Brendan Lan
@brendanlan.bsky.social
PhD student in the Sönke lab at Duke University | Vision, behavior, sensation | Mostly arachnids but honestly any funky arthropod | He/him
SO EXCITED to be finally talking about some funky preliminary results on the eyes of this funky harvestman at #SICB2026 on Tuesday! Here are a few sneak peak pics :D
January 4, 2026 at 6:02 AM
SO EXCITED to be finally talking about some funky preliminary results on the eyes of this funky harvestman at #SICB2026 on Tuesday! Here are a few sneak peak pics :D
Funky harvestmen overwintering! Libitioides sayi/albolineata depending on who you ask lol. This suborder of harvestmen (Laniatores) is very speciose in the Neotropics but a couple families do range into the US. The yellowish striping on the body is UV-fluorescent! Better pics to come in Jan!
December 31, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Funky harvestmen overwintering! Libitioides sayi/albolineata depending on who you ask lol. This suborder of harvestmen (Laniatores) is very speciose in the Neotropics but a couple families do range into the US. The yellowish striping on the body is UV-fluorescent! Better pics to come in Jan!
Reposted by Brendan Lan
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
December 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
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
Reposted by Brendan Lan
rdcu.be/eSIHs
We reported on the chemosensory toolkit of an Orb weaving spider in our PNAS paper earlier this year. Here, we report on a cursorial spider: similar, sex-specific sensory equipment and evidence for olfaction.
🧪🕷
We reported on the chemosensory toolkit of an Orb weaving spider in our PNAS paper earlier this year. Here, we report on a cursorial spider: similar, sex-specific sensory equipment and evidence for olfaction.
🧪🕷
The chemosensory toolkit of the cursorial spider Pisaura mirabilis
Communications Biology - Discovery of chemosensory sensilla with different distributions on the body appendages and between the sexes of a cursorial spider, combined with evidence of olfactory mate...
rdcu.be
December 2, 2025 at 9:58 AM
rdcu.be/eSIHs
We reported on the chemosensory toolkit of an Orb weaving spider in our PNAS paper earlier this year. Here, we report on a cursorial spider: similar, sex-specific sensory equipment and evidence for olfaction.
🧪🕷
We reported on the chemosensory toolkit of an Orb weaving spider in our PNAS paper earlier this year. Here, we report on a cursorial spider: similar, sex-specific sensory equipment and evidence for olfaction.
🧪🕷
Jay has been an amazing mentor for me both during my undergrad and now!! Highly recommend people apply! Feel free to reach out if you want a mentee perspective hahah :).
🚨Good news, everyone!
1) I'm thrilled to be joining the behavior powerhouse that is Indiana University!! So stoked, starting Jan 2026.
2) I'm recruiting grad students! Are you (or your trainee) interested in sensory ecology? behavior? evolution? fieldwork? spiders? Drop me a line Jstafstr(at)iu.edu
1) I'm thrilled to be joining the behavior powerhouse that is Indiana University!! So stoked, starting Jan 2026.
2) I'm recruiting grad students! Are you (or your trainee) interested in sensory ecology? behavior? evolution? fieldwork? spiders? Drop me a line Jstafstr(at)iu.edu
November 24, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Jay has been an amazing mentor for me both during my undergrad and now!! Highly recommend people apply! Feel free to reach out if you want a mentee perspective hahah :).
Reposted by Brendan Lan
Do bees see nothing? Primates with damage to the visual cortex have no conscious visual experience, but display adaptive visual behaviour (a phenomenon called blindsight). Here I team up with two primate researchers to ask if bee vision could be similar to blindsight. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
November 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Do bees see nothing? Primates with damage to the visual cortex have no conscious visual experience, but display adaptive visual behaviour (a phenomenon called blindsight). Here I team up with two primate researchers to ask if bee vision could be similar to blindsight. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
Getting to live in a place with green tree frogs again has increased my mood by at least 10% each day
November 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Getting to live in a place with green tree frogs again has increased my mood by at least 10% each day
Reposted by Brendan Lan
🚨 Using polarization vision to stabilize gaze 👀 would theoretically be helpful for animals living in visually noisy environments, but it seems two decapod crustaceans use achromatic cues instead. 🚨
From @maddy-janakis.bsky.social
Check it out! 🦀
academic.oup.com/iob/article/...
From @maddy-janakis.bsky.social
Check it out! 🦀
academic.oup.com/iob/article/...
