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Maxime Dahirel

@mdahirel.bsky.social

245 Followers

71 Following

they/he | Urban ecologist, Dr of Snails, sometimes Spider Wrangler, these days mostly Computer Swearer-At. May make and give baked goods without warnings. https://mdahirel.github.io/

  1. mdahirel.bsky.social profile picture

    Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social

    One of my main snail models and what looks like one of my main spider models? On the same 17th century painting? #InverteFest

    (Flowers in a Glass Bottle on a Marble Plinth, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, about 1670, National Gallery, London www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ja...)

    A detail of the bottom part of an old painting. We can see a glass bottle on a plinth, with the stems of flowers visible in the bottle, and some fruits and flowers visible around the bottle. But more importantly, on the plinth, there is also a bumblebee, a grove snail, and what looks like a cross spider (and is at least definitely an Araneus)
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    Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social

    In addition, @youn-henry.drosophila.social.ap.brid.gy also happens to be a very talented illustrator and artist (more, including lots of stuff of interest to the #InverteFest crowd, at jesuisunstegosaure.artstation.com)

    A watercolor illustration showing a parasitoid wasp on some bramble, probing cutesy little green aphids passing by to see which ones she's gonna lay eggs in. There's one aphid that looks very brown and dead: it's a "mummy", there's a parasitoid developing in it! The background is full of very detailed greenery; there's a couple bugs hidden in it, including a caterpillar munching on a leaf
    mdahirel.bsky.social profile picture

    Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social

    In continued #InverteFest published paper catchup: Sometimes I work on inverts that are not snails or spiders! Like here, where I used my Computer Swearer-At skills to help a friend analyse an experiment with aphids attacked by parasitoid wasps, to see when aphid symbionts help protect them vs not

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    Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social

    In continued #InverteFest published paper catchup: Sometimes I work on inverts that are not snails or spiders! Like here, where I used my Computer Swearer-At skills to help a friend analyse an experiment with aphids attacked by parasitoid wasps, to see when aphid symbionts help protect them vs not

    jevbio.bsky.social profile picture

    Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social

    An evolutionary arms race between protective symbionts and parasitoid wasps is taking place inside aphids. But what determines the aphids’ fate? We explore how the origins of symbionts and wasps shape parasitism success:

    doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

    @youn-henry.drosophila.social.ap.brid.gy et al.

    Abstract. Parasitoids are important natural enemies of insects, imposing strong selection for the evolution of resistance. In aphids, the heritable endosym

    A test of specific adaptation to symbiont-conferred host resistance in natural populations of a parasitoid wasp

    Abstract. Parasitoids are important natural enemies of insects, imposing strong selection for the evolution of resistance. In aphids, the heritable endosym

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    Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social

    I was literally explaining this to a couple of friends a few days ago, so: these upper tentacles are what the larger group making up the overwhelming majority of land snails and slugs is named after: Stylommatophora, roughly "wearing eye on stalk" #InverteFest

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    Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social

    Reply to franzanth.bsky.social

    Yeah I got reminded this weekend (by seeing what I think is one and looking it up) that it happened to the freshwater snail Physella acuta: first described in Europe, described later independently under another name in the US, later recognized as a single species originating from North America

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