If you like good people, want to live in excellent SE PA, and ❤️ PUIs…
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

Mammals Evolved into Ant Eaters 12 Times Since Dinosaur Age, Study Finds

Press release out today on our new paper detailing the convergent origins of obligate ant and termite eating in mammals!

The @entsocamerica.bsky.social International Symposium is now available to watch on demand! We've also got a fun trivia quiz about the program, with a special prize for the winner! entsoc.org/membership/b...

Today I found a few Haeterius clown beetles under a rock with a Formica ant colony. These beetles are “ant guests” / myrmecophiles, and the ants often feed them. The beetles are tiny though, even compared to the ants. Also check out the springtails. Thanks to Joe Parker for the 🪲 ID. Woodstock, NY.

Southeast Asia’s Exploding Ant Dies So Its Colony Can Live — A Biologist Explains Meet the exploding ant, a tiny warrior hidden deep in the forests of Borneo. Their astonishing act of self-destruction unleashes a toxic blast, stopping predators in their tracks and redefining the tr...

Taxonomy fail: yes, Diacamma ants (pictured) occur in Asia's tropical regions, but they are not related to Colobopsis exploding ants, apart of also happening to be ants.

#taxonomyFail

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...

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...

Antsy Hat Tester! Hello potential testers! This is the newest and quickest addition to my antsy clothing collection- a worsted weight cap in 3 different adult sizes. It features a thick folded brim, and 6-7 ant repeats...

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

👀🦋🐝🐞🐜🦗🪲🕷️Ento-Education Job alert!!👀

A chronogram of the ant tribe Myrmicini, showing the disparity of divergence dates between alternate placements of the fossil species †Manica andrannae

🐜🐜🐜Fans of Myrmicinae! New paper in Syst Biol in collaboration with C. Rabeling🐜🐜🐜

doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

What it says in the post: old half a hickory nut, inhabited by a colony of teensy black ants and their larvae/pupae

Also found this old half a hickory nut, inhabited by an entire colony of teeny tiny ants (Temnothorax?? your guesses welcome)

Re-upping if for whatever reason you want to find ways to fight for democracy and against tyrants and billionaires... 👇👇👇

Hey friends! The Formal and Informal Teaching (FIT) pilot section of the Entomological Society of America is now live! Give them a follow before they start posting some neat stuff (like job opps...) @fitentsocamerica.bsky.social

We don't know much about these odd-looking Zasphinctus ants, except they seem to raid other ant nests, steal their larvae and eat them... Their narrow elongated bodies probably help them enter small galleries.

#ants #myrmecology non #armyants #fourmis #science

Not entirely sure what's going on here, but I APPROVE 🐜🐜

a group of people with disabilities holding signs that say disability rights are civil rights ALT: a group of people with disabilities holding signs that say disability rights are civil rights

Calling disabled entomologists! Planning a symposium in November & we have room for more speakers if anyone would like to share their journey. Comment or DM me for more information!

#entosky #entomology @entsocamerica.bsky.social

🚨 Calling Entomology Society of America Early Career Professionals🚨 If you have published a paper recently or have good news to share, please send it my way. We would love to feature it in our quarterly ECP newsletter! Submissions will be accepted until 3/17.

Wow! Cool opportunity!

I recently posted a picture of a large Dorylus molestus army ant worker from Mount Kenya. Here is the same ant again, but this time in comparison to its smaller sisters. These ants are incredibly polymorphic, and the different worker types take on different tasks in the colony.

A bristletail, Trichatelura manni, against the backdrop of its Eciton burchellii army ant host workers during a colony emigration at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica.

🐜🐜🐜 Myrmecologists! Do not be fooled by this sneaky title!

A macro photo looking down on an ant next to a smaller caterpillar on a purple flower. The ant has a black head and abdomen and a red thorax, and the caterpillar is gray. The caterpillar's head is not visible, because it is inside the flower, having chewed a hole in it. These caterpillars can exude a sugary liquid, which this ant is hoping for.

An ant tends to a Lycaenid butterfly caterpillar as it nibbles a lupine. (The caterpillar's head is inside the flower.) This ant stayed with the caterpillar for at least fifteen minutes, tapping it with its antennae and hoping the caterpillar would secrete a sugary honeydew droplet. (Montana) 🐙🌿

💘Lasius niger!

...or the best, if you are really into ants. You know who you are, myrmecologists!

Flyer advertising invasive ant boot camp in Gainesville, FL, on May 7-9, 2025. More information about the workshop at www.invasiveantbootcamp.org.

🐜🐜🐜 Invasive Ant Boot Camp registration is now open! Join us in Gainesville, FL May 7-9, 2025, to learn to spot the most ants with the worst reputations. 🐜🐜🐜www.invasiveantbootcamp.org

A group of reddish ants are attacking a single black ant on a brown surface. The ants are gathered around the black ant, with some holding onto its legs. There are holes in the surface, suggesting it's organic material such as a dried leaf.

Arthropod Photo of the Week: February 26, 2025
Spider ants attack pony ant
Leptomyrmex sp./Rhytidoponera sp.
Hymenoptera: Formicidae
By François Brassard, Madang, Papua New Guinea
#arthropodPOTW

🚨 New Paper Alert! 🚨

🐜 How did ants evolve their highly specialized queens and workers?

With @adriatica.bsky.social, we reveal a key evolutionary innovation: adult control over larval feeding unlocked extreme caste dimorphism and complex societies. 🧵👇

🔗 Read in @pnas.org: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Funding for systematics/taxonomy is unfortunately not common - the LinneSys grant is a great opportunity to get support for field work/consumables/sequencing/monographs and more for projects in this area.

Joint funded by the @linneansociety.bsky.social and @systassn.bsky.social.

Deadline soon!!

ventral view of a large bronze ant laying on its back in my open hand against a backdrop of a wooden table. The underside of the animal is highly detailed, including its mouthparts (maxillary and labial palps, labrum, glossa). #sciart #invertebrate

Ventral view, with my (large) hand for scale. Zoom in to see her mouthparts…they’re all there 🔬

@entsocamerica.bsky.social is collecting stories about how various actions taken by the federal government recently are impacting ESA members and hindering entomological research. You do need to be an ESA member to participate. app.smartsheet.com/b/form/7a1ed...

One of the most remarkable pieces of sciart 🧪 that I have seen in a long while.
#entomology
#myrmecology
#insects
#art
#sculpture