During 2025 there were several outputs achieved that will help us disseminate our results.
(1) Popularizing, popularizing… Ágota Szabó published a nice popularisation article on MBF on the online journal Transtelex.ro in Hungarian. Check it out!
(2) Ágota Szabó and Bálint Markó participated at the 8th Meeting of the Central European Section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects in Szeged, Hungary at the end of August. Bálint had a presentation on the literature data regarding the presence and distribution of MBF species in Romania. Ágota and Ioan Tăușan were also co-authors. Check the Abstract Book!
Tăușan I., Szabó Á., Virágos-Tóth N., Markó B. (2025): Distribution of mound building Formica species in Romania ‒ a historical perspective. The 8th Central European IUSSI Meeting, Szeged, Hungary, pp. 27.
There were some really great talks on various topics.
(3) We are not resting though. We finished a manuscript on what kind of simple, yet efficient social prophilactic strategy might be used by Formica exsecta ants to fight Pandora formicae, a manipulative, lethat fungal organism that causes summit disease. Fingers crossed, the manuscript was submitted to a high quality journal in December. Ágota and Bálint are co-authors, Bálint being the team leader.
Ants and 'friends' 