Hayato Shinohara, a first-year doctoral student at the United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Ehime University, affiliated with Kagawa University, received the Best Student Presentation Award at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Shikoku Entomological Society, on Sunday, July 20, 2025.
Award-winning Presentation
“Caste Structure and Behavioral Characteristics of the Seed-Eating Ant Acanthomyrmex concavus“
The genus Acanthomyrmex, native to Southeast Asia, consists of fig seed-eating ants known for exhibiting notable diversity in queen morphology and social structure. Although wingless queens show striking variation, ecological insights into the evolutionary background of this diversity remain limited.
This research is the first to elucidate the social structure and caste-specific behaviors of Acanthomyrmex concavus, whose ecology had not previously been reported. By integrating these findings with existing studies on related species, the research also examines the evolutionary drivers and ecological significance of morphological diversity within the genus.
The results of this study were published online in the international entomological journal Asian Myrmecology on July 1, 2025.
＜The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences＞