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Benito Wainwright

@benitoexplains.bsky.social

220 followers 200 following 44 posts

Research fellow at the University of St Andrews 🏳️‍🌈 • Evolutionary and sensory ecology in 🦋+ 🦗 • He/him • I also make YouTube videos. Link here: https://youtube.com/@benitosexplenations?si=zpMANThrSJv_efM0

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Apr 10

🍃New preprint alert!!🍃(maybe I'll start using this app more from now on 😂). Excited for my first piece of katydidling to be released into the wild. Feedback and comments, as always, are very welcome! @uniofstandrews.bsky.social 😊 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Extraordinary adaptations: Functional and evolutionary synergy of trait components can explain the existence of leaf masquerade

One of the most enduring mysteries in biology concerns the evolution of complex adaptations made up of interacting component traits. When these component traits lack an obvious adaptive function in is...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Stephen Montgomery @ebablab.bsky.social · 11d

@pinpilinpauxa-aaa.bsky.social on her @wellcometrust.bsky.social photography competition entry! 👏🏻

www.instagram.com/reel/DO-j2rM...

@bristolbiosci.bsky.social 🧪 #Heliconiini #evobio #neuroscience

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · 12d

This has got to be the #colsci paper to end all #colsci papers! Huge congratulations to @wlallen.bsky.social and Iliana Medina for this monumental effort. 🤯 Chefs kiss 🤌🏽

Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 13d

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org

We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) decides whether to consume a warningly colored white-barred acraea butterfly (Telchinia encedon). Photo (c) Mike Rowe

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Sandra Goutte @sandragoutte.bsky.social · 21d

Happy to share that our paper on the #evolution and #genomics of the most common #color polymorphism in #frogs is now out in @pnas.org! My favorite frogs even made the cover of this week’s issue! 🎉🐸🎉

Read the paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A pair of Ehiopian grass frogs (Ptychadena nana) on the cover of PNAS this week!

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Emília Santos @emiliapsantos.bsky.social · 22d

Very proud of this extremely collaborative piece: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Here, we show that divergence in visual systems - in response to differences in the light environment - leads to rapid divergence in sexually selected colour traits. Work brilliantly led by Madeleine Carruthers. 🐟👀🎨

Rapid Divergence of Visual Systems and Signaling Traits to Contrasting Light Regimes During Early Speciation of African Crater Lake Cichlid Fish

Abstract. Sensory adaptation is widely hypothesized to drive ecological speciation, yet empirical evidence from natural populations undergoing early stage

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Nature @nature.com · Sep 3

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species

go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

go.nature.com

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Sep 4

Go Jessie, lots of cool stuff in here 👨‍🦳👵 (NB. these emojis symbolise the concept of ageing, not Jessie herself)

Stephen Montgomery @ebablab.bsky.social · Sep 3

The first of Jessie Foley’s work on the #evolution of #ageing in #Heliconius for your reading pleasure.

Come for the 348 day old butterfly, stay for the evolved slower rate of ageing, species*diet effects, and weightlifting for elderly butterflies 💪🏻👵🏻

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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · Sep 3

Evolution of increased longevity and slowed ageing in a genus of tropical butterfly https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.29.673072v1

Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Kalyani Twyman @kztwyman.bsky.social · Sep 2

Why does the idea that race is biological persist despite biology so clearly refuting it? Check out a blog @kevinlala.bsky.social and I wrote about our new article titled 'Impediments to countering racist pseudoscience' (coauthored w/ @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social and Marc Feldman) for some thoughts:

Race Isn’t Biological — So Why Do So Many Still Think It Is? « Life Sciences# « Cambridge Core Blog

Even though findings from genetics and other sciences unequivocally refute biological conceptions of race, this erroneous viewpoint remains widespread among the general public. Why can’t scientists co...

www.cambridge.org

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Aug 26

How about a splash of Scottish North Sea for good measure 🌊

Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Aug 20

Thanks to those who came and chatted all things katydid camouflage at my poster on Monday! For those watching on catch-up, come and find me at the poster session on Thursday 😀🦗🍃 #ESEB2025

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Alexandra A. de Sousa @alealisousa.bsky.social · Aug 18

Amaia Alcade Anton talk on expanded mushroom bodies in Heliconius butterflies @tibbe-evolneuro.bsky.social #ESEB2025 SYMPOSIUM 17.2

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Alexandra A. de Sousa @alealisousa.bsky.social · Aug 18

Elizabeth Hodge on Heliconius enhanced visual memory + expanded mushroom bodies @tibbe-evolneuro.bsky.social #ESEB2025 session 17

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Jolyon Troscianko @jtroscianko.bsky.social · Jul 29

Winter ASAB @asab.org on *Sensory Ecology* register and submit your abstracts now (abstract deadline just a month away)!

