Curious whether bees can learn non-floral cues to find floral rewards? New paper in Animal Behavior @animbehsociety.bsky.social by @mtcastagna.bsky.social, @jentomology.bsky.social, Ciara Stewart, and myself!
We find evidence that bees can learn leaf shape!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Delighted to announce that Grace McKinney passed her PhD qualifying exam with flying colours today. Fantastic work, well done! #ProudSupervisor. Thanks to your excellent exam committee @soilmicrocanada.bsky.social @emmaallen-vercoe.bsky.social @faisal-moola.bsky.social & Ernesto Guzman
5,000 #students across Canada help map the secret lives of solitary cavity-nesting #bees and #wasps.
🐝This study used #community #science & #metabarcoding to reveal hidden insect interactions.
👇See what they found here: doi.org/10.3897/mbmg...
#citizenscience #hymenoptera
Cc: uofguelph.bsky.social, @nigeleraine.bsky.social
Or alternatively, check out the study featured on @pensoft.net 's blog: blog.pensoft.net/2026/02/23/5...
As the last few years have seen some serious yield challenges in West African cocoa, leading to global price volatility (and noticeable increases in the price of chocolate bars, changes in recipes, etc.), let's think about just one part of this system: pollination.
A thread 🧵
[1/]
“Building a Pollinator Haven at Home: Tips & Lessons Learned” A backyard with a large patch of asters, all in bloom.
Join us to get advice straight from Xerces staff that have built a pollinator haven in their yards. We’ll cover all the basics, as well as the unexpected lessons that come from years of experience!
🗓️Feb 12 at 10am PT / 1pm ET
🔗Register for this free event: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Leafcutter bee visiting a pink flower to collect nectar (photo taken by Sage Handler)
New DNA metabarcoding results show the distribution of cavity nesting #bees & #wasps, & their food sources, from schools across 🇨🇦. This community science work, led by Sage Handler, reveals network links among plants, #pollinators, parasites, predators & prey doi.org/10.3897/mbmg... @mbmg.pensoft.net
New PhD alert! We'll be applying animal welfare ideas to look at how stress affects bees, looking at the effect on bee brains with @lenariab.bsky.social, and working with @sensibee.bsky.social developing new monitoring methods.
Please spread the word! #bees #PhD 🧪
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Have a look at the brand new website of our sibling project, ProPollSoil!
www.propollsoil.eu
New paper alert! Sterol content of pollen directly influences solitary bee development & indicates that Osmia larvae are efficient in accumulating sterols or can biosynthesise or modify them, which challenges previous studies. @rbgkew.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New PhD position available! For applicants keen to combine evolutionary ecology, neuroscience and animal cognition. Based at UCL with me, @maxreuter.bsky.social, @fcamus.bsky.social and Tamara Boto (Bristol). Directly funded, see here for details and eligibility: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Cognitive tasks could be biased towards generalists: a lesson from wild non-eusocial #bees. In this work, led by Tovah Kashetsky, specialist 🐝s were more hesitant to continue interacting with novel stimuli. Check out the #OA paper in @behavecol.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1093/behe... #ProudCoSupervisor
robobuzzer
New Phytol diagram
We are looking for a very short (6 mo) researcher post for helping us to do experiments with bees, flowers and tiny robots,! The post would be suitable for a recently graduated PhD student or someone between jobs. The post will be announced formally in the new year. Informal queries welcome by email
Our survey of #bees & #wasps visiting #soybean flowers is out: doi.org/10.4039/tce..... This work shows most 🐝s visiting soy🌼s carried soy pollen. #Bumblebees & ground-nesting 🐝s were the most common 🌼visitors suggesting that management practices supporting these #pollinators will benefit 🇨🇦growers
The #ProPollSoil project has officially got underway, coming together to explore two big questions: How does the health of our soils shape the fate of #pollinators? And how do pollinators influence #soil health?
Read more here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/11/21/c...
#bees #biodiversity #MissionSoil
We're really looking forward to this talk from Serian Sumner this Friday. Join us online or inperson, with a book signing and drinks reception aftwards. @waspwoman.bsky.social Reserve your seat now! bookwhen.com/oxfordbiodiv...
🐝 PhD Opportunity @tum.de
Explore how soil health & structure shape habitats for ground-nesting pollinators in the Horizon Europe project ProPollSoil.
