Social insects have evolved sophisticated systems of disease resistance that integrate individual immune responses with collective behavioural defences. These adaptive strategies are exemplified by ...

The interplay between gene regulation and behavioural plasticity is central to understanding how social insects achieve remarkable adaptability in their colony roles. Molecular pathways, such as those ...

The queens in colonies of social insects, such as ants, bees, and wasps, are considered the veritable embodiment of specialization in the animal kingdom. The common perception is that the queen's only ...

In a recent article published in Nature Communications, researchers used Camponotus fellah (carpenter ants) as a model species to perform behavioral tracking and ribonucleic acid-sequencing (RNA-seq) ...

Scientists have long known that the social insects in the order Hymenoptera–which includes ants, bees, and wasps–have an unusual mechanism for sex determination: Unfertilized eggs develop into males, ...

Kevin Burns receives funding from Victoria University of Wellington and the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund. Social colonies are nothing new in the animal kingdom. We know bees, ants and ...

Researchers have discovered early social learning in insects. They found signaling communicated by honey bees about food sources -- transmitted through a 'waggle dance' -- is an intricate form of ...