Lab News: December, 2019: The Longino lab is recruiting graduate students. The general theme of the lab is ant diversity. Applicants should be interested in ant taxonomy, systematics, and/or ecology, but also able to address general topics in ecology and evolution. Resources include a large collection of mostly Neotropical ants suitable for molecular work, an imaging station, and access to a molecular lab. Funding is available to provide RA support. RA activity will involve training and lab work in phylogenomic methods, including targeted enrichment and sequencing of ultraconserved elements. The application deadline is January 3 for enrollment in Fall 2020. https://www.biology.utah.edu/graduate/eeob/apply.php. August 2019: Dr. John Lattke (middle) visits the Longino lab. Rodolfo Probst (right) and I host John for ten days in the lab. John is from the Universidade Federal do Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil. He has been scouring the collection for Leptogenys and Gnamptogenys. 28 July 2018: Earlier this year in Monteverde, Costa Rica, I found a live colony of Acanthognathus ocellatus. This is a Neotropical ant that is a specialist predator of Collembola (springtails). They are rare, and few people have seen them alive, much less capturing prey. I made some videos of them catching springtails, retrieving prey, and feeding larvae.
13 Jan 2014: Undergrad assistant Mac Pierce sends ants into space! Mac provided a colony of Tetramorium caespitum (pavement ants) that headed to the International Space Station on 9 Jan. See news article here.
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