iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Got my hands on this amazing social insects trump card game, developed by @elvarobinson.bsky.social & her team to support inclusion bursaries for IUSSI conferences. It even has my favourite bee 😍🐝! If you want your own, for fun, outreach or teaching: www.iussi-nweurope.org/edi

Trump cards game showing an image of a social insect and biological information

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

I had a chance to see some Melipona seminigra stingless bees at INPA in Manaus recently, their honey's amazing! I was surprised by how polymorphic they are. The last two photos show different colour morphs, one with an orange abdomen (merrillae type), the other is black (pernigra type, Belém) 🐝

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Meli Bees 🐝 are launching the Pollinator Fellowship, partnering with Indigenous & local leaders in Latin America to run projects in agroforestry, biodiversity, water access, storytelling & meliponiculture. Would you like to be a mentor & guide 1 fellow online in English, Spanish or Portuguese?

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Our inaugural plant-insect course in the Swiss Alps delivered some beautiful views, interesting biology and, best of all, we got to know a wonderful group of students. 🪲🪷🌲🐜🦋🐝🪻 With @englishse.bsky.social , @maisiebrett.bsky.social and MRes student Harriet Foster. @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Scaptotrigona xanthotricha, a stingless bee from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. This nest was in the botanical garden in São Paulo

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Chores of a tropical worker bee: drinking excess condensation water inside the hive, then spitting it out at the hive entrance 💦 🐝

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

A Melipona mondury guard. First time I see this beautiful stingless 🐝 from the Atlantic rainforests in the southeast of Brazil. Photo at EMBRAPA in Jaguariúna.

A yellowish bee (guard) standing in the nest entrance of a hive

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

I was shown this Friesella schrottkyi 🐝 colony living in a waste container on the University of São Paulo campus. Some stingless bees choose unusual places to nest!

Friesella schrottkyi bees in a nest entrance

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Leafcutter ants in the morning sun 🐜🐜🐜

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

This Trigona hyalinata 🐝 colony is now at least 23 years old. After a scare and some major rebuilding by its' workers in 2023 it seems to be in good health. There are reports of 60 year-old stingless bee colonies, some claim colonies can reach more than a century #Dynasty

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Unusually long entrance tube for Plebeia droryana 🐝. Even a couple of Tetragonisca angustula came to check it out (Ribeirão Preto 🇧🇷).

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Another minute stingless bee, the shy and gentle Iraí (Nannotrigona testaceicornis, 🇧🇷) 🐝

Several guards are seen standing in the entrance tube of a nest

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

My first wild nest of Leurotrigona muelleri, one of the smallest eusocial bees in the world (Meliponini). It's head is just over 1mm wide (Ribeirão Preto in 🇧🇷).

Two bees of the stingless bee Leurotrigona muelleri are sticking their heads out of n entrance tube.

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

A stingless bee guard showing off her defensive weapons: two blobs of resin to be smeared on any attacker. Frieseomelitta varia have extra wide hind legs for extra loads of resin 🇧🇷🐝😍

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Tandem running in 🐜 is a fascinating communication behaviour & is often considered a case of animal teaching. But what do follower ants actually learn?👇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Great work by @ainacolovila.bsky.social, Tara Williams and Simone Glaser 👏👏

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

🐝 3-year Postdoc position 🐝 Join us @bristolbiosci.bsky.social to study the impacts of parasitic bees on tropical bee communities using eDNA, SNPs & field-based surveys. 📅 Deadline: 23 Feb 2025 💃Vibrant city 🌎 Collaboration with USP 🇧🇷 🐝 Details here: tinyurl.com/586u7vau @leverhulme.bsky.social

Lestrimelitta robber bees standing on the entrance tube

Melipona flavolineata stingless bee guards standing on their nest entrance tube

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

🚨Join us in Bristol! We're hiring 1+ Lecturers/Senior Lecturers (similar to Assistant/Associate Prof) in Biology, incl. ecology, evolution, conservation @bristolbiosci.bsky.social. Supportive colleagues, wonderful students, excellent facilities and a fun city: shorturl.at/CCmXC

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

🐝 We're currently advertising three PhD projects to study bees at Bristol University, UK. Two focus on foraging behaviour, ecology & nutrition, one on parasitic bees and their impact on indigenous stingless beekeeping in Peru. Feel free to share: www.socialinsect-research.com/opportunitie...

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

🐝 We're excited to advertise 2 PhD opportunities at @BristolBioSci to study bee foraging behaviour, ecology & nutrition. 📅 Deadline: 11 Dec 2024 & 6 Jan 2025 🌍Open to UK & overseas students More infos here: www.socialinsect-research.com/oppor… With...

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 30/10/2024

🐝 Apply for a 4-year PhD @BristolUni on the impacts of robber bees & climate change on stingless bees & beekeeper livelihoods in Peruvian Amazon 🗓️ Deadline: 6 Jan 2025 🌱 Fieldwork in Amazon 🤝 Collaborate with NGOs More infos here: dir.lat/rZEOy2 With @SelinaJill

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 30/08/2024

Very happy to share the 1st chapter of @YongqiangWu1994's PhD thesis. "Low food stores affect dance communication and health-related gene expression in honey bees": www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic… Well done👏👏! With @ppttff1991 & Florian Menzel,...

