Stuart Wigby

Check out out new SciComm video, made by the terrific people at www.animateyour.science, showing our latest findings on diet effects on male survival, via the story of Freddie Fruitfly! www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD40...

Today’s journal club - interesting sounding paper by @darrenjparker.bsky.social about practical sessions affects on attitudes to insects. resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Now out in @royalsocietypublishing.org "The seminal proteome of a monandrous fly, Drosophila subobscura". We discovered that, despite monandry, D subobscura's seminal fluid is surprisingly similar D melanogaster's, and likely shaped by conflict! royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Wondering if any academics out there tried using ipad as their main work computer? Or tried it & stuck with it, or decided to back to macbook, & why. How do things like reference managing work out, using onedrive, stats packages like R? #ipad #macbook #academia #workflow

Freshwater invertebrate analysis to study wildfires impact on river and stream water quality in Die 🇫🇷 @livunifrance.bsky.social #zoology and #phagehunting to collect water samples to screen for the @cf-trailfinder.bsky.social bank. This is One Health research in action @livuni-ismib.bsky.social

Arrived safely in the incredible Old Monastery of Sainte-Croix field centre, close to Die in the Drôme department of France. Beautiful surroundings for our @livunifrance.bsky.social field course, where our Biosciences @livuni-ismib.bsky.social students carry out ecological studies #LivFrance2026

Good morning to the beautiful #Vercors Natural Regional Park, Drôme, and the first full field day of the #LivFrance2026 #Zoology field course! Sweep nets and binoculars at the ready! @drrachelfloyd.bsky.social @stuartwigby.bsky.social

Mating makes cholesterol matter for male fruit fly lifespan! @elerosca.bsky.social @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @livuninews.bsky.social @liverpooluni.bsky.social news.liverpool.ac.uk/2026/06/18/m...

Our latest @ukri.org-funded work is out now in @pnas.org – Mating-dependent lifespan cost of sterol depletion in male Drosophila melanogaster. 4 years work from a terrific team of PDRAs, techs, students and collabs! @liverpooluni.bsky.social @livuniresearch.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

BBSRC, NERC and Future Leaders fellowships are fantastic opportunities for ECRs to transition to independence. My institute (IVES) at Liverpool Uni is keen to support applicants (vet/ecol/evol/infection/omics etc.). Get in touch with me (ives.fellowships@liverpool.ac.uk) if you're interested!

BBSRC, NERC and Future Leaders fellowships are fantastic opportunities for ECRs to transition to independence. My institute (IVES) at Liverpool Uni is keen to support applicants (vet/ecol/evol/infection/omics etc.). Get in touch with me (ives.fellowships@liverpool.ac.uk) if you're interested!

Oxford and Liverpool have signed a partnership agreement “to work together to tackle global challenges through research, innovation and partnership”. It builds on existing scientific co-operation between Harwell and the Daresbury research campus near Runcorn. news.oxfordshire.gov.uk/joining-forc...

🌟 I’ve recently moved to The University of Manchester! I'm advertising several PhD projects on plant–microbe interactions 🌱🦠🪲 🧪🖥️ Projects span experimental to computational. Diverse supervisory teams, collaborating across the UK Plant Microbiome community. Details: www.findaphd.com/phds/?Keywor...

Phd project on Climate Change Impacts on Sexually Selected Traits, lead by Alison Wright at Sheffield Uni, with supervisor team including @andrewpom.bsky.social and me. Application deadline 7th Jan

Liverpool Research Fellowships are back, this time with a focus on AI. If you're a postdoc with ideas about "harnessing the power of AI within research", then take a look. Application deadline 1st December 2025. news.liverpool.ac.uk/2025/10/24/u...

Here it is! So happy to announce that my next book, Beauty of the Beasts, will be released by Bloomsbury Wildlife on Feb 26th (April 28th in the US). And I couldn’t be happier with this stunning cover, designed by Abby Cook, which works so well to show a vilified creature in a beautiful way 😍

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

The Hopkins Lab (hopkins-lab.com) at the University of Florida is looking to recruit a postdoc to work on the genetics of organ function and evolution across Drosophila and beyond. Please visit tinyurl.com/vcsjpmzz or email me for more info. And please RT or send to anyone who might be interested!

2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in @uniexecec.bsky.social - Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... - RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... Pls share!

