Adam Blake

Photos of Aedes aegypti female (left) and male (right). Numbers indicate location of collected tissues (listed in legend boxes). Photos by Alex Wild.

I am thrilled to present the Mosquito Cell Atlas! We analyzed 367K nuclei from 19 tissues in male & female mosquitoes, creating a comprehensive resource for vector biology & infectious disease research.

Plus we made some surprising discoveries! 🦟🧵

biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Connectome-driven neural inventory of a complete visual system - Nature A connectome of the right optic lobe from a male fruitfly is presented together with an extensive collection of genetic drivers matched to a comprehensive neuron-type catalogue.

I know there's a 𝒍𝒐𝒕 going on right now, but I couldn’t be prouder to share this long-incubated labor of love: the complete connectome of the male 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 optic lobe 🧠🪰
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ICYMI Elucidating nanostructural organization and photonic properties of butterfly wing scales using hyperspectral microscopy: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #JRSocInterface #biotechnology #nanotechnology

Dr Craig Montell reviews the #sensory #arsenal #mosquitoes use to find us. #Olfaction #Vision #Taste #Thermosensation #Infrared @ucsb.bsky.social‬ @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social‬

www.cell.com/trends/paras...

Adaline Bisese, recipient of a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, represented the lab and @vtbiochemistry.bsky.social at the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium yesterday. Stay tuned for exciting results on how mosquitoes choose where to land on our bodies!

We are looking for a Postdoc (up to 5 years) who wants to study neural mechanisms of spatial memory in honeybees.

This includes tetrode recordings in behaving honeybees.

Application Deadline is 1st of October 2025.

More details:
www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/services/...

burt's shrimp lip balm parody ad in an onion newspaper

really appreciating the onion as physical media.

a man with a mustache in a blue suit says tiny celebration in front of a group of people ALT: a man with a mustache in a blue suit says tiny celebration in front of a group of people

Happy Friday! The female adult fly brain-and-nerve-cord (BANC) connectome is now LIVE!

Explore the data here: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc

Check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Social media for fisheries science and management professionals: How to use Bluesky and Instagram, and why you should ABSTRACT. Social media tools have revolutionized how people communicate with one another. A 2018 paper in Fisheries summarized the use of Twitter, Facebook

My paper "Social media for fisheries science and management professionals: How to use Bluesky and Instagram, and why you should" is formally published in an issue.

It's a how-to guide to using Bluesky, the first ever published in the scientific literature! 🧪🦑🌎🐟

academic.oup.com/fisheries/ar...

Acute stress modulates early visual perception and decision-making speed in bees without compromising accuracy Acute stress is known to influence decision-making, but it can also directly affect earlier stages of sensory processing. In humans, stress alters the perception of basic visual features, fine-tuning ...

Look - it's a new preprint!

Predatory attacks change bee visual perception and decision-making, making bees better prepared to detect threats.

Excellent work by the brilliant Olga Procenko for her (prize-winning) PhD with us! #bees #vision #predation

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Spectral preferences of mosquitos are altered by odors Highlighted Article: With CO2 alone, mosquitos show little attraction to green stimuli (475–575 nm); however, the odors of flowers, vertebrate hosts or oviposition sites can shift these preferences, m...

🚨New research paper 🧪📄 out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social by @ajblake05.bsky.social and @riffelllab.bsky.social on "Spectral preferences of mosquitos are altered by odors" 🦟🟢 ↘️ doi.org/10.1242/jeb.... ↙️
This article is ✨️highlighted✨️ ↘️ doi.org/10.1242/jeb....
#InsectVision #Olfaction #SensoryIntegration

“New York’s hottest club is The Skeeter Disco. With full spectrum lighting and DRENCHED in body odor, you’ll find yourself asking: ‘how soon can I leave?’”

Our new paper is now out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social!!! We had all sorts of fun generating LED stimuli for mosquitos to investigate their visual preferences in the presence of different odors. The paper is open access and available here: journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

We welcome the 2nd plenary speaker at #ABL2025. 🙌🙌

@anna-stoeckl.bsky.social‬ from @uni-konstanz.de‬ reveals how insect pollinators interpret floral patterns to guide foraging. From hawkmoth vision to neural templates—this talk will bridge behaviour, neuroethology & sensory biology. 🦋🪻

Insects, including fruit flies and butterflies, have memories and can learn. Wasps recognize nestmastes' face patterns.

