Two weeks ago, we had our MonitAnt workshop with all project partners in the beautiful Bavarian Forest National Park. We even managed a short field trip, where everyone enjoyed being surrounded by wood ants and their myrmecophiles (see picture). 😉

Productive days in České Budějovice with @jiri-tuma.bsky.social and @eliaguariento.bsky.social, focusing on all aspects of camera traps for the MonitAnt project. We even squeezed in a wonderful trip to Šumava National Park. @monitant.bsky.social

Want to work on biodiversity in the Alps? ⛰️ We are offering several internship positions for the upcoming spring and summer in collaboration with the Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol 🕷️🦋🦇🐜🌼🦗🪱 biodiversity.eurac.edu/interns-want...

Interns wanted! - Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol

biodiversity.eurac.edu

(1) So happy to share our recent work on Finish wood ants 🐜🧬🥳 "Evidence for climate-mediated range expansion of hybrid wood ants" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @helsinki.fi & @uvapress.bsky.social This integrative project was funded by the Research Council Finland & #MSCA of the European Comission

Evidence for climate-mediated range expansion of hybrid wood ants

Climate change challenges many species. To persist, species can shift ranges, respond plastically, and adapt. Yet, these responses require variation - often limited in natural populations. While hybri...

biorxiv.org

Dragon and Damselflies communities are not limited by isolation: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Great work by Felix Puff! 📷 of yesterday in the study region with an alpine lake and the Dolomites in the background @euracalpenv.bsky.social

Exciting MonitAnt meeting at the Natural History Museum, Brussels. Great discussions on fieldwork and ant ID, plus a rare glimpse of the museum after hours! 🐜🦖

Nature research paper: One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants go.nature.com/45PYV6d

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature

In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same mother having distinct genomes and morphologies.

go.nature.com

New paper out on community ecology of parasitoids and their hosts 🪲🐝🪰🕷️ Great work led by Lisa Obwegs @euracalpenv.bsky.social @uniinnsbruck.bsky.social @andreashilpold.bsky.social

RES Publications@respublications.bsky.social · 11mo ago

New #OpenAccess work in #RESAgForestEnt Exploring #hymenopteran #parasitoid communities & their hosts: comparative study of farmland & semi-natural ecotones with focus on #pentatomoids doi.org/10.1111/afe.70009 @jordancuff.bsky.social @chrisranger.bsky.social @ukladybirds.bsky.social @wiley.com

📢 Wild #bees thrive in biodiverse mountain farms! 🐝🐝 Zanini et al. found that #multidiversity boosts pollination, buffering #climate impacts. 🌤️🌱🐝 Find out more here: 🔎 doi.org/10.1016/j.ag... @mdainese.bsky.social, @mattande.bsky.social, @eliaguariento.bsky.social & more

New paper out 👇 Artificial ponds do not support the natural functional and taxonomic composition of alpine dragon- and damselfly communities www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @euracalpenv.bsky.social @pro-pink.bsky.social @univie.ac.at

An specially scenic wood ant nest location. Discovered while sampling their myrmecophile community 🕷️🪲 along elevation 🏔️ @monitant.bsky.social @euracalpenv.bsky.social

Mountaineers come in many shapes, quite some inhabit also alpine soils 🪱🦠🐜🕷️🪲🏔️ Check out the brand new review about what we know and don't know about them 👇

Michael ヘビ Steinwandter@msteinwandter.bsky.social · last yr.

NOW ONLINE at Biological Reviews! Global review on "Biodiversity in mountain soils above the treeline" by @nadinepraeg.bsky.social, me, and many great #SoilBiodiversity researcher. Free read and download at doi.org/10.1111/brv.... Here, a short thread 🧵 (1/4) #UIBK #EuracResearch #UniGraz #GMBA

Today is #worldbeeday 🐝 Read here about the work we do on #wildbees: www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/... @euracalpenv.bsky.social

Think of a bee

Five hundred species of wild bees live in South Tyrol, each different in anatomy, ecology and behavior. Entomologist Lisa Obwegs is studying these diverse populations to assess the impact of human act...

eurac.edu

We installed camera traps to investigate the use of red wood ant nest mounds by 🐦‍⬛🦡🦌🐿️ Many thanks to Alberto Masoni!! @monitant.bsky.social @euracalpenv.bsky.social

New butterfly sampling season started today 🦋

It took some failed surveys before we finally spotted what we think is the caterpillar of the 🦋 endemic to dry alpine valleys: Kretania trappi @euracalpenv.bsky.social @europebutterfly.bsky.social

📢1 PhD position (3 yrs) @UniTrento on acoustic environments in mountains 🎶🏔️In collaboration with @EuracResearch & @UCL IEDE (London) – part of the “Soundscape for All” project, funded by HEAD-Genuit-Stiftung. Stay tuned & reach out if interested! #PhDposition #Soundscape #Bioacoustics #Mountains

What a team 💪 We are going continental with wood 🐜 research 🧐

MonitAnt@monitant.bsky.social · last yr.

