrir les secrets de ces petits insectes discrets, souvent mal-aimés, mais à la vie sociale fascinante.

📅 Samedi 15 nov. 2025 à 14h.

➡️ Infos & inscription via l’affiche ci-dessous

#Conférence #Insectes #Nature

This spider catapults its web to tangle prey at super speed | NOVA | PBS Using its web as a “tool” to store and release energy, the triangle weaver spider lunges at speeds equivalent to a human sprinting at 1,700 miles per hour.

To learn more about research into the Triangle Weaver's astounding hunting technique, check out this article which includes video:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ar...

Better safe than sorry: leg amputations as a prophylactic wound care behaviour in carpenter ants buff.ly/INPxtKN | #ProcB #Behaviour #Evolution #WoundInfection

The genetic basis of natural variation in sociability Abstract. Sociability, defined as individuals’ tendencies to affiliate with conspecifics, is widespread among animals, including species not traditionally

Editor's Choice article in our latest issue:
"The genetic basis of natural variation in sociability " by Arteen Torabi-Marashi, Dania Daanish, Andrew M Scott, Reuven Dukas, & Ian Dworkin.
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

@idworkin.bsky.social

The Adaptive Relationships Framework illustrating how broad socioecological pressures shape the social solutions animals use to meet these challenges, and how these lead to social strategies and emergent structures that help them gain access to those solutions.

Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?

In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.

tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7

I'm on my way to Avignon to learn about the earwig research on a species that I know much less about than my favourite, F. auricularia. I'm looking forward to being there, despite the early start and multiple train connections 🚆🚅🚌

🪳 New paper out – Part II!

Our 2nd study on the hormonal regulation of maternal care in the European earwig is now out!

We show that blocking juvenile hormone synthesis with Precocene reduces egg care in post-oviposition mothers, while JH supplementation has no effect.

doi.org/10.1016/j.yh...

Juvenile hormone and maternal egg care in the European earwig (part I): Manipulation of JH, agonist, and precocene fails to induce the onset of egg care Parental care is a crucial behaviour in animals. Yet the mechanisms regulating its initiation remain poorly understood, particularly in insects. Juven…

🪶 New paper out in Hormones and Behavior!

Parental care is fundamental in animals — but what actually triggers its onset? 🤔 We tested whether juvenile hormone could do it in the European earwig. Surprisingly… it didn’t.

Read more: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hormonal regulation of parental care in insects: a call for exploring vulnerabilities to anthropogenic pollutants Global insect populations are declining at an alarming rate, threatening biodiversity and the ecosystem services on which humans depend. One potential…

Ever wondered how pollution affects insect parenting? 👀

Our new paper in Current Opinion in Insect Science digs into this question, highlights what we don’t know (yet), and lays out five priorities to push the field forward.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@

Je donnerais une conférence grand public sur les perce-oreilles à Toulouse.

Venez découvrir les secrets de ces petits insectes discrets, souvent mal-aimés, mais à la vie sociale fascinante.

📅 Samedi 15 nov. 2025 à 14h.

➡️ Infos & inscription via l’affiche ci-dessous

#Conférence #Insectes #Nature

I'm on my way back from Roscoff, where I attended a two-day event organised by the CNRS for 'advanced researchers'. What a beautiful location❤️! It's a shame it's so far away — I still have a day of buses and trains ahead of me to reach Tours 😳

En fait, j'étais initialement l'un des invités, malheureusement je n'étais pas disponible à cette date ;)

Very happy to see our new study on the evolution of eusociality come out in Evolution Letters! Our study is the first to experimentally manipulate the proportion of females that stay and help to simulate incipient sociality & assess fitness impact of helping. 🧵

Merci Anne! Je l'ai écouté avec attention :) j'espère que tout ça bien pour toi !

PCI Webinar-Dorothy Bishop-How negligent publishers subvert quality control in scientific publishing

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of listening to Dorothy Bishop emphasize the responsibility of editors during the 12th PCI Webinar! If you weren't able to join, you can catch her talk and the following Q&A session at this link: youtu.be/0NJ87tYE8_s