Click this link to see the pdf of my ESEB 2019 poster Coping with change.
Author: MothProf
I used to be BugPhD, but I finished and moved on to insects new.
Moving to Amsterdam
Exciting news! I’ll be starting my new position as Assistant Professor in Chemical Ecology at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) in the University of Amsterdam in January 2019.
More news to come on potential job openings. Of course the biggest challenge right now is finding an apartment in Amsterdam…
More funding success
More good news from the Evolution in Action project. We received EUR 96,000 of funding from Tieteen Tiedotus Ry (i.e. the Finnish Science Information Bureau)! We will use this money make our workshop materials available for everyone and work with artists Tiina Hirvonen and Michaela Casková to develop new tools and methods to teach evolution in primary and secondary schools.
For more details in Finnish see here.
Bugs on the cover
My photo made the cover of Evolutionary Ecology! Check out the full issue here.
New warning signal review
What do you get when you combine seven early career researchers, an excellent workshop, one too many beers and far too many skype meetings? A review paper 2 years in the making!
Diversity in warning coloration: selective paradox or the norm? is now out in Biological Reviews. In it we discuss the causes of variation in warning signals, and get carried away with our literature review…
Colourful bugs vary with the weather
The first paper from my time as an Endeavour fellow in Australia is out! Learn about warning signal plasticity in hibiscus harlequin bugs over at Evolutionary Ecology
New paper
New paper out now (well it doesn’t feel that new to me but such is the peer review system). De novo synthesis of chemical defenses in an aposematic moth.
PopGroup51
I dashed back to the UK over new year to attend PopGroup51 in Bristol and present my current work on shiny bugs!
Iridescent Bugs
I’m currently in Australia(!) and will be here for the next 4 months on an Endeavour Fellowship, working on the ecological and genetic basis of colour variation in Hibiscus Harlequin Bugs (Tectocoris diophthalmus). I’m based at Macquarie University in Sydney, working with Mariella Herberstein and Kate Umbers.
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Hibiscus Harlequin Bugs have contrasting pattern made up of orange colouration and iridescent blue patches that vary considerably in size between individuals and populations. Northern populations have far less blue colouration, and may even be completely orange. Furthermore this variation has been shown to influence survival against different types of predators. My work will focus on the causes of this variation, both within and between populations.
How to fight multiple enemies:
My first moth paper is now out! Check out Proc B to learn about the target-specific chemical defences of the wood tiger moth.
You can also read about the research over at Inside Science.
Insect Chemical and Evolutionary Ecology 