Over the past four days, the MonitAnt team has been meeting in Germany for a really productive workshop, even with new faces. A lot was discussed and prepared and now we are ready for another successful field season in 2025! Can you guess what we wanted to show in the last picture? 🐜

Happy to see that a small article Elia Nalini (from @euracalpenv.bsky.social ) and I wrote for the myrmecological news blog is now finally published! 🐜 We present our @monitant.bsky.social project and also our Citizen Science approach. 🔎 blog.myrmecologicalnews.org/2025/04/09/m...

MonitAnt: European-level monitoring strategy for mound-building Formica ants

Formica rufa workers engaged in food sharing (trophallaxis) (© Elia Nalini) In the popular imagination, when we think about environmentally impactful ants, the first images that come to mind are of...

blog.myrmecologicalnews.org

It's published! The largest research work I've ever undertaken: Lords of the flies: dipteran migrants are diverse, abundant & ecologically important Published in Biological Reviews: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Thanks so much to co-authors @koralwotton.bsky.social & Myles Menz 1/x

Have a look at this beautiful outreach project using the #wildbees collected by PhD Student Lisa Obwegs 🐝 beehold.eurac.edu/en If you want to know more 👉 www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/...

BEEhold - South Tyrol’s wild bees: biodiversity on display

The BEEhold project celebrates the diversity and importance of South Tyrol’s wild bees.

beehold.eurac.edu

Spring is coming to the Alps 🐜 @monitant.bsky.social

Our researchers @msteinwandter.bsky.social, @chiarapaniccia.bsky.social & @eliaguariento.bsky.social have found three specimens of the Eurasian pygmy shrew in South Tyrol at over 3,000 meters a.s.l.. This #discovery marks a European #record! 🏆 📰: eurac.edu/de/press/eur... Foto: Giacomo Gaudenzi

NEW EUROPEAN RECORD 🎉 We found Pygmy Shrews (Sorex minutus) in the high #alpine (3,300 m a.s.l. !) in #SouthTyrol #Italy, 780 metres higher than known before 🐁 Short note in #Hystrix (w/ @chiarapaniccia.bsky.social @eliaguariento.bsky.social of @euracalpenv.bsky.social) 📄 doi.org/10.4404/hyst...

Interested in doing a PhD on #insect #migration or #conservation at @monashuniversity.bsky.social i in #Melbourne, #Australia? If so, please feel free to email me. For international students, the application deadline is late March. shawanchowdhury.com/join-us/

Join Us!

Opportunities We are seeking PhD students in citizen science, insect conservation, or citizen science. We expect candidates to have some experience in fieldwork and ecological modelling and at leas…

shawanchowdhury.com

Today Alberto visited our lab! Lots of wood 🐜 research planed 💪 @monitant.bsky.social

Tracking pieces of the local Biodiversity Crisis (South Tyrol): 1. Drastic loss of traditional extensive meadow orchards 🍎 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 2. Intensive apple orchards host a fraction of biodiversity 🌳 👇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

So happy to see my 2n thesis chapter published in Diversity and Distributions 🥳🥳 How does local climate influence ecological communities? Answer: #Thermophilisation caused by #colonisation and local #extinction of mountain butterflies 🦋 #ClimateChange #Refugia Small thread below⬇️

#FreeTagliamento - let one of Europe's last big natural river flow freely. Sign here and get all the info at https://www.freetagliamento.org/it_IT/home-eng/ #Petition #SignHere #NatureProtection #RiverProtection #Biodiversity

ENG

ITA ENG SIGN THE PETITION! FIND OUT MORE 815 scholars and experts from 35 countries have signed an appeal to ask the competent bodies to guarantee in every way the protection of this river and in…

freetagliamento.org

📣 Great News: Strumigenys baudueri has been finally reported for South Tyrol! 🔎Find out more below ⬇️ and in this great article from our researchers @EliaNalini & @eliaguariento.bsky.social: www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/...

Strumigenys baudueri: an ant documented in South Tyrol for the first time

Eurac Research’s Institute for Alpine Environment has documented the ant, Strumigenys baudueri for the first time in South Tyrol. The finding makes one wonder how much more there is to discover, even....

eurac.edu