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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 11d

Thanks Vivek, it happened. See you in Edinburgh?

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 11d

Haha, thanks Benito - there is certainly plenty more colsci to come.

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 13d

We conclude that whether animals evolve camouflage or warning colouration as their antipredator strategy depends on multiple mechanisms. This helps explain the evolution and global distribution of camouflaged and warningly coloured animals. 6/6

Results of the lepidopteran survey, showing the proportion or warning and cryptic coloured lepidoptera globally.

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 13d

Several other variables were important too, including whether the predator community had lots of insectivore specialists, the colours of other butterflies and moths in the prey community, and how gloomy the forest was. Please take a look at the paper for details! 5/6

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 13d

We found predator competition had the largest effect, and it was bad news for prey with warning colouration – they were more likely to be sampled but slow to be learnt when hungry predators were competing for resources. 4/6

Saxicola rubicola (c) Stansislav Harvancik

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 13d

In 21 different forests we exposed over 15,000 camouflaged and warning coloured artificial ‘moths’ to avian predation 🐦‍⬛.

How do differences in predator and prey communities and light environment between locations affect predation on each colour strategy? 3/6

Figure showing some of the locations, the artificial prey targets, and global variation in two key variables - predation intensity and illumination levels.

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 13d

Iliana Medina and I assembled a team of 50+ amazing collaborators inc.
@jmappes.bsky.social @hannahmrowland.bsky.social hmrowland.bsky.social @facasaro.bsky.social saro.bsky.social @jtroscianko.bsky.social + many not on Bsky to run a field predation experiment across six continents. 2/6

Map showing the faces and locations of the collaborators in the globally distributed experiment.

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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 Will Allen

Melanie Brien @melbrien.bsky.social · 14d

Funded PhD position available 🎉 Come and work with me in Helsinki to uncover the pathways producing colourful tiger moth wings. Lots of options for genomics, CRISPR, fieldwork, behaviour experiments… Email with questions! jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Wood tiger moth on leaf. Photo: Juhani Maamela.

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Reposted by Will Allen

Lauren Brent @ljnbrent.bsky.social · 16d

Postdoc job alert! We are hiring a NYU-based postdoc to work on our project on the social and environmental determinants of aging. The 3 year post will be based in James Higham's lab and will focus on endocrine, immune, and inflammatory aspects of aging. Please share! apply.interfolio.com/173938

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 16d

Matt Sparks, my PhD student, and Roger Santer wrote a very interesting article for The Conversation on fly vision, and why understanding it better can help prevent human disease. theconversation.com/how-a-fly-se...

How a fly sees the world – and why understanding its vision can help prevent disease

Flies see things differently.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Will Allen

Jessica Dobson @jessica-dobson.bsky.social · 21d

Super happy to share the first chapter of my PhD, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface ✨🐀 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Iridescence in mammals is not as rare as we thought, but it’s all created in the same way!

Rainbow-like colours in the fur of a tropical rat (Otomys tropicalis)

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Reposted by Will Allen

Wayne Maddison @waynemaddison.bsky.social · Sep 5

Confused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · Sep 5

Depressing stich-up by the right-wing press. Rayner is an inspiration to everyone trying to get on in life after a difficult childhood, and for helping others to do the same. I hope she is back in Government soon.

Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · Sep 5

On the same day in the Telegraph:

The Telegraph

Rayner tax scandal - £40k tax dodge - Statement

Angela Rayner dodges £40,000 stamp duty

Deputy Prime Minister reduces tax bill for Hove flat by declaring it as her main residence

[Photo: Angela Rayner pictured at the weekend in Hove, where she has just bought a flat Credit: Dan Charity/The Sun on Sunday]

Robert Mendick Chief Reporter. Amy Gibbons Political Correspondent

29 August 2025 8:57am BST

The Telegraph

Money > Property > Second homes

How to avoid tax on your second home

From stamp duty to council tax, shield your wealth from Labour's tightening net

[Photo of houses around a bay - Areas such as Cornwall have added a premium to council tax bills for second homes Credit: iStockphoto]

