Amazing work by my students Jackson Rendall and Panduka Amarasekara — natural history of the spiny trapdoor spider Blakistonia aurea in South Australia.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Happy 2026 ASSABers!
We hope you had a stunning holiday break and a very happy New Year.
A reminder that our conference is a little over 5 months away!
Great contribution to the study of male dimorphism and phenotypic integration, by Diego Solano-Brenes, Kyana Pike, Joe Tomkins, and Glauco Machado:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
A weapon (thick legs 3) and a compensatory trait (long legs 4) are not genetically integrated in bulb mites.
Meet Chrissie Painting the new ASSAB president!
@cpaintingnz.bsky.social is a Senior Lecturer and behavioural ecologist at the University of Waikato. Her research seeks patterns in animal behaviour and morphology, with a particular focus on insect and arachnid mating systems.
🪰🕷️🪳
Interested in Australian scorpions? Apply to come to @flindersuniversity.bsky.social for a PhD with Dr Russell Bicknell, Professor Mike Lee and I:
www.flinders.edu.au/scholarships...
Project and scholarship fully funded by the ARC. [Amazing photo of Urodacus manicatus by Panduka Amarasekara]
#AES2025 Day2, Jackson Randell discusses the importance of understanding genetic purging and its implications for trapdoor spider conservation 🕷️
@austevolsoc.bsky.social @brunobuzatto.bsky.social @rowanlym.bsky.social @reneecatullo.bsky.social
Following funnel-web spiders — amazing work by Caitlin Creak:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Study initially by @braxtonjones.bsky.social, Danilo Harms and I (funded by NatGeo and AusGeo), taken up by Caitlin with Russell Bonduriansky and Mike Kasumovic. Congrats all, especially Caitlin! :)
My legendary students Incheol Shin and Seb Hayden published a fantastic study on kin recognition and the evolution of lethal fights in bulb mites, well done guys!
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
Media attention here:
econews.com.au/67589/meet-t...
www.ecovoice.com.au/meet-the-tin...
Last week at CEB, Jackson discussed the conservation and population genomics of south-western Australian trapdoor spiders. Such genomic approach is important for their conservation.🕷️
@reneecatullo.bsky.social @rowanlym.bsky.social @brunobuzatto.bsky.social #LeighSimmons
#ConservationGenomics #UWA
It’s 2025, we’ve got to stop barbaric methods of wildlife management, there are far better ways.
Some comments from me in this article by @michaeldahlstrom.bsky.social.
au.news.yahoo.com/australian-a...
Wanna come work with me? We're advertising a fixed term Lecturer in Animal Behaviour at Waikato. We're especially keen on someone who works on birds, reptiles, bats etc. Let me know if you have questions!
www.seek.co.nz/job/83279795...
Amazing work on Fijian bees by Tricia Slattery! :)
Sperm transfer in spiders is complex and sometimes dangerous. Our latest paper is trying to figure out what behavioural and morphological traits affect sperm transfer
doi.org/10.1111/1749...
My legendary students independently made a bunch of stickers for the lab with this logo (which they also created; art by Diego Solano-Brenes). I'm so lucky to have this crew — check their projects out here:
www.buzatto.info/people
Special thanks to Tricia Slattery and Diego!
✨International fieldwork bee/fly Honours degree opportunity✨
I am happy to be able to share an opportunity with myself and a few others at the Uni of Wollongong to undertake an Honours research degree with field work in Fiji!
You will get a scholarship on your CV but must be an Australian Citizen
🧵
that's right, males are smaller in funnel-webs! The "big boys" of Newcastle are surprisingly large for males, and the females of that species are even bigger! In our description we describe male and female specimens.
awesome, but given location and size, what you found was most likely a Hadronyche — also a funnel-web, but from another genus :)
First paper of 2025 — the Sydney funnel-web spider is actually at least three different species:
bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
@flindersuniversity.bsky.social @uni-hamburg.de
📣New paper📣
We estimate the number of extinctions of Australian #invertebrates, plus the ongoing #extinction rate … Both figures are far higher than those currently recognised, pointing to alarming gaps in #conservation of an important area of #biodiversity
🪳🕷️🐌🪰🪲🪱
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
