Kaz Ohashi
@kazohashilab.bsky.social
Pollinator foraging behavior and its consequences for floral ecology and evolution | Assistant Professor @UofTsukuba | AE @jpollecol.bsky.social | ohashilab.com
Pinned
Kaz Ohashi
@kazohashilab.bsky.social
· Aug 22
Enjoy my latest talk at #IBC2024 held in Madrid, Spain!🌸🌹💐🐝
bit.ly/IBC2024_KO
We discuss how #AdaptiveGeneralization for a certain pollinator community has led to phenotypic convergence or syndromes in flowers.
Based on Ohashi et al. (2021): bit.ly/TradeoffMiti...
bit.ly/IBC2024_KO
We discuss how #AdaptiveGeneralization for a certain pollinator community has led to phenotypic convergence or syndromes in flowers.
Based on Ohashi et al. (2021): bit.ly/TradeoffMiti...
Our new paper is out! Here’s the lay summary. #Ecology #Pollination #AnimalBehavior #SocialInformation #FloralEcology #BandwagonEffects #Bumblebees
📰Published📰Conveying a sense of buzz: how plain flowers benefit from early pollinators in winning followers🐝
buff.ly/ldxNWh9
🧪🌍️
buff.ly/ldxNWh9
🧪🌍️
Conveying a sense of buzz: how plain flowers benefit from early pollinators in winning followers
Lina G. Kawaguchi, Kazuharu Ohashi, Akihiro Konuma, Yukihiko Toquenaga This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Why do some flowers invest …
buff.ly
February 20, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Our new paper is out! Here’s the lay summary. #Ecology #Pollination #AnimalBehavior #SocialInformation #FloralEcology #BandwagonEffects #Bumblebees
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
Some flowers aren’t the flashiest, but they can still get a crowd. Our study shows less colourful flowers can attract as many pollinators as bright ones by getting early visitors—a floral “bandwagon effect” like a popular restaurant drawing the next wave of customers.
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
Bandwagon effects in a floral market: Early pollinator acquisition offsets colour disadvantages in less attractive flowers
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
bit.ly
February 19, 2026 at 6:50 AM
Some flowers aren’t the flashiest, but they can still get a crowd. Our study shows less colourful flowers can attract as many pollinators as bright ones by getting early visitors—a floral “bandwagon effect” like a popular restaurant drawing the next wave of customers.
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
Some flowers aren’t the flashiest, but they can still get a crowd. Our study shows less colourful flowers can attract as many pollinators as bright ones by getting early visitors—a floral “bandwagon effect” like a popular restaurant drawing the next wave of customers.
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
Bandwagon effects in a floral market: Early pollinator acquisition offsets colour disadvantages in less attractive flowers
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
bit.ly
February 19, 2026 at 6:50 AM
Some flowers aren’t the flashiest, but they can still get a crowd. Our study shows less colourful flowers can attract as many pollinators as bright ones by getting early visitors—a floral “bandwagon effect” like a popular restaurant drawing the next wave of customers.
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
bit.ly/4aq7WVL #Ecology #Bees
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
The findings found that managed stingless bees can “markedly enhance coffee production”
www.gcrmag.com/brazilian-be...
www.gcrmag.com/brazilian-be...
January 27, 2026 at 7:04 AM
The findings found that managed stingless bees can “markedly enhance coffee production”
www.gcrmag.com/brazilian-be...
www.gcrmag.com/brazilian-be...
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
Review in #ProcB - Flower constancy in #pollinators: a bouquet of agendas shapes interactions among mutualistic partners #OpenAccess @chrisleduck.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
February 6, 2026 at 9:46 AM
Review in #ProcB - Flower constancy in #pollinators: a bouquet of agendas shapes interactions among mutualistic partners #OpenAccess @chrisleduck.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
I am looking for a PhD working on tracking trait changes in insects/spiders at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity change @leibnizlib.bsky.social and the University of Hamburg.
Apply here: www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenan...
Apply here: www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenan...
Job advertisement
www.uni-hamburg.de
February 3, 2026 at 8:42 AM
I am looking for a PhD working on tracking trait changes in insects/spiders at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity change @leibnizlib.bsky.social and the University of Hamburg.
