Will Allen
Associate Professor in Evolutionary and Sensory Ecology - Swansea University, Wales www.easelab.uk
co-Director @crocus-dla.bsky.social
Senior Editor @ecol-evol.bsky.social
- Reposted by Will AllenNew PhD alert! We'll be applying animal welfare ideas to look at how stress affects bees, looking at the effect on bee brains with @lenariab.bsky.social, and working with @sensibee.bsky.social developing new monitoring methods. Please spread the word! #bees #PhD 🧪 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
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- Urban camouflage.
- Celebrating a campaigning win today - after months of emails, calls, protests and meetings, Swansea Council backed down and decided to not to cover this beautiful historic bridleway in tarmac. Congrats to everyone who got involved - a victory for people power 🎉.
- Having a final sweep of followers who've moved here from the other place with SkyFollowerBridge before deactivating my account.
- Reposted by Will AllenI’m thrilled to announce that I’m recruiting a funded PhD student at Nottingham Trent University to study the cognitive mechanisms underlying individual differences in parenting in rhesus macaques! Deadline: 2 February | Start date: April 2026
- Reposted by Will AllenOur paper is published today in Current Biology and is featured on the cover! We report a neat, and somewhat counter-intuitive, finding: higher-ranking baboons get less and more interrupted night-time rest.
- Reposted by Will AllenNew PhD position: Butterfly Evolution at High Elevations 🦋⛰️ The project aims to understand the rapid evolution and adaptation of white butterflies at high elevations. DEADLINE: January 11, 2025 More info: pavelmatos.wordpress.com/join-us/
- The serenity of rolling over crunchy snow on my commute this morning was shattered when I opened my office door and saw water damage everywhere. All my books, artwork, photos ... feeling pretty devastated right now.
- Matt Sparks presenting his PhD research on fly visual ecology in urban environments #ASABWinter2025
- Currently recruiting PhD students to follow up on this result - please come to have a chat if interested #ASABWinter2025
- Compared to warning colouration, camouflage is more affected by the sensory enviro 👀 🦋 #ASABWinter2025
- Application portal for 59 Crocus PhD project is now open - deadline 12th Jan. Two studentships also available to BAME candidates.
- More evidence of the benefits of lottery elements in funding.
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- 🚨Two funded PhDs on the evolutionary ecology of antipredator colouration 🦋 with myself and Iliana Medina. One in Swansea tinyurl.com/4thtbph6 deadline Jan 12th @crocus-dla.bsky.social The other in Melbourne - deadline Jan 1st Please share among potential students!
- Reposted by Will AllenThank you bringing your knowledge, enthusiasm, and hope to this year's Winter Meeting at National Museum Cardiff. We hope to see you all next year!
- Postdoc Caitlin Hawley sharing results from our work on Primate natal colouration at #PSGBCardiff2025
- Reposted by Will AllenPhD opportunity: MOVE Details: blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/c... Deadline: 12/01/26 Supervisors: @shoalgroup.bsky.social, @inesfuertbauer.bsky.social, @wlallen.bsky.social, @nhcooper123.bsky.social, @marinapapa.bsky.social Apply: blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/p...
- Reposted by Will AllenIf you like genomics, speciation, and primates, this PhD position is for you! Unraveling the genomic architecture of speciation and gene flow in guenons, a diverse group of African monkeys. Funding through DTP. Do reach out with questions! #genomics #genome_assembly evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...
- 📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Iliana Medina and I assembled a team of 50+ amazing collaborators inc. @jmappes.bsky.social @hannahmrowland.bsky.social hmrowland.bsky.social @facasaro.bsky.social saro.bsky.social @jtroscianko.bsky.social + many not on Bsky to run a field predation experiment across six continents. 2/6
- Reposted by Will AllenFunded PhD position available 🎉 Come and work with me in Helsinki to uncover the pathways producing colourful tiger moth wings. Lots of options for genomics, CRISPR, fieldwork, behaviour experiments… Email with questions! jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...
- Reposted by Will AllenPostdoc job alert! We are hiring a NYU-based postdoc to work on our project on the social and environmental determinants of aging. The 3 year post will be based in James Higham's lab and will focus on endocrine, immune, and inflammatory aspects of aging. Please share! apply.interfolio.com/173938
- Matt Sparks, my PhD student, and Roger Santer wrote a very interesting article for The Conversation on fly vision, and why understanding it better can help prevent human disease. theconversation.com/how-a-fly-se...
- Reposted by Will AllenSuper happy to share the first chapter of my PhD, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface ✨🐀 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... Iridescence in mammals is not as rare as we thought, but it’s all created in the same way!
- Reposted by Will AllenConfused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.
- Depressing stich-up by the right-wing press. Rayner is an inspiration to everyone trying to get on in life after a difficult childhood, and for helping others to do the same. I hope she is back in Government soon.
