Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior

This study tests whether an economic spectrum explains variation in ant ecological strategies, finding parallels with plant leaf economics spectra.

The paper uses a data-driven approach to analyze social complexity in bees, revealing a major evolutionary transition in corbiculate bees that led to phenotypic diversification.

This study evaluates ant identification accuracy on iNaturalist in the Balearic Islands by comparing community identifications with expert validation across taxonomic levels.

This study evaluates the palatability of insecticides and egg white protein in sugar solutions to Argentine ants, finding that toxicants are not unpalatable but egg protein is.

This study examines how queen number affects worker longevity, fecundity, and gene expression in the polygynous ant Tapinoma magnum, finding that more queens reduce worker lifespan and fertility.

This study sequenced 47 termite genomes, revealing genomic expansions linked to dietary evolution and ecological success in Termitidae.

This study shows that red honey ants adjust their navigation behavior, increasing oscillations and scanning when familiar visual scenes are altered.

This study shows that wet years and warm temperatures affect bumblebee queen fitness, with resource availability and diapause disruption playing key roles.

The paper shows that in queenless bumble bee colonies, workers show increased behavioral variation and take on influential roles, leading to a shift from centralized to decentralized social networks.

This paper introduces a new laboratory system to reliably rear honey bee queens and their offspring, bridging field research and lab trials while maintaining colony-like characteristics.

This study identifies convergent genomic changes in socially parasitic ants, showing gene loss, innovation, and network rewiring in parasites compared to hosts.

This study shows ants associatively learn recognition labels of both friends and enemies during encounters, leading to varied individual decisions that are coordinated at the colony level for more accurate recognition.

This study identifies genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying sociability in honey bees by linking SNPs, brain gene expression, and trophallaxis behavior.

The paper reports the first records of two invasive hymenopteran species in Slovakia and describes the methods used to detect and monitor their spread.

The paper analyzes the geographical distribution and richness of extrafloral nectary plants in Brazilian biomes, finding that Fabaceae and the Cerrado biome are overrepresented.

This study shows yellowjacket workers can learn and discriminate amino acids, with some generalization between essential and non-essential amino acids.

The paper constructs comprehensive expression datasets for two honey bee species, Apis mellifera and Apis cerana japonica, using RNA-Seq data and reference transcript sequences.

This study investigates how nocturnal bull ants adjust their navigation when route following fails, showing they rely on visual cues and celestial compasses for homing.

The paper studies the rapid re-invasion of Vespula wasps after a volcanic eruption in Patagonia, showing minimal interspecific competition and the role of urban refuges in their establishment.

The paper investigates nestmate discrimination in ants to exclude intraspecific social parasites, finding that host colonies reject cheater lineages through aggression, with low intrusion success.

The paper models social feedback mechanisms in ant colonies to show how collective energy use scales sublinearly with group size, similar to Kleiber's law in individual organisms.

The paper reviews methods for assessing bee foraging preferences and introduces an automated apparatus to measure visits, food consumption, behavior, and environmental conditions.

This paper presents a developmental table for the Pharaoh ant Monomorium pharaonis, showing that queen and worker phenotypes are determined by early embryogenesis.

The paper compares evolutionary rates of collective and individual behavior in ants, finding faster and more varied evolution in collective behavior.

This study shows red harvester ants do not preferentially collect sorghum seeds infected with head mold over uninfected ones, suggesting they do not distinguish between the two types.

This study investigates the genomic basis of lifespan extension in bees lacking prepupal diapause, finding convergent selection on longevity-related genes and changes in selection pressures on the IIS/TOR pathway.

The paper identifies neuropeptides that specify and reprogram division of labor in leafcutter ants, showing their role in behavior and transcriptomic changes.

This study examines venom composition in 15 Neotropical ant species, finding trade-offs between venom functions for deterring vertebrates and paralyzing insects.

This study shows that synchronized swarming flight in termites results from collective decision-making and social interactions, supported by both simulation models and empirical experiments.

This study examines how temperature affects the microbiota of solitary bee provisions and larval health, finding that heat stress alters microbial composition but does not significantly impact survivorship.