ClimAnts at Entomology 2025
Jelena, Marko, and Antonia attended Entomology 2025, organised by the Entomological Society of America, in Portland, Oregon, from November 9 to 12. The four-day conference brought together over 3,000 scientists from around the world to exchange ideas and discuss various areas of insect research.
Jelena, along with Victor Gonzales and Karl Roeder, organised a symposium “Ecophysiology of Social Insects”. The session featured the newest research on ecophysiology, with talks primarily focusing on ants and bees. During the break, we chatted with the poster presenters, and the discussions were so engaging that it was hard to go back to the second set of talks. Jelena presented her research, with an emphasis on our ongoing project looking at thermal adaptations of Mediterranean ants. After the symposium, there was so much more to discuss, so we had no choice but to continue over beers in one of Portland’s breweries.
Marko also gave a talk about our current project, but from a perspective on how insects use behaviour to cope with global warming. It demonstrated how drone thermal imaging can detect fine-scale thermal variation that ants could use to avoid heat stress while foraging. Marko was most influenced by talks on how climate change impacts insect biodiversity. The data on insect loss was scary, but it was encouraging to hear we can still make a difference, especially by raising awareness of insects’ importance. The more intimate symposium Jelena organised allowed him to meet leading researchers in thermal ecology and receive valuable feedback.
Antonia presented her meta-analysis on how anthropogenic pollutants affect the survival, fitness, and foraging behavior of social insects. Her poster really caught people’s attention, and since the work is ongoing, she collected lots of great advice and ideas from other researchers. The Physiology, Behavior, and Toxicology section was fantastic, she connected with many researchers whose work closely mirrors her interests. While bees predictably dominated most discussions, the occasional talks on ants truly stole the show, especially when cool videos of them fighting, foraging, or just, you know, existing were shown.
P. S. Look who visited us! The organisers certainly know how to make biologists happy after a long day at the conference.