Two Decapod Crustaceans, Panopeus herbstii and Petrolisthes armatus, Stabilize Their Gaze Using Achromatic Visual Cues, but Not the Angle of Linearly Polarized Light
Synopsis. Gaze stabilization is important to animals because it allows them to visually differentiate between their own motion relative to their environmen
academic.oup.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:51 AM
🚨 Using polarization vision to stabilize gaze 👀 would theoretically be helpful for animals living in visually noisy environments, but it seems two decapod crustaceans use achromatic cues instead. 🚨
From @maddy-janakis.bsky.social
Check it out! 🦀
academic.oup.com/iob/article/...
From @maddy-janakis.bsky.social
Check it out! 🦀
academic.oup.com/iob/article/...
love how absolutely audacious larger jumping spiders are with their prey. this is Phidippus whitmani I think. look at the twinkle in her eye!!
November 9, 2025 at 11:00 PM
love how absolutely audacious larger jumping spiders are with their prey. this is Phidippus whitmani I think. look at the twinkle in her eye!!
Reposted by Brendan Lan
Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake
go.nature.com/3X5lbUg
go.nature.com/3X5lbUg
From MRI to Ozempic: breakthroughs that show why fundamental research must be protected
Nature - In these financially straitened times, funders must recognize that great discoveries often arise from work that was looking for something completely different.
go.nature.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake
go.nature.com/3X5lbUg
go.nature.com/3X5lbUg
Reposted by Brendan Lan
I've unlocked a new science badge!! 🎉🛡️🎉
This thoughtful piece by @meganlinnay.bsky.social expands beautifully on a short review I wrote, citing 'the Sumner-Rooney cost-benefit model' of eye loss 🥲 honoured!
For anyone interested in evolution in low light, have a read! 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
This thoughtful piece by @meganlinnay.bsky.social expands beautifully on a short review I wrote, citing 'the Sumner-Rooney cost-benefit model' of eye loss 🥲 honoured!
For anyone interested in evolution in low light, have a read! 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
At the edge of darkness: A framework for the evolution of visual systems in dim light
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:40 PM
I've unlocked a new science badge!! 🎉🛡️🎉
This thoughtful piece by @meganlinnay.bsky.social expands beautifully on a short review I wrote, citing 'the Sumner-Rooney cost-benefit model' of eye loss 🥲 honoured!
For anyone interested in evolution in low light, have a read! 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
This thoughtful piece by @meganlinnay.bsky.social expands beautifully on a short review I wrote, citing 'the Sumner-Rooney cost-benefit model' of eye loss 🥲 honoured!
For anyone interested in evolution in low light, have a read! 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Probably the most beautiful roach I've ever seen in real life - a flower roach (Eucorydia aenea)! This is a male, generally more iridescent than the females. Turns out, at least as adults, they love beetle jelly!
October 29, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Probably the most beautiful roach I've ever seen in real life - a flower roach (Eucorydia aenea)! This is a male, generally more iridescent than the females. Turns out, at least as adults, they love beetle jelly!
Reposted by Brendan Lan
Local news story on why MotE/ PRI is special:
$̳1̳ ̳m̳i̳l̳l̳i̳o̳n̳ left to raise before the end of 2025 to save the Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY.
#SavePRI 🧪⚒️ #museums #dinosaurs #Mastodon #Ithaca
#fingerlakes
www.wbng.com/2025/10/27/m...
$̳1̳ ̳m̳i̳l̳l̳i̳o̳n̳ left to raise before the end of 2025 to save the Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY.
#SavePRI 🧪⚒️ #museums #dinosaurs #Mastodon #Ithaca
#fingerlakes
www.wbng.com/2025/10/27/m...
Museum of Earth could be met with possible foreclosure
The PRI has until Dec. 31, 2025 to raise $1 million or the only collections based national history museum between New York City and Buffalo will be forced into foreclosure.
www.wbng.com
October 28, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Local news story on why MotE/ PRI is special:
$̳1̳ ̳m̳i̳l̳l̳i̳o̳n̳ left to raise before the end of 2025 to save the Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY.
#SavePRI 🧪⚒️ #museums #dinosaurs #Mastodon #Ithaca
#fingerlakes
www.wbng.com/2025/10/27/m...
$̳1̳ ̳m̳i̳l̳l̳i̳o̳n̳ left to raise before the end of 2025 to save the Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY.
#SavePRI 🧪⚒️ #museums #dinosaurs #Mastodon #Ithaca
#fingerlakes
www.wbng.com/2025/10/27/m...
