Miles Zhang | 张远濛
LightNews LightNews
ymilesz.bsky.social
Miles Zhang | 张远濛
@ymilesz.bsky.social
3.2K followers 1K following 230 posts
🇨🇳🇨🇦🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | Hymenoptera taxonomy, phylogenomics, and evolutionary ecology |

https://ymilesz.github.io/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
salkeith.bsky.social
Marie Curie fellowships are madness this year. A score of 97% required for funding. To all those who didn't succeed - you and your project are probably brilliant, hang in there and keep trying
a group of people are crawling through the mud .
Alt: a group of people are crawling through the mud .
media.tenor.com
February 9, 2026 at 8:01 PM
ymilesz.bsky.social
I worked on euphorine braconids for my PhD but I haven't really touched it since, so it was nice to be included and help contribute in this updated version of the dichotomous key. Hope it will be useful to people as the old version was to me.

cjai.biologicalsurvey.ca/articles/ssv...
Key to the New World genera of Euphorinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea: Braconidae) and synopses of the genera – Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification
cjai.biologicalsurvey.ca
February 9, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
americanbeetles.bsky.social
just a little baby child (from @mosquitolab.bsky.social's pitfall samples; I can see how this one got sorted into the beetle pile)
teeny tiny wingless parasitic wasp, probably genus Baeus. It is so round and fat and perfect. Its head is the size of the rest of its body.
February 6, 2026 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
histoftech.bsky.social
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
parasitoidrex.bsky.social
INSECT TAXONOMY IN THE 21ST CENTURY @entsocamerica.bsky.social
Online, April 27-29! Featuring keynotes from Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social, Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, and Dominic Evangelista.
Now accepting contributed talks! Grant deadline Feb 4, abstracts due Mar 6. entsoc.org/membership/b...
"Dark Linnaeus" - a portrait of the famous biologist with scary glowing red eyes
January 30, 2026 at 2:47 PM
ymilesz.bsky.social
Cool 🐜 science 🧪
jilloberski.bsky.social Jill Oberski, PhD @jilloberski.bsky.social · 9d
Hey bsky! I’d like to share some cool work I recently coauthored that integrates entomology, paleontology, and German cultural history. 🔶🐜⚡️ We discovered a fossil ant in the amber collection of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe! Read on for a delightful story of #museomics and #collectomics. >> 1/
A 3D micro-CT scan of ant Ctenobethylus goepperti encased in amber
February 6, 2026 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
jevbio.bsky.social
Responsible publication of your research!

To help you do this @nicolasgaltier.bsky.social and coauthors have put together a handy database of academia-friendly journals, DAFNEE. You can read about it in their article recently published in @jevbio.bsky.social:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly journals in ecology and evolutionary biology
Abstract. The current economics of scientific publishing reveal a profound imbalance: academia pays prices far exceeding the actual costs of publication. R
doi.org
January 28, 2026 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
lauriebelch.bsky.social
Calling all OrthoFinder users!

We’ve just released GLADE, a tool to infer gene gains, losses, duplications, and ancestral genomes across a phylogeny.

GLADE runs directly on OrthoFinder results.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
github.com/lauriebelch/...

(1/10)
www.biorxiv.org
January 29, 2026 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
xingxingshen.bsky.social
Excited to share a new piece of work in @embojournal.org

Parasitoid wasps hijack a bacterial gene that governs venoms against host. Coauthors include @rokaslab.bsky.social and others.

Read more from: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A bacterial gene acquired by parasitoid wasps contributes to venom secretion against host defence - The EMBO Journal
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important source of gene innovation in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Several genes acquired by hosts of parasitoid wasps via HGT have been reported to prot...
link.springer.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
xingxingshen.bsky.social
New work in @Cell Research

We conducted a large-scale structural genomics analysis of #insects, integrating phylogenomics with protein structure prediction to uncover hidden functions and evolutionary insights across the insect tree of life.

