Hello social insect fans,

It is my pleasure to introduce the new social media editing duo for Insectes Sociaux, Bernadette Wittwer and Madison Sankovitz, coming to you from Australia and the United States respectively. Having worked with them over the last month to hand over the reins to the Insectes Sociaux social media accounts, I can tell you that they have lots of exciting things planned for you, including an Instagram account (@insectessociaux)!

Madison Sankoviz

I am an entomology Ph.D. student in the Purcell Lab at the University of California Riverside. My research interests are the ecological interactions and biogeography of ants. With a passion for insects and understanding the dynamics of changing ecosystems, I am interested in answering questions of what social and behavioral traits allow survival in the extremes of latitudinal and elevational gradients in Formica ants. I also explore ant-mediated soil manipulation. Passionate about teaching and communicating science to the public, I am the graduate student coordinator for our department’s outreach program. I received a B.A. in ecology and evolutionary biology from University of Colorado Boulder, where I studied the effects of Formica podzolica ant colonies on soil moisture, nitrogen, and plant communities. Not only am I constantly inspired by the research of other social insect scientists, but I admire their enthusiasm for the natural world. I look forward to highlighting future publications and investigating the stories behind them as a social media editor for Insectes Sociaux!

Bernadette Wittwer

I am an evolutionary biologist with research interests in broad evolutionary transitions. I competed undergrad and honours at the University of Queensland. My honours research examined the evolution of feeding behaviour in crocodilians, with a focus on Isisfordia duncani, a 90-million-year old crocodile from western Queensland, Australia. After honours I moved to the University of Melbourne and undertook my Ph.D. looking at the evolution of communication in bees. Bees have an extraordinary depth of behavioural diversity and it is through them that I was introduced to the wonderful complexities of insects that live in groups. My research has particularly focussed on antennal structures and how bee species have adjusted their investment in communication as they have evolved different social behaviours. Through my research I’ve been grateful to work with and meet so many enthusiastic social insect researchers and I look forward to exposing more wonderful social insect research through Insectes Sociaux’s social media channels.

The best part of this role has been working with all the contributors to the blog and our interviewees. Thank you again to all of you that have participated.

If you are interested in blogging or interviewing, do not hesitate to contact Bernie and Madison via Twitter (@InsSociaux), Facebook, or via email at bernie.inssoc@gmail.com and madisoninsectessociaux@gmail.com.

IS: Who are you and what do you do?

RK: My name is Roberto Keller. I grew up in Mexico City where I majored in Biology, later pursuing a PhD in Entomology up north in the USA, and since the past decade I live in Lisbon, Portugal, currently working at the Nacional Museum of Natural History. I’m a comparative anatomist that specializes in ants.

IS: How did you end up researching social insects?

RK: Back at the University in Mexico the people in our group of insect enthusiasts was choosing which taxon to specialize on. Most of my peers were drawn to shiny scarab beetles, some into colourful butterflies, but I loathed those clichés so I placed my attention into all those little brownish ants running around. Once I looked at them under the stereoscope I was surprised at how elegant and varied ants can be. I was instantly hooked. Oh, that and the fact that I never liked to mount insects with wings because getting them to look right is just a pain.

IS: What is your favourite social insect and why?

RK: Neoponera apicalis. This is an ant species that lives in the tropical forests from Mexico to South America. The workers are large, matte black, with the tip of their antennae light yellow. Workers forage alone on the shaded damp forest floor, so you only see a pair of yellow antennal tips dancing around. The first time I saw one I was so excited that I grabbed with my bare hand. Their sting feels like a painful electroshock.

IS: What is the best moment/discovery in your research so far? What made it so memorable?

RK: I was once reading a short paper comparing the external morphology of queens versus workers in an ant species. The whole discussion was off because the authors had wrongly assumed that the largest thoracic segment in workers was the fusion of the first and second segments when compared to queens. My first reaction was to rail against the authors for making what I consider an obvious mistake. It later hit me that not only was their error quite understandable, but that it pointed to a remarkable difference between those two castes that had been in front of me for years but I had been blind about until that moment.

That turned into a productive research project and taught me to keep a keen eye and question the obvious. I learned a lot from that short paper even with its errors, and I think that this is how science keeps moving forward— we built upon the work of others and hope that the next person who comes will be able to solve the things we were too short sighted to see.

IS: If teaching is part of your work, what courses do you teach? Has your work on social insects helped to shape your teaching?

RK: I teach courses in general Entomology and, once in a while, on ant morphology. I can’t think of a way in which studying social insects has influence my teaching. I often forget that ants are social, it’s bad. That is why I have collaborators: to remind me.

IS: What is the last book you read? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?

RK: I’m finishing Steven Pinker’s latest book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. It is appalling to me seeing that we live in a very modern society, and yet we have political extremes converging on pure irrationally. This is a good book to remind people how much science has benefit humankind as a whole, but I’m afraid the people who will read it already know this.

IS: Did any one book have a major influence in shaping your career? What was the book and how did it affect you?

RK: Once I was hooked learning about ants during college I got myself a copy of Hölldobler and Wilson’s The Ants, which had been recently published. The dedication reads “For the next generation of myrmecologists.” I felt they were talking directly to me and that dispelled any doubts I still had about following a career in social insects. So at the end I am that cliché I was trying to avoid.

IS: Outside of science, what are your favourite activities, hobbies or sports?

RK: I’m a portrait photographer. I’m intrigued about people, and portraiture allows me to sit down for a brief face to face conversation and try to capture that interaction through an image.

IS: How do you keep going when things get tough?

RK: I like to follow the advice of philosopher Paul Feyerabend:

“If you want to achieve something, if you want to write a book, paint a picture, be sure that the center of your existence is somewhere else and that it’s solidly grounded; only then will you be able to keep your cool and laugh at the attacks that are bound to come.”

IS: If you were to go live on an uninhabited island and could only bring three things, what would you bring? Why?

RK: Hmm, can’t think of any objects that will make sense with the prospect of solitude other than hemlock.

IS: Who do you think has had the greatest influence on your science career?

RK: My parents. Both chemists, they created a growing environment for my siblings and me in which science was a natural part of life.

IS: What advice would you give to a young person hoping to be a social insect researcher in the future?

RK: Don’t grab large social insects with your bare hands. Unless they are termites. Termites are always safe to grab.