Ontdek alles rond hoe detectiehonden kunnen worden ingezet om rode bosmierkoepels op te sporen en te monitoren, geen aprilgrap :). Ik zal hier ook een praatje doen over mierengasten bij bosmieren
Insects usually care for their own young, but sometimes they also help other species. This #RSOS study found that yellow meadow #ants protect the eggs of root aphids in their nests during winter. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @tparmentier.bsky.social @wybouw.bsky.social
Thomas Parmentier
Thomas Parmentier
Kom naar de MIERENDAG 2026 van het Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen @odiseehogeschool.bsky.social en het INBO
📅 Di 26 mei 2026 - 9u-13u
📍 Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen, Vautierstraat 29, 1000 Brussel
📩 Schrijf je hier in vóór 20/05: forms.gle/ucSykHwn2iRA...
Royal Society Publishing
Thomas Parmentier
Our study on complex cryptic co-infections of Spiroplasma in European Myrmica ants is now published with @tparmentier.bsky.social @emmavanreempts.bsky.social @selfishmeme.bsky.social Tessa, Wouter and Diego doi.org/10.1111/mec.... .
INBO (Research Institute for Nature and Forest)
Many bacterial taxa evolved facultative symbiotic associations with insects and spread through host populations by horizontal and maternal transmission. Co-infection at the individual host level may ...
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
We found that Rickia wasmannii, known from Myrmica workers, also infects queens, males, and larvae, with spillover to nest associates (incl. Lomechusa).
doi.org/10.1007/s000...
Complex dynamics in the ant microcosm --> more ant–fungus work coming
@insectessociaux.bsky.social
@dhaelewa.bsky.social
Nick Wybouw
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...
Thomas Parmentier
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
