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
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
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
ajblake05.bsky.social
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/...
July 10, 2025 at 9:10 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Every Canadian has only three friends
May 3, 2025 at 6:32 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Excited that my first manuscript from my time at the @riffelllab.bsky.social is out as a preprint! Building on past work, we used wind tunnel bioassays to show that the odors of human hosts, flowers, and oviposition sites shift the visual preferences of mosquitos.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Three panel figure, with preference index on the y-axis, and wavelength in (nm) on the x-axis. Below the x-axis are circle diagrams showing the control stimuli (all grey circles) and the test stimuli (colors ranging from purple to a dark red). The top panel is labeled with a cloud of CO2 and a diagram of a flower. The middle panel is labeled with a cloud of CO2 and a diagram of a foot. The bottom panel is labeled with a cloud of CO2 and a jar of green liquid (oviposition lure). All three panels have a dotted line representing preference with CO2 alone. This line dips down in the green. In each figure there is an additional line representing the odor overlayed, with the area in between the two lines colored according to wavelength. There are also arrows labeling areas where there are significant shift in preference. In all cases there is a significant positive shift in preference in the green wavelengths.
February 7, 2025 at 5:41 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Look out for my talk on #mosquito photoreceptors and behavior tomorrow at #SICB2025 in the olfaction section (11:15 am, Intl. Salon 9).
Title Slide Title: The spectral sensitivity of mosquito photoreceptors can explain behavioral preferences for colored stimuli Authors: Adam J. Blake1, Gregor Belušič2, Jeffrey A. Riffell1 1Department of Biology, University of Washington 2Department of Biology, University of Ljubljana Image: Macro image of a female Aedes aegypti
January 4, 2025 at 6:59 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
He’s trying so hard!!
2024’s desiccated lemon pig
December 29, 2024 at 7:55 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Happy #SnowbirdSaturday! Let’s see your birds in the snow!

Here’s a varied thrush from a very chilly (for Vancouver) Christmas bird count.
Varied thrush perching on a branch covered in frost
December 1, 2024 at 1:18 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
We sharing bread on here? #breadsky
Sourdough loaf
November 26, 2024 at 11:01 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
People of Blue Sky, post one of your favorite movies. One gif only.
Twin towers helmet kick gif
November 24, 2024 at 12:46 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
November 23, 2024 at 2:06 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Flight shot Friday!

I feel like we could also take this in a buggy direction.
Blue-eyed Darner in flight, side view
November 23, 2024 at 1:51 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
They really do make great Christmas gifts!!
Me wearing the bird t-shirt and holding one of the cloaca mugs.
November 14, 2024 at 6:24 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Had a great time at #entsoc24! Made some great connections and saw so many great talks! Looking forward to the next one!
Me in front of the #entsoc24 sign
November 14, 2024 at 12:13 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
If you’re interested in mosquito biology or insect vision please check out my #entsoc24 talk today at 11:36 in room 222 A.
Title Slide Title: The spectral sensitivity of mosquito photoreceptors can explain behavioral preferences for colored stimuli Authors: Adam J. Blake1, Gregor Belušič2, Jeffrey A. Riffell1 1Department of Biology, University of Washington 2Department of Biology, University of Ljubljana Image: macro image of a female Ae. aegypti
November 12, 2024 at 5:50 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Don’t mind if I do!
July 22, 2024 at 6:34 AM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Also be sure to check out all the other great talks at SICB from my lab mates in the Riffell Lab.

x.com/riffelllab/s...
Riffell lab - SICB 2024 Friday (1/5) Adam Blake: Angela Rouyar: Interplay of visual and olfactory cues in mosquitos (602) Promising mutant lines as a new neurogenetic tool to study the olfaction neural basis in Aedes aegypti (Exhibit Hall 4A) Classification of Odor derived EAGs with Machine Learning (Exhibit Hall 4A) Josh Swore: Saturday (1/6) Carlos Ruiz: Decoding Chemosensory Signaling in Aedes aegypti: Insights from Glomerular Activity Mapping (615) Pramod KC: Grace Van Susteren: Uncovering the odor transformation from antennal lobe neurons to descending neurons in the hawkmoth (615) Spectral and bi-modal learning in the yellow-fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti (615) Anand Patil: Olfactogenetic approach to understanding odor detection in Manduca sexta (615) UNIVERSITY of WASHINGTON
January 4, 2024 at 10:59 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
If you’re at SICB this Friday (1:45 pm, 602) check out my talk on odors and color preferences of mosquitoes in the multisensory systems section.
Title slide showing a macro photo of a female Ae. aegypti Title: Interplay of visual and olfactory cues in mosquitoes. Authors: Adam J. Blake, Jeffrey A. Riffell Dept. of Biology, UW
January 4, 2024 at 10:47 PM
ajblake05.bsky.social
Hi all, postdoc at University of Washington, I currently work on mosquito vision. More about me here: www.ajblake.info
Culex pipiens mosquito with rainbow eye reflection
September 21, 2023 at 9:00 PM