Reposted by Brendan Lan
there is already a way to extend life and youth indefinitely
1. Be a stored-grain dermestid beetle larva (say, Trogoderma)
2. Every time food gets scarce, moult backwards into a previous instar
3. Proceed to grow as usual
4. Repeat step 2
1. Be a stored-grain dermestid beetle larva (say, Trogoderma)
2. Every time food gets scarce, moult backwards into a previous instar
3. Proceed to grow as usual
4. Repeat step 2
Tech millionaire turned longevity pioneer Bryan Johnson devotes more than 6 hours a day to trialling different methods to turn back the clock. Can the rest of us learn anything from his radical approach?
The real scientific insights from Bryan Johnson’s immortality quest
Tech millionaire turned longevity pioneer Bryan Johnson devotes more than 6 hours a day to trialling different methods to turn back the clock. Can the rest of us learn anything from his radical approach?
www.newscientist.com
September 17, 2025 at 1:59 PM
there is already a way to extend life and youth indefinitely
1. Be a stored-grain dermestid beetle larva (say, Trogoderma)
2. Every time food gets scarce, moult backwards into a previous instar
3. Proceed to grow as usual
4. Repeat step 2
1. Be a stored-grain dermestid beetle larva (say, Trogoderma)
2. Every time food gets scarce, moult backwards into a previous instar
3. Proceed to grow as usual
4. Repeat step 2
Reposted by Brendan Lan
#ABL2025 Plenary Spotlight: Dr Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy ⭐
Join us on Nov 13-14 to learn how @avispatica.bsky.social Dr Mora-Kepfer Uy’s team uncovered captivating ways in which parasites reprogram the behaviour and lifespan of insects. 🐝🪱
Learn more about the conference: ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org
Join us on Nov 13-14 to learn how @avispatica.bsky.social Dr Mora-Kepfer Uy’s team uncovered captivating ways in which parasites reprogram the behaviour and lifespan of insects. 🐝🪱
Learn more about the conference: ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org
August 19, 2025 at 12:41 PM
#ABL2025 Plenary Spotlight: Dr Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy ⭐
Join us on Nov 13-14 to learn how @avispatica.bsky.social Dr Mora-Kepfer Uy’s team uncovered captivating ways in which parasites reprogram the behaviour and lifespan of insects. 🐝🪱
Learn more about the conference: ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org
Join us on Nov 13-14 to learn how @avispatica.bsky.social Dr Mora-Kepfer Uy’s team uncovered captivating ways in which parasites reprogram the behaviour and lifespan of insects. 🐝🪱
Learn more about the conference: ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org
A drop dead gorgeous roach! Look at that iridescence! 💙🧡
August 15, 2025 at 1:27 AM
A drop dead gorgeous roach! Look at that iridescence! 💙🧡
Reposted by Brendan Lan
Banger paper! “Perhaps we should abandon the search for ‘cognition’ in terms of representational capacities distinct from systems for sensing and moving” royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Embodied cognitive evolution and the limits of convergence | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Comparative psychology seems to be perpetually bogged down in intractable debates
about which species have what cognitive capacities, which criteria to use and whether
or not the capacities are domain...
royalsocietypublishing.org
August 13, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Banger paper! “Perhaps we should abandon the search for ‘cognition’ in terms of representational capacities distinct from systems for sensing and moving” royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Reposted by Brendan Lan
A Moment of Awe- a night walk at Kenting National Park
by @brendanlan.bsky.social, SICB journals follower,& #PhD
iobopen.com/2025/08/11/a...
"Despite a societally ingrained fear of #bugs, #butterflies manage to enchant practically everyone. I mean how could they not? "
#science #biology
by @brendanlan.bsky.social, SICB journals follower,& #PhD
iobopen.com/2025/08/11/a...
"Despite a societally ingrained fear of #bugs, #butterflies manage to enchant practically everyone. I mean how could they not? "
#science #biology
August 11, 2025 at 11:21 AM
A Moment of Awe- a night walk at Kenting National Park
by @brendanlan.bsky.social, SICB journals follower,& #PhD
iobopen.com/2025/08/11/a...
"Despite a societally ingrained fear of #bugs, #butterflies manage to enchant practically everyone. I mean how could they not? "
#science #biology
by @brendanlan.bsky.social, SICB journals follower,& #PhD
iobopen.com/2025/08/11/a...
