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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 1d

Incidentally, talking of the IAPT (to make a long digression even longer) this same Sandra Knapp has actually a lot to do, more recently, with the modernisation of the ICBN "Botanical Code" to the current ICNafp -- the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants 4/2

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 1d

It's a beautiful plant, and some specimens were grown at Kew, and others distributed elsewhere -- so I think all live plants in the UK are now clones of our original specimen! 3/2

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 1d

... of H. telesiphe laying on a purple variegated Passiflora. The plant was sterile, but I carried rooted stems in my carry-on back to UK and my Dad's greenhouse. My Dad's first cousin Michael Shone also grew cuttings. On flowering, Sandy K pressed specimens which became types of a new species! 2/2

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 1d

@chrisjiggins.bsky.social Yes, we found Passiflora telesiphe on my first trip to Ecuador with you, Chris, as a new grad student -- it was very dry to the West in Guayquichuma and no butterflies, so we went down the Eastern side on the slopes towards Zamora and made this observation... 1/2

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 1d

Lepidoptera are honorary plants! With Sandra Knapp FRS I have named two plant species after the butterflies that ate them: Passiflora eueidipabulum after the butterfly Eueides lineata; and another one is Passiflora telesiphe after Heliconius telesiphe.

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Reposted by jim mallet

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · 3d

Ferns would like a word.

Chromosome number diversity found in animals and plants. (a) The bulldog ant, Myrmecia pilosula, 2n = 4 (from Crosland & Crozier, 1986) (b) The lycaenid butterfly, Lysandra atlantica, 2n = ca. 440 (from de Lesse, 1970) (c) Brachycome dichromosomatica, 2n = 4) (d) Adder's tongue fern Ophioglossum reticulatum 2n = ca. 1440 (from Ninan, 1958). Scale bar = 10 μm.

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Bryan White, MS Bio, MPH 🧬 @crvscience.com · 4d

Homie got 229 pairs of chromosomes

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

This tiny butterfly has the most chromosomes of any animal on Earth

Scientists have confirmed that the Atlas blue butterfly carries the most chromosomes of any animal, with 229 pairs. Unlike duplication, its chromosomes split apart, reshaping its genome in surprising ...

www.sciencedaily.com

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 3d

It seems ancestral Polyommatini (“The Blues”) have similar with n~22-ish. And then suddenly, another freakout! Chop-chop-chop-chop-chop-chop…, and voila! n=229 with the Atlas Blue. — 2/2

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 3d

Lepidoptera normally have highly conserved n=31 chromosomes. Then suddenly everything goes haywire! Most Heliconiinae have ancestral n=31, including Eueides, sister to Heliconius. Then suddenly there were 10 fusions, so most Heliconius have n= 21 ! — 1/2

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闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD @minyaaa.bsky.social · 4d

And look at this graphic abstract….. 😱🤯

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 17d

I have such good memories of this early time in Berlin! Also, do you buy the argument of this paper? -Monnet, F., Postel, Z., Touzet, P., Fraïsse, C., Van de Peer, Y., Vekemans, X., & Roux, C. 2025. Rapid establishment of species barriers in plants ... Science 389:1147-1150. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Rapid establishment of species barriers in plants compared with that in animals

Speciation, the process by which new reproductively isolated species emerge from ancestral populations, results from the gradual accumulation of barriers to gene flow within genomes. To date, the noti...

doi.org

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Reposted by jim mallet

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 19d

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 17d

Make America Gormless Again!

jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 18d

Very understandable to me as a former H1B holder! If you have not booked travel, I would wait. If you did book, then follow the news, and hope for the best!

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 18d

Here are graphs depicting actual Lotka-Volterra model of evolution by natural selection -- "the struggle for existence". 5/5

jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 18d

I've spent roughly half of my working life educating Americans, and suddenly, the open society that was USA is no longer tolerating the free flow of information that comes with education. 4/5

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 18d

I returned to UK and taught there, before my current iteration in the USA, where my group, taking advantage of the latest genomic methods, has made profound discoveries in how species of insects form. And for the past 13 years, I have taught Americans population genetics. 3/5

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 18d

I then taught in Mississippi, and researched cotton bollworms and tobacco budworms on cotton, as well as sibling speciation in the "Common Malaria Mosquito", which turns out to be a complex of around 6 species. 2/5 (sorry, it's longer chain than I thought at first!).

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 18d

I know it's possible to argue that I "benefited" from US training at the nation's expense. However, what I benefited from in my PhD (on an F1 visa) was University of Texas' "in state tuition" costs, then $300/semester 1978-83! (seems amazing in retrospect). 1/2

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 18d

Good grief! I've had an alphabetic list of US visas (F2, F1, J1, H1B and two green cards) over the years. If I had happened to have been out of the country on my H1B, I would have had 1 day to get back to the USA. Also, I or my university would have to have paid $100K/yr. From immigration lawyers:

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jim mallet @wtf-r-species.bsky.social · 21d

Unfortunately, these people have no sense of humor. I suggest you don't comment like that if sarcasm might be taken for real by some AI bot seeking out radical left professors.