The paper is great because the story is now more like okay I'll play scissors... unless there are a lot of rock, and then I'll switch and play paper instead.
@soulsynapse
PhD student @ ASU's Social Insect Research Group ๐๐ ants, bees, wasps, social behavior, phylogenetics, evolutionary game theory โค๏ธ Community science, documenting the natural history of ants @ AntSciHub.com, discord.gg/antkeeping, reddit.com/r/antkeeping
The paper is great because the story is now more like okay I'll play scissors... unless there are a lot of rock, and then I'll switch and play paper instead.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Another reason to be skeptical of solutions to a 3 body problem.
It was great to catch up ๐ Lemme know if you're out my way again some time!!
What a spectacular way to end the trip. Seeing my friend and colleague @soulsynapse.bsky.social at the social insect research group at ASU for showing me around their labs and facilities on my way out of Arizona. Really cool work with social behavior and it was amazing to see their ant colonies.
๐ฌ๐
I've seen folks talk about how "in four years" they'll be able to get back to their planned projects and I really don't think that's going to work out. People & projects losing funding now will not be able to hit pause and come back once funding is restored. Hard-won progress & capacity will be lost
I'd love to hear about the theoretical background here- I'll be looking through your prior work. I run two very large science-adjacent communities and at first blush this sounds like what we do.
Deflate style hand vacuum as an electronic aspirator. Best of both worlds. Needs a pooter with a filter built in. #entomology #antkeeping #ants
Interestingly weavers can climb up a thin oil film alone
Corn starch baby powder works great as an ant barrier. Comes off easily but at least it's not a known carcinogen ๐
A seed passes inspection (Pogonomyrmex barbatus)
Fantastic piece (doi.org/10.1073/pnas...) by @tlinksvayer.bsky.social on @arthurmatte.bsky.social and my recent paper in PNAS (doi.org/10.1073/pnas...). He really pulls together the threads of how we believe that socially transferred materials #socialfluids entrenched social complexity in ants. 1/2
We don't know much about these odd-looking Zasphinctus ants, except they seem to raid other ant nests, steal their larvae and eat them... Their narrow elongated bodies probably help them enter small galleries.
#ants #myrmecology non #armyants #fourmis #science
a pronged adapter for an air hose
cut away
Finally taking the time to learn Fusion360. Design for a co2 hose that will make noise (so people don't forget to turn it off) but diffuses the flow to knock out ants.
Today, the USDA lost experts in Psylloidea, Thysanoptera, Cerambycidae, Hymenoptera, Pseudococcidae, and Malacology. This is a devastating loss of expertise, occuring without warning. Their union's official statement on the issue can be found here: aginspectors.org/2-14-2025-a-... #entomology ๐งช
Extremely ant-like dark-colored wasp with long antennae, on a dried leaf stem.
High quality An't ๐ค
Gelis species ichneumonid wasp.
A timely assist.
This is a derivative work of a friend's that I'm not able to give out, but I'm making my own design and I'll tag you after I've tested it.
Ant feeder covered in Pheidole rhea
Ant feeder top view with cute ant heads visible drinking
My hand holding a small liquid ant feeder with a 3D printer in the background
Pretty happy with this feeder. Ants seem to like it too.
Currently figuring out how to print this in high enough quality that it does it justice
Diverse species of Drosophilidae
#PhD Advert: Please share! Are you looking for a PhD studentship in comparative- or population-genomics, using 300+ species of #Drosophila and 1000+ genomes of #melanogaster? #Entomology #Genomics #PopGen #Phylogenetics
Pheidole rhea annoyed that I'm looking at em.
A figure panel titled Escape-and-radiate, showing a series of radiations in parallel plant and herbivore lineages, illustrated with Keynote silhouettes of a plant and a beetle, and with stars and arrows indicating the origins of novel anti-herbivore defenses and herbivores' counter-defenses
No, YOU'RE making increasingly elaborate conceptual diagrams instead of grading papers
Gonna repost this every so often until it's full:
If you're into ecological niche modeling / species distribution modeling (ENM or SDM), here's a starter pack for you! And if you're an investigator in the field and you'd like to be added, please let me know in the replies.
bsky.app/starter-pack...
An ant that is at least half transparent!
Cephalotes clypeatus?! ๐คฏ via @alexwild.bsky.social
I'm doing a Reddit AMA tomorrow 1:30-3:30 Eastern. Looking forward to answering some questions!
www.reddit.com/r/askscience...
We strongly suggest that academic publishers and other platforms that host research rapidly implement a Share to Bluesky button for their articles. Here's how:
docs.bsky.app/docs/advance...
#AcademicSky #HigherEd #Altmetrics
Well, it is sufficiently costly for scientists to be wrong. It is not sufficiently costly for news orgs to spread lies. The voters eat the cost of those lies; temporal discounting alone makes it hard for any reasonable string of accountability, ร la an iterative prisoners dillema.
I agree with this article. It is time for scientists to build trust - we only do it by bringing everyone in and teaching the scientific method. We only beat misinformation and authoritarianism with the freedom that science brings. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
More reports out of the ant-keeping hobbyist community about canned crickets killing colonies.
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