Ants run aphid farms. But could they also run aphid pharmacies? Jason Rissanen asks whether aphids may be a source of medicine for ants… #IUSSIBristol

Laura Campbell kicks off day 2 talking about the evolution of plant cultivation by ants 🐜

Balamurali is next up on cognitive bias in bumblebees 🐝 exposed to different stressors #iussiBristol

Sam Marco Versteeg is next up, taking about stingless bees and chemical eavesdropping #iussiBristol

Last talk of this session is Daniel Schlappi on how habitat structure affects the dynamics of bumblebee 🐝 virome

Mark Brown reveals that artificially inseminated bumblebee workers can act as queens (from nest foundation to mature nests!), and explores the implications for understanding superorganismality… #IUSSIBristol

Working in Spain, Thomas O’Shea-Wheeler asks whether the invasive Asian hornet is a threat to bumblebees. Answer: Asian hornets turn out to be terrible at catching bumblebees (good news!) but may have indirect effects on colonies by constantly harassing them… #IUSSIBristol

What’s that? The sound of 100 social insect biologists shouting “Oh no he didn’t!” Philip Downing pairs game theory and comparative data, told through the medium of pantomime, to ask if classic models of anisogamy (big eggs, small sperm) apply to superorganisms… #IUSSIBristol

In the ant Messor barbarus, there are big workers and tiny workers. Alice Séguret explores how these varied workers differ in gene expression and neuroanatomy… and suggests that they may have different physiological abilities to perceive nonkin #IUSSIBristol

Looking back over his prolific career, Francis Ratnieks closes #IUSSIBristol with a fascinating plenary on the incredible stingless bees… #IUSSIBristol

On my way home after presenting a talk at the annual Social Insects winter conference #IUSSI2023 I talked about the comparative techniques we can use to understand what drives & constrains the evolution of different social behaviours in insects 🐝🐜 📍Bristol, U.K. IUSSI_NWES

Two conferences back to back was a little exhausting, but #IUSSIBristol was worth the effort! Amazing social insect research happening, great to be (🐝) a part of it

Amazing conference University of Bristol Biological Sciences! And I'm very proud of Oxford Biology MBiol student Flynn Bizzell who won best student talk for his masters work!

Leaving Bristol satisfied after the IUSSI_NWES winter meeting. Great organization, thanks a lot Christoph Grüter and team! #bumblebees #roboticflowers #flashtalk Biology | KU Leuven Fac Wetenschappen

Had so much fun at IUSSI_NWES winter meeting in Bristol. Very nice first conference experience! #bees #neuroanatomy #flashtalk Biology | KU Leuven Fac Wetenschappen

Many congratulations to our fantastic student talk and poster award winners! Best talk: Flynn Bizzell Best poster: Anthony Bracuti Highly commended talk: Viviana Di Pietro Highly commended poster: Liliana Fischer #IUSSIBristol

Congratulations to all the winners 👏👏👏 There were many amazing talks and posters, all in all a wonderful experience & some 🤯 findings 🐝🐜🕷️🪳 #IUSSIBristol #IUSSI2023 IUSSI_NWES