Benjamin Palm

New Ant Lab video out today: Ants mating and flying at the same time! youtu.be/bG9I9u-aM8g

Join us in #Köln! @Simo and @jaimesnino.bsky.social will be discussing what makes #ants such an interesting taxa! And insights on our own research on #socialevolution, #genome #evolution, #aging, and #developmental processes! 6 June 2025 - 6 p.m - International House cif.uni-koeln.de/events

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...

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...

🐜 An updated taxonomic revision of the ant genus Zasphinctus for the Afrotropical region based on the worker caste, with five newly described species: doi.org/10.3897/zook...

#newspecies #taxonomy #ants #entomology

🚨 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...

Photograph of a spiny red ant in front/side view, standing atop a matrix of white fungal hyphae and vegetative detritus, with her antennae raised and her sharp, many-toothed mandibles open.

Had a few minutes to do some photography today. Pleased with this shot of a Texas leafcutter ant in our lab colony, standing in the fungus garden.

New research article! 📰

Jardim et al. studied personality in H. striatula ants, finding low repeatability in behaviors and no evidence of behavioral syndromes. 🐜
🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000...

#InsectesSociaux #SocialInsects #AnimalPersonality #Ants #BehavioralScience #Eusociality #Behaviouralsyndrome

It’s always fun to watch the two superstars of neotropical myrmecology - army ants and leafcutter ants - interact. Here, the harvesting activities of Atta cephalotes are disrupting an Eciton burchellii colony emigration. La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica.

Behavioral responses to numerical differences when two invasive ants meet: the case of Lasius neglectus and Linepithema humile - Biological Invasions Two of the world’s most invasive ants, Linepithema humile and Lasius neglectus, are destined to overlap in range as they continue to spread throughout Europe. Although L. humile arrived first, and is ...

One of the ecological threats in urban areas is invasive species. The threat increases with the presence of multiple invasive ant species. 🐜 Given their dominance, is this co-occurrence feasible? How does it happen? #Urban #invasive_species #ants
We tell you here 👉🏼 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

From citizen to scientist: evaluating ant observation accuracy on a Mediterranean archipelago https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.08.637263v1

One of my personal favorites in the SMNG collection: the ‘pirate ant’, Cardiocondyla pirata, described by Seifert & Frohschammer (2013) from Luzon 🏴‍☠️

In the second paper (currently a preprint) from my Ph.D. with @danielkronauer.bsky.social we expand the understanding of ant sex determination by mapping a candidate sex determination locus in the clonal raider ant. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

My review of Cooperative Transport in Ants (and Elsewhere) has received it's 100th citation! To celebrate: cooperative transport media!

Oh, and of course a link to the paper:
myrmecologicalnews.org/cms/index.ph...

The call for symposia for the 2026 international IUSSI conference is open! We're looking for ideas for exciting symposia for the IUSSI conference next year. Please submit your proposal by the end of March! iussi2026.org/wp-content/u...

Urban abiotic stressors drive changes in the foraging activity and colony growth of the black garden ant Lasius niger Changes in habitat characteristics are known to have profound effects on biotic communities and their functional traits. In the context of an urban-ru…

A bit more of my work... Hope that you enjoyed it! 🐜🌇🌃 #ants #UrbanTemperatures #AnimalsActivity In collaboration with @tomerczaczkes.bsky.social Graphical abstract by @theafenogaster.bsky.social
Link 👉🏼 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

2-Year Postdoc @Uni Mainz (Germany) with @crltt.bsky.social, S. Foitzik, and me

#Neurobiology #genomics #transcriptomics to investigate the olfactory system of ants from genes to neurons

Information: seafile.rlp.net/f/53a92045be...

I remember this scene from my favorite army ant book ;) The visible Neiva age polyethism is also very cool!

#1 Here are some photos of one of my favorite army ant action scenes, an intersection of two army ant emigrations. Army ants frequently relocate their colonies, and when they do so, they sometimes run into other army ant colonies that are doing the same.

This just came online in Systematic Biology, the open access, but unedited version can be found here:

doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

Lateral views of eight species of the beautiful Afrotropical ants in the genus Zasphinctus.

If you are one of those interesting people who like sausage-like ants, you are in for a treat: we just published in @zookeys.pensoft.net a taxonomic update for Afrotropical Zasphinctus describing 5 new species! You read that right FIVE!

Happy 2025 for you as well
zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1312...

Why Fungus-Farming Ants Could Be a Source for New Antimicrobial Compounds Ants in the tribe Attini grow fungal gardens in their nests and also harbor protective microbes that ward off other unwanted, disease-causing fungi.

Ants in the tribe Attini are known for growing fungal "gardens" in their nests, and they also harbor a bacteria and other microbes to protect them from unwanted, disease-causing fungi. A new research review suggests this intricate microbiome could offer tools to fight agricultural or human diseases.

Today in
@currentbiology.bsky.social: a Quick Guide to the wondrous and fascinating biology of the clonal raider ant:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kOXg3QW8S...

Associative learning of non-nestmate cues improves enemy recognition in ants Bey et al. show that ants that are attacked by other ants learn the recognition cues of their attackers. This leads to increased aggression against all ants from the attacker’s colony that share the same cues. Ants thus associatively learn the recognition cues of their attackers to form an “enemy template” that improves nestmate recognition.

🐜 Ants learn to recognize enemy colonies through associative learning - when attacked, they link the attacker's colony scent with aggression. This explains why ants are often more aggressive toward neighboring colonies they've fought before.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Dolichoderus carbonarius Images of species Dolichoderus carbonarius from AntWeb.

!!Call for specimens!! I am seeking material of Dolichoderus carbonarius or D. c. latisquamis for nondestructive DNA extraction. If you or collectors you know may have obtained these somewhere in Indomalaya, they would be extremely useful! Rarely collected but highly distinctive shorturl.at/Jk0ah

New preprint on Trachymyrmex and Mycetomoellerius foraging behavior using dietary DNA!

(First and second authors are students!)

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Macro photograph of a shiny, nearly hairless orange ant in side view against a black background. The ant’s antennae are alert, raised, and the eyes are bulbous and located oddly at the very top of the ant’s head.

Opisthopsis haddoni strobe ant. Northern Territory, Australia.

Hymathon 2024 starts in 24 hours! I'm moderating Session 1, featuring a keynote lecture by John Heraty, plus the hilarious Hymenoptera Showdown! www.hymenopterists.org/hymathon-202...

2 New #PhD positions in my institution to study #biodiversity and interactions #ants and #beetles in the tropics!