I'm organising the conference this year with @lauraakelley.bsky.social and Innes Cuthill

Register & get more info here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/

Winter ASAB 2025 - 15th-16th of December in Edinburgh - with a special theme of "How sensory information affects behaviour". Register at https://asabwinter.github.io/2025/ deadline for abstract submission 29th of August.

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Stephanie L King @stephanielking.bsky.social · Jul 31

Excited to share that we have just been awarded a NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant to work on between-group cooperation in the Shark Bay dolphins. We will soon advertise a 3 year post-doc to join the team - drop me an email if you might be interested! Pls share widely 🙏🏻

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Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Joana Meier @joanameier.bsky.social · Jul 30

Our paper, led by Eva van der Heijden, shows the work of an international team combining phylogenomics, hybridisation tests, population and comparative genomics and pheromone analyses to resolve the taxonomy and evolution of two rapid radiations of glasswing butterflies. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 24

How rude - I think I had it cracked after four 🤓

Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 24

Sam hasn’t stopped preaching about treehoppers to me since the day we first met seven years ago. Glad he’s finally managed to scratch this itch. Amazing work! 👏🏽⚡️

Sam England @samjakeengland.bsky.social · Jul 24

Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason - static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Electroreception in treehoppers: How extreme morphologies can increase electrical sensitivity | PNAS

The link between form and function of an organism’s morphology is usually apparent or intuitive. However, some clades of organisms show remarkable ...

doi.org

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 23

Wanna see what it was REALLY like collecting data in the rainforest for our recent @pnas.org paper? I made a wee video about it, on YouTube now. As usual, thanks to my amazing field-assistant-turned-camera-operator Theodora for most of the sweaty Ecuadorean mug shots… 😇

youtu.be/6jNxgvK0kU0?...

Butterflies that look alike, see alike (PNAS paper 2025)

YouTube video by Benito's Explanations

youtu.be

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 16

I don’t think you ever sent me any of those photos but it may not be too late for cover art submission…

Reposted by Benito Wainwright

Christos C. Ioannou @ccioannou.bsky.social · Jul 16

New PhD student paper!

Social conformity in lateralisation in guppies
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
by Iestyn L. Penry-Williams, with Culum Brown
#openaccess at @ecol-evol.bsky.social

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 16

Thanks social media influencer 😜 I’m sure you’re relieved that I didn’t include your intrepid 2011 fieldwork photo in the thread this time!

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 16

Oh and of course, a heartfelt thanks to @bristolbiosci.bsky.social for all the good times! ❤️❤️❤️ 16/n

Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 16

And last but certainly not least, thank you to this epic team of ithomiine/sensory ecology titans and mentors:
@joanameier.bsky.social @drmartinjhow.bsky.social @ecologyofvision.bsky.social @jtroscianko.bsky.social
👏👏@camzoology.bsky.social @sangerinstitute.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social 15/n

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 16

As well as Theodora, I also had the pleasure of collaborating with some of my best friends on this project so special thanks to Iestyn Penry-Williams and
@samjakeengland.bsky.social . Big kudos to Steve's 2011 field assistant Francisco Ramriez, and former undergrad Annalie Barker too. 14/n

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 16

This work would not have been possible without the immense support and guidance @ebablab.bsky.social has given me over these past six years. I also wouldn't have got very far without my world-class field assistant Theodora Loupasaki. We took our work very seriously... 13/n

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Benito Wainwright @benitoexplains.bsky.social · Jul 16

I would love to say that I spent several evenings pondering these thought-provoking scientific ideas whilst basking in the warm glow of the Amazonian sunset, but to be honest, I mostly spent those evenings thinking about how much I missed crisps...

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