Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social

Postdoc at the University of Gothenburg. Interested in sexual selection, natural selection, behavioural ecology and speciation 🦗🐟🐦

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

The cover for my doctoral thesis, "Predation as a driver of reproductive isolation - from adaptive divergence to hybrid inviability", which is out now! Link to the thesis below!

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

I'm glad to announce that I'm starting in a new MSCA-funded postdoc next April! I will study why the sperm of some animals form large conjugates inside the female reproductive tract. The work will be done together with Jussi Lehtonen from JYU! https://t.co/TKuDCJG8B1

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

Check out this very cool paper on the coevolution of male eyes and female ornaments in dance flies!

[Royal Society Publishing @RSocPublishing]

This new #RSOS paper tests the distinction between natural and sexual selection in an Australian #bushcricket known for mating competition among females: https://t.co/GfLphlj4k0 @varpuinen

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

Additional results: Nuptial gift consumption did not improve egg viability or female lifespan, but increased the time females took to remate. You can find out more details from the paper!

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

The first paper of my current postdoc is out in RSOS! We tested the distinction between natural and sexual selection in an Australian bushcricket known for mating competition among females (see thread below for highlights) https://t.co/A0HjmgazZ9

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

Both receiving additional sperm and nuptial gifts had an additive positive effect on female lifetime egg production. Therefore, we argue that even following the updated definition for sexual selection, female-female mate competition of K.nartee still falls under sexual selection.

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

I was so fortunate to be a part of this workshop & paper! Amazing work from everyone, highly recommended read!

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

@JVinterstare Sorry, this ended up way too long for Twitter. I originally just wanted to point out some criticism I had for the linked study. But I doubt continuing this debate will prove very fruitful, so I think I’ll stop here.

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

@JVinterstare Because they are people just like anyone else, very much capable of their own critical thinking.

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

@JVinterstare but it does seem like most people are happy with their treatment, since the rate of stopping the treatment upon reaching adulthood is very low.

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

@JVinterstare Most reviews on the topic seem to find that improvements on general mental health seem to outweigh possible negative effects. The few meta-analyses seem mostly to give inconclusive results for both costs and benefits at the moments,

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

@JVinterstare 3) in Finland, repeated visits to a psychiatrist are often required before a person can receive gender-affirming treatments. Therefore, using this control doesn't effectively distinguish between any additional confounders.

[Varpu Pärssinen -🦋varpuinen.bsky.social @varpuinen]

@JVinterstare 2) most of society is still very hostile towards trans people, which leads to higher rates of mental illness in this group, as it would do in any minority group facing discrimination