New research article! 📰 Farji-Brener et al. show that when rain stops, acacia ants rush back to the branches worth defending most 🌿 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #AntPlantMutualism #OptimalDefense #TropicalEcology #AcaciaAnts
Insectes Sociaux
@insectessociaux.bsky.social
International journal for the study of social arthropods 🐝🐜🪳 https://insectessociaux.com/ https://link.springer.com/journal/40
Not only do bees dance: underground communication between ants and root mealybugs 🐜 Beneath cacao trees, mealybugs "talk" to their ants through a language that went misunderstood. insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/08/04/n... #SocialInsects #AntBehavior #InsectCommunication #Trophobiosis
Not only do bees dance: underground communication between ants and root mealybugs
By Laís da Silva Bomfim Laís da Silva Bomfim is a doctoral researcher in Zoology at the State University of Santa Cruz (UESC), Brazil. Since her undergraduate studies, she has focused on the natura…
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New research article! 📰 Bomfim et al. reveals that a mealybug's rapid abdominal movements aren't a defense mechanism at all, but a signal calling ants over for help � 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Mutualism #AntCommunication #Trophobiosis #MyrmecologyResearch
New research article! 📰 S. John explains how a jumping spider slips past aggressive weaver ant patrols to steal their prey and even their brood 🕷️ 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Myrmecophily #JumpingSpider #Trophobiosis #IslandEcology
New research article! 📰 Carta et al. show that honey bee colonies in crowded apiaries produce more drones with higher sperm counts, but pay for it with reduced worker comb construction 🍯 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #SpermCompetition #Apiculture #DroneProduction #SexualSelection
New research article! 📰 Brito et al. reveal that six social wasp species each carry a unique cuticle chemical signature, and that nest architecture may help shape it 🧪 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #ChemicalEcology #AmazonianWasps #CuticularHydrocarbons #WaspBehavior
The ant that steals its neighbour's dinner, and gets away with it 🥷 Hayato tells us about an ant that gets caught stealing its neighbour's food, freezes, and walks away unharmed. insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/07/07/t... #SocialInsect #Cleptobiosis #AntBehavior #Myrmecology #AntSymbiosis
The ant that steals its neighbour’s dinner, and gets away with it
By Hayato Shinohara Hayato is a doctoral student at the United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Ehime University, conducting research on ant ecology. In particular, he focus on the symbiot…
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New research article! 📰 Yabe et al. show that CO₂ emissions alone predict colony biomass with striking accuracy, and repeated measurements leave the colony unharmed 💨 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Termites #ColonySize #Biomass #BehavioralEcology
New interview with a social insect scientist! 🎙️ "Who cares?" was the answer Judith Korb got when she first asked why termites bother being eusocial. She's spent her career proving the question mattered 🌍 insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/06/29/i... #SocialInsects #Termites #Evolution #Savannah
insectessociaux
Commentaries, thoughts and opinions about social insects
insectessociaux.wordpress.com
New research article! 📰 Shinohara et al. reveals that a thieving ant lives almost scot-free inside its host's nest without costing it a thing 🏴☠️ 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Cleptobiosis #Symbiosis #Myrmecophily #AntBehavior
New research article! 📰 Haifig et al. show that grass stored inside the nest is chemically altered before ingestion, pointing to a colony-scale digestive system 🌾 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Termites #Microbiome #NutritionalEcology #SavannaEcology
New review article! 📚 Zarate et al. reviewed how male behaviour or its effect on copulation influences colony and population dynamics in Hymenoptera ♂️ 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #MaleHymenoptera #SocialInsects #HymenopteraResearch #InsectBehavior
I’ve written a gen pop blog post about my mouse paper for the @insectessociaux.bsky.social blog! 🐭🤓
Insectes Sociaux@insectessociaux.bsky.social · 2mo agoIf you give a mouse to a colony 🐁 @ericamaul.bsky.social reveals what happens when a mouse dies inside a honey bee colony. insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/06/16/i... #SocialInsects #HoneyBees #Propolis #BeeResearch #SocialImmunity
If you give a mouse to a colony 🐁 @ericamaul.bsky.social reveals what happens when a mouse dies inside a honey bee colony. insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/06/16/i... #SocialInsects #HoneyBees #Propolis #BeeResearch #SocialImmunity
If you give a mouse to a colony
By Erica Maul Erica Maul is a Ph.D. candidate in biological sciences at Auburn University, working in the Smith Bee Lab. Erica studies honey bee nest architecture and how bees employ propolis in th…
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"A dead mouse in a honey bee nest is like a dead whale shark in the lobby of an apartment building" So glad the reviewers, and Insect Socio, didn't cut that line! Awesome work, and surprising results, led by Erica Maul @ericamaul.bsky.social
Insectes Sociaux@insectessociaux.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew research article! 📰 @ericamaul.bsky.social and @smithbeelab.bsky.social reveal that honey bees process dead mice inside their nests, rather than simply sealing them in propolis. 🐁 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #HoneyBees #SocialImmunity #Necrophagy #CollectiveBehavior
New short communication! 📄 J. Kim et al. report the first South Korean record of N. vespularum and a new host record in Vespula koreensis 🐝 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Strepsiptera #SocialWasps #Parasitism #HostAssociation
It's this sort of content which keeps me coming back to @insectessociaux.bsky.social
Erica Maul@ericamaul.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy first first-author paper is now published online at Insectes Sociaux! I loved this project and sharing it with y’all at IUSSI-NAS and ABS. Check it out! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
My first first-author paper is now published online at Insectes Sociaux! I loved this project and sharing it with y’all at IUSSI-NAS and ABS. Check it out! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Honey bees actively process dead mice inside their nests - Insectes Sociaux
Honey bee nests are warm and resource-rich, making them attractive targets for animal intruders during winter, including mice. Beekeepers often protect their nests from mice, but have also documented ...
