MagBBB Research Group

New preprint on Orientation and Navigation of migratory moths in Europe 🚀 Our new results on European moth orientation and navigation are now available on the bioRxiv preprint server! 🦋🌙 Why study moth migration? Moths are more than night-time fliers. They are important pollinators, key food sources for other animals, and they help move energy and nutrients across ecosystems. Understanding how they migrate helps us better protect them. 🌌 How do moths navigate at night?

New preprint on Orientation and Navigation of migratory moths in Europe

🚀 Our new results on European moth orientation and navigation are now available on the bioRxiv preprint server! 🦋🌙 Why study moth migration? Moths are more than night-time fliers. They are important pollinators, key food…

Let’s teach neuroscientists how to be thoughtful and fair reviewers Blanco-Suárez revamped the traditional journal club by developing a course in which students peer review preprints alongside the published papers that evolved from them.

Cool idea for how to run a journal club from @eblancosuarez.bsky.social. Have students review a preprint and compare to the actual changes in the published version

Why propose a topic for one of our Workshops? YouTube video by The Company of Biologists

Getting involved as an organiser of one of our Workshops is easy. We focus on the logistics, so you can focus solely on the science. Watch this video to hear from some of our previous organisers. The call for proposals for 2028 programme runs until 29 May. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eShr...

New Insight on orientation mechanisms in migratory moths 🦋 We’re excited to share our latest Insight in eLife:👉 This Insight paper discusses the Research Article, “Geomagnetic and visual cues guide seasonal migratory orientation in the nocturnal fall armyworm, the world’s most invasive insect” by Ma et al., also published in eLife.🔗 In this work, the authors reveal how geomagnetic and visual cues shape orientation mechanisms of the migratory fall armyworm, offering new insights into the navigation strategies of one of the world’s most destructive invasive pests.

New Insight on orientation mechanisms in migratory moths

🦋 We’re excited to share our latest Insight in eLife:👉 This Insight paper discusses the Research Article, “Geomagnetic and visual cues guide seasonal migratory orientation in the nocturnal fall armyworm, the world’s most invasive insect” by…

DIY low-cost Moth Trap A short, practical guide to building your own low-cost trap for moths and other nocturnal insects, suitable for citizen science projects:

DIY low-cost Moth Trap

A short, practical guide to building your own low-cost trap for moths and other nocturnal insects, suitable for citizen science projects:

New paper out on the decision strategies of bumblebees. When using visual cues to make flower choices, they switch strategy with sensory context, learning as much as necessary, but as little as possible. Based on their training time, we propose a mechanism for this switch. tinyurl.com/2r9d4jrs 🌸🐝🧠

#mothtraps #diy #openscience
Links:
1) Dutch Butterfly Conservation design - butterfly-monitoring.net/sites/defaul...
2) UKCEH design - blog post (www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...), webinar (m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nlj...).

#EngineringLabDay
A new version of our portable, low-cost DIY moth trap, equipped with UV LED strip and powered by power banks. The design is based on concepts developed by Dutch Butterfly Conservation and @ukceh.bsky.social (links in comments). Instructions/3D printing files coming soon on website

SCIENCE IRL: SciComm mini-grant 2026 Skype a Scientist is offering $300-$1,000 mini-grants to support boots-on-the-ground science communication. The Science IRL mini-grants will support projects that put either 1) important science mess...

🚨🚨🚨
Attention science communicators!
🚨🚨🚨

The 2026 Science IRL mini-grant application is NOW OPEN!

Submit your creative ideas for connecting people with actionable science information *offline*.

The deadline for this round of grants is March 23, 2026.

Apply here!
forms.gle/4emvpRPddmEt...

Screenshot of the ISN account

Today is Friday, 13th, and we are missing 13 followers until we reach 1000 😱

Challenge for the end of the week: Can we reach a bluesky community of 1000 neuroethologists!?
#Neuroethology 🧠🧪

Please share widely 🫶

Raspberry Pi-based video recording system for behavioural research Our beginner’s guide (constantly updated) Raspberry Pi Foundation single-board computers have quietly become one of the most powerful tools in modern biological research. Cheap, compact, prog…

Our beginner’s guide to using Raspberry Pi as a video-recording system for behavioural research 🎥🛠🦇🦋🐦.
magbbb.com/openscience/...
#raspberrypi #openscience #opensource #raspi #animalbehaviour

🤩 Join us for the next TIBBE seminar:
Comparative databasing
January 28, 3–4pm UTC

This event hosts an outstanding neuroscientist & biologist particularly interested in insect brains who will present his work, followed by an interactive discussion with the audience: www.crowdcast.io/c/comparativ...

