Hoverfly motion vision

flower choice in VR

8/27/2026

By Nader,

My name is Nader and I am a third-year Bachelor of Medical Science student majoring in Human Anatomy and Neuroscience. This semester I am completing my research placement with the supervision of Karin and the assistance of the Motion Vision group. My project is centred around the visual stimuli of hoverflies and the influence of other hoverflies on flower choice and flight behaviour. I will be using virtual reality to test this, comparing the flight behaviour of hoverflies towards flowers which are both occupied and unoccupied. This project will help me enhance my techniques and skills in the laboratory as well as increase my understanding of scientific literature and data analysis. I am excited to continue this project and develop further knowledge in neuroscience and the wider field to which it contributes to.

Lab visits

8/12/2026

By Karin
These last few weeks we have had students visit the lab. They are 3rd year students here at Flinders. Students these days do not seem to get as many opportunities for practicals as I did when I was a student. I topic coordinate Advanced Neuroscience, and have worked hard to make this an immersive experience. In the photos below you can see the pure joy in our faces, and those of our students, when they get their OWN experiments to work. It is moments like this that makes me love teaching.
Thanks to Yuri, Sarah, and Kai Ting for helping out with these hectic visits.

3rd Year Medical Science Placement

8/9/2026

by Parul

My name is Parul, a 3rd year Bachelor of Medical Science Student majoring in Human anatomy physiology, and neuroscience. I am doing my placement under the guidance of Sarah and Karin. My project will focus on investigating whether motion or contrast change drives adaptation in hoverflies.
I am really interested in neuroscience, understanding how it works, and the various mechanisms. This project provides me with a fantastic opportunity to learn electrophysiology to record neural signals from hoverflies.

CMPH College Retreat Presentation

7/28/2026

By Sarah

I had the great pleasure a few weeks back of presenting a short talk at the CMPH college retreat to discuss the FHMRI kickstart grant funded project “Sleepy vision”, which investigates how sleep and circadian disruption impacts visual reaction times in hoverflies. This grant awarded to Hannah Scott, Karin Nordström, and Ranjay Chakraborty, has allowed us to investigate the effect artificial light at night has on hoverflies. We are in the process of finalising the results right now, and hopefully will have an update soon with plans to publish later this year.

How Dim Light at Night Affects Hoverfly Locomotor Activity

7/21/2026

By Penny,

Last month I was very lucky to attend my first ever conference, ASSAB here on Flinders campus, where I got to hear about research on a wide range of animals, and meet researchers from across Australasia. Even more luckily, I got to present my work as an undergraduate student. I am beyond grateful that I’ve been given so many opportunities to have anything presentable, at this early stage in my education.

I am also very honoured to have returned to the lab for another round of experiments, building on the results from my earlier experiments. This time, I have been exposing both male and female flies to either no light or acute dim light at night, then measuring their activity using the locomotor activity monitoring system (LAMS). As of now, four new experiments have just been completed and I’m working on combining data and creating figures.

The results seem to replicate those from my earlier experiments. Flies acutely exposed to dim light at night showed disrupted sleep during the first night, but their activity patterns returned to normal by the second night. Below is the mean activity of individual flies from my two most recent experiments, highlighting the difference on the first night. This was validating to see, and I’m excited to experiment with different ways of presenting the data!

Kai Ting's First Conference Experience

7/16/2026

By Kai Ting

Three weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending my very first ASSAB conference, and it was an incredible experience. Over three days, I had the opportunity to listen to a wide range of talks, explore poster presentations, and meet researchers working across many different areas of animal behaviour and sensory biology. It was exciting to see the diversity of research being presented and to learn about the many different questions scientists are trying to answer.
One of the biggest things I learned throughout the conference was how to communicate research in an engaging and accessible way. Every researcher I spoke to have a unique ability to explain complex ideas without making them overwhelming, and it was inspiring to see how enthusiasm and storytelling could make scientific research so interesting. Among the many fascinating presentations, one that particularly stood out to me described the discovery of tiny valves involved in venom pumping in bees. It was remarkable to see how studying such a small biological structure could inspire smoother liquid delivery systems in medical field. This has reminded me how research on animals can have broad applications. I also really enjoyed talks exploring how insects respond to different visual cues, such as colour and perceived danger, which closely relate to my own research interests.

I was also fortunate to present my Honours research through a poster presentation. This was my first opportunity to explain my project to researchers from different backgrounds, and it challenged me to communicate my work clearly within a short period of time. The discussions that followed were incredibly valuable, with several people offering useful feedback and asking thought-provoking questions. Some conversations even explored how the methods I developed could be applied to other research projects, which gave me new perspectives on the potential applications of my work.
In addition to presenting, I volunteered during the conference, which was another rewarding experience. Working alongside other student volunteers gave me the chance to learn about their research while helping the conference run smoothly. As someone who is naturally quite introverted, approaching people to talk about their research felt daunting at first. However, I quickly realised that everyone was welcoming and happy to share their work. I was especially grateful to members of the Motion Vision Lab, who introduced me to other researchers and helped start conversations that I might not have had the confidence to begin myself. Those interactions allowed me to build new connections and exchange ideas that I hope will continue beyond the conference.

Attending ASSAB also gave me new inspiration for my own research. Listening to the presentations made me think about the unanswered questions in butterfly vision, particularly how colour and motion information are integrated within the visual system to guide behaviour. It reinforced my enthusiasm for pursuing these questions in future research and highlighted how collaborative discussions can generate new ideas.

