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Daniel Kronauer

@danielkronauer.bsky.social
2K followers 1K following 253 posts

PI @Rockefeller University. Investigator @HHMI. Instigator of clonal raider ant project #CRAP. 🐜 Evolution, Behavior & Neuroscience. Posts science and photography. 🧠 📸 www.rockefeller.edu/research/2280-k…

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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
@vchandra.bsky.social is starting his lab at the Crick to work on the exciting question of how early brains evolved and how they work. Vikram is fantastic (I had the privilege to work with him for a while), and there’s good news: He’s hiring! Check out the ad below and consider applying.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The African driver ants are among the most charismatic and (in)famous social insects. Unfortunately, their taxonomy is a bit of a mess. In this new OA paper, we begin to rectify this, focusing on the West African species. Spearheaded by Caspar Schöning and Raphael Weniger. doi.org/10.3897/zook...
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Jacopo Razzauti @jacoporazzauti.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
FERAL 1.0 is out! Just to remind you: FERAL is an open-source toolkit for supervised animal behaviour segmentation directly from videos with no pose estimation needed. We made it much easier to install and run FERAL First, to install FERAL: pip install feral www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵
biorxiv.org
FERAL: A Supervised Video-Understanding System for Direct Video-to-Behavior Mapping
Quantifying animal behavior often requires segmenting continuous actions into discrete, interpretable states, yet most automated pipelines infer actions from keypoint dynamics and are limited by keypo...
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
New paper from the lab on the molecular regulation of parenting in ants. Spearheaded by postdocs Alex Paul and @tomaskay.bsky.social
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Reposted by Daniel Kronauer
The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 08/07/2026
A new study from Rockefeller's @danielkronauer.bsky.social in @nature.com finds that parenting behavior in ants—who are highly attuned to their young—appears to have evolved in by repurposing ancient neural circuits rather than inventing entirely new brain systems. 🔗: bit.ly/4vUY6Uc
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Our lab at Rockefeller University is looking for a Research Technician to help with our studies of ant social behavior and evolution. 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧬 🐜 Please share and apply here if interested: hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Research Technician I - Kronauer Lab
Primary Work Address: 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY, 10065 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. About the Role: The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is seeking ...
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Looks like killa bees saved the Knicks last night!
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Some army ants are extremely polymorphic. This photo shows a large soldier and a small regular worker of Eciton hamatum. If you saw them separately, you wouldn’t even think they belong to the same species. You might also notice the light color of the ants - both are callows / newly eclosed.
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Reposted by Daniel Kronauer
Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
#Bugsky 🐙🌿 Shared with me by a fof in SoCal - this is a gynandromorph (both male & female) valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa sonorina). Females are black, males orange, so the extreme color dimorphism really stands out. Per Doug Yanega at UC Riverside, bee gynandromorphs he’s seen are mosaic instead—
A photo looking down on an unusual bee clinging to a green shirt. The bee is a stout bee called a carpenter bee, but what’s unusual is that it is both male and female, known as a gynandromorph. In this particular species (Xylocopa sonorina), females are jet black and males are fuzzy orange. This one has an abdomen that is divided into four perfect quadrants, like a checkerboard, alternating orange and black. The thorax is mostly black but with some orange.
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The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 04/06/2026
Congratulations to Rockefeller’s #classof2026, here’s to your next adventure! 🍾 🔬 🎉 #PHDone
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
I visited Angeles National Forest with Joe Parker yesterday, and Joe found this giant water bug (Abedus indentatus). The females lay eggs on the males’ backs, and the males carry the eggs around until they hatch. Some serious paternal care.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
These two male Maasai giraffes seemed to be involved in a playful dance. This behavior, called “necking”, in which the animals swing their necks at each other, is in fact a form of combat practice for young males. It helps the giraffes build neck strength and establishes dominance hierarchies.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
A family group of elephants grazing in Kenya’s Maasai Mara during the early morning hours. Image taken from a hot air balloon.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
A group of elephants during sunrise in Kenya’s Maasai Mara.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
A herd of elands (Taurotragus oryx) at Mount Kenya, across from Old Moses Camp at 3300 meters elevation. Elands are among the very few mammals who venture up to this altitude, where extensive moorlands cover the slopes of the mountain.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Can recommend! 🐜 🐜 🐜
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Abel Bernadou @abelbernadou.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Excited to share my @currentbiology.bsky.social dispatch on the beautiful work from Tiphaine Bailly, @danielkronauer.bsky.social, @etf1989.bsky.social, and collaborators. They used the clonal raider ant to study how ants develop and maintain tolerance to non-nestmates. www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Tolerance toward foreigners in ants requires chronic exposure for establishment but only sporadic exposure for maintenance
Bailly et al. show that ants learn to tolerate genetically distinct non-nestmates through prolonged exposure. Once established, this tolerance persists with occasional re-encounters with ants of the s...
