Adam Blake
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ajblake05.bsky.social
Adam Blake
@ajblake05.bsky.social
810 followers 420 following 31 posts
Postdoc at University of Washington focusing on insect vision. My current project is looking at olfaction and vision in mosquitos.

Website: https://www.ajblake.info/
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ajblake05.bsky.social
Adam Blake @ajblake05.bsky.social · Jul 10
Our new paper is now out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social!!! We had all sorts of fun generating LED stimuli for mosquitos to investigate their visual preferences in the presence of different odors. The paper is open access and available here: journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Reposted by Adam Blake
gerlame.bsky.social
Applications are currently being accepted for UBC's ✨️ Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellowship ✨️ (two positions!!), due Jan. 15

Please share far and wide 🚀

(See thread)
Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities
Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2-year (2026-2028) - 2 positions OPENAt UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in resea...
biodiversity.ubc.ca
November 3, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
tribblelab.bsky.social
The UW Herbarium @ Burke Museum is hiring a Research Mycologist! 🍄
Focus: fungal systematics & evolution, collections-based research, and outreach.
Initial 3-year appointment, renewable pending funding.

Apply here! wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...

Please share widely!
Research Mycologist, Burke Herbarium
Job Description As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving ...
wd5.myworkdaysite.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Reposted by Adam Blake
jtroscianko.bsky.social
BehaveAI can tell you who is doing what in each video frame. This example classifies behaviour from movement and sex from static appearance such as wing markings.

Preprint: tinyurl.com/BehaveAI
Git: tinyurl.com/BehaveAIgithub
Video: tinyurl.com/BehaveAIintro

@uniexecec.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
lahonderelab.bsky.social
Check out our newest paper on mosquito sugar feeding! 🦟🌸

This study was led M. VanderGiessen, F. Upshur & M. Cartadena-Guzman. A great collaboration with L. Escobar & @thevinaugerlab.bsky.social!

@globalchangebio.bsky.social @vtbiochemistry.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/jme/article-...
Effect of landscape heterogeneity on mosquito abundance and sugar feeding behavior
Abstract. Mosquito-borne diseases pose a dire threat to humanity, claiming over 700,000 lives annually. At the local scale, the interplay between several e
academic.oup.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
hhmi.org
The world’s “most dangerous animal” just got easier to study 🦟

HHMI’s @leslievosshall.bsky.social & #VosshallLab at @rockefeller.edu have built the 1st cellular atlas of Aedes aegypti, mapping everything from legs to antennae. Available now to all researchers, & the public: bit.ly/4oO4MzB
Researchers release the world’s first head-to-toe cellular atlas of the mosquito - News
The atlas makes the most dangerous animal in the world a lot easier to study—and perhaps defeat one day.
bit.ly
November 3, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
collemyria.bsky.social
Découverte dans l’ambre birman, une larve de moustique présente une morphologie presque identique à celle des espèces actuelles. Ce fossile exceptionnel repousse l’origine du groupe et éclaire son étonnante stabilité évolutive.
Moustiques : 99 millions d'années de stabilité
Une larve de moustique de 99 millions d’années, découverte dans l’ambre de Birmanie, montre que la morphologie de ces insectes a peu changé depuis le Crétacé, selon une étude de l’université LMU de Munich.   Par Joël Ignasse Publié le 04.11.2025 à 16h08   First fossil mosquito larva in 99-million-year-old amber with a modern type of morphology sheds light on the evolutionary history of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) - Gondwana Research, 16.10.2025 ttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X25003004  
sco.lt
November 4, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
arimcollection.bsky.social
🦟 This week, discover the unique ornaments of Uranotaenia balfouri Theobald, 1904 ⬇️!
Explore details and distribution on GBIF🌱: https://www.gbif.org/species/1654316 .
Fascinating diversity of #mosquitoes !

Photos by @nil-rahola.bsky.social

#Entomology #Biodiversity 🧪🌐
A photographic plate of Uranotaenia balfouri Theobald, 1904
November 4, 2025 at 8:39 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
This one is for the Children of Time fans (scale should be about right)! Enjoy this jumping spider (Pancorius sp.) Jack-O'-lantern!! Thanks to @nickybay.bsky.social for the reference image (www.flickr.com/photos/nicka...).

