Niklas Wahlberg
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lepphylo.bsky.social
Niklas Wahlberg
@lepphylo.bsky.social
Professor in Biological Systematics, and Director of the Biological Museum, Lund University, Sweden
Butterflies and moths are my thing, especially their systematics and evolutionary history
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
We're hiring!
A Post-doctoral fellow in Eco-evolutionary shifts in bumblebee communities. You will be working within @beccsweden.bsky.social w/ Professor Bengt Hansson at The Department of Biology.

👉https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:867222/
Please apply no later than 19 December!
November 26, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
“Overall, these findings suggest that the value of natural history collections as global research infrastructure is eroding due to decreased collecting of specimen data across species, locations, and time.“ doi.org/10.1038/s414... Interesting analysis based on @gbif.org data.
Global sampling decline erodes science potential of natural history collections - Nature Communications
Natural history collections hold over two billion specimens representing Earth’s biodiversity, but their scientific value depends on continued specimen collection and digitisation. This study demonstr...
doi.org
November 26, 2025 at 12:11 AM
So sad to hear. He was instrumental in helping us interpret the results of our molecular work on Noctuoidea. His work on the group will be part of the classics.
November 25, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
*Guaranteed funding* PhD opportunity in my group. Work with damselflies, UN global biodiversity targets, genetic data, and NatureScot policy groups; the project will advance comparative population genetics and provide evidence feeding directly to policy. www.findaphd.com/phds/project....
QUARTILES DLA CASE: Genetic diversity and adaptation: Developing indicators for national and international policy at University of Aberdeen on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - QUARTILES DLA CASE: Genetic diversity and adaptation: Developing indicators for national and international policy at University of Aberdeen , listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
Latest work out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social

We find the fly development gene bicoid is much older than previously thought (~20 million yrs older!) 🪰🧬

To pinpoint its origins we tackled the Diptera phylogeny, providing some resolution (many open questions remain).

🔗 tinyurl.com/2vyuevpy
Revised evolutionary relationships within Brachycera and the early origin of bicoid in flies
Mulhair et al. uncover a functional bicoid in non-cyclorrhaphan flies, pushing the gene's origin back by ∼20 million years. Reassessing the Diptera phylogeny using the largest dataset to date permits ...
www.cell.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
Huge congrats to Daniel and co-authors! 🤩
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Prey avoid predators through camouflage, chemical defences, or rapid escape. But what drives their co-existence?
Quantifying the success of prey crypsis, aposematism, and evasiveness in avoiding predator attack
Antipredator defenses typically act at distinct stages of the predation sequence—encounter, identification, approach, and subjugation. However, their effectiveness has rarely been quantified and comp...
doi.org
November 21, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
final week to apply for @sangerinstitute.bsky.social PhD programme (due Nov 27th) -- free to apply, open to anyone anywhere, and a superb training opportunity for students interested in genomic approaches applied to biodiversity, pathogens, vectors, and of course us pesky humans.
November 20, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
🧬 PhD Position: Evolutionary & Comparative Genomics 🕷️
Join us at @uni-goettingen.de for a 3-year PhD (65% TV-L E13).
We will investigate the genomic & phenotypic impact of gene duplication across 233 arthropod genomes!
More infos 👇 and s.gwdg.de/eDrAAY
#Evolution #Genomics #Bioinformatics
Posnien - Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Webseiten der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
s.gwdg.de
November 18, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
(1/4) 📣 Exciting news! 📣
The #10KLepGenomes COST Action has opened the second call for Short Term Scientific Missions #STSMs
Keep reading for all the details 👇
November 17, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
Visste ni att hundarnas enorma utseendevariation började redan för tusentals år sedan? Nu visar ny forskning att formförändringen började redan för över 11 000 år sedan.