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 17/08/2024

After a long search & seeing many stingless bees on flowers, it was an exciting moment to finally find a nest, probably Hypotrigona sp., in a Mopane tree (northern South Africa). Jumping spiders are a common sight at entrances🕷️ 🐝

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 01/12/2023

The program of the Northwest European IUSSI Winter meeting is now live. So many exciting talks: socialinsects.wixsite.com/iussi2023 In person registration is closed but we'll leave registration for online participation open for a little longer if you still want to join!

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 04/11/2023

📢 please share these PhD projects on bee & beetle ecology & behaviour at @BristolBioSci: Bumblebees: tinyurl.com/uz3jea3k Tropical insects: bit.ly/fundedPhDSWBio For UK black heritage candidates: Honeybees: tinyurl.com/56wku62w Solitary...

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 27/09/2023

📢 Registration now open for the IUSSI Social Insect meeting in Bristol, UK, 18th-19th Dec '23 👥 In person & 🖥️ online 📝 Abstract deadline: 20 Oct 📅 Registration deadline: 24 Nov 🌎 Free online Global South registration Join us & share:...

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 18/08/2023

Amazing job by @BristolBioSci MRes student Mini Graydon who told us about honeybee egg sizes in urban vs. rural areas at @2023Behaviour, with support from @britishbee 👏👏👏

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 28/07/2023

Ants rolling downhill when disturbed😲 www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-… & they only show this behaviour when on a slope, which makes sense, but is also quite impressive

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 12/07/2023

Bee hives are ready and in position, bring on the field season! With Rajbir, Tony from Blorenge bees and Buddy, the distracted 🐶

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 25/06/2023

Enjoyed watching wool carder bees (Anthidium manicatum) in our garden today, chasing after bumblebees & everything else that entered it's territory (a patch of Lamb's ear). Seems like a very grumpy bee.

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 10/06/2023

📢 Excited that the NW European IUSSI @IUSSI_NWES winter meeting will take place in Bristol: 📅 18-19 December 2023 Join us for 2 days of in-person & virtual social insect science & discussion🐝🐜🪳🦠🧬🔬 More info soon here: www.iussi.org/NWEurope/meetings.htm

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 06/06/2023

It was a pleasure to work with @deniseaalves23 @abeeagee et al. on this paper (& I 🫶 the 🐝 illustrations by Michael Hrncir): What drives diversity in communication strategies in social bees & how about human impacts? Out in @PNASNews www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.22190…

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 28/05/2023

Some excellent dancing going on this week. This 🐝 found a good pollen source about 2 km from the hive

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 25/05/2023

If you're interested in division of labour & stingless bees, check out our new (open access) paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic… With wonderful collaborators @msbalbuena80 and @valadareslohan 🐝

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 21/05/2023

#WorldBeeDay always comes with a good amount of confusing messaging about honeybees. Are numbers going up or down? These plots are based on FAO numbers & suggest very different regional trends, even in neighbouring countries 🇨🇵🇩🇪🇮🇹:

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 20/05/2023

It's #WorldBeeDay2023, so why not put shiny rucksacks on some of our 🐝...aka RFID tags to study if worker egg size is linked to worker life history & behaviour, with support from @britishbee & @BristolBioSci

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 11/04/2023

Love this new 🐝 mural in Bristol

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 20/03/2023

Frangipani, Cosmos (with a Tetragona), Purple heart (with a Tetragonisca) and pipevine, some of the beautiful flowers on USP campus @usprp 🇧🇷

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 20/03/2023

My first ever Oxytrigona tataira nest, filming was a bit scary but they didn't seem very aggressive. This stingless bee is called fire bee because they cover enemies with an acid that leads to nasty burns. "Tataira" means 🔥- 🐝 in indigenous Tupí-Guaraní languages

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 16/03/2023

Two robber bee (Lestrimelitta) attacks on our experimental Jataí (Tetragonisca) colonies today, raiding party of at least 100-200 robbers each. Both repelled by the brave little defenders. Today, Jataí rule supreme in their little airspace

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 14/03/2023

When stingless bees fight (which they do quite often) ants are often the winners. Here a Tetragonisca angustula has attacked a Nannotrigona testaceocornis from a neighbouring colony located about 1m away)

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 14/03/2023

Yesterday we saw some beautiful treehopper aggregations (possibly Aetalion reticulatum) spotted by @Amainsects and @JfersonPedrosa1, which are very popular with stingless bees (here Trigona) and ants because they secrete delicious honeydew.

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 09/03/2023

Ants are major enemies of stingless bees but 🐝 s have effective defences. These ants came too close, so the Jataí bees glued them to the entrance tube with resin. The ants will eventually starve to death and become a part of the entrance tube

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 07/03/2023

I'm happy to be back at @usprp 🇧🇷 & find this 21-year old 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘢 𝘩𝘺𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘢 colony in good health. The colony is probably headed by a xth-great granddaughter of the queen that arrived here in 2002 and made Bloco 7 Her home #Dynasty

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 06/03/2023

Some beautiful Melipona quadrifasciata bees sipping rotting banana juice. Despite its lower sugar content, fruit juice is a welcome alternative to nectar in the tropics because it can be collected at a much faster rate

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 04/03/2023

Another day of drama & dispute. Here, stingless bees (Scaptotrigona) build a resin wall for protection against termites. Curious buzzing sounds by bees can be heard, maybe some form of communication to coordinate their activities?

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Christoph Grüter @chrisleduck.bsky.social · 03/03/2023

Aftermath of a robber bee (Lestrimelitta limao) attack on another stingless bee nest. Impressive amount of resin around the entrance, which is used as a defensive weapon...signs of a fierce but ultimately lost battle.

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