link.springer.com
New research article! 📰 @ericamaul.bsky.social and @smithbeelab.bsky.social reveal that honey bees process dead mice inside their nests, rather than simply sealing them in propolis. 🐁 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #HoneyBees #SocialImmunity #Necrophagy #CollectiveBehavior
New research article! 📰 Grella et al. present a practical workflow that makes West African savannah termites easier to identify and compare across studies 🌍 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Termites #Biodiversity #SpeciesIdentification #Taxonomy
Excited to share this blog and our recent paper! We modelled termite colonies, which seem to produce altruistic soldiers that help non-kin in fused groups. We show that colonies might benefit from this soldier production under certain conditions if we think of it as a collective investment game ♟️🪳
Sharing the cost? Soldier investment following colony fusion in basal termites - Insectes Sociaux
In most cooperative animal societies, interactions between groups are hostile or antagonistic. However, in a few species, groups that encounter each other can fuse together to form a new functional collective. In some ants and termites, such fusion events can be followed by changes in investment in soldiers and reproductives, for reasons that are poorly understood. Here we use a theoretical model to investigate optimal allocation to soldiers following colony fusion. Each colony can invest a proportion of its membership into the soldier caste, which provides a public benefit for the whole two-colony collective but comes at a cost to the investing colony by limiting colony growth and therefore reproduction. Our model predicts that soldier investment will typically decrease following colony fusion. However, the reported post-fusion soldier investment from empirical studies could be explained if the cost of soldier production falls following fusion. The model predicts that a colony’s reproductive output will typically decline as a result of fusion, unless the other colony makes a greater investment, or the cost of soldiers decreases sufficiently. Finally, our model predicts that smaller colonies will produce fewer soldiers than larger colonies after fusion because their lower average relatedness to the rest of the collective makes each soldier less beneficial; this means that smaller groups might, under certain conditions, gain from fusing with larger groups. Our results demonstrate two potential pathways to the evolution of group fusion in the lower termites – exploitation of additional resources or exploitation of additional soldiers (or potentially other workers). Within-group conflict, not considered in our model, may explain some discrepancies between our model and empirical reports.
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Insectes Sociaux@insectessociaux.bsky.social · 2mo agoColony fusion - an inclusive fitness conundrum 🪵 In this blog, beckypadget.bsky.social explores why do some colonies merge with unrelated neighbours despite what evolutionary theory predicts. insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/06/03/c... #SocialInsects #Evolution #AnimalBehavior #Ecology
Colony fusion - an inclusive fitness conundrum 🪵 In this blog, beckypadget.bsky.social explores why do some colonies merge with unrelated neighbours despite what evolutionary theory predicts. insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/06/03/c... #SocialInsects #Evolution #AnimalBehavior #Ecology
Colony fusion – an inclusive fitness conundrum
By Rebecca Padget, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Bristol using modelling inspired by cool animal systems to understand how and why animals cooperate in groups. Her latest w…
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Excited to have our new paper published in Insectes Sociaux! Lasius niger ants discovering a pre-existing trail do not modify their trail-following behaviour with distance from the nest or motivation. The straightness of their trajectories was affected by how far they had walked before though! 🐜
Insectes Sociaux@insectessociaux.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew research article! 📰 Poissonnier (curiousant.bsky.social), tomerczaczkes.bsky.social et al. show that workers follow pheromone trails with fidelity, regardless of their foraging context 🐜 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #AntForaging #ChemicalCommunication #AntBehavior #Pheromones
New research article! 📰 Poissonnier (curiousant.bsky.social), tomerczaczkes.bsky.social et al. show that workers follow pheromone trails with fidelity, regardless of their foraging context 🐜 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #AntForaging #ChemicalCommunication #AntBehavior #Pheromones
New research article! 📰 @beckypadget.bsky.social et al. model how termite colonies may shift soldier investment after fusion 📈 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Termites #ColonyFusion #SoldierCaste #TheoreticalEcology
The weight of a meal: how the giant queenless ants make tough decisions ⚖️ In this blog, find out why these giant ants sometimes dismember their prey when it gets too heavy to carry. insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/05/25/t... #SocialInsects #AntBehavior #Entomology #BehavioralEcology #Science
The weight of a meal: how the giant queenless ants make tough decisions
By Arrilton Araujo, Igor Eloi and Dina Azevedo Imagine an ant the size of your thumb, hunting alone and carefully weighing its prey before deciding whether the effort is worth it. In their latest w…
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New research article! 📰 J.-N. Xu et al. reveal how a juvenile hormone-responsive gene shapes ovarian development and queen-worker divergence in Apis mellifera 🐝 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #HoneyBee #CasteDifferentiation #JuvenileHormone #Transcriptomics
New research article! 📰 Hoffmann et al. show that M. andersoni raids Iridomyrmex nests effectively during high heat, combining speed and chemical mimicry to steal brood 🐜 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #AntBehaviour #BroodRaiding #ChemicalMimicry #ThermophilicAnts
Between vineyards and desert: one termite, two species? 🏜️ A fieldwork story about South Africa’s southern harvester termite. @damsgergonne.bsky.social insectessociaux.wordpress.com/2026/05/19/b... #SocialInsects #Termites #Africa #Evolution
Between vineyards and desert: one termite, two species?
By Damien Gergonne, postdoctoral fellow in Stellenbosch University’s Genetics Department (Insect & Fungi team) and Mathematics Department (Biomath group). Last research in Insectes Sociaux, als…
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New research article! 📰 Azevedo et al. show that D. quadriceps workers prefer lighter prey and ignore volume changes when weight stays constant 🐜 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #Foraging #AntBehaviour #PreySelection #IndividualForaging
