Ant Course Yearbook 2014

Himender Bharti, Department of Zoology and Environmental Sciences, Punjabi University Patiala, Punjab, India, 147002, himenderbharti@gmail.com

Arthur Chung, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah, Malaysia, arthur.chung@sabah.gov.my

Flavia Esteves, Dept. of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, 94118, flaviaesteves@gmail.com

Brian Fisher, Dept. of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, 94118, bfisher@calacademy.org

Dave General, University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna, Philippines, bzb43@yahoo.com

Benoit Guénard, Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, 904-0495, Japan, zeroben@gmail.com

Roberto Keller, Museu de História Natural e da Ciência, Lisbon, Portugal, roberto.kellerperez@gmail.com

Laurent Keller, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, Laurent.Keller@unil.ch

Jack Longino, Department of Biology, 257 S 1400 E, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, longinoj@evergreen.edu

Corrie Moreau, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, cmoreau@fieldmuseum.org

Christian Peeters, Laboratoire Ecologie & Evolution, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris France, cpeeters@snv.jussieu.fr

Simon Robson, Director, Centre for Tropical Biodiversity, James Cook University, Australia, Simon.Robson@jcu.edu.au

Eli Sarnat, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, e.sarnat@gmail.com

Steve Shattuck, MCZ, and CSIRO Entomology, Australian Nat’l Insect Collection, P.O. Box 1700, Canbera, ACT 2601, Australia, southernants@gmail.com

Andy Suarez, Departments of Entomology and Animal Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, avsuarez@life.uiuc.edu

Walter Tschinkel, Department of Biological Science Florida State University Tallahassee, FL. USA, tschinkel@bio.fsu.edu

Phil Ward, Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, psward@ucdavis.edu

Bakhtiar Yahya, Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, bakhtiareffendi@yahoo.co.uk

Mohd Afifi, Jalan UMS,88400 Kota Kinabalu,Sabah, Malaysia, mo_a0000@yahoo.com

Patrick Belenky, C/O Dr. Wise Lab, University of Illinois Chicago, 845 W Taylor Street (MC066), Rm. 1454, Chicago, IL 60607, United States, pbelenky@gmail.com, The effect of distance from a prairie remnant on ant community composition in restored grasslands.

Doug Booher, University of California Los Angeles, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 612 Charles E. Young Drive South, , Box 957246. , Los Angeles, CA 90095-7246, United States, dbooher@ucla.edu, I am interested in understanding processes that may explain phylogeographic patterns of Strumigenys ant communities.

Ian Butler, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA, ibutler@rockefeller.edu, Hybridization and speciation in east African swarm raiding army ants

Stephanie Coronado, 3540 Keel Ave. , Oxnard, CA, 93035, USA, United States, steph.m.coronado@gmail.com, I currently work as a field assistant in peninsular Thailand surveying ant diversity and weaver ant densities on fragmented islands.

Anoop Das, Centre for Conservation Ecology, Dept. of Zoology, M.E.S Mampad College, Mampad College PO, Malappuram Dt, Kerala, India, 676542, dasksa@gmail.com, I am working on the Ants as bio-indicators of a tropical wet evergreen forest, Silent Valley National Park, Kerala, India

Dario D'Eustacchio, University of Rome, C. Darwin, Biology and Biotechnology Dep., Viale dell'università, 32, 00185, Rome, Italy, Italy, dario.deustacchio@uniroma1.it, I’m investigating on taxonomy, systematic (in cooperation with Seifert B. and Kaufmann B) and ecology of Mediterranean Tapinoma species.

Adam Devenish, Biological Sciences, University of Bristol,, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, Middlesex, TW8 0EN, UK, United Kingdom, ajm.devenish@bristol.ac.uk, Impacts of invasive ants on myrmecochory and how it changes plant composition in South African Cape Floral Region.

Marie Madeleine Dieng, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Institut fondamental d' Afrique noire, Département de Biologie animale, Laboratoire de Zoologie des Invertébrés terrestres , BP:206, Dakar, Sénégal , fax: 00221338244918, Tel: 00221338259890, Senegal, madeleine.dieng@ucad.edu.sn, My current research is focused on the study on Ants assemblage in different ecological areas in Senegal.

Ingrid Fetter Pruneda, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States, ifetter@rockefeller.edu, Neurobiological mechanisms of behavioral plasticity in Cerapachys biroi

Thomas Gabel, California State University, East Bay, 52800 Carlos Bee Blvd., Hayward, CA, 94542, USA, thomas.gabel@csueastbay.edu, Investigating native ant biodiversity on mountains in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Timothy Golden, The University of Tulsa, Department of Biological Sciences, 800 S. Tucker Dr., Room 304, Oliphant Hall, Tulsa, OK 74104-9700, USA, tmg237@utulsa.edu, I study the evolution of the stridulatory organ in the ants and wish to focus on the genus Pachycondyla, which possesses variation in both the presence of the SO and a variety of life history characteristics.

