A mixed colony of (red) Formica sanguinea group kidnapper ants and their (black) Formica fusca group hosts in Woodstock, NY. If you watch closely, you’ll see an entirely different insect, an ant guest, or myrmecophile, make a brief appearance as well. Do you know what it is?

This meeting HHMI | Janelia will bring together researchers to share challenges and successes in the development of new genetic tools for a broad range of non-traditional model organisms and biological problems. Learn more + apply by Oct. 29 @ janelia.news/NMS25 @HHMINews

Super excited to be a part of the Simons Foundation community as a SCPAB Independence Fellow! Simons Collab on Plasticity and the Aging Brain Rockefeller University

Live highlights from the lab BBQ Rockefeller University: cicada killer, cicada, and the foot of Yohann

One of the most fascinating collective behaviors is chain formation in army ants. The worker ants cling together via hooks on their feet to bridge large gaps. Their sisters can then walk across to reach the other side. Here is Eciton burchellii inside an experimental setup.

I wish someone would make a version with ants instead of monkeys… 🐒 🐜

The bristletail Trichatelura manni is the puppy among the army ant guests. These cute creatures feed mostly on detritus in and around the ant nest and walk along in the ants’ nightly colony emigrations. I photographed this one in a laboratory nest with Eciton hamatum ants in 🇨🇷.

Army ant workers come in different shapes and sizes - they are polymorphic. Here, two Eciton hamatum “majors”, the largest worker caste, guard an emigration. From experience, I can tell you that you don’t want to mess with those saber teeth, nor the stinger on the rear end.

Most army ants primarily or exclusively hunt other ants. They overwhelm prey colonies by their sheer numbers and plunder the brood chambers. Here, an Eciton hamatum worker is carrying off an Acromyrmex leaf-cutter ant pupa. La Selva, Costa Rica.

Carpenter ant with a golden fuzzy butt:

A common watersnake (Nerodia sipedon) at Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, NY. This beautiful reptile was among the wildlife we encountered during our 2024 graduate course on Social Evolution and Behavior Rockefeller University.

Do you have lab experience with Drosophila, and an interest in experimental evolution? I'll soon be recruiting for a postdoc and technician to work on the evolution of memory in the People and Nature lab at UCL East. 2 bee posts also coming soon! [email protected]

I just finished this important new book by Matthew Desmond. Insightful, hopeful, and tangible - absolutely recommended!

Incredibly excited to finally be able to share this portion of my dissertation work! It wouldn't have been possible without the support of Dr. Aubrey Kelly and Malavika Murugan!

Thanks Nature Pod & Video for having me on! We talked about a new #braconid wasp species that uses adult Drosophila flies as its host. Fly lovers be warned, this timelapse of #parasitoid wasp larval emergence is in #natureismetal territory. Link to the episode below.

Wow! A blind snake (Indotyphlops braminus I think) feeding on ant brood. These snakes are completely subterranean, so you can’t really observe them in the wild. They’re specialized predators of ants and termites and, evidently, they look really weird when they eat. Ant 🐜 🐍 🐜

my first thought was, is this real? second was, i bet Daniel Kronauer knows. third was, of course, turns out he's published on this... pnas.org/doi/abs/10.107…

Honored that Miya Qiaowei Pan 潘乔维 and Hugo Darras wrote this piece about my recent article with Daniel Kronauer It’s a very good explainer too.