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders?

A majority of the world’s insect species have no living expert who can identify them.

A beetle of the species Pygopleurus chrysonotus on an Anemone pavonina flower in Greece. The beetle can do what other insects cannot: see the colour red. (Photo: Johannes Spaethe / University of Würzburg)

Hardly any #insects can see the colour red. However, two #beetle species from the family #Glaphyridae from the Mediterranean region are an exception, as an international research team shows @jexpbiol.bsky.social
➡️ www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-...

Hello from the Biology Department!
Follow us for news, research highlights and a peek into the life sciences✨🌱

Join us!! 🧪 #academicSky #PhDsky

Dr. Brett Hodinka receives Dean’s Convocation Medal 2025 recipient of the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal from Faculty of Science. Thesis Title: Inactivity, adaptive mass regulation, and the physiological basis of costs of reproduction

Congratulations to @sfubiosciences.bsky.social Dean's Convocation Medal recipient Brett Hodinka. Thesis Title: Inactivity, adaptive mass regulation, and the physiological basis of costs of reproduction ow.ly/lWqx50W5PNw #MySFUGrad

The exteriors of spider eyes are part of the exoskeleton, so can't move. But in jumping spiders, the internal parts of the large central eyes have muscles that can swivel and twist to help the spider aim its eyes from inside the head. This is a 4-frame.gif showing that internal movement. 🌿🐙🕷️👀

Head of a small chalcid wasp at scale of 50:1. On the left you can see part of the compound eye, on the right an ocelle and at the bottom right part of the antenna.

It’s 2025. Why do so many scientific journal articles still display weird when shared on social media? Social media is, despite it’s challenges and limitations, an incredibly powerful (and widely used) professional tool for scientists. One common use of social media is to share one’s res…

We interrupt your doomscrolling for a brief rant about scientific journal publishers apparently still not realizing that lots people share scientific journal articles online.

Please enjoy "why do so many scientific journal articles still display weird when shared on social media? 🧪

Une planche photographique de Culex tritaeniorhynchus Giles, 1901

🦟 Cette semaine, découvrez les ornementations uniques de Culex tritaeniorhynchus Giles, 1901 ⬇️!
Voir les détails et la distribution sur le GBIF🌱: https://www.gbif.org/species/1653127 .
Fascinante diversité des #moustiques !

Photos de @nil-rahola.bsky.social

#Entomologie #Biodiversité

Graphical abstract of: Morin hydrate reduces survival and fertility, delays development and weakens lipid reserves in Aedes aegypti

A new article published in #RESMedVetEnt shows morin hydrate reduces survival and fertility, delays development and weakens lipid reserves in #AedesAegypti 🦟

Read the #OpenAccess article now🔽
doi.org/10.1111/mve.12805

@wiley.com

Environmental heterogeneity across an urban gradient influences detritus and nutrients within artificial containers and their associated vector Aedes sp. larvae in San Juan, Puerto Rico Abstract. Detrital inputs from the surrounding terrestrial environment provide essential nutrients that sustain mosquito populations in aquatic containers.

New paper out by my talented former student Limarie (now Dr. Reyes-Torres) on how nutrient vary and may influence Aedes aegypti across urban-rural gradients in Puerto Rico. 🧪🦟🇵🇷
academic.oup.com/jme/advance-...

Further: It takes more than money to support *meaningful* research. Good research is a community effort – communities of scholars working with and in the communities where they live.

Helicoptering in a few big-money, high-flier Americans to "quietly cure ass cancer" is not working in community.

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs.

Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng
Custom Lab Hardware
Turn Key Genetic Design

Please repost for reach 💚

Members of the band Zit Remedy

The average Canadian has 3 friends

Is anyone here a wildlife rehabilitator who knows about songbirds? Or do you know someone who is? I'm working on a revamped version of a chart I made that helps people figure out what to do if they find a baby bird, and I want to make sure my advice is up to date.