Outreach

Naret Phansua Studio and I make educational films about ants and other insects. We animate different virtual species with realistic morphology.

WATCH THEM ON YOUTUBE

ANT LIFE (English channel)

Secrets de fourmis (French channel)

Evolution turned this ant into a living drillMelissotarsus has legs of might and mandibles of steel

Read our new article about the awesome Tunnelling Ant Melissotarsus in Africa

Melissotarsus, une fourmi foreuse de 2 millimètres

https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/la-une-de-la-science/la-une-de-la-science-04-septembre-2018

http://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/2018/10/05/01008-20181005ARTFIG00247-la-fourmi-a-grosse-tete-un-tunnelier-tres-efficace.php?utm_source=app&utm_medium=sms&utm_campaign=fr.playsoft.lefigarov3

I am a regular contributor to ANTWIKI (Wikipedia pages about ants written by scientists) http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Welcome_to_AntWiki

Many of my photos (field and laboratory) are used to illustrate different aspects of ant biology on the species pages. ANTWIKI has a page for each of the 15000 known species of ants.

In our educational films "Nous, les fourmis...", ants talk to us and explain their dailylife

Fourmis Version1.mov

F02.FR mate sperm.mp4

From simple gardening to industrial farming: the fungus growing ants

Animation documentary by C Peeters & JJ Boomsma (University of Copenhagen)

Directed by Naret Phansua (Kantep Studio)

Financed by European Research Council

During 50 million years, a remarkable series of adaptations led to a complex symbiosis between one lineage of ants (254 species in 16 genera) and a basidiomycete fungus. Once genetically isolated from its free-living relatives (the fruiting bodies giving way to nutrient-storing hyphae), the fungus evolved detoxifying enzymes to digest fresh leaves. Atta ants evolved bigger colonies and a division of labour based on workers of different sizes.

Pour expliquer l’évolution de l’agriculture chez une lignée de fourmis néotropicales, des ouvrières appartenant à trois genres décrivent la vie quotidienne avec le champignon qui est leur nourriture exclusive. La symbiose entre les fourmis et un champignon inféodé s’est progressivement complexifiée au cours de 50 millions d’années. Une fois le champignon isolé génétiquement des souches apparentées qui vivent librement, des enzymes ont évolué pour digérer les feuilles fraîches. De leur côté, les fourmis Atta ont évolué des colonies gigantesques avec un travail en chaîne impliquant un éventail de tailles d’ouvrières.

Cooperative foraging in insect societies

Predation on large millipedes and self-assembling chains in Leptogenys ants from Cambodia

The Internet was briefly abuzz in 2014 with videos of the bluish Leptogenys cyanicatena using long chains to retrieve giant millipedes in South East Asia. Stéphane De Greef and I first observed this in Cambodia (June 2010). Stéphane posted a video on YouTube that has been viewed 7.8 million times. Peeters & De Greef (2015 Insectes Sociaux) described this foraging behaviour in more detail.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00040-015-0426-2

An early essay (2008) examining the reasons underlying the evolutionary success of ants. This was later published: Peeters C & Ito F (2015) Wingless and dwarf workers underlie the ecological success of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 21: 117–130.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.833726

Video of a public conference in Rennes (September 2014): Why are ants so successful?

Monnin T & Peeters C (2007) Fourmis ouvrières au pouvoir. La Recherche 405: 58–61.

Monnin T, Peeters C & Doums C (2007) Conflits sociaux. Sciences et Avenir (hors–série) 152: 56–60.

Peeters C (2008) Pourquoi les fourmis ont-elles réussi? Découverte 354: 34–45.

Peeters C (2010) Une formidable diversification alimentaire. Le Courrier de la Nature – Spécial Fourmis 250: 21–29.

Molet M & Peeters C (2010) La reproduction des colonies. Le Courrier de la Nature – Spécial Fourmis 250: 30–37.

Peeters C & Wiwatwitaya D (2012) Weaver ants – the marvellous architects. Asian Geographic 92(7): 92–95.

Monnin T, Espadaler X, Lenoir A & Peeters C (2013) Guide des Fourmis de France. L'indispensable guide des Fous de Nature, Belin. 160 p. ISBN 978–2–7011–6471–7

Peeters C (2013) Fourmis géantes ou minuscules, le jeu de l'Évolution. Découverte 388: 36–47.

Peeters, C. (2013) Fourmis géantes ou minuscules, le jeu de l'Évolution. Découverte 388: 36–47.

Ants adapted to desert life

Extract from the ARTE film "Survivors of heat" filmed in the Sahara desert with Cataglyphis bombycina "Silver Ants"

Directed by Vincent Amouroux (Mona Lisa Productions)

Original in French "Vivre en Enfer: créatures du chaud" October 2011

Arte Sahara EN%.mp4

Guide des Fourmis de France (2013)

A field guide about the 100 most common ants in France, describing their habits and geographical distributions. Fully illustrated.

by Monnin T, Espadaler X, Lenoir A & Peeters C

Sexual workers and dominance interactions in queenless ants

FILM PEETERS Palais%.mp4

I studied "queenless ants" for many years, species in which queens have been eliminated, and workers interact aggressively to determine which individual will mate (with a foreign male) and lay eggs. My experimental approach is here shown in laboratory colonies of Diacamma scalpratum and Streblognathus peetersi.

This short film was created for a temporary exhibition on Ants and Termites at the Science Museum in Paris (2008).

Guide to the ants of Madagascar (2019)

Madagascar has over 1300 ant species, the result of > 80 million years of isolation from continental Africa and Asia. This guide covers their natural history and ecology, distribution patterns, and how to identify specimens to genera. Two of the most aggressive ant groups found in Africa and Asia, army ants (Aenictus and Dorylus) and arboreal weaver ants (Oecophylla and Polyrhachis) are absent in Madagascar, and this allowed striking radiation of other lineages. You can read more about this guide on the Myrmecological News blog

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