Daniele Carlesso

Superefficient teamwork in weaver ants Nesting weaver ants combine into chains to pull leaves together. Stewardson, Carlesso, et al. show that, unlike humans, weaver ant teams are superefficient: individual force output grows alongside tea...

And of course, don't miss our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social:
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Cooperative behavior: Superefficient weaver ants Teamwork has long faced a dilemma: as team members are added, the effectiveness of each individual decreases — a phenomenon known as ‘Ringelmann’s effect’. A new study shows that weaver ants in pullin...

Excited to share an awesome piece by @drdavidhu.bsky.social in @currentbiology.bsky.social @cellpress.bsky.social about our latest paper!

Curious to know how weaver #ants achieve superefficiency when working together? Check it out! 🐜🐜🐜

www.cell.com/current-biol...

MELA — a short documentary on the Mating Ecology of Lek Breeding Antelope — takes you behind the scenes of an interdisciplinary #UniKonstanz @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social research journey. This film reveals how science is done, shared, and lived: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i4d...

And here's our piece on @theconversation.com for our recent Current Biology paper on #teamwork in ants!

‘Superefficient’ weaver ants show remarkable strength in numbers Unlike people, these nest-building insects pull harder in teams

Excited to see our paper being featured on @science.org News!

Thanks to @erikstokstad.bsky.social for putting this piece together.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Read the full paper in Current Biology!

t.co/pJ2XloIE0c

Curious about how #ants cracked teamwork? Listen now to my interview on All Things Considered @npr.org!

Massive thanks to hosts Avery Keatley and Christopher Intagliata for inviting me.

t.co/xOfsdKszhF

Superefficient teamwork in weaver ants Nesting weaver ants combine into chains to pull leaves together. Stewardson, Carlesso, et al. show that, unlike humans, weaver ant teams are superefficient: individual force output grows alongside tea...

Here it is!

tinyurl.com/3jnnevfn

Huge thanks to my co-authors for their massive effort! @chris-r-reid.bsky.social, Madi Stewardson and David La Bonte

And thanks to Macquarie University, @cbehav.bsky.social, @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social, @uni-konstanz.de, @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social, @maxplanck.de for making this possible!

Superefficient teamwork in weaver ants / Curr. Biol., Aug. 12, 2025 (Vol. 35, Issue 17) Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

In humans, bigger teams often mean less effort per person — the #Ringelmann effect. Weaver #ants 🐜 flip the script: #teamwork makes them superefficient!

Video + paper out now in Current Biology!
@cellpress.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/44yrvp6m
tinyurl.com/3jnnevfn

What's in the box!?

In my postdoc at @uni-konstanz.de @cbehav.bsky.social I am looking at locusts' phase transition through massive swarm experiments, virtual reality and genetics 🧠🦗

Come to see my poster at NWG 25 @neurowissg.bsky.social!

And of course a big thank you to my co-authors @ChrisRReid1, @sjmgarnier, Ofer Feinerman, @StewardsonMadi, @GeoffreyMazue and @jimmclean9 for making this study possible!

PAPER ALERT! 🐜🐜

Did you know that #humans and #ants are the only animals to routinely display #cooperative transport??

We coordinate with each other by talking, but how can ants achieve #consensus?

Read about it in our new paper! https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.2367

Super excited to start my postdoc at @UniKonstanz @CBehav to study locusts' collective behaviour and social plasticity with @einatcouzin and colleagues!

Looking forward to do some awesome science together 😎

And, of course, a big thank you to my collaborators @StewardsonMadi, @sjmgarnier, Ofer Feinerman and @ChrisRReid1!

I DID IT! After 3+ years of #PhD, I submitted my thesis🎉

I'm now looking for a #postdoc from Feb '24 or after! If you have vacancies or want to discuss funding options, please reach out! Check out my website for info about me, my CV and cool #ant videos! http://danielecarlesso.com

Check out also the accompanying blog contribution, written by Madeleine Beekman from @Sydney_Uni!

https://blog.myrmecologicalnews.org/2023/07/12/from-many-individuals-to-one-whole/

Our paper was also featured on @abcnews @ABCaustralia! Watch my interview with @ChildsRos

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-11/what-can-ants-teach-us-about-problem-solving/102587810

I was on TV!
Check out my live TV interview with @ChildsRos on @ABCaustralia @abcnews about our new paper, published today in @PNASNews.

Link to the paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2216217120

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-11/what-can-ants-teach-us-about-problem-solving/1025...

Check out also my conversation article about the paper! @ConversationEDU

https://theconversation.com/humans-set-budgets-when-facing-an-uncertain-future-so-do-ants-209327?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1689022919-1

Interested in #collectivebehaviour, #decisionmaking, and #ants? Check out my first #PhD paper, out today in @PNASNews!

@ChrisRReid1, @sjmgarnier, Chris Lustri, @MarineMcnab, and I studied how colonies of ants make decisions when facing an uncertain task

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.221...

Check out also my conversation article about the paper! @ConversationEDU

https://theconversation.com/humans-set-budgets-when-facing-an-uncertain-future-so-do-ants-209327?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1689022919-1

We ran another experiment where we could lower the platform ants had to reach using a slider. As the chain grew, we lowered the platform, keeping it just out of reach of the ants. We could trick ants into forming chains as long as 125mm!

https://youtu.be/7JFEPnlXFNk

Can this simple rule predict a distance threshold beyond which ants would stop forming chains?
We tested this using a theoretical model, which predicted that ants would stop forming chains over gaps taller than 89mm.

Hey #Honeybees people!
Can someone explain me what are these bees doing? Are they collecting pollen/nectar from fallen stems? Is this a common behaviour?

Interested in #plant and #pollinator interactions? Check out our new paper on the impact of nectar #NPAAs on #nectar palatability, #learning and #memory in #bees!
@David_Baracchi https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-90895-z#Abs1

Glad to share my first #preprint w/ @David_Baracchi on #bioRxiv!
Here we show that some nectar non-protein amino acids (NPAAs) impact #bee #learning and #memory without altering #nectar palatability.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.04.407734v1

Awesome on-demand talks at the #ABS2020 conference!

Are you interested in how weaver ants forage using their nestmates as a ladder? Come check out our work in the Predation & Foraging 3 session!
@AnimBehSociety

Bumblebees are amazing!