- The genomics of discrete polymorphisms maintained by disruptive selection: Trends in Ecology & Evolution www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
- New paper @biolinvasions.bsky.social led by Sarah-Sophie Weil. Can macroevolution inform contemporary invasion potential? We outline the assumptions of this approach, assess support, then test if dispersal ability can proxy for naturalisation success in several tetrapod groups. rdcu.be/eD9Tt
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- Sunrise at Refugio Juclar in Andorra. Hiking retreat after ESEB.
- Reposted by Will AllenPick an idiom: "more than meets the eye", "beauty more than skin [feather] deep" etc. In work led by Rosalyn Price-Waldman, we describe a hidden (and ignored!) black or white layer found below the visible surface of bird feathers which helps make bird colours so striking! 🧪 🪶 #colsci
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- Reposted by Will AllenImportant things to consider before we outsource the research and writing process to machine proxies
- Haiku from today's bike ride: fast car overtakes oh no sleeping policeman exhaust scrapes down road
- Hot cats, cool linoleum floor.
- Reposted by Will AllenWhy do imperfect mimics (such as many hoverflies) exist? We created 3D printed replicas of flies, wasps and our own custom intermediates and then "asked" various predators what they thought of our 3D stimuli. Read all about it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Will AllenDo you have field work experience? Do you want more? Our team wants YOU to manage our field site studying Kinda baboons in Kasanka National Park, Zambia! Start date is this August 2025 so apply ASAP! Job ad here: tinyurl.com/KindaBaboon
- Can macroevolutionary indices be used to inform contemporary extinction risk? We explore this question in an Ecology Letters review out today. Led by Sarah-Sophie Weil and Laure Gallien, it should be a useful resource for anyone using these approaches. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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- Reposted by Will Allen🐠💥2 year postdoc in fish sensory ecology!! 💥🐟 If you’re into animal colour, collective behaviour, predator-prey interactions, enjoy behavioural experiments and fieldwork, please apply! Based in Oxford with fieldwork in northwest Thailand (and elsewhere). Please repost! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNM294/p...
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- Reposted by Will Allen1/3 www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate... PhD studentship! Comparative Analysis and Modelling of Collective Behaviour in Natural and Artificial Systems. **this scholarship for UK residents only, as defined by UKCISA regulations** Details below! Please RT (AI-generated image)
- Our latest publication on using visual ecology approaches to improve insect pest control - here how modelling pest acuity can identify the best sized patterns for visual traps. Out in J. Insect Science: academic.oup.com/jinsectscien...
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- Reposted by Will AllenPostdoc job alert! I'm hiring a 3-yr postdoc to work on our Social Modifiers of Primate Lifespans grant. Job info and how to apply below. Deadline June 1. Pls share! jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
- Hawaiian caterpillar patrols spiderwebs camouflaged in insect prey’s body parts www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Clownfish diversification from anemone hosts influencing colour pattern, morphology and community assembly. Very nice study.
- Current PhD student Matthew Sparks is working on this - urban fly visual ecology. Will share findings with you and Viz soon...
- Reposted by Will AllenBird colouration varies a tremendous amount. But why? In a new paper, @j-dunning.net , John Endler, & I look at the relationship between plumage and viewing conditions in 2610 species of birds, finding strong, non-sexual effects (esp. on females). 📷Zak Pohlen (tanager), Darren Clark (thrush)
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- Reposted by Will Allen@nature.com has just published online our new paper!🎉🐸🌡️Lead by @patricepottier.bsky.social and supervised by myself and @itchyshin.bsky.social: in this massive research effort we overcome several common convictions related to the topics we studied. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Here are take-homes.
- Swansea Council is currently felling hundreds of mature trees with zero public consultation.
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- A leaf-mimicking moth uses nanostructures to create 3D leaf shape appearance: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
- I thought I knew all the footpaths near me but I found this sunken beaut on my morning run.
- All (female) velvet ants are badass, but why do some species have conspicuous spots on their metasoma? New paper led by Vinicius Marques Lopez out today looks into this: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
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- New article by Roger Santer and myself 'Insect visual perception and pest control: opportunities and challenges' available to read in Current Opinion in Insect Science: doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
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- Reposted by Will AllenPLEASE SHARE: Postdoc Opportunity in Montpellier France. 18 months starting May 2025: Generative AI for Studying the Influence of Habitats on the Diversification of Bird Color Patterns. Applications and information here: tinyurl.com/2368teak @evoldir.bsky.social
- Looking for advice on mentoring people towards (funded) PhD training after a long break from research (e.g. to raise a family). Are there any targeted training programmes or funding opportunities in the UK?
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- Fully-funded PhD: Comparative analysis of collective behaviour in natural and artificial systems. Supervised by Andrew King and myself at Swansea University, @rjpheathcote.bsky.social (Oxford) and Marina Papadopoulou (Tuscia). Come fly in the swaRmverse! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...
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- Ultrablack structural colour in the velvet ant Traumatomutilla bifurca - nicely demonstrated by friends Vinicius Marques Lopez, Rhainer Guillermo-Ferreira and colleagues. doi.org/10.3762/bjna...
