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Thanks for sharing - glad you enjoyed!

thanks Andy! saving the story of Cocopop for my memoir, I think...

I'm so glad you enjoyed!

Thanks Daniel! 🦋🎉

thanks David!

😯😯

I loved you being involved!!

Andy delete this now

have realised I had the privacy settings messed up but have now corrected that if you want your Gamboa forest sounds fix, promise it wasn't a John Cage-esque silence fake-out haha

as a fun bonus for anyone who made it this far, this publication also motivated me to dig through my old Tascam field recordings of the incredible sounds of Gamboa (Panama). Finally uploaded here, FFO nature sounds, tropical rain, Enya (probably): soundcloud.com/j_fole/sets/... (10/10)

and of course, a huge thank-you to all my wonderful co-authors for their varied and tireless contributions – this paper was very much a team effort! I am also very grateful to my funders @gw4biomeddtp.bsky.social for their support. (9/10)

Considering the wealth of genomic tools and ecological knowledge available in Heliconius, we think these results present this genus as an exciting new model for studying the evolutionary and mechanistic basis of long life. Move aside, Ming the clam…. (8/10)

While the shorter-lived, closely-related Dryas iulia shows a decline in grip strength with age, we found no impact of age on performance in Heliconius hecale – either with the pollen or without. So not only do Heliconius live longer, they also show evidence of delayed physiological ageing. (7/10)

We next wanted to know – how might physiological ageing differ in these long-lived butterflies? With help from @dinalab.bsky.social, we built a device called "The Pullinator" to measure butterfly “grip strength” across the lifespan. (6/10)

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But results from pollen-deprivation experiments show that this lifespan extension is not purely down to the plastic nutritional benefits of pollen. Even without it, Heliconius live nearly twice as long as some of their close relatives – indicating evolved, heritable mechanisms of longevity. (5/10)

Moving beyond maximum lifespan (a notoriously problematic metric), we also show evidence for longer median lifespans, reduced baseline mortality, and slowed rates of ageing in Heliconius, associated with their transition to a pollen-feeding behaviour. (4/10)

We collate data from the literature, commercial butterfly houses, and our own insectary experiments to reveal maximum lifespans of up to 348 days in Heliconius hewitsoni, representing a 25-fold lifespan extension over some of their closest Heliconiini relatives. (3/10)

Heliconius biologists have known about their lengthy lives for decades, often citing a maximum lifespan of around 6 months – but this remarkable longevity has received surprisingly little scientific attention. Distracted by those dazzling wing patterns, no doubt… Photo by @eahodge.bsky.social (2/10)

don't worry Max, a few episodes and we'll sort you out

thanks Benito!!