Fran Ivens Senior Money Writer

29 August 2025 1:21pm BST

Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · Sep 5

The genomics of discrete polymorphisms maintained by disruptive selection: Trends in Ecology & Evolution www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

The genomics of discrete polymorphisms maintained by disruptive selection

Disruptive selection can lead to the evolution of discrete morphs. We show that particular genetic architectures, in terms of dominance, epistasis, and linkage, are likely to evolve to produce discret...

www.cell.com

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · Sep 4

New paper @biolinvasions.bsky.social led by Sarah-Sophie Weil.

Can macroevolution inform contemporary invasion potential?

We outline the assumptions of this approach, assess support, then test if dispersal ability can proxy for naturalisation success in several tetrapod groups.

rdcu.be/eD9Tt

Schematic figure indicating scientific support for the assumptions underlying the relationship between diversification rate and current naturalisation potential.

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Reposted by Will Allen

Anna Hughes @scienceanna.bsky.social · Sep 1

@riadsala.bsky.social and I have been spending a long time thinking about modelling visual foraging. v2 model glow up: 1) it can account for individual diffs in lots of summary stats 2) it can deal with 'outliers' really nicely and 3) it should be easier to use! osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

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Reposted by Will Allen

Jordi Sola @jsola.bsky.social · Sep 1

📢 New in Ecology Letters: heterogeneity ≠ stability.
🌊🪨 3-yr rocky-shore experiment: 4 cascades canceled the classic heterogeneity–stability link.
📄 doi.org/10.1111/ele.70158

With @thefairchild.bsky.social , @MatthewPerkins, @JamesBull & @jngriffy.bsky.social — thanks to @NERC & @SwanseaUniversity.

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · Aug 27

Sunrise at Refugio Juclar in Andorra. Hiking retreat after ESEB.

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Reposted by Will Allen

Jarome Ali 🇹🇹 🏳️‍🌈 @jarome.bsky.social · Aug 13

Pick an idiom: "more than meets the eye", "beauty more than skin [feather] deep" etc.

In work led by Rosalyn Price-Waldman, we describe a hidden (and ignored!) black or white layer found below the visible surface of bird feathers which helps make bird colours so striking!

🧪 🪶 #colsci

Songbirds play optical tricks to make their feather colors ‘pop’

Concealed black or white bands on feathers boost the vibrancy of bird plumage

www.science.org

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Reposted by Will Allen

Catalina Pimiento 🆓🇵🇸 @pimientoc.bsky.social · Aug 11

Check out our perceptive on the Emerging uses of artificial intelligence in deep time biodiversity research www.nature.com/articles/s44...
#AI #paleontology

Emerging uses of artificial intelligence in deep time biodiversity research - Nature Reviews Biodiversity

This Perspective explores the existing and potential applications of artificial intelligence in deep time biodiversity research as well as offer guidelines on equitable and ethical use of artificial i...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Will Allen

Neil Renic @ncrenic.bsky.social · Jul 21

Important things to consider before we outsource the research and writing process to machine proxies

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · Jul 4

Haiku from today's bike ride:

fast car overtakes
oh no sleeping policeman
exhaust scrapes down road

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · Jul 3

Hot cats, cool linoleum floor.

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Reposted by Will Allen

Dr Christopher Taylor @mimicryin3d.bsky.social · Jul 2

Why do imperfect mimics (such as many hoverflies) exist? We created 3D printed replicas of flies, wasps and our own custom intermediates and then "asked" various predators what they thought of our 3D stimuli. Read all about it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Mapping the adaptive landscape of Batesian mimicry using 3D-printed stimuli - Nature

Birds have an excellent ability to learn to discriminate harmless insects from those that they mimic on the basis of subtle differences in appearance.

www.nature.com

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