Stephen Montgomery

@ebablab.bsky.social

2605 Followers 1426 Following

Evolutionary Neurobiology and Behaviour www.shmontgomery.co.uk

Chonky puss month caterpillar having a chonky snooze under a willow branch
A bunker been hanging on to a pink flower, fast asleep
Chonky green caterpillar stretched out under a willow leaf, being great
An immunostaining section through a Heliconius brain. Staining and imaging by Dr Max Farnworth.
Yellow crab spider on a yellow poppy eating a small bee
A yellow spider pretending to be a yellow crab in a yellow poppy
Screenshot of the staff scientist page of LIMS, showing profiles of ten of the eleven male scientists they list (no women)
Two rainbow unicorns in the woods
Shades of blue and red in a slice through an immuno stained brain showing some deliciously lovely looking mushroom body lobes - ripe for investigation during a funded PhD - and the central complex. Image credit: Dr Max Farnworth
Blue greens of the Irish Sea braking on a pebble beach against a bright but cloudy sky
Six magical golden brown orbs (Conkers)
A big white oval sack, the egg sack of false widow spiders
A dark brown spider with bulbous abdomen and spikey legs walking across your screen
A group of green, yellow and black, caterpillar-like larvae on a hazel leaf, kicking each other
Gentle waves breaking on a sunlit sea, rolling over a sand beach
A bunch of colourful hot air balloons inflating and disappearing off into the sky
Models of a Heliconius and outgroup species showing the major sensory tracts that innervate the mushroom bodies
3D models of 5 Heliconiini brains, mostly blobs of yellows and oranges showing different visual structures
A trio of images showing an image of a forest scene, first as the original photograph, then after passing it through a program to represent the acuity of a Heliconius and an outgroup species
A map of Colombia and Ecuador showing the ranges of the two Heliconius pairs, with high altitude species in red clustered in the Andes, and low altitude species in blue clustered in the eastern coast
Ventral and dorsal views of four Heliconius butterflies, mostly black with red, white or yellow bands and edging
A bunch of vaporer moth larvae, among some nibbled leaved
A brightly stained brain caught in metamorphosis, with visible cytoskeletal tracts, large progenitor cells and many smaller cells
A big ‘ol pile of stinking mud and nothingness
Runners lining up at the start line of the Bristol 10k run
A flamboyant Elton John lookalike with a pink feather boa representing the dynamic evolution of the mushroom body, beside a plain dressed man representing the high conservation of the central complex
Supreme biologist holding artwork of his study species by Alice Seguret
Pink cherry blossom against blue sky
A screenshot of a notification from an app saying “Challenge news: new challenges coming soon”
a phylogeny of Heliconiini butterflies, showing transitions to gregarious larval behaviour, and photo graphs of three species' gregarious larvae
three cartoon caterpillars, the top on has horizontal bands, the middle one is black with yellow spines, and the bottom one has brown longitudinal bands
experimental caterpillars, some cryptic, some aposematic (red/black/yellow stripes) arrange in concentric zones to test for predation biases towards individuals on the edge. In the bottom right there is a still from a camera trap showing a blue tip feeding on the targets.
A phylogeny of butterflies showing transitions to gregarious behaviour and variation in colour pattern - either aposematic or cryptic
A river running through a natural rock cutting surrounded but forest, just before sunset
Waves breaking on a sandy beach, with low cloud lightly lit with sun
Three Heliconius melpomene butterflies feeding on an orange artificial flower, with one in the background
sunrise over a frosty park, with trees in the horizon