Productive days in ΔeskΓ© BudΔjovice with @jiri-tuma.bsky.social and @eliaguariento.bsky.social, focusing on all aspects of camera traps for the MonitAnt project. We even squeezed in a wonderful trip to Ε umava National Park.
@monitant.bsky.social
It feels like Christmas has come early. After the @monitant.bsky.social team has been working busily in forests across the continent, samples from all over Europe are now arriving. Time to unwrap some data about red wood ants. ππ
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! ππ¦
Great discovery!
Great!
Sampling huge red wood ant mounds in the Belgian Ardennes
@monitant.bsky.social
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.
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.
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.
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.
Great team and great working day! @monitant.bsky.social
@monitant.bsky.social brings me back to the forest to enjoy these fascinating creaturesβthe Red Wood Ants! These ants act as natural pest control, serve as host species for many myrmecophiles, and are keystone organisms of forests. Yet, their existence is endangered. Arenβt they worth protecting?! π
An specially scenic wood ant nest location.
Discovered while sampling their myrmecophile community π·οΈπͺ² along elevation ποΈ
@monitant.bsky.social
@euracalpenv.bsky.social
Last week we were out in HunsrΓΌck 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! πͺ²
It's time to talk about social insects! ππ This summer, the Central European section of IUSSI is holding its conferences in Szeged. Registration is already open! More info ππΌ
ce-iussi-meeting-szeged2025.iussi.de
We installed camera traps to investigate the use of red wood ant nest mounds by π¦ββ¬π¦‘π¦πΏοΈ
Many thanks to Alberto Masoni!!
@monitant.bsky.social
@euracalpenv.bsky.social
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.
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
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? π
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! π We present our @monitant.bsky.social project and also our Citizen Science approach. π
blog.myrmecologicalnews.org/2025/04/09/m...
Spring is coming to the Alps π
@monitant.bsky.social
Today Alberto visited our lab! Lots of wood π research planed πͺ
@monitant.bsky.social
As a first post, we can now announce that we have started our already successful Citizen Science project on INaturalist.
πhttp://bit.ly/4i7Uh7w
Once joined, every observation can be assigned to this project (even retrospectively). So please share this and map out some ant mounds. ππ³
