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Reposted by Melvin Opolka

MonitAnt @monitant.bsky.social · 13h

Exciting MonitAnt meeting at the Natural History Museum, Brussels. Great discussions on fieldwork and ant ID, plus a rare glimpse of the museum after hours! 🐜🦖

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AIM @aim-mirmecologia.bsky.social · 20d

🐜 Hormigas al descubierto: Nueva cita de un escarabajo mirmecófilo

📍Nuestro socio Amonio David Cuesta-Segura ha descubierto la presencia del #escarabajo Sternocoelis incisus en el nido de una #hormiga hospedadora nueva para esta especie: #Iberoformica subrufa.

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Wood Wide Ants — WWA 🐜 @woodwideants.bsky.social · 16d

1/3🧵Kicking off on #bugsky today & introducing Wood Wide Ants, aka WWA! We're researchers studying the #evolbio of the #ant Formica paralugubris and its kin, through #genomics, #SciComm & #CitizenScience📚🐜🧪🧬🖥️ #insects #mirmecology @sib.swiss @biogeneurope.bsky.social @ergabiodiv.bsky.social

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Nature @nature.com · Sep 3

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species

go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

go.nature.com

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Nina Grella @ninagrella.bsky.social · Sep 4

Having a great time at the #gfoe2025 conference in Würzburg. Inspiring talks and great opportunities for scientific exchange 😊 @gfoesoc.bsky.social @reassemblynet.bsky.social @melvinopolka.bsky.social

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Gesellschaft für Ökologie e.V. @gfoesoc.bsky.social · Sep 3

We’re thrilled to announce that the GfÖ Annual Conference 2026 will be a joint event with the Nordic Society OIKOS (NSO), taking place in Odense, Denmark! 🇩🇰✨

See you on 14-17 Sep 2026!

nordicsocietyoikos.glueup.com/event/nordic...

#NSO2026 #gfoe2026

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Melvin Opolka @melvinopolka.bsky.social · Sep 3

The first days at the @gfoesoc.bsky.social have already been amazing with a great show on Monday evening. I also had the opportunity to present our first results from the @monitant.bsky.social project on myrmecophilous diversity in wood ant nests. I'm already looking forward to the next few days.

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Julia Rothacher @juliarothacher.bsky.social · Sep 1

Truly fascinating combination: the wonderful shots by @jan-haft.bsky.social beautifully accompanied by live music of "Orchester des Wandels" 🎶 - what a highlight at the #gfoe2025 Ice Breaker tonight! 🧊🥂
@gfoesoc.bsky.social

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Christian Hof @christianhof.bsky.social · Sep 2

A truly amazing highlight of #gfoe2025 at @uni-wuerzburg.de yesterday evening: Jan Haft and members of the Orchestras of Change with their „Climate and Wilderness show“

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Melvin Opolka @melvinopolka.bsky.social · Aug 20

so cool!

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D. Allan Drummond @dadrummond.art · Aug 15

After many hours of grinding and polishing, finally a complete worker ant ready for patination, assembly, and final polish 🛠️ She looks exhausted too 😅

About a dozen pieces of a worker ant made out of bronze laid out in a somewhat precious way on a wooden table top. The pieces are clean and quite shiny. Many of them have holes where bolts and nuts will go.

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IPBES @ipbes.net · Aug 12

Tiny but mighty! 🐜

From farming to engineering, ants display remarkable feats. Part of their success as a species is due to their ability to form complex, cooperative societies. 🧪🌏

Read more in @theconversation.com

Hold up, humans. Ants figured out medicine, farming and engineering long before we did

Ants may be tiny – but by working together they build complex societies and solve many problems. They might even teach humans a thing or two?

bit.ly

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Elva Robinson @elvarobinson.bsky.social · Aug 5

Look at the size of this wood ant nest! (Or perhaps I'm just smaller than you thought). This is a Northern Hairy Wood Ant nest in the Lake District, sampled by @melvinopolka.bsky.social and me for the @monitant.bsky.social project this year.

Large wood ant nest in a spruce forest, surrounded by bracken. Next to the nest is Professor Elva Robinson. The nest is taller than Elva.

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Global Change Ecology group @uniwuerzburg.bsky.social @globalchangeeco.bsky.social · Jul 23

Congratulations to our colleague @sabinenooten.bsky.social from the Chemical Ecology group at @ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social on receiving the Marcella Boveri Prize of the @uni-wuerzburg.de Biocenter, and on her great presentation of her work on insect #ecology and #biogeography

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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · Jul 20

Invasive Tapinoma ants at Ingelheim station Germany are so determined they’re crossing rails to get food. Total takeover 😮

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Melvin Opolka @melvinopolka.bsky.social · Jul 21

The last few weeks have been special as I was a guest of @elvarobinson.bsky.social in York for field research. Together with her and Igor Siedlecki, I travelled across the UK, successfully carrying out sampling for the @monitant.bsky.social. I'm excited to see the results of this data.

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Melvin Opolka @melvinopolka.bsky.social · Jun 24

I found something pretty similar in the Alps last week ⛰️

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Melvin Opolka @melvinopolka.bsky.social · May 19

Last week we were out in Hunsrück National Park for some @monitant.bsky.social fieldwork. The area is truly fascinating, with extensive zones affected by bark beetles interspersed with old wood ant nests. Already looking forward to seeing the results, especially from the myrmecophile sampling! 🪲

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Elva Robinson @elvarobinson.bsky.social · May 7

Did you know about these tiny shiny ants (red arrow) living with wood ants (blue arrow)? They are Shining Guest Ants (Formicoxenus) and we have recently discovered that a wood ant nest can be home to several genetically distinct colonies of these 'guests'! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author... 1/5

A large wood ant, with a dull black gaster and head, and dull brown thorax, is on a pale stone background, and indicated by a blue arrow. Next to it a much smaller ant with a shiny back gaster and shiny brown head and thorax is indicated by a red arrow. The blue arrow at is the wood ant Formica lugubris and the red arrow at is the shining guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus.

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Gema Trigos-Peral @trigos-peral.bsky.social · May 12

It's time to talk about social insects! 🐜🐝 This summer, the Central European section of IUSSI is holding its conferences in Szeged. Registration is already open! More info 👉🏼
ce-iussi-meeting-szeged2025.iussi.de

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MonitAnt @monitant.bsky.social · Apr 11

Over the past four days, the MonitAnt team has been meeting in Germany for a really productive workshop, even with new faces. A lot was discussed and prepared and now we are ready for another successful field season in 2025!

Can you guess what we wanted to show in the last picture? 🐜

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Melvin Opolka @melvinopolka.bsky.social · Apr 9

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...

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...

blog.myrmecologicalnews.org

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Melvin Opolka @melvinopolka.bsky.social · Feb 18

aren't they bathed in pesticides?

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Melvin Opolka @melvinopolka.bsky.social · Feb 5

Already looking forward to our meeting! 🐜

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