Thank you @ebpgenome.bsky.social for highlighting @projectpsyche.bsky.social
If you want to learn more about the large-scale genomics project on Lepidoptera in Europe, we introduce the project in our paper in Trends in Ecology & Evolution: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🚨 PhD offer (please share)
Fascinated by bird migration and movement ecology? 🦜🌍 Join us at @vogelwarte.bsky.social to study annual cycle energetics with multi-sensor loggers in multiple species

Deadline: 20 Feb 2026
Starting: June 2026
Supervision: Martins Briedis & me

Info: tinyurl.com/2dbv9nzh

Excited to return to Lisbon this June for the epic 3-week Cajal course on Quantitative Approaches to Behavior and VR! 🐀🐟🪰🏃‍♀️🎥🖥📈🧪

Applications are open through Feb 13! Come join us.
cajal-training.org/on-site/quan...

Woman with red hair in snorkeling gear next to text that says "Sari N., postdoc. dives deep" with UniVienna logo

Please share widely! #ESTEEM #postdoc CFA: 20 positions for female scientists in natural sciences, life sciences, economics @univie.ac.at: careers.univie.ac.at/en/postdoc/e...

To save you a click: PhD completed in 2022 or after (minus career interruption), defended by deadline #UniVienna

Happy new year! I wanted to share my new Python package called chatter that streamlines the process of applying AI/ML models to animal communication 🦜🦇🐋🐵👨‍🌾 masonyoungblood.github.io/chatter/

The lepidopteran analyst: how caterpillars, moths and butterflies encode taste identity and valence - Journal of Comparative Physiology A The sense of taste is crucial for butterflies and moths to accomplish important life tasks such as feeding or selecting suitable oviposition sites. In Lepidoptera taste is of special importance since ...

Beautiful review on the sense of taste in Lepidoptera 🦋 by @alexhaverkamp.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Shades of blue and red in a slice through an immuno stained brain showing some deliciously lovely looking mushroom body lobes - ripe for investigation during a funded PhD - and the central complex. Image credit: Dr Max Farnworth

🚨RA/PhD position available in evolutionary neurobiology 🚨

Working on a deep dive into circuit changes during mushroom body expansion in Heliconius butterflies @camzoology.bsky.social

- employment benefits
- 4 years funding
- 1000% fun

Deadline: 14/1/2026

Details:
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

This is a really interesting and provocative paper.

Down with brain areas!

Real-Time Segmentation and Classification of Birdsong Syllables for Learning Experiments Songbirds are essential animal models for studying neuronal and behavioral mechanisms of learned vocalizations. Bengalese finch (Lonchura striata domestica) songs contain a limited number of acoustica...

Our python package for real-time targeting of birdsong syllables "Moove" is finally out!
Thanks to my co-authors Nils Riekers, @goebl.bsky.social and Lena Veit.
Our pre-print is online on biorxiv and our code is available on GitHub. Check it out!
doi.org/10.64898/202...
github.com/veitlab/moove

We're open for abstract submission, and look forward to welcoming you all to Bristol in March!
asab-spring-conference2026.github.io
@asab-meetings.bsky.social #ASABSpring2026

Very proud of this new paper from the lab! Work by the magnificent Andrea Adden and many brilliant collaborators illuminate how moth and butterfly brains have evolved in light of different ecologies. Freely available here: rdcu.be/eVR3B; @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social

Ever wanted to know how the visual system of a long distance migratory moth looks like? Then you'll find your answers in our new paper. Finally out, after about a decade of collecting data by a group af amazing co-authors. Find it here, open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Congratulations🥳

Want to build your own environmental sensors? Join FDRI’s free Environmental Sensing Workshop 16 - 17 Feb 2026 at Chess Catchment. Build & test hydrological sensors w/ @imperialcollege & us! Travel & accommodation funded. Apply: https://f.mtr.cool/fajftaotue

Come to Konstanz next summer and learn everything about collective behavior!!!🌅🪰🐜🐟🦗

We are happy to announce that the next EOU Conference will be in Brno, Czech Republic in 2027! Check our website eounion.org and follow us on social media for regular updates! #ornithology #EOU2027

What we can learn from watching 100,000 animals in unbelievable detail—from space By monitoring the movement, health, and environmental conditions of thousands of animals at once, Project ICARUS hopes to solve scientific mysteries.

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

🚀 Guess who’s back? 🛰️🥳💫
ICARUS, our global wildlife-tracking system, returns to orbit aboard the GENA-OT satellite, which launched from Vandenberg SFB today 🎉
This is step one for ICARUS 2.0: full global coverage, smaller sensors, near-real-time.
Congrats @animaltracking.bsky.social + team ICARUS