Overall, ASSAB 2026 was an inspiring and enjoyable experience. Beyond the excellent science, what I enjoyed most was the welcoming and supportive atmosphere, where researchers at every career stage were eager to discuss ideas and encourage one another. The conference reminded me that even a simple question can develop into meaningful research with broad scientific impact. It also gave me greater confidence in presenting my own work, expanded my professional network, and motivated me to continue developing as a researcher. I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to attend, and I look forward to applying what I learned to my future research.

ASSAB 2026

7/6/2026

By Yuri

The Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour Conference was held at Flinders University from 23–26 June 2026, bringing together 101 researchers and students from across Australia and New Zealand to share the latest research in animal behaviour.

Karin and I co-organised the conference together with colleagues from the College of Science and Engineering. It was wonderful to see the conference run so smoothly, and to be part of such a friendly, student-oriented research community.

Our lab members were also strongly involved in the conference. Sarah, Matt, Penny, Kai Ting, and Aika attended, and played key roles as volunteers. We presented our research on sleep deprivation in hoverflies, motion vision, and virtual reality systems for insects.

Penny gave an excellent presentation at her first conference, impressing many people in the room. It was exciting to see such a positive response to her work and to her such a nice presentation.

Sarah’s presentation was stunning as usual, and Matt presented a poster as well as chairing the final session, where he asked thoughtful questions and helped bring the conference to a strong close.

A particular highlight was the success of Kai Ting. She presented her study on butterfly colour and motion vision and received a poster presentation award sponsored by the Macquarie University Pollinator Futures Research Centre. Her award recognised the quality of both her research and her presentation. We thank lab members for their insightful feedback on the poster.

Photo: Kai Ting receiving her poster presentation award from Prof Ajay Narendra, with ASSAB 2026 conference lead A/Prof Diane Colombelli-Négrel on the left

A Period of Transition

6/7/2026

by Matt
I recently had the opportunity to attend ACAN, and it gave me a much broader view of experimental neuroscience. Over about a 3 week period, course combined lectures from world-leading researchers with hands-on practical experience, exposing us to techniques, ideas, and experimental approaches across electrophysiology, imaging, circuit function, and behaviour. Coming from a background in insect vision research, it was especially valuable to see how neuroscience is done across a wide range of animal models, as well as human neural organoid systems. It also gave me a renewed appreciation for the strengths of insect neuroscience, while reinforcing how valuable it will be for the field, particularly outside Drosophila, to keep expanding its technical repertoire through creative adaptation, modification, and lower-cost innovation of established techniques.
I recently learned that I was fortunate to receive some funding from the David and Margaret Wattchow Research Travel Fund 2026 to support the trip - which I am grateful for.

In the lab my attention is already turning toward preparations for ASSAB, which I am looking forward to. It’s going to be a great opportunity to share recent work and make connections with researchers from across fields. And of course, the years’ work is coming to a wrap with a manuscript, which is starting to look pretty good. It combines some of Katja’s work with my own, to tell a story about adaptation in looming sensitive descending neurons of the Hoverfly.

This period also marks a transition for me. I recently accepted a postdoctoral position with Amanda Franklin at La Trobe University. While I am excited about the opportunities ahead, it also means my time with the Hoverfly lab is coming to an end.
Working with Karin, Yuri, Sarah, and the many students who have passed through the lab over my time here has been a fantastic experience. I have learned an enormous amount, both scientifically and professionally, and I am very grateful for the opportunities Karin has provided. The lab has been a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment, and I leave with a deep appreciation for the people who helped shape my development as a researcher.
Leaving is not without mixed feelings. I am excited to see where the work goes next and hope there will be opportunities to collaborate in the future, whether through joint projects or perhaps one day by returning with my own funding.

a small coding solution for ASSAB 2026

5/26/2026

By Yuri

I had a satisfying reminder that coding skills developed for research often find unexpected uses.

As part of organising the upcoming Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASSAB) conference, we needed a simple way to signal presentation timing for speakers: a warning, end-of-talk, and overtime cue.
Instead of using generic alarms, I used MATLAB to build a custom timekeeping script that plays Australian bird calls at each stage. The script triggers a warning call, an end-time signal, and an overtime cue using recordings of species including the white-winged fairywren, Australian magpie, and laughing kookaburra.
What made this especially satisfying was how easy it was to build. MATLAB is a tool I normally use for analysing butterfly and hoverfly flight trajectories, and neural responses, but the same programming skills translated seamlessly into a practical tool.
It was a small project, but a fun example of how computational skills developed in research can be adapted well beyond the lab. Sometimes the most enjoyable coding tasks are the ones that solve simple, immediate problems, and add a little personality along the way.
I am looking forward to hearing the bird calls echo through ASSAB as speakers keep to time.

Also, I am delighted to be serving as a guest editor for the ASSAB 2026 Conference Special Issue in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology. The special issue will showcase research presented at the conference and highlight the breadth of animal behaviour research across Australasia. You can read more about the call for papers here: ASSAB 2026 Conference Special Issue — Call for Papers

Submission ping pong

5/17/2026

By Karin
Aika Young joined our lab many years ago to do an internship, and turned out to be a hoverfly whisperer. Her project also turned out to be really exciting, and we have finally compiled the story into a complete paper. While we are playing submission ping pong, you can read about how hoverflies respond to looming stimuli on BioRxiv.