Apply here: www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenan...
Apply here: www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenan...
2026 Happy New Year!
January 1, 2026 at 11:12 AM
2026 Happy New Year!
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
Earlier on the expedition we found the most beautiful flower, and here, my friends, is the biggest: Rafflesia arnoldi seen in full bloom today in the Sumatran jungle. This is the largest flower on earth and one of the greatest wonders of the natural world.
November 20, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Earlier on the expedition we found the most beautiful flower, and here, my friends, is the biggest: Rafflesia arnoldi seen in full bloom today in the Sumatran jungle. This is the largest flower on earth and one of the greatest wonders of the natural world.
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
Too warm to buzz? Check out our newest paper on how warming temperatures affect bee buzzes in the Arctic. Well done to Charlie and Guadalupe and other coauthors for this nice study in the Swedish Arctic! @hfspo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Increasing temperatures affect thoracic muscle performance in Arctic bumblebees - Nature Communications
Increasing temperatures threaten cold-adapted pollinators such as Arctic bumblebees by disrupting their physiology. This study found that thorax acceleration during non-flight vibrations peaks at 25 °...
www.nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Too warm to buzz? Check out our newest paper on how warming temperatures affect bee buzzes in the Arctic. Well done to Charlie and Guadalupe and other coauthors for this nice study in the Swedish Arctic! @hfspo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
I cannot believe our work is finally out there and in @journal-evo.bsky.social ! This was an enormous group effort!
We provide an updated estimate of the number of buzz pollinated angiosperm species, genera, and families, look at consequences for diversification, number of transitions, and more!
We provide an updated estimate of the number of buzz pollinated angiosperm species, genera, and families, look at consequences for diversification, number of transitions, and more!
October 23, 2025 at 5:34 AM
I cannot believe our work is finally out there and in @journal-evo.bsky.social ! This was an enormous group effort!
We provide an updated estimate of the number of buzz pollinated angiosperm species, genera, and families, look at consequences for diversification, number of transitions, and more!
We provide an updated estimate of the number of buzz pollinated angiosperm species, genera, and families, look at consequences for diversification, number of transitions, and more!
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
How many plant species are buzz pollinated? After more than six years in the making, our paper on the convergent evolution of buzz pollinated flowers is out in @journal-evo.bsky.social. Thanks @draverbee.bsky.social @roszenil.bsky.social and all co-authors for your hard work! doi.org/10.1093/evol...
October 23, 2025 at 4:50 AM
How many plant species are buzz pollinated? After more than six years in the making, our paper on the convergent evolution of buzz pollinated flowers is out in @journal-evo.bsky.social. Thanks @draverbee.bsky.social @roszenil.bsky.social and all co-authors for your hard work! doi.org/10.1093/evol...
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
I'm looking for PhD students to join the lab starting August 2026. We study the evolution of insect chemical signals so if you're interested in evolutionary biology, chemical ecology, molecular biology, behavior, or genetics, this could be a good fit for you! More info here: tinyurl.com/mrxchwfm
September 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM
I'm looking for PhD students to join the lab starting August 2026. We study the evolution of insect chemical signals so if you're interested in evolutionary biology, chemical ecology, molecular biology, behavior, or genetics, this could be a good fit for you! More info here: tinyurl.com/mrxchwfm
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
#Viewpoint: Exploring the importance of aromatic #plants' extrafloral volatiles for #pollinator attraction
Kantsa et al. 👇
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#LatestIssue #PlantScience
Kantsa et al. 👇
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#LatestIssue #PlantScience
September 22, 2025 at 6:35 AM
#Viewpoint: Exploring the importance of aromatic #plants' extrafloral volatiles for #pollinator attraction
Kantsa et al. 👇
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#LatestIssue #PlantScience
Kantsa et al. 👇
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#LatestIssue #PlantScience
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
🐜 Ants on flowers
A meta-analysis shows protective ants reduce flower visits, especially by bees, but usually do not harm plant reproduction. Effects depend on nectary location and visitor type.
🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
#SciComm 🧪 #Ecology #Pollination
A meta-analysis shows protective ants reduce flower visits, especially by bees, but usually do not harm plant reproduction. Effects depend on nectary location and visitor type.
🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
#SciComm 🧪 #Ecology #Pollination
Ants on flowers: Protective ants impose a low but variable cost to pollination, moderated by location of extrafloral nectaries and type of flower visitor
Individuals who engage in multiple mutualisms often have to pay indirect costs because of the interference of one mutualism on another. We found that protective ants had a low but variable impact on ....
doi.org
September 17, 2025 at 4:37 PM
🐜 Ants on flowers
A meta-analysis shows protective ants reduce flower visits, especially by bees, but usually do not harm plant reproduction. Effects depend on nectary location and visitor type.
🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
#SciComm 🧪 #Ecology #Pollination
A meta-analysis shows protective ants reduce flower visits, especially by bees, but usually do not harm plant reproduction. Effects depend on nectary location and visitor type.
🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
#SciComm 🧪 #Ecology #Pollination
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
"The fate of pollen in two morphologically contrasting buzz-pollinated Solanum flowers" by Vasquez-Castro et al. freshly published! doi.org/10.26786/192...
September 17, 2025 at 7:58 AM
"The fate of pollen in two morphologically contrasting buzz-pollinated Solanum flowers" by Vasquez-Castro et al. freshly published! doi.org/10.26786/192...
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
A new review gives us a deeper understanding of the evolution of plant-pollinator interactions!
A brilliant critical review of the Grant–Stebbins model of how plants evolve by Kathleen Kay and Bruce Anderson just published.
Read more about it here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/09/12/a...
A brilliant critical review of the Grant–Stebbins model of how plants evolve by Kathleen Kay and Bruce Anderson just published.
Read more about it here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/09/12/a...
A new review gives us a deeper understanding of the evolution of plant-pollinator interactions
If you’ve read my book Birds & Flowers: An Intimate 50 Million Year Relationship, you’ll know that I spend a few pages discussing the long-standing paradigm of how interactions betw…
jeffollerton.co.uk
September 12, 2025 at 10:04 AM
A new review gives us a deeper understanding of the evolution of plant-pollinator interactions!
A brilliant critical review of the Grant–Stebbins model of how plants evolve by Kathleen Kay and Bruce Anderson just published.
Read more about it here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/09/12/a...
A brilliant critical review of the Grant–Stebbins model of how plants evolve by Kathleen Kay and Bruce Anderson just published.
Read more about it here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2025/09/12/a...
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
See last article on "The cognitive side of communication in social insects", just published in @TrendsCognSci . Free access under this link!
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
September 10, 2025 at 7:18 AM
See last article on "The cognitive side of communication in social insects", just published in @TrendsCognSci . Free access under this link!
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
Spent hours being spellbound by Convolvulus Hawk Moths last night as they nectared on Nicotiana plants in my highland garden!. Up to 3 feeding at a time, their entire abdomens glowing red hot in the thermal from flight muscle use!! #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social
September 8, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Spent hours being spellbound by Convolvulus Hawk Moths last night as they nectared on Nicotiana plants in my highland garden!. Up to 3 feeding at a time, their entire abdomens glowing red hot in the thermal from flight muscle use!! #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
The Department of Biology at Colorado State University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the area of plant-microbe interactions! Please spread the word!
jobs.colostate.edu/postings/165...
jobs.colostate.edu/postings/165...
Assistant Professor Plant-Microbe Interactions
We seek a creative, collaborative, and visionary plant biologist to establish an internationally recognized research program at the forefront of plant-microbe interactions aimed at understanding how t...
jobs.colostate.edu
September 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
The Department of Biology at Colorado State University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the area of plant-microbe interactions! Please spread the word!
jobs.colostate.edu/postings/165...
jobs.colostate.edu/postings/165...
Scott Loarie talks about #iNaturalust at #TED | The surprising power of your nature photos
www.ted.com/talks/scott_...
#Wildlife #CitizenScience #Conservation #Biodiversity
www.ted.com/talks/scott_...
#Wildlife #CitizenScience #Conservation #Biodiversity
The surprising power of your nature photos
Scott Loarie has a challenge for you: go outside and take a picture of a living thing. He introduces the global community of people building a living atlas of the natural world by sharing their nature...
www.ted.com
August 24, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Scott Loarie talks about #iNaturalust at #TED | The surprising power of your nature photos
www.ted.com/talks/scott_...
#Wildlife #CitizenScience #Conservation #Biodiversity
www.ted.com/talks/scott_...
#Wildlife #CitizenScience #Conservation #Biodiversity
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
Is the Most Effective Pollinator Principle a zombie idea? How do plants adapted to one pollinator shift to another without traversing an adaptive valley? How should we measure fitness in pollinator selection studies? We explore these questions and more in a new review doi.org/10.1093/aob/...
Beyond the Grant–Stebbins model: floral adaptive landscapes and plant speciation
AbstractBackground. Floral diversity, a striking feature of angiosperm evolution, provides the impetus and rationale for linking pollinator-driven selectio
doi.org
August 8, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Is the Most Effective Pollinator Principle a zombie idea? How do plants adapted to one pollinator shift to another without traversing an adaptive valley? How should we measure fitness in pollinator selection studies? We explore these questions and more in a new review doi.org/10.1093/aob/...
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
🚨🚨 New tenure track position in #ConservationBiology @oberlincollege.bsky.social in the #Biology department--come join us, and contribute to our brand new Environmental Science major too! #biologyjobs #ecologyjobs
jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/16671
jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/16671
Assistant Professor of Biology
The Biology Department at Oberlin College invites applications for a full-time tenure track faculty position in the College of Arts and Sciences in conservation ecology. Initial appointment to this po...
jobs.oberlin.edu
August 5, 2025 at 4:24 PM
🚨🚨 New tenure track position in #ConservationBiology @oberlincollege.bsky.social in the #Biology department--come join us, and contribute to our brand new Environmental Science major too! #biologyjobs #ecologyjobs
jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/16671
jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/16671
Even more fascinating after reading ‘Birds and flowers’ book by @jeffollerton.bsky.social
#BirdPollination #Generalists #Ecology
#BirdPollination #Generalists #Ecology
🐦🐝 In Banksia menziesii, excluding birds cut fruit set, seed viability, and genetic diversity, while inbreeding rose. Honeybees moved plenty of pollen but increased selfing. Birds proved the most effective pollinators, with genetic gains that may drive bird-pollinated flowers. bit.ly/4fuAz58
Exclusion of bird pollinators impacts mating system and reduces offspring fitness in a pollination-generalist tree
AbstractBackground and Aims. Compared to pollinating insects and non-flying mammals (NFM), nectarivorous birds may display behaviours leading to greater po
bit.ly
August 8, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Even more fascinating after reading ‘Birds and flowers’ book by @jeffollerton.bsky.social
#BirdPollination #Generalists #Ecology
#BirdPollination #Generalists #Ecology
🐦🐝 In Banksia menziesii, excluding birds cut fruit set, seed viability, and genetic diversity, while inbreeding rose. Honeybees moved plenty of pollen but increased selfing. Birds proved the most effective pollinators, with genetic gains that may drive bird-pollinated flowers. bit.ly/4fuAz58
Exclusion of bird pollinators impacts mating system and reduces offspring fitness in a pollination-generalist tree
AbstractBackground and Aims. Compared to pollinating insects and non-flying mammals (NFM), nectarivorous birds may display behaviours leading to greater po
bit.ly
August 8, 2025 at 9:47 PM
🐦🐝 In Banksia menziesii, excluding birds cut fruit set, seed viability, and genetic diversity, while inbreeding rose. Honeybees moved plenty of pollen but increased selfing. Birds proved the most effective pollinators, with genetic gains that may drive bird-pollinated flowers. bit.ly/4fuAz58
Reposted by Kaz Ohashi
Are specializations evolutionary dead ends? Morrison et al. reveal that in bird carotenoid evolution, continuity and stability are two sides of the same coin.
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
July 19, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Are specializations evolutionary dead ends? Morrison et al. reveal that in bird carotenoid evolution, continuity and stability are two sides of the same coin.
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...