Läs hela nyheten på biologisk institutionens webbplats: www.biologi.lu.se/artikel/hund...
November 18, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
If you work on genomics of Lepidoptera in Europe and would like to do a short-term research exchange, you can apply for a short term scientific mission through our COST Action. See details below.
(1/4) 📣 Exciting news! 📣
The #10KLepGenomes COST Action has opened the second call for Short Term Scientific Missions #STSMs
Keep reading for all the details 👇
November 17, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
November 13, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
They are now published: the results of a study I contributed to when I was recently employed as an antiquarian at Lund University’s Historical Museum!
The emergence and diversification of #dog #morphology | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The emergence and diversification of dog morphology
Dogs exhibit an exceptional range of morphological diversity as a result of their long-term association with humans. Attempts to identify when dog morphological variation began to expand have been con...
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
PhD position available in evolutionary genomics/bioinformatics (hoehnalab.github.io/job_adverts/...). Topic: analyzing gene expression evolution across several firefly species and linking expression changes to genomic architecture. The position is jointly supervised with @anaevolcatalan.bsky.social
hoehnalab.github.io
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

@ebablab.bsky.social and I helped a bit in this really informative article by Robin Grob in the el Jundi lab on spatial orientation strategies in Lepidoptera. Have a read :-)
The diversity of lepidopteran spatial orientation strategies – neuronal mechanisms and emerging challenges in a changing world - Journal of Comparative Physiology A
The Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths, display an astonishing diversity of spatial orientation strategies essential for survival, reproduction, and ecological success. These spatial orientation strat...
link.springer.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
We are excited to welcome new members to our network of affiliated initiatives!
🦋 @projectpsyche.bsky.social aims to sequence the genomes of all butterflies and moths of Europe, supporting their conservation, protection and driving innovation.

🦋 Learn more: www.projectpsyche.org #Lepidoptera
November 7, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
I am recruting a #postdoc for a project investigating the evolution of avian heat tolerance in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Fieldwork over broad latitudinal gradients, common-garden experiments, and more. Read more and apply👇
shorturl.at/WA1Qa

Would appreciate a re-post!

@evoldir.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
👇Check out this article about our work in the Italian Alps and Barcelona, where we’re studying moth and butterfly genomes as part of @projectpsyche.bsky.social ’s goal to sequence every species in Europe 🦋🧬

#10kLepGenomes #Genomics #Lepidoptera
In July, our reporter traveled to the Italian Alps and to Barcelona, Spain, to observe researchers capturing moths and butterflies and then sequencing their genomes. It was all part of the most ambitious biology project ever: to sequence every species on Earth.
The Genome Revolution Takes Flight: Mapping the DNA of Europe’s Lepidoptera
An expedition in the Italian Alps unleashes advanced genome sequencing
spectrum.ieee.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
Finally out in Elife @elife.bsky.social : well done @joledamoisel.bsky.social ! Convergent iridescence and divergent chemical signals in sympatric sister-species of Amazonian butterflies doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
November 6, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Gelechioidea, that superdiverse superfamily of Lepidoptera that has been a super mess taxonomically, finally gets some structure at the family level with phylogenomics! Read all about it in our article led by PhD student @etkayapar.bsky.social !
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Integrating Sanger and next‐generation sequencing data sheds light on phylogenetic relationships among gelechioid moths (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea)
The maximum-likelihood analysis of a phylogenomic dataset of 1767 protein-coding genes from 57 ingroup taxa yields a robust family-level topology for Gelechioidea, revealing novel among-family relat...
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
Apologies for the delay. I can recommend Sean Clancy's excellent report in the link below, which lists all the known immigrant Noctuid species -

www.atropos.info/flight-arriv...
Migrant Moth Totals - Atropos
Introduction to migrant moth totals
www.atropos.info
October 29, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
Vampire moths might sound more horror film than natural world, but they’re 100% real! 😱

See why some moths pick human blood over fruit juice in this week’s Surprising Science. 🩸🦇
October 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
Exiting career-boosting opportunity for a a skilled and highly motivated postdoctoral researcher: We're hiring a Post-doctoral fellow in Evolutionary Biology!

Please apply no later than 31 October!
lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
October 22, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by Niklas Wahlberg
Dear colleagues,
I'd like to share a short new contribution on the application of highly complex site-heterogeneous models, in particular CAT-GTR, to phylogenomic inference. While this paper arises from a recent publication on the early-branching topology of ants...
Ant phylogeny is not resolved by the application of site heterogeneous models - Communications Biology
Communications Biology - Ant phylogeny is not resolved by the application of site heterogeneous models
tinyurl.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:35 AM