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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

A. senilis shows mostly submissive behaviour, possibly a smart conflict-avoidance strategy given the risks of engaging with T. darioi.

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

M. barbarus is the most aggressive species, especially toward conspecifics. Minor workers are fiercer than majors.

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

We see that T. darioi quietly takes over without being particularly aggressive 🤔 It uses a classic "back-seat driver" strategy. Low overt aggression in lab assays, but high nest density and supercoloniality lead to gradual displacement of A. senilis nests over winter and spring.

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

We monitored 106 ant colonies over 6 months on the UAB campus to ask how three dominant Mediterranean ant species Aphaenogaster senilis, Messor barbarus and Tapinoma darioi coexist in an urban grassland.

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

🐜 New paper out in Insectes Sociaux led by my student @pgonzalezlleida.bsky.social!

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

9/10 Our results suggest maternal endocrine state can shape brood outcomes in ways workers must actively counteract — especially in supercolonies where workers may rear the offspring of completely unrelated queens.

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

8/10 So what's happening? Queens try to bias brood toward their own sexuals via JH signalling. Workers counter by detecting and cannibalizing excess reproductive larvae. A true evolutionary arms race — playing out inside a single ant nest. 🔄

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

7/10 Crucially, workers only start culling larvae in the last instars. This is the first time the precise developmental window for worker assessment of caste fate has been identified in this species. ⏱️

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

6/10 Key result #2: More queens in the colony = more larval cannibalization, regardless of brood quantity. Larvae in 10-queen colonies were 4.3× more likely to be cannibalized than in single-queen colonies. Workers regulate the queen/worker ratio actively. 📈

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

5/10 Key result #1: Queens treated with methoprene (high JH) had significantly MORE larvae cannibalized by workers compared to the precocene group. Workers can apparently detect that something is off — and act on it. 👀

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

4/10 We experimentally manipulated Juvenile Hormone (JH) signalling in queens: ➕ Methoprene → mimics high JH (more queen-destined brood) ➖ Precocene II → blocks JH synthesis (less queen-destined brood) Then tracked brood production & worker cannibalization.

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

3/10 Our model system: Tapinoma darioi, a supercolonial Mediterranean ant with high polygyny and near-zero relatedness among nestmate queens. A perfect arena for reproductive conflict to play out. 🐜🐜🐜

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

2/10 In ant colonies, queens and workers have conflicting evolutionary interests over how many larvae become new queens vs. workers. In supercolonies with many unrelated queens, this conflict is especially intense — each queen "wants" more of her own sexuals reared. ⚔️

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

🧵 1/10 New paper out in Behav Ecol Sociobiol! We investigated how ant queens use hormones to cheat their nestmates — and how workers fight back. Saureu et al. 2026 @danisaureu.bsky.social

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Reposted by Ricardo Caliari Oliveira

Evolution Letters @evolletters.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Early-season helping in Polistes wasps shows increasing returns - more helpers lead to convex gains in sexual productivity, resolving a key paradox in the origins of eusociality. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic... @ricaliari.bsky.social @twenseleers.bsky.social

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Ricardo Caliari Oliveira @ricaliari.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

I'm really happy that this paper is finally out. We combined experimental and theoretical data to study how helper behaviour may have facilitated the onset of eusociality. Check it out in the thread!! 🐝

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Reposted by Ricardo Caliari Oliveira

Dani Saureu @danisaureu.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Had an absolute blast sharing our research on juvenile hormone & caste fate conflict in the Argentine ant at this year's NW IUSSI @iussi-nwes.bsky.social Always an amazing chance to talk science with some of the best minds in the field 🐜⚔️🐜 #IUSSI #IUSSI2024 #ants

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Reposted by Ricardo Caliari Oliveira

FLOWer Lab 🌸🍒 🐝 🪰🔬🧬 @flowerlab.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

📚🐝 Discover the new book on the bees of Portugal! The book "Chaves Dicotómicas dos Genneros de Abelhas de Portugal" has been published by the UC Press. Coordinated by Hugo Gaspar from the FLOWer Lab, you can download the book in here (in PT): monographs.uc.pt/iuc/catalog/...

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Reposted by Ricardo Caliari Oliveira

Volker Nehring @volkernehring.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

#Ants hold a grudge – they remember who attacked them and fight back harder against those enemy colonies! Our new paper led by Melanie Bey is now published @currentbiology.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...