New out in Molecular Ecology! In which we show that small males try harder when it comes to seminal fluid proteins. w/ @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @becks-seascience.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Update – @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social got back to me with a download link to the obsolete software. Good service! (though I'm not quite sure why they don't just keep the old software on their website to save some admin).

Last week to apply! nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies...

New paper led by Lily Amos, with @stuartwigby.bsky.social and myself- very rapid changes in male Drosophila mating behaviour in response to multiple stressors (academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...).

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... A 5 minute listen: @jojofoth.bsky.social describes exciting work at the Microbiome innovation Centre at the University of Liverpool

Delighted to have been awarded a BBSRC Fellowship to look at the genetics of how insects have adapted to living in freshwater habitats 🧬🦋🪰🪲🌊 Extremely grateful to all who have supported me over the years and excited to be at Liverpool with some great colleagues! www.ukri.org/news/9-milli...

Morning folks - it’s that time PLEASE vote for the bee-fly. They are majestic marvels. @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @amentsoc.bsky.social @entcollnet.bsky.social @entsocamerica.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

PAPER ALERT: Inbreeding can be detrimental causing inbreeding depression resulting in lower fitness. Here, we track its consequences on sperm, testes, body, lifespan in a 🪲 doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... #mattgage @jevbio.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social @uniofexeteresi.bsky.social

We're recruiting a postdoc urban climate & environmental modelling at UCL Institute of Environmental Design and Engineering. You will be part of an established urban climate and health group working on active projects. Looking for someone with regional climate (pref WRF) modelling. Please share!

Masud has nailed it here. "Each of the administrative burdens that we are confronted with on a daily basis might seem small on their own but cumulatively they amount to a ‘mountain of small things’ that is killing academia"

My comments in @theguardian.com about a new study which suggests that men with higher quality sperm live longer www.theguardian.com/science/2025... courtesy of @iansample.bsky.social

Rethinking the relationship between the sex ratio and sexual selection doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @gcmcdon.bsky.social, @daniedmunds.bsky.social, @stuartwigby.bsky.social, and @jennyperry.bsky.social 📷: Dani Edmunds

Huge credit to @daniedmunds.bsky.social and everyone else for this work, and Dani's Drosophila Collage!

Does the ratio of males to females predictably influence the ability to monopolise mating partners? Is male sexual selection more intense when femaleIs are rare? 🪰 We investigated by manipulating sex ratios in polyandrous fruit flies in our new #OA manuscript published in @evolletters.bsky.social

Peto's Paradox—that cancer does not increase with body size of mammals—was wrong. A new, comprehensive study of 263 species documents higher cancer prevalence with increasing body mass. Some large animals (e.g. elephants) have some built-in genetic adaptations www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @pnas.org

Current reading. I rather like it! 🤓

Oh, this is us! With Tracey Chapman, Emily Fowler and Lucy Friend at UEA we have been trying to work out fine scale egg laying decisions by Drosophila females. Turns out it’s more complex than we thought (again)…🪰🧪

It’s never been more important to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 👩‍🔬 Here’s a collection of posts from last year about some of the remarkable historical #WomenInSTEM in the animal field:

Lifetime reproductive success (LRS) is a key metric in evolutionary biology and ecology. But what counts as a success? And whose successes do we count? @sevans.bsky.social doesn't shy away from the big questions in this new paper just out in @journal-evo.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

... and if you're interested in using the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Lab—the world's longest running climate manipulation experiment—in your fellowship work, then it would be great to hear from you! #grassland #climatechange #biodiversity #ecology #evolution

... and if you're interested in using the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Lab—the world's longest running climate manipulation experiment—in your fellowship work, then it would be great to hear from you! #pasture #climatechange #agriculture #ecology #evolution #biodiversity

BBSRC fellowships are open: 3yrs of funding, ECRs worldwide are eligible (including the US 👀). Deadline 7th May. If you've a some postdoc experience (but no prior independent fellowships) and fancy coming to my Dept/ Institute in @liverpooluni.bsky.social, drop me a message.

Looking for #PhD in behavioural and applied ecology? Our project will determine the importance individual level variation in #seabird #foraging for assessing the impact of wind farms @jon-seabirds.bsky.social @jaycee161.bsky.social @liverpooluni.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The maintenance of genetic polymorphism underlying sexually antagonistic traits doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by Ewan Flintham et al.