Morgan M. Oberweiser
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mmoberweiser.bsky.social
Morgan M. Oberweiser
@mmoberweiser.bsky.social
450 followers 610 following 34 posts
PhD student studying spider vibrations ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ Uni Greifswald ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ frequently thinking about animal behavior ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ otherwise likely playing flute, reading books, or baking cakes ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ she/her
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mmoberweiser.bsky.social
Morgan M. Oberweiser @mmoberweiser.bsky.social ยท Nov 19
Hi Bluesky ๐Ÿ™‹โ€โ™€๏ธ I'm Morgan, a PhD student of the University of Greifswald, though you can currently find me as a guest researcher in Hamburg. I study courtship vibrations in Pisaura mirabilis spiders, but I'm pretty excited about all things animal behavior ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ๐Ÿœ๐Ÿฆ‹๐Ÿ›๐Ÿ๐Ÿฆ‡
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
mpi-ce.bsky.social
Markus Knaden et al. from the Odor-Guided Behavior Group in collab. with @yukoulrich.bsky.social report in PNAS that ozone destroys colony-specific odors causing attacks within the colony โ€“ a dramatic example of how human pollution can disrupt social systems in nature.
www.ice.mpg.de/530492/PR_Ji...
Air pollution causes social instability in ant colonies
A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has shown in a new study that ants returning from habitats affected by air pollution are attacked when they re-enter the colony. The ...
www.ice.mpg.de
February 3, 2026 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
mherberstein.bsky.social
Come to Hamburg and do a PhD on insect/spider traits with me!
February 3, 2026 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
uhl-lab.bsky.social
News on the function of tremulation:
Female Pisaura mirabilis spiders are not appeased by the courtship tremulations of males - at least in our playback setup. Result of Stefan ter Haar's internship from Groningen led by
@monikaeberhard.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
No Appeasement Through Vibrations: Male Vibratory Preโ€Copulatory Courtship in the Cursorial Spider Pisaura mirabilis Does Not Affect Female Predatory Response
Male courtship can serve various purposes such as species recognition, mate localization, or advertisement of individual quality and physical condition. In predatory species such as spiders, courtshi...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 20, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
samjakeengland.bsky.social
Do you work (/want to work) with caterpillars? Or sensory systems? Or BOTH?! Well good golly do we have the paper for you! We explain the senses that caterpillars have, what they use them for, and how anthropogenic sensory pollution might be messing it all up ๐Ÿ› doi.org/10.1007/s003...
The sensory ecology of caterpillars - Journal of Comparative Physiology A
Caterpillars (larval Lepidoptera) are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily significant taxa on Earth. As both feeders and food, they shape the dynamics of enumerate ecosystems on land. Key ...
doi.org
November 10, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
entsocamerica.bsky.social
Arthropod Photo of the Week: October 29, 2025
Net-casting spider
Asianopis sp.
Araneae: Deinopidae
By Dennis Botterbusch, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
#arthropodPOTW
Close-up of a spider facing the camera with a yellow egg sac beneath it, surrounded by soil and debris. The image shows fine details of the spiderโ€™s eyes, legs, and body texture.
October 29, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
jencross.bsky.social
Xylethrus superbus is a fabulous species of orb weaving spider from the Amazon rainforest. While she looks a bit like a strawberry, eating her is not recommended. #Arachtober
Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022
A spider with a large shield shaped abdomen that is edged in blue with red splotches across the top. He legs are red and she is standing on a leaf. A spider with a red cephalothorax, legs, and a large abdomen edged in blue with red blotches. She is standing on a leaf facing the camera. A spider with a red cephalothorax, legs, and a large abdomen edged in blue with red blotches. She is standing on a leaf facing the camera.
October 16, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
tshahan.bsky.social
Getting close to wrapping up a big Paraphidippus aurantius ๐ŸŠvideo featuring courtship behavior, silk production, possible mate-guarding, cannibalism and more ๐Ÿซก

here's a big female w/ a lot of orange scales - July, 2021, NE Oklahoma
October 15, 2025 at 12:23 AM
mmoberweiser.bsky.social
โœ๏ธ noted! ๐Ÿ˜
September 25, 2025 at 4:44 PM
mmoberweiser.bsky.social
And what's an arachnology conference without spiders?? I was so pleased when I found a subadult Pisaura mirabilis (my study species and the only spider I can actually identify ๐Ÿ˜…) during our excursion to Krka National Park, even though it was a bit early in the season!
A stinging nettle leaf with a small subadult spider A sunny view of a natural area with greenery and a river, with rocky cliffs in the background
September 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
mmoberweiser.bsky.social
Never too late to say that I had a fantastic time at the @35theca2025.bsky.social conference in gorgeous Zadar a few weeks ago! I met many incredible arachnid enthusiasts, presented about biotremology in a symposium on sensory biology, and was honored to be recognized with 2nd prize for my talk! ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ
A group of smiling people standing with a banner that reads "Congress of Arachnology" in front of a blue sea with low mountains in the background. A person standing at a podium giving a talk, next to a presentation screen showing a large photo of two spiders in courtship. A group of smiling people holding books and certificates, on a balcony with the ocean in the background.
September 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
zookeys.pensoft.net
Our journal congratulates @ortizmovliavc.bsky.social l for her award at @35theca2025.bsky.social !