Muhammad Shafiq Hamdin, Pusat Penyelidikan Pemuliharaan dan Penggunaan Mapan Sumber-sumber Semulajadi (CoR-SUNR), Fakulti Sains, Teknologi dan Pembangunan Insan (FSTPI), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia, , Malaysia, shafiqhamdin@yahoo.com, Study the use of ecological information of ants to promote entotourism

Mickal Houadria, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Zoology, University of Mainz, Johannes-von-Müller-Weg 6, 55128 Mainz, Germany, +49(0)6131-39 27853, Germany, houadria@uni-mainz.de, My research concerns ant community ecology in the paleotropics and neotropics, assessing ant species coexistence, taking in consideration food specialization, temporal specialization and spatial distribution.

Cong Liu, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son,Okinawa, 904-0495 Japan, Japan, cong.liu@oist.jp, I am studying the effect of disturbance on ant species richness, composition and genetic diversity in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China.

Sharon Marsden, 34a Glynn Place, Australia, marsdensj@gmail.com, I am currently undertaking a review of the Pacific ant Adelomyrmex at the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC), which is a part of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia.

Brett Morgan, 116 Delaware Avenue, Apt.2, Ithaca, NY 14850, United States, bam236@cornell.edu, I am curating the ants held by the Cornell University Insect Collection, and am conducting a morphological analysis of the Dolichoderine ants of Madagascar.

Musa Muchtar, Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, UMS Road, 88400, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia., Malaysia, musa.shi@yahoo.com, Flying ant diversity in different forest type.

Nichola Plowman, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Czech Republic, nichola.plowman@gmail.com, My doctoral research is on arboreal ant communities in Papua New Guinea and understanding how these communities are affected by ecological gradients, namely at different levels of forest disturbance and altitude.

Rodolfo Probst, Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZSP), Avenida Nazaré, 481, Ipiranga - São Paulo (SP), CEP: 04263-000, Brazil, probstrodolfo@gmail.com, I'm working in a revisionary and phylogenetic (with molecular and morphological characters) proposal for the neotropical ant genus Basiceros (Myrmicinae: Basicerotini).

Jayanthi Puniamoorthy, Evolutionary Biology Laboratory (S2-02-01), Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 4, Singapore 117557, Republic Of Singapore, Singapore, jayanthi.puniamoorthy@gmail.com, Collection and sorting of ants as part of a two year mangrove insect biodiversity survey in Singapore.

Thibault Ramage, 9, quartier de la Glacière, 29900 Concarneau, France, France, thibault.ramage@hotmail.fr, I work on the ant fauna of French Overseas territories, such as French Polynesia (will be published in June 2014), Réunion Island and the French West Indies.

Jignasha Rana, Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138, United States, jrana@fas.harvard.edu, As a Curatorial Assistant my duties include preparing ants for the collection, processing specimens for loans, accessioning new material, sorting ant specimens for databasing, and coordinating the activities of six interns.

Hasrin Rossleykho, Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, hasrinrossley@gmail.com, diversity and composition of ground-dwelling ants in SAFE, Kalabakan forest.

Tze Min Teo, Advanced Agriecological Research, No.11 Jalan Teknologi 3/6, Taman Sains Selangor 1, Kota Damansara, , 47810, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia., Malaysia, teotm@aarsb.com.my, Diversity of insects in the oil palm canopy (including ants) and their importance in the plantation ecosystem.

Fiona Thomson, Massey University - Wellington, Wallace Street, Mt Cook, Wellington 6021 , New Zealand, New Zealand, thomson_fiona@yahoo.com.

Jiří Tůma, Biological Center, Academy of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovka 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, The Czech Republic, jtschranka@gmail.com, My bachelor and master thesis were targeted on Bioturbation and nest building activity of the ant Lasius niger (L.).

Fabian Westermann, School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand, New Zealand, Fabian.Westermann@vuw.ac.nz, I currently research trail disruption of the invasive Argentine ant to reduce its competitive ability and examine how the toxicity and deployment method of Monomorium venoms influences their survival probability against Argentine ants.

Yannick Wurm, School of Biological & Chemical Sciences ⋅ Queen Mary, University of London ⋅ Mile End Road ⋅ E1 4NS London ⋅ UK - http://yannick.poulet.org, y.wurm@qmul.ac.uk, Ants, Genomes & Evolution

Mika Yasuda, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla,, Yunnan 666303, China, China, mica.yasuda@gmail.com, I have conducted two seasonal samplings in forest fragments and rubber plantations in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China.

Mohd Afif Zakaria, Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS 88400, Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia, hasrinrossley@gmail.com, study the composition of ants in different habitat type in Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystem sites.