#halloween #jackolantern #arachtober #jumpingspiders #salticidae
A lit jack-o'-lantern with a jumping spider design in a dark room with an orange glow. Adam holding the a lit jack-o'-lantern with a jumping spider design A unlit jack-o'-lantern with a jumping spider design. A lit jack-o'-lantern with a jumping spider design in a dark room with an orange glow from a string of pumpkin lights.
October 31, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
entsocbc.bsky.social
We are excited to roll out a new t-shirt this year. We are working with a local artist to produce a new design. The new shirts and other new merch will be available for purchase at this years ESBC meeting.
A new entomological society of British Columbia (ESBC) t-shirt design. The design features a adult dragonfly perched on cattail, and below the water a dragonfly nymph perches on the same cattail. Watching from behind a rock is a giant waterbug.
October 16, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
entsocamerica.bsky.social
Culex antillummagnorum, a little-studied mosquito species found across the Caribbean, doesn't lay eggs in a tightly packed group like fellow Culex species. Instead, as a new study details, female Cx. antillummagnorum hover or perch above small pools of water in plants and drop in eggs one at a time.
Unique Egg-Laying Behavior Re-Discovered in Culex Mosquito Species
Culex antillummagnorum doesn't lay eggs in a tight group like fellow Culex species. Instead, females hover or perch above pools of water in plants and drop in eggs one at a time.
entomologytoday.org
October 16, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
entsocbc.bsky.social
Registration is now open for the ESBC 2025 (Nov 21st – 22nd, Univ. of Fraser Valley Abbotsford). The conference theme this year is "Better together: celebrating partnerships from micro to macro". For details and to register please visit our meeting page - entsocbc.ca/meetings/
Attendees of the 2024 ESBC meeting seated in a conference room watching one of many scientific presentations.
October 14, 2025 at 4:03 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Out vacationing on the east coast. I saw my first spotted lanternfly almost instantly! I doubt it will be the last!
A picture of me crouching and pointing at a squashed spotted lanternfly
September 21, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
maxfarnworth.bsky.social
Our paper on central complex evolution in Heliconiini butterflies is now available as reviewed preprint at @elife.bsky.social 🎉🎉. Please check out the helpful and constructive reviews which we are going to address in the next weeks 🤗 elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre... @ebablab.bsky.social
Distinct evolutionary trajectories of two integration centres, the central complex and mushroom bodies, across Heliconiini butterflies
elifesciences.org
September 13, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Adam Blake
bretthodinka.bsky.social
The RFID-enabled automated bird feeders are coming along!
September 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
riffelllab.bsky.social
Happy to announce that @ajblake05.bsky.social’s JEB paper was selected as this month’s Editors Choice article. This article discovered that mosquito color/wavelength preferences shift depending on the odor they experience.
Adam’s paper selected as the Editors’s Choice for August/September.
September 2, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
entsocamerica.bsky.social
In a survey of nearly 1,400 scientists released this week, 83% said federal government policies since January 20, 2025, had caused an "extremely negative impact" or "irreparable harm" on their field of science.
Entomologists, Fellow Scientists Report Negative Impacts of Government Actions
In a survey of nearly 1,400 scientists, 83% said government policies in 2025 had caused an "extremely negative impact" or "irreparable harm" on their field of science.
entomologytoday.org
August 28, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social
Throughout this week, I am taking a nostalgic look at school supplies in Canada.
When you ask for a duotang elsewhere in the world, you may get some confused looks.
But in Canada, most Canadians are going to know exactly what you want.
This is Canada's story of duotangs!

🧵 1/5
A photograph of four colorful duotang folders stacked on a white background. The folders are red, green, yellow, and blue, with the blue one on top.
August 28, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
afprobert.bsky.social
Opportunity: Arthropod Taxonomic Specialists (10 positions) at the University of Guelph 🪰🐝🪲🕷️🦂
Arthropod Taxonomic Specialists (10 positions) | Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
graduatestudies.uoguelph.ca
August 15, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Reposted by Adam Blake
vermivorax.bsky.social
Had to try this out with insects and HOO BOY is this embarrassing.
ChatGPT's response to the prompt "Create a detailed diagram of generalized insect external anatomy, labelling all the major anatomical features such as body regions, mouthparts, and leg segments." It produced a scientific-esque drawing of a wasp-like creature with various incorrect labels. "Compound eye" points to the labrum, "mandible" points to the labial palps, maxilla points to the front tarsi, palpus points to the front pretarsus, coxa and trochanter point to the same on a very deformed middle leg, femur also points to a tarsus, tibia points to the hind pretarsus, head points to the thorax, and thorax points to the wings. The only accurate label is for the abdomen, and then a "cuticle" label that points to the end of the abdomen, which is technically sort of correct but misleading, as the cuticle covers the entire body.
August 15, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
christiandrerup.com
🚨Our new paper is out NOW in @jexpbiol.bsky.social 👀 Here we show that cuttlefish use visual contrast cues to inform their 3D camouflage, but these contrast cues can derive from true background features as well as exposure to dynamic lighting patterns. 🦑🔆
🔗 doi.org/10.1242/jeb....
August 15, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
sagaoptics.bsky.social
Details on a fly‘s head, incredible details revealed at high magnification. Usually unexpected… that‘s what i love about macrophotography.
August 15, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
lyndon-b-duff.bsky.social
Kyle Bobiwash explains the importance of pollinators AND provides some perspective of integrating Indigenous perspectives into your work. Two questions he asks us to think about when integrating Indigenous perspectives: 1. Why do you want to integrate? and 2. Who have you talked to? /1
Why Are Pollinators Key to Year-Round Food Security?
Indigenous scholar Kyle Bobiwash explains how a dip in pollinator populations from climate change affects farmers’ crops worldwide
news.umanitoba.ca
August 15, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
agloriasoria.bsky.social
In case you have not seen it! New #Aedes genomes for the community.
August 16, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Reposted by Adam Blake
sfubiosciences.bsky.social
🫐SFU Biological Sciences is scaling up indoor berry production research with $5M grant from the Weston Family Foundation. Professor Jim Mattsson and his team is advancing sustainable, year-round blueberry, raspberry & blackberry production.

Read more on our New page: www.sfu.ca/biology/news...
August 7, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Adam Blake
neuroethology.org
Among insects, lepidoptera 🦋 show one of the most diverse photoreceptor types 👁, explaining diverse spectral sensitivities including a convergent evolution of red vision.

Lu & Kronforst review the lepidopteran eye evolution.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Cellular innovations and diversity in the lepidopteran compound eye - Journal of Comparative Physiology A
Lepidoptera, having co-diversified with flowering plants and adapted to various diel niches, present a remarkable system for studying compound eye cell type diversity. Here we synthesize the latest re...
link.springer.com
August 8, 2025 at 8:31 PM