‘Hell Ant’ fossil unearthed in museum collection becomes the oldest known ant specimen
In their article, “A hell ant from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil” the authors report the oldest known Haidomyrmecinae, preserved as a rock impression in...
Myrmecological News Blog
Chromosomes and cryptic species: Revealing hidden diversity in Strumigenys ants
Understanding species boundaries is one of the central challenges in modern taxonomy, particularly in groups containing morphologically similar species. In their study on Neotropical Strumigenys...
Best Paper Award 2025
In 2026, Myrmecological News awards for the eighth time the Best Paper of the previous year. From January 7th to January 21th, the editorial board...
Highlighting the big impacts of tiny engineers
In their recently published review “Ground-nesting ants as engineers of microbial landscape”, Longmeyer et al. compiled our current scientific knowledge about ground-nesting ants and their...
Microbes, molecules, and mates: Unraveling nestmate recognition in Pheidole megacephala
How do ants identify who is a nest mate vs. who is not? Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) have been demonstrated to drive such recognition. In the...
Digging through the desert to uncover the secrets – and the knowledge gaps – of honeypot ants
Honeypot ants are iconic in the ant world and beyond for both their visual appearance and their fascinating lifestyle. Highly specialized workers with astonishing enlarged...
Sweet but not so simple: How sugar changes the temper of Asian weaver ants
Have you ever wondered why some ants get aggressive over a drop of sugar, while others don’t react as much? In their fascinating study, “The...
More than pheromones: How ants combine signals to commun
Ant communication has long been viewed as dominated by chemical signals, yet growing evidence suggests a more complex picture. In their Focus contribution, “Multimodal communication...
Ants as a powerful model for speciation research
Patrick Heidbreder and Jonna Kulmuni, first and last authors, discuss their recent review article in Myrmecol. News on speciation in ants. They highlight the significant, yet underutilized...
What can ants tell us about speciation?
Ants are among the most diverse and ecologically successful organisms on the planet, yet little is known about how new ant species arise. In this...
Best Paper Award 2025
In 2026, Myrmecological News awards for the 8th time the Best Paper of the previous year. One paper of all contributions published in 2025 is...
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