"Despite a societally ingrained fear of #bugs, #butterflies manage to enchant practically everyone. I mean how could they not? "
#science #biology
Reposted by Brendan Lan
“A new study, published today in PLOS ONE, identifies and describes 30 dance moves in captive cockatoos and suggests dancing can be a form of mentally enriching play for caged birds.”
#scicomm
#animalcommunication
#playbahavior
www.science.org/content/arti...
🧪 🦜
#scicomm
#animalcommunication
#playbahavior
www.science.org/content/arti...
🧪 🦜
Video reveals cockatoos have 30 unique dance moves—including headbanging
Researchers now know why the caged bird dances: a form of mentally enriching play
www.science.org
August 8, 2025 at 2:54 AM
“A new study, published today in PLOS ONE, identifies and describes 30 dance moves in captive cockatoos and suggests dancing can be a form of mentally enriching play for caged birds.”
#scicomm
#animalcommunication
#playbahavior
www.science.org/content/arti...
🧪 🦜
#scicomm
#animalcommunication
#playbahavior
www.science.org/content/arti...
🧪 🦜
Reposted by Brendan Lan
do you think maybe, if I just take and upload enough shrimp portraits, then somehow everything will turn out okay and museums won't have to run out of money and close anymore
August 6, 2025 at 6:25 PM
do you think maybe, if I just take and upload enough shrimp portraits, then somehow everything will turn out okay and museums won't have to run out of money and close anymore
National Moth Week starting off with a bang!! Found a live female imperial moth on the way into work and a dead male luna moth when I got there! First saturniids of the year for me :)
July 28, 2025 at 6:11 PM
National Moth Week starting off with a bang!! Found a live female imperial moth on the way into work and a dead male luna moth when I got there! First saturniids of the year for me :)
An endangered golden birdwing 黃裳鳳蝶 (Troides aeacus kaguya) along with a nearby chrysalis from southern Taiwan!
This one looked to me like it had just emerged and was finishing up drying its wings. Beautiful and huge in person!
This one looked to me like it had just emerged and was finishing up drying its wings. Beautiful and huge in person!
June 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
An endangered golden birdwing 黃裳鳳蝶 (Troides aeacus kaguya) along with a nearby chrysalis from southern Taiwan!
This one looked to me like it had just emerged and was finishing up drying its wings. Beautiful and huge in person!
This one looked to me like it had just emerged and was finishing up drying its wings. Beautiful and huge in person!
Reposted by Brendan Lan
For the past few years in late June/July I've spotted a fancy Phidippus richmani lad hanging out on a particular oak sapling, and today there was another. I don't know why that little oak is so attractive, but I'm not complaining.🖤
They're relatively rare--and welcome--sights.
#EmotionalSupportSpood
They're relatively rare--and welcome--sights.
#EmotionalSupportSpood
June 29, 2025 at 11:55 PM
For the past few years in late June/July I've spotted a fancy Phidippus richmani lad hanging out on a particular oak sapling, and today there was another. I don't know why that little oak is so attractive, but I'm not complaining.🖤
They're relatively rare--and welcome--sights.
#EmotionalSupportSpood
They're relatively rare--and welcome--sights.
#EmotionalSupportSpood
Reposted by Brendan Lan
Highlight of this week:
One of many collaborations effort with @binturong98.bsky.social that started ~ 2022 finally got published!
We induced cataracts in the camera-type eyes of diving beetle larvae!
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
One of many collaborations effort with @binturong98.bsky.social that started ~ 2022 finally got published!
We induced cataracts in the camera-type eyes of diving beetle larvae!
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Cataract induction in an arthropod reveals how lens crystallins contribute to the formation of biological glass
Lenses are vital components of well-functioning eyes and are crafted through the precise arrangement of proteins to achieve transparency and refractive ability. In addition to optical clarity for mini...
journals.plos.org
June 13, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Highlight of this week:
One of many collaborations effort with @binturong98.bsky.social that started ~ 2022 finally got published!
We induced cataracts in the camera-type eyes of diving beetle larvae!
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
One of many collaborations effort with @binturong98.bsky.social that started ~ 2022 finally got published!
We induced cataracts in the camera-type eyes of diving beetle larvae!
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Reposted by Brendan Lan
Proud to share our newest gecko paper published @ecol-evol.bsky.social! We raised geckos either with or without their parents and found some effects on the development of behaviour and cognition! Read the rest here:
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
June 24, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Proud to share our newest gecko paper published @ecol-evol.bsky.social! We raised geckos either with or without their parents and found some effects on the development of behaviour and cognition! Read the rest here:
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...