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Ants use specialized structures on their front legs, the tibial spurs, which act like fine combs and brushes, to clean their antennae. But how do they clean their front legs? Well, they pass them through their mouthparts every now and then for a thorough wipe down. Dinomyrmex gigas, Danum, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
A colony of Myrmecina (spinosa?) ants under a rock in Danum Valley, Sabah. Upon disturbance, the workers are picking up larvae and pupae, as well as the occasional male, to carry them to safety. Note how hairy the larvae are - they can literally stand on their hairs without touching the ground.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Ant art at VISTA, the Science Experience Center at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg. Inspired by the work of Sylvia Cremer’s group on ant social immunity.
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The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 09/04/2026
Rockefeller scientists, including @danielkronauer.bsky.social, Vanessa Ruta, Winrich Freiwald, Priya Rajasethupathy, and @erichjarvis.bsky.social, are learning what drives social behavior, and also trying to explain what happens when those roots falter. 🔗: bit.ly/47J2Q5h
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Reposted by Daniel Kronauer
Informationsdienst Wissenschaft - idw @idw-online.de · 09/04/2026
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena have identified the first brood pheromone in ants—thereby proving that larvae actively influence the colony’s reproduction.... weiterlesen
Ooceraea biroi - Copyright Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
The beautiful dewlap displays of anoles serve to defend territories and to attract mates. Here is a lady Dominican anole (Anolis oculatus) admiring her suitor’s efforts at Indian River 🇩🇲. Who wouldn’t melt away at the sight of that flashy wattle?!
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
A tale of two lizards 🦎🦎 Anole lizards are incredibly diverse, particularly in the Caribbean, where many islands harbor their own endemic species. For example, Dominica is home to Anolis oculatus, the Dominican anole. 1/3
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Nasute soldiers (soldiers with a long schnoz from which they can spray defensive compounds) guarding a foraging trail of the termite Longipeditermes longipes at Sepilok, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Dolichoderus affinis ants tending membracids for honeydew. Tambunan, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
A family of curious hyraxes at Mpala Research Centre in Kenya. While these guys superficially resemble marmots, they are actually more closely related to elephants, believe it or not.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
This greater blue-eared starling was annoying the heck out of a Günther’s dik-dik at Mpala Research Centre in Kenya. For a solid fifteen minutes, the impudent bird just wouldn’t leave the poor thing graze in peace. 1/3
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The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 24/03/2026
A study from Rockefeller's @danielkronauer.bsky.social in @currentbiology.bsky.social finds that ants continually update their sense of nestmate identity and tolerance for outsiders, a discovery that opens the door to studying the neural circuits behind social recognition. 🔗:https://bit.ly/4sukQIR
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Phigalia moths are harbingers of spring, ringing in a reawakening of insect life in New York each year. Needless to say that this scene in Woodstock last weekend lifted my spirits considerably. Btw, these are male moths - the Phigalia females have greatly reduced wings and cannot fly.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
What looks like an oil spill on a roadside puddle is in fact a gathering of thousands of springtails (Collembola). Video below…
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Ants are experts at telling nestmates from foreigners via subtle differences in odor profiles. In this new paper, we explore the conditions under which ants develop and maintain tolerance to foreigners. Turns out the ant recognition system is surprisingly plastic. www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Tolerance toward foreigners in ants requires chronic exposure for establishment but only sporadic exposure for maintenance
Bailly et al. show that ants learn to tolerate genetically distinct non-nestmates through prolonged exposure. Once established, this tolerance persists with occasional re-encounters with ants of the s...
