Programme
Programme
27 August (Wednesday)
11:00 – Participant registration
14:00–14:15 – Opening remarks
14:15–15:15 – Plenary talk (Eva Schultner: Developmental plasticity in ants)
15:15–15:45 – Coffee break
15:45–16:50 – Oral presentations (Ecology and Invasion Biology)
18:00 – Welcome reception and dinner
28 August (Thursday)
10:00–11:00 – Plenary talk (Magdalena Witek: Insights into ant social organization and behaviour through the study of Myrmica ants)
11:00–11:30 – Coffee break
11:30–12:30 – Oral presentations (Behaviour and Cognition)
13:00–14:30 – Lunch at the venue
14:30–15:35 – Oral presentations (Colony Organization)
16:15–18:15 – Guided city tour
18:30–18:55 – Poster session
19:00 – Social dinner
29 August (Friday)
10:00–11:00 – Plenary talk (Olli Loukola: Flexible but simple? Cooperation and tool use in bumblebee cognition)
11:00–11:30 – Coffee break
11:30–12:30 – Oral presentations (Insect-Microbe Interactions)
13:00–14:30 – Lunch at the venue
14:30–15:35 – Oral presentations (Chemical Ecology)
15:35–16:05 – Coffee break
16:15–17:30 – General Assembly of the CE section of the IUSSI
30 August (Saturday)
9:00–16:00 – Post-workshop trip to Tőserdő (lunch included; departure from the venue)
Schedule of oral presentations
27 August, Wednesday (Ecology and Invasion Biology)
15:45–16:00 – Ádám Lőrincz: Community organization of ants and plants in complex landscapes
16:00–16:15 – Tiago V. Fernandes: Argentine ant control has no immediate impact on scavenging and seed removal
16:15–16:30 – Salena Husband: Quality over quantity? Helianthus annuus hybrid nutrients shape Bombus terrestris colony development
16:30–16:45 – Srikrishna Narasimhan: Evolution of invasive supercolonies: new introductions and geographic isolation impact invasiveness of Argentine ants in Europe
16:45–16:50 – Kata Anna Bán: Service from beyond – direct evidence for cannibalistic necrophagy in ants (Blitz presentation)
28 August, Thursday (Behaviour and Cognition)
11:30–11:45 – Marta Golańska: Effects of ethanol consumption on cognitive judgment bias in honeybee
11:45–12:00 – Fanni Pécsy: Seasonal variation in host ant aggressiveness elicited by different social parasite types
12:00–12:15 – Tristan Robineau: Locomotor behavioural variations during the open field test: disentangling the effects of time and exploration
12:15–12:30 – István Elek Maák: Latent learning in a tool using ant species
28 August, Thursday (Colony Organization)
14:30–14:45 – Volker Nehring: Supercolony formation in invasive Tapinoma magnum ants
14:45–15:00 – Marie Christine Seidel: Evaluating the risk of biopesticide tank mixtures in social and solitary bees
15:00–15:15 – Maximilian Bolder: Behavioural and transcriptomic variation among queens in polygynous colonies of Stigmatomma ants
15:15–15:30 – Bálint Markó: Distribution of mound building Formica species in Romania – a historical perspective
15:30–15:35 – David Moreno Martínez: Keeping the antenna clean: a key feature in social immunity? (Blitz presentation)
29 August, Friday (Insect-Microbe Interactions)
11:30–11:45 – Mina Hojat Ansari: Beyond the gut: exploring head-associated microbiota in Cryptotermes termites using a FAIR metagenomic workflow
11:45–12:00 – Silvio Erler: The yeast core microbiome of the oligolectic ground-nesting bee Andrena vaga
12:00–12:15 – Baptiste Nézel: Fitness consequences of an alien fungal infection on an invasive ant species in Europe
12:15–12:30 – Elisa Kathe: The tale of bees and blossoms… and tailocin-mediated interactions within their microbiomes
29 August, Friday (Chemical Ecology)
14:30–14:45 – Michaela Hönigsberger: Ant pupae signal sickness by a complex change in their chemical profile
14:45–15:00 – Thomas Schmitt: Adaptations of cuticular hydrocarbons to heat and drought stress in social insects
15:00–15:15 – Gema Trigos-Peral: Feeding for the heat: nutritional modulation of thermal resistance in ants
15:15–15:30 – Selina Huthmacher: Managing conflicting functions: chemical and physical properties of ant cuticular hydrocarbons
15:30–15:35 – Tanvi Madaan: Does social immunity come at a cost of immunopathology? (Blitz presentation)
Field Excursion (30 August, Saturday)
The field excursion will take place in Tőserdő, a small natural reserve that is part of the Kiskunság National Park. The wildlife of the area recalls the conditions before the 19th-century river regulations in Hungary. Its diversity is provided by the Szikra and Alpár oxbow lakes of the Tisza River, and the gallery and swamp forests, floodplain marshes, and marsh meadows that accompany the oxbows.
Tőserdő reserve, with an oxbow lake of the Tisza River.
Nature trails and marked hiking paths offer excellent opportunities to explore the surrounding nature. The most striking of them is the 3.5 km long ʻKontyvirág Nature Trailʼ, which we will visit during the excursion. The trail’s higher terrain preserves the rare oak–ash–elm hardwood gallery forests that once lined the Tisza River. In the undergrowth thrives the rare lords-and-ladies (Arum maculatum), while tree trunks and canopies are home to grey-headed and black woodpeckers. In lower-lying, flood-prone areas, remnant softwood forests composed of willows and poplars serve as habitats for owls and rare bat species.
A section of the Kontyvirág Nature Trail.
The open water surfaces and backwaters of the oxbow lakes are adorned with beautiful aquatic plants, such as white water lilies. A rare and ancient inhabitant of these areas is the weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis), now a protected species due to the drastic reduction of its natural habitat following historical river regulations in Hungary.
Regarding social insects, the high density and diversity of habitats support a wide variety of wasps, bees, and ants, making the area an ideal destination for insect collection. To facilitate this, we will provide Eppendorf tubes filled with ethanol prior to departure.
What to bring: boots, hat, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, plenty of water, and good mood.
Lunch will be served on site at a local restaurant.
