Zoologist and photographer. BBSRC Fellow at the University of Oxford. Tell me about bugs.
Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
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Flight overlays from a mass dispersal of what I think are Hylastes sp. bark beetles. I'm always fixated watching when the light catches just right, and you can see how complicated insect airspace is.
4/6 In a dense swarm, identity is encoded purely by movement. No need for colour, shape, or size, just trajectory. A simple solution to a tricky problem.
🧵 1/6 Our new paper is out in Journal of Experimental Biology! We've been studying the curious dancing flight of male mayflies and why they do it. Spoiler: it's not just to impress females. 🪲⬇️ journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-...
Happy #worldrobberflyday to some of the very best flies you can find. Robberflies are wonderfully effective predators, with some even catching dragonflies. They combine remarkable vision, rapid reactions, and fast acting venom. Every #robberfly is a treat to find.
2/6 Male mayflies form large swarms and chase anything flying overhead, regardless of shape, size, or colour. Yet somehow, males rarely chase each other. How?
5/6 We also found something unexpected. While tracking pursuit flights, we discovered the interception algorithm males use to chase manoeuvrable targets. Males deploy their tails and hind wings as dynamic air brakes mid-flight to improve performance during tight turns.
6/6 These wonderful insects, flying for only a few days, are solving complex guidance problems during long summer evenings. Full paper available for free, here: journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-...
3/6 The secret is in the dance. Males bob vertically in the air by climbing then parachuting down, while females fly horizontally overhead. We used field recordings and computer simulations to show this vertical oscillation is specifically tuned to avoid male-male collisions.
Just out: VoR of our novel cost-benefit analysis of eye design. Applied to simple and compound eyes, discovers that photoreceptor costs shape design of entire eye, explains why diurnal insects have world's longest photoreceptors, and revises scaling of acuity with eye size. doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Older than the dinosaurs: scientists finally unlock secret of the mayfly’s dance
New article in @theguardian.com on research by @stfabian.bsky.social 👇
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
Dr. Sam Fabian, FRES
Video
Video
Video
simon laughlin
Oxford Biology
The bizarre vertical flight pattern has long puzzled experts but new research reveals why it may play a crucial role in the insect’s survival
Allocating space, materials and energy to an eye's optics and photoreceptor array is a major factor in eye design that explains obvious differences between simple eyes and compound eyes.
