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  • <i>Camponotus</i> ants with color labels on thorax and abdomen
Chair of Behavioral Physiology & Sociobiology

Ant facility

The Chair of Behavioural Physiology and Sociobiology, University of Würzburg, maintains one of the worldwide largest collection of living ant colonies for scientific research. Currently we successfully rear more than 80 well-established ant colonies in our climatic rooms, encompassing 30 leaf-cutting ant colonies of different Atta and Acromyrmex species, several species of the cosmopolitan genus Camponotus, European wood ants, desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis and others. Many colonies are at present reared for more than 15 years in the laboratory, attesting the rearing under healthy conditions as needed for reliable research.

 

Leaf-cutting ants (<i>Atta sexdens</i>) cutting leafs
Several leaf-cutting at species (Atta, Acromyrmex) are supplied year-round with fresh leaf material
Two <i>Camponotus</i> ants feeding each other
Camponotus ants transfer food and information via trophallaxis

The research projects on ants focus on both the mechanisms underlying social behaviour and its adaptive value, and involve the use of methods ranging from biochemistry, neurobiology, behavioural physiology and ecology.

Carpenter ant (<i>Camponotus</i>) queen carrying an egg package with its mandibles
Regularly new ant colonies are successfully established under laboratory conditions
Petri dish with <i>Camponotus</i> ants individually labeled using tiny pieces of paper glue to the thorax of the ants
Individual labels allow for detailed behavioral observations