We're interested in collective behavior, nest architecture, social physiology, and how honey bee colonies do what they do.
smithbeelab.com
Smith Bee Lab
Loading...
The list of Ecology/Evolution/Marine Bio Labs recruiting grad students for Fall 2027 is live! PIs enter your position info here: forms.gle/MAGd4ohyPeoY... students (and PIs not recruiting) share the composite list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Please share widely! 🧪
postdoc alert 🚨! NIH-funded postdoc in my lab to work on Ancestral Recombination Graphs in space. Please spread the word widely in your networks, and please reach out if you're interested! (2-3yr position, start date flexible, pay/benefits good!).
details here: careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...
Finally, direct evidence of ornithology negatively impacting my work.
"A dead mouse in a honey bee nest is like a dead whale shark in the lobby of an apartment building"
So glad the reviewers, and Insect Socio, didn't cut that line!
Awesome work, and surprising results, led by Erica Maul @ericamaul.bsky.social
Erica Maul with LOG NEST 2026!
@ericamaul.bsky.social
(somehow, they don't sell these as standard beekeeping supply)
Please complete this form if you are a PI recruiting graduate students for a Fall 2027 start. If you are NOT recruiting, feel free to share the response sheet with prospective students looking for lab...
forms.gle
Multiple positions available: Postdoc PhD students
A New Toy for Serious Science Allows for Individual Honey Bee Forager Tracking. Read about exciting work from Stentiford, Harrap et al. from the Straw lab that delivered a decisive one–two punch to the long-standing challenge of tracking foraging honey bees.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mkeE3QW8S...
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
Paper alert 🚨🐜! Fire ant foraging looks remarkably robust until you perturb their communication. @dornhaus.bsky.social and I tested how fire ants respond to disruptions in pheromone trail communication during foraging. More in the thread below 🧵(1/6).
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Smith Bee Lab
Smith Bee Lab
Smith Bee Lab
🚨 PhD opportunity 🚨
Fully funded PhD at the University of Bristol (UK) on how ant colonies remodel their nests to optimise performance under pressure, combining experimental work, quantitative analysis, and field work.
Detail/how to apply: stroeymeyt-lab.co.uk/open-positio...
Deadline: 5 June 2026
My first first-author paper is now published online at Insectes Sociaux! I loved this project and sharing it with y’all at IUSSI-NAS and ABS. Check it out! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Honey bee nests are warm and resource-rich, making them attractive targets for animal intruders during winter, including mice. Beekeepers often protect their nests from mice, but have also documented ...
link.springer.com
New research article! 📰
@ericamaul.bsky.social and @smithbeelab.bsky.social reveal that honey bees process dead mice inside their nests, rather than simply sealing them in propolis. 🐁
🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000...
#SocialInsects #HoneyBees #SocialImmunity #Necrophagy #CollectiveBehavior
Insectes Sociaux - Finding resources for the colony is one of the most difficult and risky tasks for a social insect worker. A worker on a foraging trip can face a number of challenges, including...
