Abel Bernadou

Abel Bernadou

@abelbernadou.bsky.social

@cbitoulouse | Major evolutionary transitions • Division of labour • Social evolution • Insects • Ants

431 followers483 following15 posts

Le meilleur piège ? Celui que la proie déclenche elle-même. 🕷️🕸️🐜 L'araignée australienne Propostira sp. a développé un piège en soie tendu comme un ressort, spécialisé dans la capture des fourmis tisserandes Oecophylla smaragdina. 1/2

Les auteurs de l'article publié dans @currentbiology.bsky.social suggèrent que des composés chimiques déposés sur la soie pourraient inciter les fourmis à attaquer le piège. En mordant les fils, les fourmis déclenchent elles-mêmes le mécanisme… qui les catapulte directement dans la toile 🤯 2/2

cell.comBallistic high-powered spider webs overcome dangerous prey defensesNarendra et al. describe in an Australian ballista spider a spring-actuated snare that is triggered by green tree ants. They show that the snare’s architecture delivers exceptionally high instantaneou...

Abel Bernadou reposted

🐜 European Ant Identification Workshop 2026 🐜 📍 Banyuls-sur-Mer, France 📅 June 3–7, 2026 A hands-on workshop focused on European ant diversity, collection methods, and identification — set in the amazing Mediterranean–Pyrenean place of Banyuls-sur-Mer 🌿🏞️

Abel Bernadou reposted

How fun! I was invited to write a "Species Spotlight" for Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com and I chose my favorite species the Florida turtle ant Cephalotes varians! rdcu.be/e5EZK Including a stunning photo of ants I collected by @alexwild.bsky.social

rdcu.beFlorida turtle ant (Cephalotes varians)Nature Ecology & Evolution - Corrie S. Moreau studies the evolution of extreme armour and gut microbiomes in turtle ants.

Abel Bernadou reposted

Dinomyrmex gigas, the giant forest ant (large workers are ca. 28mm) dissolves territorial disputes with other colonies via a ritualized behavior called “front leg boxing”. This allows the ants to maintain territorial boundaries while avoiding escalated conflict. Danum Valley, Sabah, Borneo.

Abel Bernadou reposted

Meet the Dracula ant Myopopone castanea, the only extant species in its genus. Like other ants in the subfamily Amblyoponinae, the workers pierce the larvae with their mandibles and drink the oozing hemolymph. Hence the name “Dracula ant”. Danum Valley, Sabah.

🐜🥛 Des scientifiques ont « ressuscité » une ancienne recette des Balkans et de Turquie : le yaourt aux fourmis ! Leur étude, publiée dans la revue iScience, révèle que les #fourmis rousses (Formica spp.) possèdent un ensemble de ferments permettant de transformer le lait en yaourt 😆

🦅⛰️ Surprenantes découvertes : les gypaètes barbus ne se contentent pas de construire des nids, ils créent de véritables capsules temporelles. En Espagne, des chercheur·se·s ont découvert que certains nids pouvaient contenir des artefacts humains vieux de... 600 à 700 ans !

Abel Bernadou reposted

Breaking News: Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most revered conservationists, died at 91. Her discoveries in the 1960s about how chimpanzees behaved in the wild broke new ground and represented what was called “one of the Western world’s great scientific achievements.” nyti.ms/42kpGxt

Abel Bernadou reposted

let me share a little story about a remarkable wasp that I encountered yesterday in our local deserts I stumbled across her, and scrambled to get a few crappy photos .... but then realized that she had a burrow, perhaps a better photo op was possible ?? here she is at her burrow entrance.

😮🤯

Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Very happy to see this paper published in #InsectesSociaux! This study is a continuation of a story we published two years ago 😉 with @marioncordonnier.bsky.social 1/2

Insectes Sociaux@insectessociaux.bsky.social

New short communication!📄 Satizabal‑Niemeyer, @abelbernadou.bsky.social et al. showed that urban structures are poor substitutes for natural habitats and unlikely to maintain gene flow 🌆 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #InsectesSociaux #SocialInsects #AntResearch #UrbanEcology #Nest #Fragmentation

Abel Bernadou reposted

Phrictus quinquepartitus is what I'd call the dragon-headed lantern bug with the multiple tubercles lining its snout, or apical process. Photographed in Belize

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