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New wound care behavior in ants! Here we show how ants amputate the leg of injured conspecifics (a first in the animal kingdom)! Interestingly, amputations are not always the best strategy to care for a wound and ants have adapted their treatment accordingly. A 🧵... (1/6)
Erik Frank retweeted
Save the Date!📢 The Hector Fellow Academy's application period for 2025 doctoral positions runs from January 15 - March 31, 2025! 🚀 Apply for a fully-funded position, work with top researchers, & more! Learn more👉 hector-fellow-academy.de/en/… #HFA #PhDPositions
Erik Frank retweeted
Help students attend the 2026 IUSSI conference in Freiburg, Germany! 🐝 Our goal is to support at least 4 students. Let's raise more than $10,000 and show our support for students in our community! 🐝 PLEASE donate if you can! Scan this QR code, or click the link in the thread 🐝
Happy to share our new study on the ant diversity of the Comoé National Park in Côte d'Ivoire (West Africa). In total, we found 118 ant species in this amazing forest-savannah mosaic! 🐜🐜🐜 And, as expected, the species composition varied according to the habitats. 🧵 (1/6)
This study would ofcourse not have been possible without the help of my collaborators and co-authors: @SchumacherNilsC @CassyVogel @MarcellKPeters and Eduard Linsenmair. The amazing Team at the Comoé Research Station and the students of the Comoé Excursion 2019! (5/6)
Ps. Also a big thank you to @myrmecoPhil for his hand collection of the comoé ants! He was the first to identify ants in the field with us in 2015 🐜🐜🐜
This was my first taxonomy based study! I would not have dared to venture into this field if it would not have been for the amazing Ant Course that I participated in. So a big thank you to @ant_explorer and all the other teachers and participants of this amazing course! (6/6)
Here also the link to the paper for those that want to read more about it 🐜🌡️
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
Erik Frank retweeted
I was offered a chance to write a piece about returning to Argentina in the midst of the destruction of its scientific system. Here it is
Opinion: The Fulbright Commission’s insistence that fellows return home is senseless in a country dismantling its science base, says Nicolas Mongiardino Koch
timeshighereducation.com/opi…
Erik Frank retweeted
New @mbiojournal: a commentary by me and @kasie_raymann on @JoanitoLiberti @PEngellab's wonderful recent paper on honey bee behavioural maturation and the microbiome 🐝🐝🐝
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128…
Exciting PhD Opportunity! Branching out from ants we are looking for a motivated and curious PhD student who wants to study why chimps apply insects on their wounds! 🦧🪰🚑Focus is on the insect side of course, so if you want to know more, follow the 🧵 (1/6)
The focus of the project therefore strongly lies in Taxonomy, Microbiology and Chemical Ecology, but also chimpanzee cognition including a minor fieldwork component in Gabun. (5/6)
Great new preprint by @NStroeymeyt et al. on changes in nest construction after pathogen exposure and as always a great catch by @newscientist. Their policy to always ask scientists (who were not involved) to comment on preprints is essential and I was happy to play my part here.
Ants 🐜 change the structure of their nests to reduce the risk of diseases 🦠 spreading, @NStroeymeyt has shown
In fact, we might even be able to learn a thing or two from them to apply to our buildings and cities
newscientist.com/article/244…