Her work, โ€œWinter warming increases metabolic stress and mortality in an overwintering spider,โ€ got her a free publication in a @pensoft.net journal.

zookeys.pensoft.net/news/993
PhD student Carolina Ortiz Movliav wins Best Oral Presentation at European Congress of Arachnology
Carolina Ortiz Movliav, a PhD student at the University of Greifswald, has won the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 35th European Congress of Arachnology for her work “Winter warming inc...
zookeys.pensoft.net
September 24, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
mhedin.bsky.social
new paper, led by Lin Yan from the Elias Lab at UCB

Latent preference for red ornamentation drives interspecific mating in nascent jumping spider species (Habronattus americanus group, F. Salticidae)
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
August 23, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
lsburchardt.bsky.social
Thanks @animal-prattle.bsky.social for reminding me to post about this project๐Ÿ‹๐ŸŽต
Mia Davitt (+ col), musician from ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ, attempted to transcribe whale sounds in Western musical style. Turns out to work quite well, so we #preprint ed these interesting results: osf.io/preprints/os...
#OSF #bioacoustics
August 15, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
rosariolebronentomology.com
A likely Leiobunum sp. harvestman. Striking colors against the background here. I wish more people looked past the blur of those long legs to see the beautiful animal behind them.

#bugsky ๐Ÿชฒ๐Ÿชณ๐ŸŒฟ
A vivid close-up photograph of a harvestman, likely in the genus Leiobunum, perched on a lush green fern. The harvestman has a strikingly orange body with a textured, almost pebbled carapace and glossy black eyes positioned at the front of its small head. Its body is compact and oval-shaped, with several small, articulated legs near its front that seem to aid in sensing or feeding. The most visually dominant feature is its long, dark brown to nearly black legs, which radiate outward in all directions and stretch well beyond the edges of the frame, creating dynamic lines across the background. The fern beneath the animal is a rich green, with detailed, feather-like fronds. The contrast between the orange body and the cool green leaf provides a visually stunning color palette. A few tiny grains of soil or sand are scattered across the fern, adding realism to the natural setting. The image is extremely sharp, especially at the center where the body is in crisp focus, while the legs and edges show a slight blur from depth of field, emphasizing the central figure.
July 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
asn-amnat.bsky.social
Better together: sibling cooperation matters! Burying beetle larvae consistently benefited from growing up with siblings, both with & without parents. Huber et al. show that sibling interactions can play a key role in the evolution of family life. Read now!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Dung beetle and larvae taken by Huber et al.
July 21, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
samjakeengland.bsky.social
My photo made it onto the cover of @pnas.org! ๐ŸŽ‰You can read the related article about the amazing morphologies of treehoppers increasing their sensitivity to static electricity here: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
July 30, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
fossilforager.bsky.social
Velvet Ants of North America! ๐Ÿœ
An illustrated poster showing 9 different species of velvet ants, which are actually female flightless wasps. They are mostly brownish, yellow, orange, and red in color, with various degrees of black markings. They are illustrated on a vibrant orange background.
July 28, 2025 at 10:45 PM
mmoberweiser.bsky.social
Credit to @ortizmovliavc.bsky.social for the lovely Pisaura portrait!
June 26, 2025 at 1:11 PM
mmoberweiser.bsky.social
The first chapter of my thesis is out now in Journal of Ethology! Check it out if you're interested in taking a deep dive into the vibrational signal of a very cute spider ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธใ€ฐ๏ธ

Variation of vibratory performance during courtship of a cursorial spider: doi.org/10.1007/s101...
Face-first view of a brown spider with long legs. He is carrying a nuptial gift (silk-wrapped prey) in his chelicerae.
June 26, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
wsnatureandfossils.bsky.social
Successful hunting for these two Thomisus onustus from Dorset. I love the variation in colour of these spiders - everything from white, through various shades of pink, deep burgundy and purple or even bright yellow๐Ÿฉท๐Ÿค๐Ÿ’›๐Ÿ’œ
@britishspiders.bsky.social
#om-1 #dorsetwildlife #ukwildlife
#macrophotography
June 25, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
iridescent-bug.bsky.social
silver garden orb weaver

#spider #spiders #gardenorbweaver #orbweaver #cool #art #digitaldrawing #digitalpainting #digitalart #artmoots #smallartist #ibispaint #green #vibes #sunset
June 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
mmoberweiser.bsky.social
PhD position open with Dr. Jutta Schneider and @mherberstein.bsky.social in Hamburg, on sub-social behavior in crab spiders ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ It even includes field work in Australia! Application deadline is 15 July, more info at the link:
www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenan...
A crab spider with bright yellow/green prosoma and legs and a light brown opisthosoma sits on a leaf
June 24, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
tjalamont.bsky.social
The exteriors of spider eyes are part of the exoskeleton, so can't move. But in jumping spiders, the internal parts of the large central eyes have muscles that can swivel and twist to help the spider aim its eyes from inside the head. This is a 4-frame.gif showing that internal movement. ๐ŸŒฟ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ๐Ÿ‘€
June 10, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Reposted by Morgan M. Oberweiser
tomratz.bsky.social
I recently gave an interview for the SNSF magazine about the fascinating world of black widow spiders. Here it is! ๐Ÿ•ท๏ธ๐Ÿ•ธ๏ธ๐Ÿฆ—

www.horizons-mag.ch/2025/06/05/h...
How spiders make high-pressure decisions
Horizons - In brief
www.horizons-mag.ch
June 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM
mmoberweiser.bsky.social
Woowwwww so impressive!! ๐Ÿคฉ๐Ÿคฉ
June 5, 2025 at 1:20 PM