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
In the tropics, “pioneer” trees (fast-growing species you see e.g. along the road side) are often “myrmecophytes”, housing ants that defend the tree against herbivores. Here is a sliced Macaranga stem, revealing a founding association of Crematogaster queens with their offspring. Sepilok, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
With about 100 species, the spiny ants of the genus Polyrhachis form the most diverse group of ants on Borneo. Here are two beautiful examples, the golden P. bihamata (look at those fishing hooks!) and the especially armed P. armata. Danum Valley, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
What’s this piece of art on the underside of a leaf you may ask?
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Thanks to micro-CT and www.antscan.info, you can now explore high resolution, 3D ant images from anywhere in the world. Fantastic work from Julian Katzke, Francisco Hita Garcia, @economo.bsky.social, Thomas van de Kamp and colleagues just dropped: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
antscan.info
Antscan
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
While photographing the zombie ants at Danum Valley, I noticed this funky larva chomping on and ultimately devouring the entire fungus stalk growing out of the ant’s head. I knew that Ophiocordyceps fungi have been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Turns out other animals consume them too.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Ophiocordyceps infections result in local “graveyards” of zombified ants, often on the underside of leaves in the low vegetation. The ant I posted yesterday actually shared its leaf with another zombie. Here’s the full scene.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Ophiocordyceps zombie fungi infect ants and manipulate their behavior. The ants climb up vegetation, anchor themselves by biting into a leaf, and die. Out of their head then grows a fungus stalk that releases spores into the environment. And so the cycle continues. Danum Valley, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Another picture of Diacamma, this time a worker at the nest entrance. Somehow this species seemed to construct unreasonably large entrance funnels (see how small the ant is in comparison). Danum Valley, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
A Diacamma ant foraging on a leaf in Danum Valley, Sabah. These ponerines are sometimes called fingerprint ants. You’ll see why if you zoom in and look at the cuticular sculpturing on the thorax and gaster.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
The workers of the giant forest ant (Dinomyrmex gigas) are polymorphic, i.e., they come in two sizes and shapes: The minors (first two pictures) and the majors (last two pictures). Both are huge though - minors just over two centimeters and majors up to three centimeters in body length.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Portrait of a giant forest ant (Dinomyrmex gigas). What an absolute puppy! 🐜 🐶 🐜 Danum Valley, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Stictoponera menadensis are not particularly small ants. However, they are completely dwarfed by their neighbors, the giant forest ants (Dinomyrmex gigas), whose large workers measure almost 3 cm in body size. Here, the two are foraging next to each other on a buttress root in Danum Valley, Sabah.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
A Stictoponera menadensis (subfamily Ectatomminae) worker foraging in the leaf litter at Danum Valley, Sabah, plus another specimen on white background. Colonies of this species often lack queens. Instead, unlike in most ants, workers can mate and take over egg laying as so-called “gamergates”.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
New York City snow day weather update @rockefeller.edu. It’s purty! ❄️ ⛄️
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Portraits of the Dolichoderus colony members inhabiting the epiphytic myrmecophyte (ant plant) in Danum Valley, Borneo: A queen, a worker, and a male.
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
My best photographs of 2025, a short thread. A tobacco hornworm on one of its favorite foods, a garden tomato plant (Texas, May 2025). This one makes the cut because it is more aesthetically pleasing than I was aiming for, somehow.
In middle of a graceful, fibonacci-curved spring tomato leaf sits a large green caterpillar in side view, its front curled as if in prayer, in an ethereal soft light, slightly backlit.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
After a night of heavy rains at Danum Valley, I found this alien meteorite that had fallen onto a trail.
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
One notable thing about Borneo is that there are sooo many leeches. They wait around on leaves and, when the unsuspecting myrmecologist lies down on the floor to watch ants, they jump off and crawl towards him. By the dozens. Ant hunting in Borneo is a bloody business. The leeches are pretty though.
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