jim mallet
@wtf-r-species.bsky.social
natural historian, PhD Texas, native Londoner. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim (Profile pic from Mauro Cutrona https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006219407348)
The Lepidoptera are leading the race in reference genome comparative genomics -- beating the Diptera and Drosophila as a model. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
November 4, 2025 at 5:24 AM
The Lepidoptera are leading the race in reference genome comparative genomics -- beating the Diptera and Drosophila as a model. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Two years ago today, we published this spooky cover on PNAS for Halloween! About ovariole development in hybrid female ovaries. Xiong, T., et al. 2023. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120:e2300959120. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
October 31, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Two years ago today, we published this spooky cover on PNAS for Halloween! About ovariole development in hybrid female ovaries. Xiong, T., et al. 2023. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120:e2300959120. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
This paper blew me out of the water!
October 24, 2025 at 2:08 AM
This paper blew me out of the water!
This is a great image. Looking at an explanatory poster in Northumberlandia Park, overlooking Shotton Open Cast Mine, ca 2017. The deep pit was by then right next to the top of the hill in Northumberlandia. Kids!You can identify the trucks!
October 23, 2025 at 4:21 AM
This is a great image. Looking at an explanatory poster in Northumberlandia Park, overlooking Shotton Open Cast Mine, ca 2017. The deep pit was by then right next to the top of the hill in Northumberlandia. Kids!You can identify the trucks!
No comment! From 2017
October 23, 2025 at 2:17 AM
No comment! From 2017
Puerto Maldonado, Peru, getting pinched by the Ríos Madre de Diós, and the Río Tambopata. Holy Mother of God!
October 21, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Puerto Maldonado, Peru, getting pinched by the Ríos Madre de Diós, and the Río Tambopata. Holy Mother of God!
Do you think John Gould knew these were both male magpie larks?
October 14, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Do you think John Gould knew these were both male magpie larks?
Here are graphs depicting actual Lotka-Volterra model of evolution by natural selection -- "the struggle for existence". 5/5
September 20, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Here are graphs depicting actual Lotka-Volterra model of evolution by natural selection -- "the struggle for existence". 5/5
I returned to UK and taught there, before my current iteration in the USA, where my group, taking advantage of the latest genomic methods, has made profound discoveries in how species of insects form. And for the past 13 years, I have taught Americans population genetics. 3/5
September 20, 2025 at 11:05 PM
I returned to UK and taught there, before my current iteration in the USA, where my group, taking advantage of the latest genomic methods, has made profound discoveries in how species of insects form. And for the past 13 years, I have taught Americans population genetics. 3/5
I then taught in Mississippi, and researched cotton bollworms and tobacco budworms on cotton, as well as sibling speciation in the "Common Malaria Mosquito", which turns out to be a complex of around 6 species. 2/5 (sorry, it's longer chain than I thought at first!).
September 20, 2025 at 11:00 PM
I then taught in Mississippi, and researched cotton bollworms and tobacco budworms on cotton, as well as sibling speciation in the "Common Malaria Mosquito", which turns out to be a complex of around 6 species. 2/5 (sorry, it's longer chain than I thought at first!).
Good grief! I've had an alphabetic list of US visas (F2, F1, J1, H1B and two green cards) over the years. If I had happened to have been out of the country on my H1B, I would have had 1 day to get back to the USA. Also, I or my university would have to have paid $100K/yr. From immigration lawyers:
September 20, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Good grief! I've had an alphabetic list of US visas (F2, F1, J1, H1B and two green cards) over the years. If I had happened to have been out of the country on my H1B, I would have had 1 day to get back to the USA. Also, I or my university would have to have paid $100K/yr. From immigration lawyers:
How many convergent switches in Müllerian mimicry can be explained by parallel evolution at ivory and optix genes? Amazing work by Ben Chehida, Dasmahapatra, Meier et al.! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
August 21, 2025 at 1:54 AM
How many convergent switches in Müllerian mimicry can be explained by parallel evolution at ivory and optix genes? Amazing work by Ben Chehida, Dasmahapatra, Meier et al.! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Shh! No-one mention AI! (Headline from the FT).
August 11, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Shh! No-one mention AI! (Headline from the FT).
I think you'll like this when Monty Python suddenly digress from organ donation to travel into deep space! www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ig9...
August 5, 2025 at 3:00 AM
I think you'll like this when Monty Python suddenly digress from organ donation to travel into deep space! www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ig9...
ANOTHER BUTTERFLY MADE UP BY AI. I told the New England Biolabs Salesperson about this, and they just shrugged and said it looked pretty.
August 4, 2025 at 8:00 PM
ANOTHER BUTTERFLY MADE UP BY AI. I told the New England Biolabs Salesperson about this, and they just shrugged and said it looked pretty.
@heliconians @chrisjiggins.bsky.social BUTTERFLY MADE UP BY AI! Why oh why? When you are dealing with the most diverse butterfly fauna on the planet: the neotropics! The scientific article mentioned is about Melinaea and Mechanitis (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Ithomiini). doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
August 4, 2025 at 7:56 PM
@heliconians @chrisjiggins.bsky.social BUTTERFLY MADE UP BY AI! Why oh why? When you are dealing with the most diverse butterfly fauna on the planet: the neotropics! The scientific article mentioned is about Melinaea and Mechanitis (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Ithomiini). doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
This is so cool. Kanchon Dasmahapatra, Alaine Whinnett, Ryan Hill, Fraser Simpson, Gerardo Lamas, and I have been working on these species for years, before genomics. In Melinaea, mtDNA barcodes fail spectacularly; in Mechanitis, barcodes mislead badly. As usual, genomics clarifies!
August 1, 2025 at 12:48 AM
This is so cool. Kanchon Dasmahapatra, Alaine Whinnett, Ryan Hill, Fraser Simpson, Gerardo Lamas, and I have been working on these species for years, before genomics. In Melinaea, mtDNA barcodes fail spectacularly; in Mechanitis, barcodes mislead badly. As usual, genomics clarifies!
The undersides of the males have slash of colour reminiscent of the females:
June 28, 2025 at 4:56 AM
The undersides of the males have slash of colour reminiscent of the females:
Here is the male of Perrhybris pamela (pyrrha?) carmenta:
June 28, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Here is the male of Perrhybris pamela (pyrrha?) carmenta:
Taxonomy: how we try to stabilise species names (I still don't understand why the species isn't still Perrhybris pyrrha, rather than the milder-sounding Perrhybris pamela). Incidentally, this is an ithomiine-mimicking female. The males are different. I'll post below ....
June 28, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Taxonomy: how we try to stabilise species names (I still don't understand why the species isn't still Perrhybris pyrrha, rather than the milder-sounding Perrhybris pamela). Incidentally, this is an ithomiine-mimicking female. The males are different. I'll post below ....
They are gorgeous. But have you ever reared a larva? Crazy! The pupa too. Unlike most "thorns", this one pupates with a thin cocoon on its hostplant, and has weird false eyes. See this Russian photo (macroid.ru/showphoto.ph...):
June 21, 2025 at 2:57 AM
They are gorgeous. But have you ever reared a larva? Crazy! The pupa too. Unlike most "thorns", this one pupates with a thin cocoon on its hostplant, and has weird false eyes. See this Russian photo (macroid.ru/showphoto.ph...):
More kids' street art:
June 21, 2025 at 2:19 AM
More kids' street art:
Kids did the street art:
June 21, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Kids did the street art: