27 March 2026
First record of Brachyponera chinensis in Germany!
An all-star student-team of the Rabeling Lab discovered a new invasive ant species in Germany. In 2024, Max Härtel, David Grunicke, and Benni Palm discovered Brachyponera chinensis (photo: A. Bellersheim, SMNS) , the Asian needle ant, in the Wilhelma Zoo-Botanical Garden in Stuttgart. A year later, the Asian needle ant was also found during a BioBlitz in the Rosenstein Park in Stuttgart. Finding these ants outside of greenhouses in two consecutive years suggests that colonies are capable of surviving the local winter. Therefore, the spread of this new invasive ant needs to be monitored closely.
To describe their discovery, Max, David, and Benni teamed up with colleagues from the Natural History Museums in Stuttgart and Frankfurt. The scientific paper reporting their findings just appeared in the journal Zootaxa.
Link to the paper: https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5785.1.11
11 March 2026
Congratulations to Philipp Bauer!
In a beautiful presentation Philipp shared the results of his Master's thesis research with the lab. Philipp decided to study the biology of the minute thief ant Solenopsis fugax. Interestingly, this species has been discovered and described 228 years ago but to this day the biology of this species is not known in detail. Interesting hypotheses exist that Central European Solenopsis fugax represent multiple species, one of which is a cletoparasite whereas the other one is a predator. Philipp systematically tested these hypothesis and can now paint a clearer picture about the biology of these tiny thief ants. Philipp's project is a great example how clarly laid out hypotheses and behavioral tests can results into fasvinatng new insights of a species that has been known to entomologists for a couple of centuries.
Beautiful work, Philipp, and congratulations on successfully defedning your Master Thesis!
03 December 2025
David Grunicke successfully defended his Bachelor's Thesis!
Today, David presented his research that he accomplished as part his Bachelor's Thesis to the lab. David conducted an impressive amount of work revising the taxonomy of army ant relatives, i.e., ants in the subfamily Dorylinae, from the South Pacific Island archipelago Vanuatu. David used an integrative approach to taxonomy delineating multiple new species. The forthcoming study is going to shed more light on the surprisingly rich ant biodiversity of Vanuatu. Stay tuned for more...
Congratulations to David, for successfully completing a very substantial Bachelor's Thesis!
Oktober 2025
Congratulations to Sarah von Adelmannsfelden!
Sarah successfully finished her Master's Studies at the University Hohenheim. Her thesis work explored the evolution of social parasitisms in vespine wasps. Sarah's study resulted into a beautiful thesis, which should see the light of publication soon. Thank you for suggesting this thesis topic, which gave all of us an opportunity to learn about the "other social insects."
We also want to congratulate Sarah on receiving a prestigious fellowship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes! Sarah will continue her scientific career at the University of Freiburg in Peter Biedermann's lab.
We are sad to see Sarah move on, but we wish her much success for doctoral dissertation in Freiburg! It was was wonderful to have her as a lab member and we learnt a lot, not only about wasps!
Congratulations Sarah on finishing a beautiful Master's Thesis and being awarded an excellent fellowship!
25 June 2025
A new social parasite species from North America
The North American inquiline social parasites in the genus Monomorium are among the rarest ants in the world! The three previously known species are only known from the original collections at their type localities dating back as early as 1893. in collaboration with Stefan Cover, we described a new, forth inquiline social parasite species that was discovered in New Mexico. Very little is known about the biology of these ants. Should YOU be so lucky and find a mixed colony of Monomorium ants and their social parasites, please take careful notes so will learn more (or something!) about the biology and life history of these mysterious creatures.
Link to the paper in ZooKeys:
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1243.145744
08 May 2025
Congratulations to the freshly-minted Dr. Daniela Mera-Rodríguez!
Today, Daniela successfully defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Hohenheim. The audience and her committee loved Daniela's talk, were impressed by the depths and breadth of Daniela's research, and agreed that Daniela more than deserves her very well-earned Ph.D.! What a joyful day for Daniela and the entire Lab!
Please join me in congratulating Daniela. We are all very curious to learn about the next highlights in Daniela's academic journey.
Congratulations, Daniela!
02 May 2025
Breaking Bad! (Boll)
To get a break from the usual hustle & bustle of the semester, we secluded in Bad Boll. In addition to peace and quiet, we found a welcoming staff, excellent food, awesome hiking trails, amazing fossils, and excellent ants. The lab retreat was a real treat for all of us!
29 March 2025
New paper about evolution of the hyperdiverse ant subfamily Myrmicinae
A new paper in collaboration with Matt Prebus at ASU came out in Systematic Biology. This fossil-calibrated phylogeny infers the biogeography and evolution of the ant subfamily Myrmicinae, tests conflicting hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships between tribes in hyperdiverse Myrmicinae, and resolves the timing of major evolutionary events in the subfamily. Interestingly, the study shows that the placement of a single fossil (i.e., Manica andrannae) has a broad-scale effect on the overall divergence timing in the entire subfamily Myrmicinae.
Link to the Sys Bio paper:
27 December 2024
New study reveals diversity and evolution in Acromyrmex leaf-cuttings ants
Congrats to Daniela Mera-Rodríguez, who published the next chapter of her doctoral dissertation! This paper carefully dissects the diversity and evolutionary history of the Acromyrmex octospinosus species complex. Daniela's study reveals that all previously described species and subspecies in this complex belong to a single, panmictic, biological species, Acromyrmex octospinosus. In addition, its social parasite, Acromyrmex insinuator, was also supported as a "good" species, which speciated in direct sympatry from its host while sharing the same nest space approx. 1 Million years ago. Daniela's integrative study approach solved a biological puzzle which has been discussed in the literature for more than 100 years!
Link to the paper in Systematic Entomology:
https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12665
Daniela's interview with editors of Myrmecological News:
11 December 2024
Congratulations to Tobias Pfeifer!
Tobi is the 1st Bachelor student to graduate from our new lab at the University of Hohenheim! He developed a wonderful thesis project that went far beyond the scope of a Bachelor's Thesis. Tobi explored the diversity and evolutionary history of Strumigenys ants in the South Pacific Island archipelago Vanuatu. He reconstructed the evolutionary history of Strumigenys ants using phylogenomic markers and discovered several new species endemic to Vanuatu. He (and all of us) are very excited about the study results, which Tobi will explore in more detail during his Master's. Excellent work, Tobi, and best of skills for further developing your scientific career. Your are off to a great start!
Congratulations, Tobi!
04 October 2024
New paper about ant-fungus co-evolution in Science
As part of a team of international collaborators, we reconstructed a comprehensive phylogeny for the mutualistic fungi that are cultivated by fungus-growing ants. The new study infers the co-evolutionary dynamics of ants and fungi in detail and suggests that the ant-fungus mutualism emerged after the end-Cretaceous extinction.
The paper appeared in Science:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn7179
01 September 2024
Congratulations to Matt Prebus !!
As of September 1st, Matt Prebus, myrmecologist-extraordinaire, started his new job as Assistant Professor and Curator of the Ant Collection at Arizona State University's Natural History Collections. At ASU, Matt will study the diversity , taxonomy, and biology of the Sonoran Desert ants.
Congratulations on landing this wonderful position, Matt!
30 July 2024
Evolution Meeting in Montréal
A small congregation of the Rabeling Lab ventured out to Canada to take part in the 3rd Joint Conference on Evolutionary Biology in Montréal. Daniela and I had a blast, met old friends and colleagues, and were able to enjoy amazing research in evolutionary biology that is happening around the globe. One of the outstanding talks was presented by Daniela!
12 July 2024
Fun in Lausanne!
The Rabeling Lab participated the Conference of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects. Daniela, Samyuktha, Dietrich, and Kyle gave beautiful presentations sharing results from their ongoing research projects. Lausanne was the perfect spot for a conference, and Cleo Bertelsmeier and her team did everything possible to turn this meeting into a huge success. Thank you for hosting a great social insect meeting!
02 July 2024
Inaugural Entomology Field Trip to the Vinschgau in South Tirol!
In close collaboration with Georg Petschenka (U. Hohenheim) and Robert Trusch (State Museum of Natural History Karsruhe), we launched a student excursion to the Vinschgau in South Tirol. The students (and we) had great fun hunting for insects all day and (some) all night long. What made this field trip special was the participation of a group of expert Lepidopterologists, who have been exploring this region for decades. They happily shared their entomological wisdom, and we all learned a lot about light trapping techniques, as well as butterfly mounting and identification. What an awesome field trip! We hope to able to offer this field course again next summer semester!
15 May 2024
First confirmed inquiline social parasite species in dolichoderine ants
Some research projects are like fine red wine... After years of intensive labor, Stefan Cover and I finally published the description of four new inquiline social parasite species in the odorous ants, the subfamily Dolichoderinae. These new species are from North America and interestingly, they exhibit different social parasitic life history strategies.
The paper appeared in ZooKeys:
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1202.120478
KomBioTa News reported [in German]:
20 December 2023
Congratulations to Matt Prebus and our international team of collaborators! Having been able to conduct field research in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains (see Matt's photo of Manica Meadow to the right) was already a treat, but re-discovering Manica parasitica was the icing on our cake! If you like to read the full story about this putative social parasite, which is itself parasitized by a tapeworm, please find a link to the paper in Biology Letters here:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0399
16 June 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Kyle Gray!
Today Kyle successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at Arizona State University. Kyle gave a wonderful presentation about his research on the biogeography of socially parasitic ants and ants of the South Pacific island archipelago Vanuatu. Both his committee and the audience very impressed by Kyle's exciting and in-depth studies.
Excellent work, Dr. Kyle! Congratulations on this wonderful achievement!!!
08 June 2023
Daniela Mera-Rodríguez publishes her paper "Biogeography and evolution of social parasitism in Australian Myrmecia bulldog ants revealed by phylogenomics" in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution !
Daniela's interview with Myrmecological News : https://blog.myrmecologicalnews.org/2023/08/24/biogeography-and-evolution-of-social-parasitism-in-bulldog-ants/
Link to the paper : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790323001252?via%3Dihub
KomBioTa News : https://kombiota.uni-hohenheim.de/en/news-detail?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=60602&cHash=84aa970042ebfa2f8f2d9b0369727fa4
04 April 2023
Kyle Gray wins the inaugural 2023 Mary Jane West -Eberhard Best Paper Award from the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI) with his article "Global biogeography of ant social parasites: Exploring patterns and mechanisms of an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient" ( https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14528 ).
Journal of Biogeography feature : https://journalofbiogeographynews.org/2023/02/13/ecr-feature-kyle-william-gray/
IUSSI : https://iussi.cyberbee.net/2023/04/2023-mary-jane-west-ebarhard-award/
KomBioTa News : https://kombiota.uni-hohenheim.de/en/news-detail?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=59476&cHash=12f8eb211836b6dac29b1183439e5f3d
