Sampling huge red wood ant mounds in the Belgian Ardennes

@monitant.bsky.social

Ants meet woodlice, discover the hidden world of their interactions in our new review.

We explore the full spectrum of ant-woodlice relationships: from predation, to facilitation, and eventually to facultative and obligate ant association.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ej...

@ulbrecherche.bsky.social

eggs are piled and nursed by the workers, note the green Anoecia nymph that hatched from an egg,

more videos via doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...

New paper with @wybouw.bsky.social on the protection of aphid eggs in ant nests:
doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

*black eggs --> Anoecia zirnitsi, host: Lasius flavus
*eggs rapidly retrieved among ant brood and protected against predators and fungi
*mediated by chemical cues, transferred to glass dummies

Red wood ants can be mite magnets ...

Formica sanguinea interacting with Dinarda dentata, a game of evasion, stealth and perfumes

here the different stages of the brood predatory larvae of Clytra quadripunctata

The first imago of the ant bag beetle Clytra quadripunctata this year, note the empty cases of the larvae that pupate in the nest of the previous years

The blind white isopod Platyarthrus hoffmannseggii thrives in #ant nests, abundant in temperate Europe and introduced in USA.
Much more to discover about this #myrmecophile ...

Some years ago, we reported surprisingly differences in body size across host species doi.org/10.1093/biol...

Red wood ants (Formica polyctena) retrieving a caterpillar prey

Giant Stomaphis aphids with exceptionally long rostra are usually hidden in crevices, but last month they were out in the open, massively tended by Lasius fuliginosus ants on a maple stem #Entomology #Aphids #Ants #Symbionts