Join our interdisciplinary team in Soil Biophysics & Environmental Systems 🌿
🔗 Details: www.lss.ls.tum.de/sbe/offered-...
For #EntSoc2025 folks interested in insect responses to extreme weather, Neal Williams and I are hosting a session, "Hot Bees" in D133/134. We'll focus the methods and tools we can use to understand how heat waves impact wild pollinators across ecological scales. Join us! 🌡️🐝💨🌼
Our recently opened World of Wasps exhibition hopes to reveal the unseen lives of wasps. Speaking to @cnn.com, Professor Seirian Sumner (@waspwoman.bsky.social) gave her top five reasons why we should all love wasps as much as she does.
We're hiring two PhD and two postdoc positions! Interested in pollinators, soils, agroecology, pesticides? Then come and work with us and with collaborators and all over Europe! stanleyecologylab.org/vacancies #findaphd Please share!
Today is #WorldBeeDay, which is a real reason to celebrate these wonders of nature! #Canada is a very large, diverse country. Our efforts have confirmed almost 1030 species (www.beesofcanada.com/species), and this list continues to grow.
Congrats Jeremy. Really pleased for you!
In a review led by Spanish researchers David Peris and Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente, we explored why a deep time perspective on insect pollination is relevant to our current understanding of plant-pollinator relationships. Read more here:
jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/03/12/e...
#pollinators #biodiversity
If you don't have a voter information card, bring one piece of ID with both your name and home address. Government-issued • Ontario driver's licence • Ontario motor vehicle permit (plate or vehicle portion) • Ontario photo card • Property assessment notice from Municipal Property Assessment Corporation • Child tax benefit statement • Income tax notice of assessment • Social Insurance Number confirmation letter • Statement of Employment Insurance Benefits Paid T4E • Statement of Old Age Security T4A (OAS) • Any document showing both your name and home address issued by the Government of Canada/Ontario Educational or financial • School admission letter • School transcript or report card • Tuition/fees statement • Bank account or credit card statement • Cancelled personalized cheque • Cheque stub, pay receipt or T4 issued by a person's employer • Insurance statement • Residential mortgage, lease, or rental statement • Signed loan or financial agreement with a financial institution • Document showing campus residence issued by the office or officials responsible for student residence at a post-secondary institution Other • CNIB card or card from another registered charitable organization that provides services to persons with disabilities • Hospital records showing a person's name and home address • Letter of Confirmation of Residence • Utility bill (hydro, water, gas, telephone, cable TV, public utilities commission) • Property tax assessment or bill from a municipality in Ontario • Any other document showing both your name and home address issued by: • a municipality • a government agency • or certified by a court in Ontario
No voter card?
No problem!
Here’s what you can use instead to vote.
Postdoc Opportunity in #Pollination Research
The @uni-freiburg.de is hiring a Postdoc for the EU project VALOR, exploring the ecological and economic values of pollinators.
📅 Deadline: March 1, 2025
📅 Start date: June 1, 2025
💰 Salary: TV-L E13 (100%), 3 years
🔗 uni-freiburg.de/stellenangeb...
Image of a PhD position advert entitled "PhD studentship in Brain, Brawn, and Bugs: cognitive and physical factors of insect dexterity" with images of a praying mantis and a bumblebee foraging.
🚨Fully-funded PhD studentship on insect behaviour, cognition & muscles with me & @viveknityananda.bsky.social at @newcastleuni.bsky.social 🐝🍀🎓🙌Application deadline April 30, start date in September. Drop me an email if you have questions! www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate...
Exciting opportunity to bee-come the new Assistant or Associate Professor in Apiculture/Honey #Bee Biology @uofguelph.bsky.social 🇨🇦. Assessment of applications will begin on April 16. Full info about the faculty position & application process: careers.uoguelph.ca/job/Guelph-A... Please share widely!
If there’s still space, please could you add me to this starter pack. Many thanks
Lestrimelitta robber bees standing on the entrance tube
Melipona flavolineata stingless bee guards standing on their nest entrance tube
🐝 3-year Postdoc position 🐝
Join us @bristolbiosci.bsky.social to study the impacts of parasitic bees on tropical bee communities using eDNA, SNPs & field-based surveys.
📅 Deadline: 23 Feb 2025
💃Vibrant city
🌎 Collaboration with USP 🇧🇷
🐝 Details here: tinyurl.com/586u7vau
@leverhulme.bsky.social
