I've only just started reading Empire of Ants by Susanne Foitzik and Olaf Fritsche and I'm already awash with fascination.

Things I've learned:

- An ant queen can live up to 30 years!
- Worker ants of some species can live up to eight years (in laboratory conditions)
- The queen mates once (or several times) on her "nuptial flight" and collects all the sperm she will require to fertilise eggs for the rest of her life
- A queen may produce up to 150 million offspring in her lifetime!
- Ants do not see daylight until the latter stage of their life; they progress through roles starting in the nursery and ending with foraging / hunting
- It's estimated that only one out of every 10,000 young queens is successful in founding a new nest

#ants#myrmecology #entomology

Marie Dacke, professor of sensory biology at Lund University:

"How does a dung beetle find its way around?" In the dark, and while pushing a giant ball of dung.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4La-SpQsk84

#entomology#DungBeetles #beetles

Hang on - whaaat!? "Plants can 'hear' bees buzzing and serve up more nectar when they are nearby, scientists have found. Amazingly, they can tell the difference between a bee’s buzz and that of a non-pollinating insect such as a wasp."

😮 That is AMAZING.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/21/plants-produce-more-nectar-when-they-hear-bees-buzzing-scientists-find

🌼🐝

#Plants#Bees#Pollinators#Gardening#Insects#Botany#Entomology

The thing is, you see, allergic misery or no, if I can shake it off I will and it's very hard for me to break the now deeply ingrained walking addiction. And then I see beautiful lil' fairies like this aptly named damselfly, the 'Beautiful Demoiselle' 😊🤧

So, two things..

1. Where can I get a dress made with material identical to this? 💃

And..

2. Yes I shall be whining about allergy misery tomorrow morning 🫩

Have a wonderful evening sweet friends 💕🥰
#InsectsOfMastodon #entomology

..and another snap of the Beautiful Demoiselle 😍

#InsectsOfMastodon #entomology

2-year Postdoc Position: Evolution and Organization of Ant Olfactory Systems

– in Carlotta Martelli's lab at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.

https://mrtlllab.uni-mainz.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/PostDoc-Position-Neuro-Ants-150125.pdf

"The ideal candidate should have a strong background in bioinformatics, ideally with practical or theoretical experience in single-cell transcriptomics or comparative genomics. A keen interest in neurobiology is essential. Additional skills in evolutionary biology, insect handling, and programming (preferably in Python) would be advantageous, but are not mandatory."

Position still open!

#ants#PhDJobs#postdocJob #neuroscience #entomology #olfaction #bioinformatics