Read more from www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Structural genomics sheds light on protein functions and remote homologs across the insect tree of life - Cell Research
Cell Research - Structural genomics sheds light on protein functions and remote homologs across the insect tree of life
www.nature.com
January 28, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
davidho.bsky.social
The Trump regime got rid of 10,109 PhDs in science and related fields, representing 14% of the total number of PhD scientists in the federal workforce.
U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office
A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies
www.science.org
January 27, 2026 at 1:32 AM
ymilesz.bsky.social
The preprint of the first of the batch of parasitoid wasp genomes that we are generating is now out. Erythrina gall wasp is an invasive pest on the Hawaiian wiliwili tree, we were able to generate a HiFi genome using 1/10 of a flowcell, costing only ~$100 for the sequencing.
Image of Quadrastichus erythrinae and its galls Summary figures of the Q. erythrinae genome
January 26, 2026 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
davidho.bsky.social
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
January 20, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
dochfroehlich.bsky.social
Like so many, I’ve been affected by the new US federal stance against science. As a result of this and seeking a better life balance, I have accepted a new Full Prof position at the University Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮🤩

I will miss CA deeply, but a new adventure awaits 🐟

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Shattered’: US scientists speak out about how Trump policies disrupted their careers
Researchers lay bare the human toll of lay-offs, funding cuts and attacks on science one year after the president’s return to the White House.
www.nature.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
nick-mason.bsky.social
LSU Museum of Natural Sciences is hiring a postdoc! Come join our very active and supportive museum community. Applicants can work with any of the major divisions: 🐀🦜🦎🐸🐠

Review begins February 15th, please share!

lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0119...
Postdoctoral Researcher
All Job Postings will close at 12:01a.m. CST (1:01a.m. EST) on the specified Closing Date (if designated). If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application progre...
lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
January 7, 2026 at 3:19 PM
ymilesz.bsky.social
I love these illustrations!
January 6, 2026 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
waspvenom.bsky.social
New paper from the Martinson Lab! A fun study where we find a nice example of cascading speciation and describe three new species. Plus some exciting data to suggest that ecological guild may influence the impacts of host-associated differentiation. A 🧵. #galls #insects 🧪 doi.org/10.1111/mec....
Photo of a tank-like black parasitoid wasp, a new species called Eurytoma trixa
January 6, 2026 at 9:35 PM
ymilesz.bsky.social
Hahaha yes I appreciate this so much as an aging metalhead.
sarahmackattack.bsky.social Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · Jan 4
Always use the mic at a conference even if you’re loud. People who can’t hear you *can’t hear you * when you ask if you can hear them in the back. Some of us went to one too many hardcore shows in our youth without ear plugs and our hearing ain’t what it used to be 🥺
#SICB2026
January 4, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
davidho.bsky.social
2026 has been a long year.
January 3, 2026 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
nature.com
A graduate student from southeast Asia, now based in a European country and missing her homeland, agonizes over her next career move

go.nature.com/4pFc6hO
Should I return to my home country after my PhD abroad?
A graduate student from southeast Asia, now based in a European country and missing her homeland, agonizes over her next career move.
go.nature.com
January 1, 2026 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
shaylasalzman.bsky.social
New Job opportunity at the University of Georgia Department of Entomology! Come work a dream job in beautiful Athens!
www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/463...
Assistant Professor: Insect Ecologist
The Department of Entomology at the University of Georgia invites applications for a tenure-track position (9-months) in insect ecology, to be based on the Athens campus at the Assistant Professor ran...
www.ugajobsearch.com
December 30, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
americanbeetles.bsky.social
“That’s a fairly specialized technological skillset, I bet it pays more than the usual UK museum pos-
…ope”
December 23, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
dradriansmith.bsky.social
New Ant Lab video today about pincer wasps and a new research project. This one has some really cool, newly-filmed insect behavior in it! youtu.be/9osTBzQ0zbk
Spring-Loaded Claws on a Wasp – Parasitoid Pincer Wasps
YouTube video by Ant Lab
youtu.be
December 22, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
shchurch.bsky.social
The Church Evolution Lab (CEL@NYU) is hiring a postdoc! We have several new projects to study the genomic basis of biodiversity in model clades – especially Hawaiian Drosophila. apply.interfolio.com/179354

Come join our new group, you can study bugs and live in NYC! Feel free to share widely!
December 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Miles Zhang | 张远濛
chrisleduck.bsky.social
🚨 Tenure-track professorship at Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany, with a focus on evolutionary ecology of social hymenoptera 🐝🐜

Initially for 6 years:
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/pr...
Goethe University Frankfurt hiring Professur (W1 mit Tenure Track) für Evolutionäre Ökologie der Hymenopteren in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany | LinkedIn
Posted 11:13:19 PM. Die Professur wird zunächst auf sechs Jahre befristet besetzt, nach erfolgreicher Evaluation…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
www.linkedin.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:43 PM